Matt Levine (born 1978) is a columnist for ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

'' covering finance and business. Levine has previously been a lawyer, investment banker, law clerk, and has written for a number of newspapers and financial sites. His newsletter, ''Money Stuff,'' is one of the most popular on Wall Street with over 150,000 subscribers as of October 2020.

Education

Levine graduated

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he majored in

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

Career

After graduating Harvard, Levine was a high school

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

teacher. He left that profession for law school and became a

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

lawyer for the law firm

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is an American law firm in New York City. The firm is known for corporate law, regularly handling large and complex transactions. On both a profit per lawyer, and profit per equity partner basis, it is the most p ...

. He later went on to become an

investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with ...

for

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

, where he

structured Structuring, also known as smurfing in banking jargon, is the practice of executing financial transactions such as making bank deposits in a specific pattern, calculated to avoid triggering financial institutions to file reports required by law ...

and marketed corporate

equity derivative In finance, an equity derivative is a class of derivatives whose value is at least partly ''derived'' from one or more underlying equity securities. Options and futures are by far the most common equity derivatives, however there are many other ty ...

s for four years. Levine was also a law clerk for the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a United States federal court, federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, district courts for the following United Sta ...

. In 2011, Levine started writing about economics and finance for the financial news site ''Dealbreaker''. There, he wrote about the "deals, scandals, complexities and personalities of the financial services industry." Levine's coverage and analysis of the

2012 JPMorgan Chase trading loss In April and May 2012, large trading losses occurred at JPMorgan Chase, JPMorgan's Chief Investment Office, based on transactions booked through its London branch. The unit was run by Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, who later stepped down. A s ...

was featured in the

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...

's anthology "The Best Business Writing 2013." In 2013, Levine joined

Bloomberg View Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

(now

Bloomberg Opinion Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a ...

) as an opinion columnist covering finance and business. He writes the newsletter ''Money Stuff'' for Bloomberg, which is published every weekday. Levine's analysis in his column have been widely covered by other newspapers. The newsletter has close to 150k subscribers making it one of the most popular newsletters on Wall Street. Levine has also written for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'',

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

, ''

The Billfold ''The Awl'' was a website about "news, ideas and obscure Internet minutiae of the day" based in New York City. Its motto was "Be Less Stupid." History Founded in April 2009 by David Cho and former '' Gawker'' editors Choire Sicha and Alex Bal ...

'', and the ''

Planet Money ''Planet Money'' is an American podcast and blog produced by NPR. Using "creative and entertaining" dialogue and narrative, ''Planet Money'' claims to be "The Economy Explained." History The podcast was created by Alex Blumberg and Adam Davids ...

'' blog. When asked about the possibility of switching to a paid version similar to Ben Thompson's Stratechery Levine said that he enjoys the heightened fame of writing a free newsletter as it reaches more people than a paid newsletter. Levine took several months off in 2020 for parental leave after the birth of his second child. A statistical examination that Levine cited in ''Money Stuff'' showed that his newsletter has been released 4 minutes later each month since 2015 and has gotten progressively longer over time.

Writing style

Levine is known for his humorous, witty, deadpan writing style.

Praise

Levine has received praise from the likes of

Bill Ackman William Albert Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager. He is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. His investment approach makes him an activis ...

and

Jim Chanos James Steven Chanos (born December 24, 1957) is an American investment manager. He is president and founder of Kynikos Associates, a New York City registered investment advisor focused on short selling. A noted art collector, he appeared on the ...

, with Ackman saying "His work is some of the most sophisticated analysis of what is really happening on Wall Street".

References

External links