The Capitol Forum

Power in Washington isn't announced — it's revealed. The Capitol Forum brings you inside the policy discussions and corporate investigations that move markets and shape American life. Listen to Second Request with Teddy Downey for sharp, unfiltered analysis of antitrust policy in America. Then stay for TCF Investigates with Arjun Singh, a narrative documentary series bringing listeners inside the reporting, sources, and regulatory developments shaping markets and corporate strategy.

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41 episodes
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Avg 58 min
English

Episodes 41

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Today · 1 hr 3 min
Bermuda Triangle of Insurance (Private Credit Crisis)
If your insurer goes under, there’s no FDIC waiting to make you whole. Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with retirement industry veteran Peter Gould about why the safety net behind annuities is far weaker than most retirees think, and why the regulators meant to watch these companies keep looking the other way.
Friday · 1 hr
The End of a Fair Price (Second Request)
Corporations have figured out how to squeeze more out of every purchase, and new technology is making it easier than ever. In this episode of Second Request, Teddy sits down with Lindsay Owens, president and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative, to talk about her new book, Gouged: The End of a Fair Price and What That Means for Your Wallet.
Thursday · 58 min
Fake Polls, Real Consequences (TCF Investigates)
A polling outlet that fooled news organizations and campaigns just admitted it was making up its numbers. In this episode of TCF Investigates, Paul McLeod and Teddy Downey talk with pollster G. Elliott Morris, whose team uncovered the fraud. They also dig into what the real polls are saying two weeks out from the midterms.
October 20 · 1 hr
Black Eyes for BlackRock (Private Credit Crisis)
Your retirement savings might be buying a ballpark. Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Barry James Dyke, president of Castle Asset Management and author of “Black Eyes for BlackRock.” They discuss how annuity money ends up tied to sports teams and AI data centers, and why some of the biggest annuity sellers have almost no cushion if things go wrong.
October 16 · 1 hr 3 min
How Streaming is Upending the NFL (Second Request)
Editor's Note: This is a re-broadcast of a previous episode. In 1961, Congress granted the NFL an antitrust exemption allowing the league to collectively negotiate broadcasting rights, revolutionizing sports broadcasting in America. Now, streaming companies like Amazon argue the law doesn't cover them, and that NFL teams can't collectively bargain with them for broadcasting rights. Today on Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey speaks with Katie Van Dyck, Senior Legal Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, to discuss her recent article, "How an Obscure Law Lets Sports Leagues Rob Fans Blind."
October 15 · 38 min
The Affordability Election Comes for Your Phone (TCF Investigates)
Electronics prices are soaring, and the handful of memory chip makers that control the market say the artificial intelligence boom is eating up their supply. A new lawsuit alleges they’re acting like a cartel. It’s a midterm problem for Republicans, who are already facing blowback on prices. In this episode of the TCF Investigates midterm election series, Arjun Singh sits down with reporter Sacha Sloan and Executive Editor Teddy Downey to discuss allegations of cartel behavior in the memory chip sector. Then Arjun and Paul McLeod talk with Democratic pollster Celinda Lake about how prices and affordability are shaping the midterm campaigns.
October 13 · 58 min
Shadow Insurance (Private Credit Crisis)
Regulators fixed the problem shadow insurance was invented to solve a decade ago. Insurers kept doing it anyway. Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with Daniel Schwarcz, a University of Minnesota law professor who first wrote about "shadow insurance" in 2015. They get into how the practice started as a workaround regulators signed off on, why it kept growing after the rules were fixed, how private equity-backed insurers took it offshore to Bermuda, and Schwarcz's simple fix: stop letting US insurers reinsure with their own affiliates.
October 9 · 1 hr
John Deere’s Crumbs for Farmers (Second Request)
John Deere has agreed to pay $99 million to settle a class action over farmers’ right to repair their own equipment. But after lawyers and administrators take their cut, farmers could be left with a small slice of the pie. In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Willie Cade, CEO of Graceful Solutions, to break down the settlement, dealer consolidation, and who should own farm equipment data.
October 8 · 31 min
Who’s to Blame for High Gas Prices? (TCF Investigates)
Americans are furious about President Donald Trump’s role in driving up gas prices. With the midterm elections just weeks away, even Republican voters are souring on Trump over the cost of everything. In the first episode of our election series, TCF Investigates host Arjun Singh and senior correspondent Paul McLeod sit down with Capitol Forum reporter Max Berengaut to learn how refinery consolidation is pushing fuel costs even higher. Then they talk with pollster G. Elliott Morris to understand what’s driving voters.
