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Ben Carlson

Director of Institutional Asset Management, Ritholtz Wealth Management

Search every verified Ben Carlson interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, has been active across multiple platforms over the last two months, co-hosting episodes of the Animal Spirits podcast with Michael Batnick and appearing on the Ask The Compound podcast. On episodes of Animal Spirits, Carlson discussed topics including stock market concentration, AI-related debt concerns, the impact of higher interest rates, housing market dynamics, and the behavior of wealthy investors. In an Ask The Compound episode, he fielded listener questions on bonds, mortgages, and housing prices, stating that he purchased bonds for the first time in his career and explaining why he believes housing prices have not crashed, citing factors such as constrained supply and strong consumer balance sheets. In an interview on a podcast about wealthy people's spending habits, he discussed the challenges affluent individuals face in spending their money and the concept of "enough," noting that goals often shift over time. Carlson has also been promoting his new book "Risk and Reward," discussing themes of long-term wealth building, market volatility, and risk tolerance in interviews with Bruce Mehlman and on the Flyover Stocks podcast. In these conversations, he reflected on lessons from his early career, including how living through the global financial crisis shaped his investing perspective, and discussed why active investors must tolerate periods of underperformance. He also commented on current market conditions, including the appeal of higher bond yields relative to stocks, and noted challenges in spending money accumulated over time, such as the difficulty of adapting to wealth gained suddenly.

Recent appearances

  • Why Won’t the Housing Market Crash?

    October 21, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 245 of Ask The Compound, Ben Carlson and Duncan Hill answer five listener questions on investing, bonds, housing, and personal finance. They discuss why Ben finally bought bonds for the first time in his career, whether paying down a high-interest mortgage beats buying bonds, and why home prices haven't crashed despite higher mortgage rates. Plus, how to think about home country bias when investing internationally, the risks of currency fluctuations, and Ben's best money advice for a 13-year-old just getting started with investing. This episode is sponsored by Exhibit A. Spend less…

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  • It's a Bloodbath | Animal Spirits 487

    October 21, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 487 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: AI debt concerns, Coreweave's Rocky IV moment, the 2020s appetite for risk, the Railway boom analogy, carnage under the surface of the stock market, the average stock this year, valuations are falling everywhere, how the stock market has changed, the lottery tickets that didn't hit, billionaires giving away money, baby boomers don't want to pay property taxes and more. This episode is sponsored by WisdomTree. To learn more about USFR, visit https://www.wisdomtree.com/us/product... ► 00:00 - WisdomTree Ad ► 00:40 - Sto…

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  • Are Higher Rates Worse Than ZIRP? | Animal Spirits 486

    October 14, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 486 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: stock market concentration worries, how to hedge AI market risk, maxing out your 401k, who got richer this decade, AI is crowding out the economy, tariffs didn't work, higher rates are crushing the housing market, why people love parlays and longshot bets, Rotten Tomatoes inflation and more. THE COMPOUND X BROADWAY TICKETS: https://tcaf.ticketspice.com/the-comp... This episode is sponsored by ProShares.  Explore their full range of ETFs and market insights at https://proshares.com/animalspirits. ► 00:00 - ProShares A…

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  • Ben Carlson on Why Wealthy People Struggle to Spend

    October 08, 2026 · 📺 YouPotential

    You did everything right with money. So why does spending it feel like losing? Ben Carlson manages money for a living. He’s been a saver since fifth grade, when he made his own lunches and pocketed the cash. Then his family hit an all-time high in savings and his wife asked a question the spreadsheet couldn’t answer. We talk about why so many successful people struggle to spend, what “enough” really means, and the letter his late brother left for his kids. 🎯 Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:16 The lake as a happy place 1:58 Why buy a cabin when your advisors say don’t 5:40 The fifth grader who pocketed…

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  • Sudden Wealth Syndrome | Animal Spirits 485

    October 07, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 485 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: what can stop the hyperscalers from spending, why the stock market is near all-time highs again, speedball capitalism, how capex cycles work, it's a high beta decade, how to lie with statistics, young people are going to be fine, the top 0.1% is really rich, the problem with getting rich young, private markets are overvalued, no more dinner parties and more. This episode is presented by Fidelity Investments and the all-new Fidelity Trader+, Fidelity’s most powerful trading platform yet. Learn more at http://www.fidelit…

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  • Will Higher Rates Kill the Stock Market? | Animal Spirits 484

    September 30, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 484 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the stock market has an excuse to sell off, valuations are falling across the board, the cause of the next correction, 5% bond yields, the worst bond market of all-time, incomes are rising, the wealth effect is real, AI personal assistants, the Consumer Inertia basket of stocks, 7% mortgage rates, the fall of the creative class, the 100 best TV shows this century and more. This episode is sponsored by YCharts. Visit https://go.ycharts.com/animal-spirits to get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription, new…

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  • Ben Carlson, Risk & Reward with Bruce Mehlman

