The Wall Street Skinny

In a captivating conversation, Shane Clifford, Head of Global Wealth at Carlyle, clarifies the role of private market capabilities for individuals. He explains why the term 'alternatives' is outdated and discusses new fund structures like perpetual funds. The importance of education and transparency in democratizing access to private markets is emphasized, along with the potential for retirement investment. Shane also shares insights on how firms can connect with Gen Z and the strategic growth areas for Carlyle, including credit expansion and insurance.

Send us a textIn this week’s episode, we get into the Fed’s 25 basis point rate cut, Powell’s chaotic press conference before diving into Meta’s creative data center financing which is a lesson on project financing and lease accounting, and finally the growing blur between public and private credit. The Fed’s October meeting delivered the expected 25 bps cut but Powell’s tone afterward left markets rattled. While announcing a pause in quantitative tightening, he hinted that December isn’t a done deal, sparking confusion and volatility. Jen breaks down the mechanics behind QT, the Fed’s balance sheet strategy, and why even subtle changes in how they handle T-bill reinvestments could ripple across the yield curve.Then we shift to earnings season and Meta’s fascinating case study in project finance. Their $30 billion Hyperion data center project with Blue Owl blends corporate finance, lease accounting, and private credit innovation, raising questions about off-balance-sheet leverage, credit spreads, and who really wins in these structures. We wrap with thoughts on how every firm on Wall Street is morphing into everything else—private credit arms at hedge funds, PE firms doing lending, and why that might both dilute and amplify systemic risk. All that, plus Halloween costumes, pumpkin parades, and the realities of parenting in chaos. Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Send us a textThis week, we’re joined by Paul Dodd, Senior Operating Partner and Head of Go-to-Market Operations at Sixth Street, one of the most respected private credit and private equity firms in the world. This episode is Part 2 of our Business Operations 101 series, and we’re digging into how firms like Sixth Street actually create value inside the companies they invest in. Paul specializes in helping tech and SaaS businesses scale efficiently, so instead of talking about dealmaking, we’re talking about what happens after the deal closes: how to turn strategy into growth.Paul walks us through what “go-to-market” really means in practice, from aligning sales and marketing to optimizing customer retention and pricing. He explains how small operational improvements, like shortening onboarding time or using AI to coach sales teams, compound into massive enterprise value during the investment period. We also get into how Sixth Street’s operating and deal teams work hand-in-hand, why culture and process discipline matter as much as capital, and how flexibility in capital structure allows them to back great companies through every stage of growth.And finally, we tackle the viral headline of the week: OpenAI is hiring ex–investment banking analysts and MBAs to remove the "drudgery" of junior banking work. We break down whether AI can really replace analysts, why building financial models is still critical to learning the business, and what it means for the future of entry-level Wall Street jobs.Paul Dodd is a Go-to-Market, Operating Partner at Sixth Street focused on providing core expertise to organizations in order to maximize revenue generation and profitable growth.Before joining Sixth Street, Paul served as Chief Growth Officer at SecureLink, SVP of Sales for Compeat Tech, Head of Sales for the GA360 Measurement Suite at Google, and previously served as Vice President of World Wide Sales at Adometry, a leading provider of multi-touch attribution & cross-channel intelligence, acquired by Google in 2014. Before Adometry, Paul served as Vice President of Sales for Retail at Bazaarvoice and as Chief Strategy & Global Sales Officers for Design Reactor/6Connex.He holds an MBA from Baylor University-Hankamer School of Business, an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, and a B.A. in AShop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Send us a textIn this episode, we sit down with Don Kieffer, senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of There’s Gotta Be a Better Way, to talk about what actually makes companies run well. Don has spent decades helping organizations, from Harley-Davidson factory floors to biotech labs, design better systems that unlock real performance. We break down the five-principle framework he developed with his co-author, Nelson Repenning, an MIT PhD, MIT Sloan professor, and leading expert in operations and systems thinking, for building operational excellence: solving the right problem, structuring for discovery, connecting the human chain, regulating for flow, and visualizing the work.Through stories that range from front-desk hotel check-ins to a corrugated cardboard plant and even private equity fundraising pipelines, Don shows how tiny operational tweaks can deliver huge impact. We explore why firefighting cultures keep companies stuck in a “capability trap,” why automation without fixing the human system first is a mistake, and why the best private equity playbooks focus on execution, not spreadsheets. For founders, operators, and investors alike, this is a practical, no-fluff conversation about how businesses actually scale.Before diving into operations, we also touch on recent rumblings in credit markets, continuing our discussion on  the failed refinancing of First Brands and the liquidation of TriColor to bank fraud write-offs and how credit default swaps can amplify market stress. It’s a lively, two-part arc: first, the operational playbook; next, how top investors at Private Equity firms think about value creation inside portfolio companies.Check out the book HEREShop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Gold is soaring to record highs due to sticky inflation and central-bank buying, challenging common portfolio strategies. The discussion shifts to the alarming bankruptcy of First Brands, highlighting suspected fraud and financial mismanagement. Train wrecks emerge from a trader's leveraged bond short that led to staggering losses for Wall Street. The hosts also tackle a lawsuit regarding sleep accommodations in banking, reflecting on mental health in high-pressure finance environments.

