Slate Money Episode Summary: “Jeff Bezos’ Midlife Crisis”

Podcast: Slate Money
Date: February 15, 2020
Hosts: Felix Salmon (Axios), Emily Peck (HuffPost), Anna Szymanski (Breaking Views)
Main Theme:
A round-up of the week’s most notable business and finance stories: the controversial nominations to the Federal Reserve, antitrust rumblings in tech and telecom, the political intrigue around the Pentagon’s Jedi cloud contract, and Jeff Bezos’ extravagant recent purchases.

1. Fed Nominees and the Threat to Central Bank Independence

[00:10–18:27]

Key Points:

• Discussion centers on President Trump’s nominees to the Federal Reserve: Judy Shelton and Chris Waller.
• Chris Waller: Described as a competent technocrat, “relatively professional central banker” [03:45], likely to align with Trump’s low rates agenda, but fundamentally an independent economist.
• Judy Shelton raises alarm due to her long-standing opposition to deposit insurance, her support of the gold standard, and—most concerningly—her perceived partisanship and flip-flopping to match the administration’s preferences.

Notable Quotes:

• On Shelton’s ideology:
  “She, this is something which she built her entire career around… this is a very, very standard hard libertarian view of monetary policy, that the federal government should not be involved in monetary policy, that we should just outsource the whole thing to a lump of gold… It has never been remotely mainstream.” —Felix [04:35]
• On politicizing the Fed:
  “If she is the chair and Trump is president, there is no Fed independence. The chair of the Fed just does the bidding of Donald Trump… The multi-decade history of Fed independence has at that point come to an end.” —Felix [07:51]
• Anna notes: “Having an independent central bank is so important for market participants to have faith in the dollar, to have faith in our debt, to have faith in the ability of our government to have a functioning economy.” [08:23]

Memorable Moment:

• Shelton compared a currency fraudster to Rosa Parks for his “audacity,” causing the hosts to marvel at her outlandishness. [14:58]

Timestamps for segments:

• Fed nominations overview: [00:17–05:00]
• Shelton’s track record and politics: [05:31–06:58]
• The importance of Fed independence, inflation, and market trust: [08:23–12:08]
• Trend of increased politicization—Supreme Court, DOJ, and potentially the Fed: [12:08–14:41]

2. Antitrust Wakes Up: Big Tech and Big Telecom

[18:27–28:43]

Key Points:

• The FTC announces a review of historic tech mergers (Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube).
• The hosts debate whether retroactive antitrust scrutiny is practical or symbolic.
• The Sprint/T-Mobile merger is upheld in court, reducing competition among U.S. cell carriers—debated as either a necessary consolidation (Sprint was weak) or a possible blow to consumer choice.
• Antitrust enforcement for small things (razor companies—Edgewell/Harry’s) remains robust; odd inconsistencies noted between approaches to tech, telecom, and everyday goods.

Notable Quotes:

• On retroactive tech antitrust review:
  “It is easy to, with hindsight, look at a merger like [Google buying YouTube] or Facebook buying Instagram and say, ‘yeah, that’s given you an enormous amount of power and probably too much power, and we would be better off if you hadn’t been able to do it.’” —Felix [21:32]
• On the consolidation of online commerce:
  “If you avoid Amazon, that forces you to run straight into the arms of Instagram. That’s the only other way to sell things online… Either you wind up being reliant on Amazon or you’re reliant on Facebook. And it doesn’t feel like… the internet was supposed to work that way.” —Felix [24:04]
• On FTC action in razors vs. telecom:
  “There are four razor companies, and you can’t just merge three of them together… That’s literally what they just did with T-Mobile and Sprint.” —Emily [27:55]

Timestamps:

• Big Tech antitrust investigation: [18:27–23:52]
• Sprint/T-Mobile analysis: [25:37–27:14]
• Verging away from traditional antitrust targets: [27:26–28:43]

3. Jedi Contract and Tech Wars

[29:20–33:08]

Key Points:

• The “JEDI” $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract was awarded to Microsoft, widely seen as a snub to Amazon allegedly due to Trump’s animosity toward Jeff Bezos.
• Hosts are conflicted: all government contracting is political, but Trump’s behavior makes the politicization unusually blatant.
• Some support for Microsoft’s win since Amazon already dominates government cloud business; others note this is a classic instance of personal power struggles spilling into federal spending.