    September 29, 2026 · 📺 Mehlman Consulting

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  • The Wobbly House of Cards | Animal Spirits 483

    September 23, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 483 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the interconnected hyperscalers, AI's risk to the economy, the chart of the year, Nvidia's valuation, Meta's personal assistant, $186 trillion in household wealth, 10 year return projections, the case for owning bonds, why the Fed raised rates, Bitcoin's comeback, fixing the housing crisis is harder than it sounds, the best movie of the 1980s and more. This episode is sponsored by Nuveen. Visit https://www.nuveen.com/positioning to learn more and to sign up for a custom portfolio analysis. Take The Compound's 2026 aud…

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  • Everywhere Millionaires | Animal Spirits 481

    September 09, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 481 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: how bull market gains have changed the markets, AI is crowding everything else out, when the next financial crisis will hit, Ray Dalio keeps scaring investors, the earnings boom, a buying opportunity for bonds, the American Dream is still alive and well, is college worth the cost, why AI isn't impacting the labor market, the most important financial asset for retirees, theme parties and more. This episode is sponsored by CME Group. To learn more about E-nano futures, visit: https://www.cmegroup.com/enano Take The Comp…

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  • The Next Michael Burry | Animal Spirits 480

    September 02, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 480 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the AI debt binge, no recessions for the rest of the 2020s, Kevin Warsh thoughts on the economy, the dead cat bounce in software stocks, bull market M&A deals, no one cares about dividends anymore, rising yields are a good thing, AI civilizations, Gen Z will be buying houses, Tom Cruise remakes and more. This episode is sponsored by YCharts. To learn more about YCharts Future Proof session and get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription, visit https://go.ycharts.com/future-proof-2026 (new customers only)…

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  • Ben Carlson: Risk, Reward, and the Future of Investing

    August 27, 2026 · 📺 Flyover Stocks - Todd Wenning

    Episode Description The advice everyone gives about risk is too simple. Ben Carlson breaks down why your risk tolerance changes with age, experience, and even trauma and why that matters whether you’re building a portfolio, hiring through AI disruption, or deciding if the US market is too concentrated. Todd Wenning sits down with Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management and longtime voice behind ⁠A Wealth of Common Sense⁠, for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with the biggest questions facing investors right now. From industry consolidati…

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  • Are Free Markets Dead? | Animal Spirits 479

    August 26, 2026 · 📺 The Compound

    On episode 479 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the Treasury bond buybacks, Stanley Druckenmiller's op-ed, the real government debt risk, the most hated asset class in the world, why Bitcoin woke up, the end of the Go-Go years, finance bros are having a moment, private market fraud, the high cost of housing and transportation, Jean-Claude Van Damme and more. This episode is sponsored by YCharts. To learn more and get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription, visit https://go.ycharts.com/future-proof-2026 (new customers only). ► 00:00 - YCharts Ad ► 00…

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“It does feel like in a vacuum, housing prices should have fallen given everything that's happened. And I saw some people in 2022 when mortgage rates first started rising, some like very intelligent housing analysts say, I think it's a better than 50/50 shot that housing prices fall 15 or 20%. And these are people I respect. So while prices have stagnated, they aren't falling nationwide. So Duncan, we were up 19% in 2”

“I think people just want me to say it's okay to pay off your mortgage early. They just want to get me on record for saying it. This is a great question. I say you never pay off your 3% mortgage early. Never. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Don't do it. It's a terrible idea. 6% mortgage, 7% mortgage, that's a very different hurdle rate. From a math perspective, if you're looking at bonds versus paying down a mortgage ”

“I don't think people in the market have totally reckoned with the fact that risk appetite in this decade is completely different than it was last decade. We the pandemic flipped a switch in people's brains and like the appetite for risk is is totally different. And it's funny because uh Maggie Mayar has this book called Bull. It's one of the great financial market history books that no one ever talks about. It's abou”

“I think the size of the company is irrelevant. So for people that don't know exactly like what is this core company that people keep talking about, it is one of these they're called a Neo cloud computing company. Now I've been on record Neo-anything. I don't know what it means. But what core what corweave and the companies like it essentially do is they don't build the data centers per se there's like the private fin”

“One of the rare times where I think most sane people said this is a terrible idea. Not even like a partisan type of thing. I feel like everybody was like, 'Whoa.' Those with tariffs, they raise consumer goods prices and it was a 3 percentage point difference. They show the counterfactual without tariffs and with tariffs. What happened? And we got 3 percentage point increase in goods prices. I think this is possibly o”

“The whole point was 0% interest rates are causing way more problems than they could than fixing anything, and the point was this is going to lead to huge imbalances and big problems. And I think you could make the case. Everyone talked about how bad ZIRP was going to be and how it's going to cause a crisis that never happened. I think you could say that right now higher interest rates are worse than ZIRP was for the ”

Other executives at Ritholtz Wealth Management

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