October 6 · 1 hr 29 min
Bad Grades (Private Credit Crisis)
The ratings agencies already failed investors in 2008. Are they about to do it again? Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with Rod Dubitsky, who rated subprime bonds at Moody's before the financial crisis. They discuss whether the high ratings on private equity-owned life insurers can be trusted, and what investors and regulators might be missing.
October 2 · 1 hr 3 min
Can Anything Save the House GOP? (Second Request)
With a month until the midterms, the polls have Democrats favored to take the House and voters angry about high prices, especially at the pump. In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey, senior podcast producer Arjun Singh and reporter Paul McLeod sit down with G. Elliott Morris, a data journalist and pollster who writes the Substack Strength in Numbers. They dig into where the House and Senate races stand, how gas prices and the war in Iran are dragging down President Trump, and how to tell good polling from noise. Read Elliott's Substack here: https://www.gelliottmorris.com/
September 29 · 1 hr 10 min
The Fox Guarding the Hen House (Private Credit Crisis)
Private equity owned life insurers are supposed to prepare for the worst, but some of them aren't preparing for anything close to it. Today on Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey talks with Corwin Zass, a consulting actuary who has spent more than 25 years advising life insurers on capital and risk.
September 25 · 1 hr 6 min
Antitrust in Trump 2.0 (Second Request)
From Ticketmaster to Paramount-Warner Bros., the Trump administration has had a full docket of antitrust-related cases to deal with. In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Karina Lubell, partner in Brunswick Group's global antitrust and competition practice, and Nicholas Cheolas, partner at Wiley, to discuss the evolving antitrust enforcement landscape under the second Trump administration.
September 22 · 54 min
Clouding Accounting (Private Credit Crisis)
Two life insurers can own the exact same bond and tell their regulators two different stories about how risky it is. In this episode of Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Florida State University professor Kyeonghee Kim to discuss what changes at a life insurer after private equity buys it, and whether the system meant to catch bad numbers is actually built to.
September 18 · 1 hr 5 min
The Anonymous Data Problem DOGE Created (Second Request)
Everyone knows their data gets sold. Almost nobody knows how much of it companies just give away, blurred enough to call it anonymous. In this episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with former Capitol Forum correspondent and privacy lawyer Ben Neumeyer to discuss how DOGE spent a year and a half pooling federal records and made every one of those files findable again.
September 15 · 1 hr 8 min
Hiding Money in Bermuda (Private Credit Crisis)
There's a hole in the life and annuity sector's balance sheet, and private equity dug it. In this episode of Private Credit Crisis, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Nick Nemeth, an investor and the writer of Mispriced Assets, to discuss the life and annuity industry's growing exposure to private credit and the potential risks for insurers and the broader financial system.
September 11 · 1 hr 5 min
The Perils of Personalized Pricing (Second Request)
With little response from the federal government, state legislatures around the country are looking at banning the use of personalized pricing. Today on Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Hal Singer and Gavin Sicard to explain what personalized pricing actually is, and how its deployment today leads to higher consumer prices.
September 8 · 59 min
Lies, Loans and Lawsuits (Private Credit Crisis)
We're excited to introduce Private Credit Crisis, a new weekly podcast from The Capitol Forum examining the policy problems building inside the private credit industry. In this first episode, Executive Editor Teddy Downey and reporter Josh Kosman sit down with attorney Jim Woolery, who is bringing lawsuits on behalf of investors alleging that private equity firms have inflated the assets on their balance sheets and charged inflated management fees on those assets, even as their performance has deteriorated.
September 4 · 56 min
Streaming Is the New IP Battleground (Second Request)
When phone makers turned on Qualcomm, the company built an intricate, multi-front strategy to fight back. Now, two former employees say the same playbook is being run in streaming. Today on Second Request, Christie Thoene and Kirti Gupta sit down with executive editor Teddy Downey to revisit their years inside Qualcomm and explain how today's fights over streaming technology mirror the smartphone wars of the 2010s.
August 28 · 59 min
Meta's House of Cards (Second Request)
This week, Meta reached a multibillion-dollar settlement in federal court over allegations that it was aware of the harm its products could cause to teenage mental health. That may be the tip of the iceberg for Mark Zuckerberg's problems. Today on Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Julia Angwin to discuss how Meta's core business, Facebook, is failing, and how Zuckerberg's ambitions to become an AI giant have failed to materialize.

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