transitivity - "talk money" or "talk about money"

Let's talk money.

It's from an American show: Friends(Season02 Episode03), Usually, I would say "Let's talk about money, but why did she omit the word "about"?

Answer

The verb "to talk" can be used idiomatically as a transitive verb, but usually with a limited number of nouns that can serve as a direct object.

Let's talk business.

Let's talk money.

If you say "let's talk about money", you might want to discuss the history of bank note printing, or the dealings of the European banks: "money" is in this case quite general.

"Let's talk money" means you want to talk about money that will change hands between you and the person you are talking to. You are talking about some kind of deal, and you propose to discuss the financial part of the transaction now.

Let's talk business, in a similar way, means "let's end the small talk, and focus on the actual business we were going to discuss now."