Notable Quotes:

• “I kind of roll my eyes at the idea that, ‘oh no, there are politics in how you give out government contracts’… all government contracts are political.” —Anna [29:59]
• “Bezos, by buying the Washington Post, has kind of like made himself a target.” —Emily [32:51]

Timestamps:

• JEDI contract politics: [29:20–32:45]

4. Jeff Bezos’ Midlife Crisis: Spending Sprees & Art Buying

[33:08–38:02]

Key Points:

• Bezos recently bought the most expensive home ever in Los Angeles ($165 million) and spent $53 million on a painting, among other lavish moves.
• Hosts riff on billionaire habits, Bezos’ divorce, and speculate on his motives (“super billionaire whimsy”).
• Felix rants on the peculiar way billionaires collect art—Bezos buys expensive works on the secondary market, meaning living artists receive nothing in these deals.

Notable Quotes:

• “When, like, the first painting you buy is $53 million. Most of us are like, yeah, couple hundred bucks.” —Felix [34:01]
• “He got his divorce and now he’s just out there, Jeff Bezos, on the town, buying mansions… out in Hollywood parties.” —Emily [35:49]
• “He fits the model so much… which probably means at some point, he is going to run into an antitrust and there are going to be real consequences because he doesn’t seem to have anything inside of him that knows when to stop.” —Anna [36:57]

Timestamps:

• Bezos property/art buying spree: [33:08–36:44]

5. Numbers Round

[38:02–42:52]

Key Numbers & Quips:

• $154: The new Disneyland ticket price. “I have to admit, I haven’t done the Disneyland thing in a while… I don’t know what’s cheap or expensive.” —Felix [38:38]
• $360,000/week: Cost to charter hedge funder Dan Loeb’s yacht; involved in an environmental controversy. [38:42]
• 1 Trillion: Number of trees President Trump says he’ll plant. Hosts do hasty math and joke about feasibility:
  “At one tree a second, it would take 30,000 years…” —Siri via Felix [41:59]
  “Now I’m so unhappy. You ruin everything.” —Emily [42:30]

6. Overall Tone & Style

• The discussion is informal, witty, sometimes irreverent, and rooted in skepticism about political and corporate power.
• The hosts bring in personal asides and banter (Emily’s commentary on pink razors, Felix’s art market rant, Anna’s dry cynicism about presidential priorities).
• They express concern about the erosion of norms—in financial regulation, business concentration, and political objectivity.

Notable Moments & Quotes with Timestamps

• Judy Shelton’s libertarian credentials and Fed skepticism: —Felix [04:35]
• Potential for Fed politicization and its dangers: —Felix [07:51], Anna [08:23]
• Retroactive antitrust as “information exercise”: —Anna [21:34]
• Bezos' “super billionaire whimsy” spending: —Felix [34:01]
• Planting a trillion trees math fail: —Felix/Siri [41:59], Emily [42:30]

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:10–18:27 — Fed nominations, independence, and Judy Shelton debate
• 18:27–28:43 — Antitrust enforcement: tech mergers, Sprint/T-Mobile, Harry’s/Edgewell
• 29:20–33:08 — JEDI cloud contract and political power
• 33:08–38:02 — Jeff Bezos’ lavish spending and culture
• 38:02–42:52 — Numbers round: Disneyland, yachts, and a trillion trees

For listeners who missed the episode:

This Slate Money episode dives deep into the week’s business and finance news, focusing on why the independence of central banks matters, how regulators and lawmakers are waking up to the problems of tech monopolies, the blurred lines between politics and procurement in government contracts, and the sometimes absurd spectacle of billionaire lifestyle choices. The hosts’ candid, sometimes biting conversation is both informative and entertaining, offering plenty of context for current events and some sharp commentary about the state of American institutions.