Brew Markets – Andrew Ross Sorkin: Revisiting Lessons From the 1929 Market Crash

Podcast: Brew Markets
Host: Ann Berry
Guest: Andrew Ross Sorkin
Date: December 30, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Ann Berry revisits her in-depth conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin, CNBC anchor and New York Times best-selling author, about his latest book: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation. Together, they draw parallels between the speculative excesses of the 1920s and the current AI-driven market euphoria, dissecting what lessons history can offer investors today. Topics include market bubbles, policy errors, the state of modern regulation, democratization of finance, private credit, the role of speculation and innovation, and the human tendency for "more."

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Purpose and Impact of Sorkin’s Book

• Ann Berry opens by asking if the book could actually trigger a current market crash, given its buzz and timing.
  • Sorkin refutes this as the intention:

    “If anything, the goal is to educate people about this period of time. … I hope that it actually puts the focus on where we are in the market and prevents us in truth from going off of a cliff.” [03:51]

  • He draws a distinction between corrections, hiccups, and full-blown crashes like 1929, referencing the dot-com bubble for comparison.

2. Lessons from the 1929 Crash—Policy Mistakes & Leverage

• Sorkin outlines the dangerous leverage used by ordinary Americans in the 1920s, and the subsequent cascading failures when the market crashed:
  • “Most ordinary Americans … had done so with remarkable amounts of leverage. … putting down a dollar and the banks and brokers were lending them $10. … They were mortgaging their homes. So that had a real demonstrable economic impact.” [05:26]
• He emphasizes governmental policy missteps:
  • Austerity mindset, tax hikes, tariffs, and the Fed’s lack of independence all contributed to disaster:

    “There was a sense of austerity rather than putting money into the system. … Possibly the worst time you could raise taxes on earth. … The Federal Reserve was not an independent actor.” [06:00–07:09]

3. Modern Parallels & Today’s Fragilities

• Sorkin reflects on today’s high national leverage and the risk of limited fiscal options in the next correction:
  • “We don’t really know where all of the leverage and debt is in the system anymore. So much is living in the private credit universe as opposed to actually in the banks. … This will be a grand live experiment if we ever get there…” [08:56]
• On potential government and Fed response: flood system with money (“a la what we did during COVID or 2008”), but with side effects like currency debasement.

4. Historical Vignettes—The Limits of “Great Men” Rescues

• Ann Berry asks about the iconic 1907 J.P. Morgan intervention:

  • Sorkin recounts how Morgan could strong-arm consensus in small rooms, but by 1929 and especially 2008, complexity had outpaced the “great men” solution.

    “Thomas Lamont, running J.P. Morgan … tried to do the same thing … but he couldn’t pull it off because things had gotten so out of control…” [10:14]

• Modern crises, such as the Lehman and SVB collapses, require large coordinated responses by government and central banks.

5. Research Process—History Echoed in Real Time

• Sorkin describes researching 1929 as meme stocks, SPACs, and crypto crazes unfolded:
  • “I thought I was writing a book about 1929. … but these themes that I’m … reporting on in real time are matching up so eerily in this very strange way with the characters and so much of the story from ‘29.” [13:00]
  • Fun anecdote about employing students to sneak into libraries for research during COVID.

6. The Power—and Danger—of Modern Information Flows

• Comparison between slow and unreliable information in 1929 (ticker board, rumors) and today’s instant (but sometimes false) social media:
  • “Yes, there’s bad information out there, but the ability to correct that information today is much more efficient than it ever was.” [16:53]
  • Cautions that misinformation still has the power to drive runs and panic, as seen in the SVB crisis.

7. Prediction Markets, Meme Coins, and Regulation

• On prediction markets:
  • Sorkin is “very uneasy” about manipulation, especially when markets intersect with real-world events/insider information:

    “The opportunity to manipulate seems high. … I don’t know enough about where we really are.” [18:58–19:20]

  • Connects unregulated meme coin trading to the investment pools of 1929.
• Sorkin critiques insufficient contemporary regulatory frameworks, especially for new financial products and Congressional insider trading.

8. Private Credit & The Insurance Connection

• Sorkin worries about the unregulated explosion of private credit, and its intricate connections with insurance companies:
  • “It will could become a problem one day for these private credit funds and more importantly for the insurance funds if in fact they can’t pay out.” [22:54]
  • Draws a line from past crises (AIG 2008) to concerns about under-the-radar risks today.

9. AI Investment—Bubble Potential and Structural Risks

• Discusses AI investment surges and “circular” or “round-tripping” deals, questioning sustainability:
  • “Caution is the watchword. … The issue is, of course, that OpenAI … isn’t making a profit to technically be able to pay for all [these massive data center commitments].” [24:30]
  • Less worried about biggest players due to their “too big to fail” status, more about the fragile AI startup ecosystem.

