The Capitol Forum

Chuck Fang, a Drexel finance professor studying private credit and financial fragility, explores how funds value hard-to-price loans. They discuss inflated valuations, PIK loans that can conceal borrower distress, and the risks of bringing private credit to retirement savers. Semi-liquid funds face potential bank-run dynamics, while hidden affiliates and exposures to AI, data centers, and commercial real estate add further uncertainty.

Lisa Raitt, a former Canadian cabinet minister, brings Ottawa’s perspective on tariffs, nationalism, and the strain on household budgets. Trade policy attorney Beth Baltzan examines Washington’s leverage strategy, protectionism, and the backlash in Michigan. Journalist Paul McLeod explores boycotts, USMCA tensions, election politics, and whether either country can sustain the standoff.

Michael Williams, an investigative reporter focused on corporate misconduct and healthcare billing, revisits his multi-year probe of medical device company Zynex. The conversation explores pain devices marketed as opioid alternatives, unwanted lifetime supplies, aggressive billing, and a massive TRICARE windfall. It also delves into alleged efforts to intimidate reporters, the investigation that preceded Zynex’s bankruptcy, and the healthcare oversight failures the reporting exposed.

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.