This week, we speak with Liz Hoffman, who is the business and finance editor at Semafor and author of “Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World’s Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink.” She was previously a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered financial markets and corporate dealmaking.
She discusses how so many people who should have been clued in — government officials, corporate executives, and elected politicians — were completely blindsided by the pandemic. But a few companies and executives had a very early read on what was to come.
One of the first people to realize markets were underestimating the risks was Bill Ackmann of Pershing Square Capital. Very early on, he realizes the credit market spreads were incredibly tight, with investors assigning no risk premiums to corporates or junk over investment grade. Ackman shorts the entire credit market, and two and half weeks later, the markets come to the same conclusion. His firm Pershing Square Capital bought $27 million of swaps that soon after became worth $2 billion.
She explains how Delta, Hilton, Ford, and soon-to-IPO also had an early heads-up as to the changing zeitgeist. As people became increasingly uncomfortable traveling, they were among the first to be hit with a wave of cancellations. Bankers like David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and Jamie Dimon of JPM also figure into the discussion.
A list of her favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Bloomberg, Google, and YouTube. You can find all of our earlier podcasts on your favorite platforms here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Dan Harris, a journalist and 2 time Emmy award-winning television correspondent, including local news at ABC News, World News Tonight, Nightline, and Good Morning America. He covered the Iraq War, reporting from Baghdad, and was awarded the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for his reportage on Hurricane Katrina. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story. He now hosts a podcast on Wondery, Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris.
Liz Hoffman Books
Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World’s Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink by Liz Hoffman
Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein
After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul by Tripp Mickle
Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy by Erich Schwartzel
Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral by Ben Smith
