Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend: June 26th 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead, with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. Bloomberg Businessweek Daily with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

**Carol Massar** (0:23)
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Businessweek. This past week, the financial world marked the loss of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who passed away at the age of 100, prompting a deep reflection on his immense economic legacy and decades of market influence.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:39)
His passing happened at the start of what turned out to be a volatile week for global markets. Meantime, geopolitical tension is still top of mind. As fast moving, ever-changing US-Iran negotiations aimed at cementing a final peace deal to end the war take shape. For all the important details on these developing stories, head on over to bloomberg.com and always check out the Bloomberg Terminal.

**Carol Massar** (0:58)
With that in mind, this hour, we bring a deep look at the macro market backdrop, AI, monetary policy via the Fed, and also the legacy of the late former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:09)
Plus the latest global phenomenon that's driving billions of dollars into unregulated markets. From Silicon Valley and online fitness communities, the obsession with peptides has triggered a black market boon. More on that a little later.

**Carol Massar** (1:22)
It's a great Businessweek story. All of that to come, we do begin with a comprehensive market and a macroeconomic check-in. For that, we leaned on Jim Caron, who is Chief Investment Officer of Portfolio Solutions at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:35)
We covered a lot with Jim. But of course, Carol, we had to start on the life and legacy of Alan Greenspan.

**Jim Caron** (1:40)
He was a legend. So, if we put this in perspective, and I think it's very important to have context around this, he started his position as chair in 1987, he ended in 2006 That's a 19-year period. So, for most people, that's a large chunk of their career. I started in the business in 1991-92. That's all I knew for 14 or 15 years of the starting point of my career. He was somebody that was not going to be challenged easily by other members of the Fed. It's whatever he said went, and that was it. But he also did a bunch of different things. He changed things at the Fed in the sense that he made it a lot more transparent, if I could say those words.
The way the Fed operated, and we take this for granted today, that you find out on Wednesday at 2 o'clock what the Fed's decision was, and we all go to work.
Prior to Greenspan, it was Volcker, and what happened at about 4.15, 4.1 on a Thursday afternoon, you got money supply data. Based on what the money supply data was, that was the change in policy. You had to figure it out. Nobody told you if it was 25 or 50 basis points. You were guessing, and you were trying to analyze and figure out what that was. What Greenspan started to introduce through communications and things like that was, what today we take for granted was absolutely monumental and groundbreaking as far as saying, hey, by the way, we just hiked or cut 25 basis points, and that's all it is.

**Carol Massar** (3:14)
Is it too much, though? Like, would some say it's gone too far?

**Jim Caron** (3:18)
There's been iterations. There's pre-Greenspan, and then there's post-Greenspan. Right, so what happened in the 19 years subsequent, from 2006, say, to 2026, what we've had now is Bernanke, Yellen, and Powell. They've all followed effectively the Greenspan mode, but they added on to it. Now, clearly, Bernanke had a very special situation in the financial crisis. He had to do enhanced communications and things of that nature.
I think that is it too much today in terms of communication? I'm going to say that it is a bit, because what the Fed is trying to do is they're trying to telegraph and televise too much such that they're actually directing and dictating how the markets should think about things as opposed to what Warsh said, which is, let the markets figure it out. So, the way I think about Kevin Warsh...

**Carol Massar** (4:16)
So, we're being managed?

**Jim Caron** (4:17)
Well, I mean, the way I think about Kevin Warsh, if I'm going to put him in this period of time from 1987 to 2026, I'm going to say that what Warsh is trying to do is bring us back to the period that was pre-Ben Bernanke, so it was Greenspan in the 1990s. So, very similar economic set up too, big capex cycle, big productivity boom that we're going through.