A jam-packed episode of Another Fine Mezz this week meant a full line-up of podcasters was needed, and they duly delivered.

With European securitization reporter, George Smith, away for the last couple of weeks, he was forced to pick his favourite. As ever on the podcast, creativity in the market is rewarded and so it was perhaps unsurprising that the auxmoney-owned Lender & Spender deal named after a dog won out.

CLO reporter, Victoria Thiele had been away for most of the week, leaving host Tom Lemmon to straddle both US and European CLO horses. The US market, led by AGL Credit's 140bp over Sofr print, is flying. At the time of recording Euro CLOs was winding down, but a late Friday rush was expected and five managers got a variety of transactions done before the Global ABS conference.

In addition, for the second half of the podcast George spoke to Mirco Iacobucci, senior vice president and sector lead of European real estate ratings at Morningstar DBRS for a sponsored interview on CMBS. With CMBS having a mini-revival this year, the pair discussed the birth of data centre CMBS in Europe, performance issues in the sector and the outlook for the rest of the year.

This week's episode of Another Fine Mezz had a distinctly American flavour to it, owing to CLO reporter, Victoria Thiele's trip to New York and the rapid tightening in the US CLO market.

In addition, European securitization reporter, George Smith, was away taking a well-earned rest after his gigantic contribution for GlobalCapital's Global ABS special report (which delegates can get their hands on from June 4).

The US CLO market has tightened dramatically in the last couple of weeks. Where once 150bp over Sofr on the triple-As was considered a hard line in the sand for investors, some managers are close to printing at 140bp and many expect it to continue down towards 135bp.

Meanwhile, the squeeze on spreads has eroded the tiering premium to all but a couple of basis points for the tier two and three managers, such is the demand for CLO paper.

Finally, the Another Fine Mezz team is delighted to announce that they have twisted the arm of Invisso just enough to get the chance to record the podcast live from Global ABS in Barcelona. The podcast is scheduled to go live at 2.10pm CET in the exhibit hall, where all are welcome to enjoy the usual ramblings over lunch.

This week on Another Fine Mezz, securitization editor Tom Lemmon gave usual podcasters George Smith and Victoria Thiele a well-earned rest.

That was to make way for Michael Herzig, senior managing director and head of business development at First Eagle Alternative Credit in the first episode of GlobalCapital's CLO series.

The US CLO market is back firing again with some now even contemplating whether 2024 will exceed the banner year of 2021.

Herzig discussed how he thinks the rest of the year will play out, how middle-market CLOs will grow in importance, and how the market has helped reinvent itself in the years since the global financial crisis.

The second half of the episode discussed Herzig's over 30 years in the industry, including sitting just four desks away from Greg Lippman of Big Short fame as the first rumbles of a looming crisis arrived.

Finally, Herzig shares the keys to success in the world of CLOs, perhaps best summarised as "don't be a jerk".