Max Abelson

Max Abelson reports on Wall Street, money and power for Bloomberg News.

He’s covered Jeffrey Epstein’s network, his investments, his library and his work as Leon Black’s fixer.

He’s reported on pandemic phone calls with a billionaire, one of the biggest bank collapses ever, another that came close, an all-American ETF empire’s secret, a banker’s quest for a non-racist lender, harassment at Citi, a trillion dollar decade, billions of dollars of overdraft fees, star traders in trouble, Wall Street’s secret arbitration system, Cantor Fitzgerald’s soiled mug, a 13-year fight bias fight inside Goldman Sachs, the battle between Barclays and a doctor’s victims, an undocumented immigrant who became a Wall Street star and the fall of Black diversity in banking.

He’s chronicled Trump’s memecoin, his money machine, his origins, his most important tower, his most valuable one, his DC Hotel, his vodka, his banker, his shrinking fortune, his rich pals, and how one turned money into power and then power into money.

On The Businessweek Show, he asked Jonathan and Drew Scott, Drew Afualo and Mike Reiss about screens, Jon Corzine and Steve Aoki about second acts, Marc Lasry, Nadia Murad and Kwame Onwuachi about survival, Pinky Cole and Matthew Desmond about ownership, Theaster Gates and Judy Chicago about imagination, Rich Paul and Alice Wong about reputation, Cornel West and Bethann Hardison about ambition, Chip Wilson about moonshots, Jaime Rogozinski, Maeve DuVally and Sophia Chang about risk, and Burt Malkiel, Moriba Jah, Zaila Avant-garde about genius.

During Covid-19, he reported on fevers, fear, rage, workers, tests, dread and the rich.

He’s followed Wall Street’s love of tax cuts, memoirs, crimes, rookies, villains, violin pools, addictions, connections, donors and parties.

He’s co-written oral histories of Wall Street’s Black bankers and Michael Milken’s rise and fall.

Sometimes, he writes about things that have nothing to do with money, like Janet Malcolm’s interviews and the Grateful Dead’s comments section for n+1, David Byrne’s art in the New York Times, Snoopy’s list in 1977 of the 125 best dub reggae albums, the comedians Tim and Eric and Nazi race cars.

Every now and then he sends Mail from Max.

He was a New York Observer reporter for five years, and aYale Daily News arts editor. His work has won awards and was included in Columbia University Press’ Best Business Writing in 2013 and 2015. He volunteers as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters and an editor for the Prison Journalism Project, and was a member of Bloomberg’s Reporter Advisory Board in 2020. He was born in 1984 and lives in Brooklyn with Liza.

If you’d like, you can send an email.