The Capitol Forum

When a private credit fund tells you what its loans are worth, how much should you believe it?

Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with Drexel University finance professor Chuck Fang, whose research finds that funds that lock investors’ money in inflate their loan values the most. The funds that do let investors out, the kind Wall Street is now pitching for retirement accounts, face a different risk: something that looks a lot like a bank run.

Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada are stalled, and Canadians are more united and more willing to take the economic hit than almost anyone in Washington expected.

On this week’s TCF Investigates election special, Arjun Singh and Paul McLeod talk with Capitol Forum Senior Advisor Beth Baltzan about whether there’s any logic behind Trump’s approach and what it could mean in border states like Michigan. Paul also sits down with Lisa Raitt, a former Conservative cabinet minister in Canada, to hear how the fight looks from up north and how long that resolve can last.

Today, we’re re-airing our award-winning episode of TCF Investigates, “Zynex Fought the Capitol Forum and Ended Up Bankrupt,” which won a Signal Award for Best Individual Episode in the business category.

In this episode, Arjun Singh sits down with reporter Michael Williams to discuss Williams’ multi-year investigation into how the medical device company Zynex defrauded the government. They also hear from one of the men hired by Zynex’s former CEO to harass and intimidate The Capitol Forum’s reporters.

Update: Since this episode first aired, Zynex’s former CEO, Thomas Sandgaard, has been indicted on federal charges including health care fraud and securities fraud. Prosecutors allege the scheme brought in more than $873 million for the company.

If your insurer goes under, there’s no FDIC waiting to make you whole.

Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with retirement industry veteran Peter Gould about why the safety net behind annuities is far weaker than most retirees think, and why the regulators meant to watch these companies keep looking the other way.

Corporations have figured out how to squeeze more out of every purchase, and new technology is making it easier than ever.

In this episode of Second Request, Teddy sits down with Lindsay Owens, president and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative, to talk about her new book, Gouged: The End of a Fair Price and What That Means for Your Wallet.

A polling outlet that fooled news organizations and campaigns just admitted it was making up its numbers.

In this episode of TCF Investigates, Paul McLeod and Teddy Downey talk with pollster G. Elliott Morris, whose team uncovered the fraud. They also dig into what the real polls are saying two weeks out from the midterms.

Your retirement savings might be buying a ballpark.

Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Barry James Dyke, president of Castle Asset Management and author of “Black Eyes for BlackRock.” They discuss how annuity money ends up tied to sports teams and AI data centers, and why some of the biggest annuity sellers have almost no cushion if things go wrong.

Editor's Note: This is a re-broadcast of a previous episode.

In 1961, Congress granted the NFL an antitrust exemption allowing the league to collectively negotiate broadcasting rights, revolutionizing sports broadcasting in America. Now, streaming companies like Amazon argue the law doesn't cover them, and that NFL teams can't collectively bargain with them for broadcasting rights.

Today on Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey speaks with Katie Van Dyck, Senior Legal Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, to discuss her recent article, "How an Obscure Law Lets Sports Leagues Rob Fans Blind."

Electronics prices are soaring, and the handful of memory chip makers that control the market say the artificial intelligence boom is eating up their supply. A new lawsuit alleges they’re acting like a cartel. It’s a midterm problem for Republicans, who are already facing blowback on prices.

In this episode of the TCF Investigates midterm election series, Arjun Singh sits down with reporter Sacha Sloan and Executive Editor Teddy Downey to discuss allegations of cartel behavior in the memory chip sector. Then Arjun and Paul McLeod talk with Democratic pollster Celinda Lake about how prices and affordability are shaping the midterm campaigns.

Regulators fixed the problem shadow insurance was invented to solve a decade ago. Insurers kept doing it anyway.

Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with Daniel Schwarcz, a University of Minnesota law professor who first wrote about "shadow insurance" in 2015. They get into how the practice started as a workaround regulators signed off on, why it kept growing after the rules were fixed, how private equity-backed insurers took it offshore to Bermuda, and Schwarcz's simple fix: stop letting US insurers reinsure with their own affiliates.

John Deere has agreed to pay $99 million to settle a class action over farmers’ right to repair their own equipment. But after lawyers and administrators take their cut, farmers could be left with a small slice of the pie.

In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Willie Cade, CEO of Graceful Solutions, to break down the settlement, dealer consolidation, and who should own farm equipment data.

Americans are furious about President Donald Trump’s role in driving up gas prices. With the midterm elections just weeks away, even Republican voters are souring on Trump over the cost of everything.

In the first episode of our election series, TCF Investigates host Arjun Singh and senior correspondent Paul McLeod sit down with Capitol Forum reporter Max Berengaut to learn how refinery consolidation is pushing fuel costs even higher. Then they talk with pollster G. Elliott Morris to understand what’s driving voters.

The ratings agencies already failed investors in 2008. Are they about to do it again?

Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with Rod Dubitsky, who rated subprime bonds at Moody's before the financial crisis. They discuss whether the high ratings on private equity-owned life insurers can be trusted, and what investors and regulators might be missing.

With a month until the midterms, the polls have Democrats favored to take the House and voters angry about high prices, especially at the pump.

In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey, senior podcast producer Arjun Singh and reporter Paul McLeod sit down with G. Elliott Morris, a data journalist and pollster who writes the Substack Strength in Numbers. They dig into where the House and Senate races stand, how gas prices and the war in Iran are dragging down President Trump, and how to tell good polling from noise.

Read Elliott's Substack here: https://www.gelliottmorris.com/

Private equity owned life insurers are supposed to prepare for the worst, but some of them aren't preparing for anything close to it.

Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with Corwin Zass, a consulting actuary who has spent more than 25 years advising life insurers on capital and risk.

From Ticketmaster to Paramount-Warner Bros., the Trump administration has had a full docket of antitrust-related cases to deal with.

In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Karina Lubell, partner in Brunswick Group's global antitrust and competition practice, and Nicholas Cheolas, partner at Wiley, to discuss the evolving antitrust enforcement landscape under the second Trump administration.

Two life insurers can own the exact same bond and tell their regulators two different stories about how risky it is.

In this episode of Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Florida State University professor Kyeonghee Kim to discuss what changes at a life insurer after private equity buys it, and whether the system meant to catch bad numbers is actually built to.

Everyone knows their data gets sold. Almost nobody knows how much of it companies just give away, blurred enough to call it anonymous. In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with former Capitol Forum correspondent and privacy lawyer Ben Neumeyer to discuss how DOGE spent a year and a half pooling federal records and made every one of those files findable again.

There's a hole in the life and annuity sector's balance sheet, and private equity dug it.

In this episode of Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Nick Nemeth, an investor and the writer of Mispriced Assets, to discuss the life and annuity industry's growing exposure to private credit and the potential risks for insurers and the broader financial system.

With little response from the federal government, state legislatures around the country are looking at banning the use of personalized pricing.

Today on Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Hal Singer and Gavin Sicard to explain what personalized pricing actually is, and how its deployment today leads to higher consumer prices.