The Original Prediction Market Was Betting on the Pope
Odd Lots14 Maalis 2025

The Original Prediction Market Was Betting on the Pope

Prediction markets are everywhere nowadays. You can go online and bet on political outcomes, or the weather, or how long Taylor Swift will stay together with Travis Kelce. But prediction markets have a long history, and one of the earliest involved betting on who would be the next pope. In fact, Renaissance Romans gambled on everything from papal elections to whether a particular noblewoman would give birth to a boy or girl. So why was betting such a big thing in 1500s Italy? How did the papal prediction market actually work? And what can it tell us about prediction markets today? We speak to Ryan Isakow, the author of the No Dumb Ideas substack.

Read More: A Live Experiment in Prediction Markets
Prediction Markets Are a Thing Now

Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking & World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaksot(1182)

Tracy and Joe Answer All Your Questions

Tracy and Joe Answer All Your Questions

It's that time of the year. On this episode, Tracy and Joe answer questions from listeners that were submitted via voice note. We talk about everything from Chinese history to whales to whether or not...

1 Tammi 34min

Goldman's Hatzius and Snider on the Outlook for 2026

Goldman's Hatzius and Snider on the Outlook for 2026

2025 was an extraordinary year, with the real economy defying recession worries and equity markets putting up monster returns. So can this be repeated again in 2026? On this episode, we speak with two...

29 Joulu 202546min

Merryn Talks Money: John Law, The Gambler Who Invented Modern Money (Part 1)

Merryn Talks Money: John Law, The Gambler Who Invented Modern Money (Part 1)

Hello Odd Lots listeners! As we take a break for the holidays we'd like to take a moment and bring you an episode by one of our sister shows here at Bloomberg Podcasts, Merryn Talks Money. In this sp...

26 Joulu 202533min

Scott Kupor's New Plan to Bring Tech Workers Into the Federal Government

Scott Kupor's New Plan to Bring Tech Workers Into the Federal Government

If you're a high-skilled tech worker, then potentially huge fortunes await you working for a startup or one of our booming AI giants. But the government needs these types of workers too. And the gover...

25 Joulu 202559min

Why Americans Are Falling Behind on Auto Loans At Their Highest Level Ever

Why Americans Are Falling Behind on Auto Loans At Their Highest Level Ever

By and large, American households are in a healthy economic position. Yes, unemployment has been rising, but it's still at fairly low levels. Consumer spending has held up well despite terrible sentim...

22 Joulu 202550min

The Booming Business of Chinese Peptides

The Booming Business of Chinese Peptides

You probably already know someone doing peptides — the amino acids that form the basis of popular new drug treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy. Today there are peptides meant to help with everything fr...

19 Joulu 202548min

Meet the Politician the AI Industry Is Trying to Stop

Meet the Politician the AI Industry Is Trying to Stop

The politics of AI are already exploding. Whether we're talking about data centers, electricity prices, labor displacement, water consumption, competition with China, or users of chatbots becoming psy...

18 Joulu 202547min

MeatEater's Steven Rinella on the Economic History of Hunting

MeatEater's Steven Rinella on the Economic History of Hunting

When we think about America’s economic rise, we usually point to agriculture or the industrial revolution. But in the early days of colonization, one of the biggest economic drivers wasn’t crops or fa...

15 Joulu 202554min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-rahapodi
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
rss-rahamania
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
rahapuhetta
herrasmieshakkerit
sijoituspodi
rss-karon-grilli
leadcast
asuntoasiaa-paivakirjat
rss-lahtijat
rss-startup-ministerio
rss-paasipodi
rss-yrittajan-mindset
rss-draivi
pomojen-suusta
rss-valaistumisia-tyoelamasta