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The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.


Big Take

After rebels took Syria’s capital, President Bashar Al-Assad fled Damascus for Russia, ending his brutal 24-year reign. His ouster marks the beginning of a new, uncertain phase for a country that’s been ravaged by 13 years of civil war. 
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg’s Paul Wallace joins host Sarah Holder to discuss how Assad’s toppling has opened up a power vacuum in Syria — and what it means for the Middle East, the Syrian people and the world.

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The Middle East After Assad

Since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed last week, there’s been a deluge of posts on social media expressing rage at the insurance industry and solidarity with the shooter.
 
Bloomberg reporter Riley Griffin joins Big Take host David Gura to discuss what the shooting revealed about public sentiment toward American health care, and how United and its peers are responding to the attack and its aftermath. 

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Inside UnitedHealthcare in the Days After CEO Shooting

South Korea’s family-run conglomerates – or chaebols – have been big drivers of economic growth, and because of that they’ve largely been seen as untouchable. Until now. The chaebols are being challenged, at a time when the stakes have potentially never been higher, with the country mired in political turmoil.

On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, Rebecca Choong Wilkins talks to Bloomberg reporter Youkyung Lee about how a surprise takeover bid for one of the world’s biggest refined metal producers, Korea Zinc, is sending a chill through the chaebol world.

Read more: Powerful Families Who Dominate South Korea Face an Investor Revolt

Further listening: The Six Hours of Martial Law That Stunned South Korea

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The Most Powerful Families in South Korea Brace for the Next Revolt

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been a fixture in the economic policy world for decades. She was President Clinton’s chief economic adviser, a Federal Reserve governor and served as Fed Chair under President Obama.
 
As her tenure at Treasury comes to an end, Yellen sits down with host David Gura to discuss the possibility of additional sanctions on Russian oil and communication between the US and China, and she reflects on her long career as a pioneering economic policymaker.

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Janet Yellen: The Exit Interview

A new series from the Big Take podcast investigates the booming market for human eggs. It’s a global and opaque market where demand is so great, that even where regulations are in place, there are powerful incentives to evade them.

In this episode, host Sarah Holder is joined by Bloomberg’s Natalie Obiko Pearson to unpack an investigation in India that revealed how far some people will go to get a cut of this trade, even if it means exploiting a child.

Read more from Bloomberg Businessweek: The Egg

Plus, watch the documentary from Bloomberg Originals: Inside India's Fertility Underworld

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The Human Egg Trade: Episode 1 - The Lie

Germany’s economy is stagnating; households have less disposable income, and businesses report having less faith in the future. Once the growth engine of Europe, the country has gradually been losing its competitive edge. Now, economic anxieties have fuelled a political crisis that led to Monday’s no confidence vote in the German government.
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg’s Chris Reiter talks to host Sarah Holder about the consequences of Germany’s economic troubles — for the country and for Europe — and what it could take to turn things around. 
 

Read more: Germany Is Unraveling Just When Europe Needs It Most
 
 

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Germany’s Economy Is Facing a Slow-Moving Disaster

China’s property crisis has become a massive headache for the world’s second-largest economy. Tens of millions of newly built apartments lie vacant, home prices have tumbled and cash-strapped developers are struggling to finish construction. 
 

On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha talks to Bloomberg’s Lulu Chen about what China is doing to try and solve its housing crisis. We go to Zhengzhou, home to the world’s biggest iPhone factory and the city where the housing market first imploded. It's now become a testing ground for government efforts to revive the ailing property sector. We look at whether they’re working, and what it will mean for China’s economy if the big push fails. 
 
Read more: China’s Housing Rescue Falls Short in City That Signaled the Crisis
 
Further listening: What Comes Next in China’s Property Crisis

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China Had a Plan to Rescue Its Housing Market. It’s Not Working

Tens of thousands of migrants in Mexico are currently in limbo after new policies put in place there and in the US changed the process for how people seek asylum. Now, with President-elect Trump promising an immigration crackdown as soon as he takes office, some asylum-seekers are anxious to make it into the US before Inauguration Day.
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg reporter Alex Vasquez joins host Sarah Holder to explain the complex intersection of these policies and to share the story of one family navigating that system. 
 
Read more: Stranded in Mexico: Trump’s Looming Crackdown Scares Migrants

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The Race for Asylum Before Trump Takes Office

In his final month as the United States’ chief diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is racing around the globe, responding to conflicts in the Middle East and the latest developments in the war in Ukraine. 

During a stop in New York, he sat down with host David Gura to talk about how he is preparing to hand over the country’s sprawling foreign policy portfolio to the incoming Trump administration.
 

Read more: Syria: Blinken Says US Weighs Sending Officials for Talks - Bloomberg
 
 

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Antony Blinken: The Exit Interview

A new series from the Big Take podcast investigates the booming market for human eggs. It’s a global and opaque market where demand is so great, that even where regulations are in place, there are powerful incentives to evade them.
 
In this episode, host Sarah Holder and Bloomberg’s Vernon Silver focus on one fertility clinic in Greece that police say stole the eggs of as many as 75 women. It’s a story that shows how the actions of one clinic can have ripple effects around the world and reveals the unique ways that the fertility industry runs not only on capital, but on trust. 
 
Read more from Bloomberg Businessweek: The Egg
 
 

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The Human Egg Trade: Episode 2 - The Theft

Taiwan’s current Vice President, ​​Lai Ching-te, leads the polls in the upcoming January presidential election. The winner will have a lot to contend with–and at the top of the list is how to keep the peace with China amid rising tensions. Bloomberg Businessweek editor Joel Weber sat down with Vice President Lai for several wide-ranging interviews in Taiwan. 
 
Joel and Taipei deputy bureau chief Cindy Wang join this episode to talk about the challenges the next president will face in preserving a democratic Taiwan, and public concerns about the possibility of military conflict with China. 
 
Read more: Taiwan’s Election Is All About War
 
Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK 

Have questions or comments for Wes and the team? Reach us at bigtake@bloomberg.net.

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Avoiding War With China Is The Top Issue In Taiwan's Election

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