Send us a textWhat does it really mean to be a "quant investor"? How do quantitative strategies fit into a modern portfolio? And what does it take to break into a quant investing career path?In this episode, we sat down with Stacie Mintz, Head of Quantitative Equity at PGIM (one of the world's largest asset managers, with $1.4tr in AUM). Stacie's team oversees $60bn in quantitative equity strategies, and she joins us to break down what quant investing is, how it differs from other investment philosophies, what the role of human oversight is relative to AI, and what skills are essential for breaking into the field.From factor investing and natural language processing to how quants think about risk and portfolio construction, this is a no-nonsense inside look at the world of systemic investing. We also do some myth busting work (spoiler alert: quant investing isn't just AI and algorithms gone wild), the evolving role of artificial intelligence, and why communication skills often matter just as much as your coding ability.Whether you're just starting out in your career or you're an investor trying to understand how systematic strategies complement traditional fundamental analysis, this conversation is a crash course in Quant Investing 101.Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Send us a textTwo days into a government shutdown, we break down what it actually means for markets when key data go dark—like today’s missing non-farm payrolls—and how that uncertainty can ricochet through trading desks, air travel, the SEC/IPO pipeline, and year-end seasonals. We walk through the historical playbook (rates, dollar, risk) and how we’re thinking about positioning when the Fed is flying with fewer instruments.Then we unpack the freshly announced largest-ever LBO and stack it up against 2007’s TXU: equity checks vs. leverage, private credit’s outsized role, and why a single-bank underwrite changes the risk map. We also separate real CLO mechanics from internet myth and ask the only question that matters: are we replaying ’07—or writing a new script?Finally, Jen dives deeper into the growing conversation about moving the Fed’s focus away from fed funds toward repo/GC-SOFR—what that shift would change and why it’s gaining traction now. Housekeeping: our Fixed Income Sales & Trading self-paced course presale is live (Part 1: Bond Math now; Derivatives next; Macro/Relative Value after), live Financial Modeling Bootcamps run at the end of October, and Kristen’s 3-Statement Modeling course targets late November. Bonus: we preview our interview with a $60B quant equities head on integrating systematic strategies into real portfolios. Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

This week, the hosts dive into Trump's bold suggestion to shift public companies from quarterly to semi-annual earnings, balancing efficiency with transparency. They explore proposed changes to H-1B visa fees that could reshape hiring in various sectors, discussing potential impacts on startups and salary dynamics. Finally, the debate heats up over whether to move away from the Fed funds rate in favor of more empirical measures like SOFR, offering insights into monetary policy and financial market dynamics.

Matt Hornbach, Global Head of Macro Strategy at Morgan Stanley, shares insights on the recent FOMC rate cut and its market implications. He explains the Fed’s third mandate and why lower long-term treasuries might not bolster the economy. Matt discusses his favored yield-curve steepener and predicts further dollar depreciation. He also sheds light on the essential skills for aspiring strategists, such as Python, and the career paths within fixed income strategy that one can pursue.

Send us a textThis week on The Wall Street Skinny, we sat down with Gene Tannuzzo, Global Head of Fixed Income at Columbia Threadneedle, right as the Federal Reserve’s latest rate decision hit the wires. We walk through the live market reaction to the Fed’s 25 basis point cut, the dissenting voices on the FOMC, and what this move signals about the central bank’s shifting priorities. For those curious about how policy decisions ripple into real-time trading activity, this episode gives you a rare seat at the table during the announcement itself.As Gene explains, the flatness of today’s yield curve and the Fed’s projections for additional cuts this year underscore the tension between slowing labor market data and still-stubborn inflation. We dig into the nuances of steepeners versus flatteners, what the dot plot is really telling us, and how fiscal policy plays into the broader bond market narrative. Whether you’re an experienced market watcher or just starting to understand the dynamics of Fed meetings, you’ll come away with a much clearer framework for interpreting these moves.We also broaden the conversation to explore structural shifts in the economy, including labor force trends, immigration, and the role of AI in reshaping productivity and capital spending. Gene helps break down why funding markets matter, how balance sheet policy can contradict rate policy, and what investors should watch for as the Fed balances credibility, growth, and inflation risk. The result is a lively, insightful discussion that blends market theory, policy analysis, and practical trading perspective.Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.