10. Democratization of Private Markets—Risks for Retail Investors

• Sorkin ponders whether allowing retail investors’ retirement funds into venture capital and private equity is risky at current high valuations:
  • “There could be this sort of hot potato game where they start to sell certain assets from one fund into another… that is a scary business unto itself.” [26:45]
  • Additional concerns: semi-liquid funds give illusion of daily liquidity but actually can lock up money with “gates”; private fund valuation “mark to make believe” issues.
  • Advocates for stricter, independent auditing of private market valuations.

11. Political Cheerleading and the Limits of State Influence

• Discusses the blurred line between government promotion of stocks and the legal boundaries that would bind CEOs.
  • Sorkin riffs on whether history will judge US industrial policy moves (e.g., reshoring manufacturing):

    “Maybe five or ten years from now we will say this was a fabulous and important decision strategically. And then there’s another part of me that says that we’re going to look back on this and say this was completely crazy…” [30:57]

  • Shares an auto executive’s warning: “We will all be buying very expensive cars that are not as good as the ones that you could buy in other countries.” [31:55]

12. Sorkin’s Personal Investment Approach

• Reveals he owns only index funds and a bit of cash—strictly no individual stocks or crypto due to professional ethics.
  • On crypto:

    “I didn’t want to be the person who owned crypto and was telling you bitcoin was a great thing or a bad thing. … I never did that. … I think it’s maybe worth a thousand dollars today.” [32:57–34:03]

  • Anecdote about getting $5 in Bitcoin from Brian Armstrong, now Coinbase CEO, in 2013–2014.

13. Surprises from 8 Years of Crash Research—Human Nature and Speculation

• Sorkin’s two big takeaways:
  • The intrinsic link between speculation and innovation:

    “Speculation is the twin of innovation. … Somebody had to speculate on Elon Musk and Tesla in the beginning, when it seemed completely and utterly insane. And so there’s gotta be a balance.” [34:58]

  • Universal human desire for “more”:

    “There’s a great line… ‘What’s enough?’ And he looks at him and goes, ‘More.’ And I think that that is the human condition in 1929. It’s the human condition in 2025.” [36:02]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the value of financial history:

  “If anything, the goal is to educate people about this period of time. … I hope that it actually puts the focus on where we are in the market and prevents us in truth from going off of a cliff.” (Sorkin, [03:51])

• On leverage and policy mistakes:

  “There was a sense of austerity rather than putting money into the system. … Possibly the worst time you could raise taxes on earth.” (Sorkin, [06:00])

• On the opacity of modern markets:

  “We don’t really know where all of the leverage and debt is in the system anymore.” (Sorkin, [08:56])

• Parallels between then and now:

  “All of a sudden these themes that I’m … reporting on in real time are matching up so eerily in this very strange way with the characters and so much of the story from ‘29.” (Sorkin, [13:00])

• On manipulation in new financial spaces:

  “The opportunity to manipulate [in prediction markets] seems high … Do I think that if you are betting on when Taylor Swift and Travis are going to get married… How we’re supposed to think about that, I don’t know.” (Sorkin, [18:58–20:00])

• On speculation vs innovation:

  “Speculation is the twin of innovation. … there’s gotta be a balance.” (Sorkin, [34:58])

• On human motivation:

  “He looks at him and goes, ‘More.’ And I think that that is the human condition in 1929. It’s the human condition in 2025.” (Sorkin, [36:02])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Book’s purpose – could it spark a crash? [03:32–04:28]
• Policy errors post-1929 crash [05:26–07:09]
• Parallels with today: leverage, Fed’s role [07:32–08:56]
• Limits of historic and modern financial rescues [10:10–11:18]
• Book research and echoes in meme/AI/crypto trends [12:05–14:48]
• Misinformation, media evolution, and risk [15:46–18:24]
• Prediction markets, regulation, meme coins [18:24–21:19]
• Private credit, insurance, and hidden risk [21:41–23:53]
• AI funding and circular investments [24:00–26:10]
• Risks of retail access to private funds [26:45–29:53]
• Political cheerleading and long-term strategy [30:03–32:17]
• Sorkin’s portfolio and crypto philosophy [32:17–34:03]
• What shocked Sorkin about 1929—speculation and the human condition [34:23–36:34]

Final Thoughts

This episode is a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the cyclical nature of financial markets and the perils—and promise—of innovation and speculation. Sorkin’s historical lens is not alarmist but cautionary, warning that while history doesn’t repeat itself, it certainly rhymes. Both he and Berry offer a measured, sometimes humorous, but ultimately sobering take on the state of today’s markets, regulation, and the ever-present human drive for “more.”