Episodes

  • FRIDAY WRAP: Dockworker strike/unstrike, Texas stock exchange is not woke, and parrots fight back
    Oct 4 2024
    IntroductionLIVE from an empty shipping container used by Vanguard to hold its votes against AGAINST management, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here on October 4th, featuring a very lonely AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: Dockworkers strike and unstrike, the UK is now powered entirely by crumpets, the Texas Stock Exchange announces white people, and parrots finally fight back..The Friday Show is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.Story of the Week (DR):‘We were illegal immigrants’: Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal admits in resurfaced videoThe decade-old footage from an interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference reveals that the Musk brothers were once illegal immigrants in the US. During the interview, Kimbal Musk admits they illegally moved from South Africa to Canada and then to the United States.Elon Musk said “it’s a gray area” as Kimbal says they were illegal immigrants45,000 dockworkers are on strike. Here’s how global companies are respondingAt 12:01am Tuesday until..Friday morning!Port strike ends as workers agree to tentative deal on wages and contract extensionThe tentative agreement would bring the hourly wage for a top dockworker to $63 per hour at the end of the new contract, up from $39 per hour under the expired contract.A Southwest Airlines director bought $100 million in stock to fight activist investor ElliottMost interesting defense against activist I’ve ever seen - buy the stock!Rakesh Gangwal bought about 0.5% of the stock and demanded no more changes to managementGangwal was put on the board as a response to Elliot’s stake in July, and is part of a series of additions with Robert Fornaro, ex CEO of Spirit Airlines (who is now near bankruptcy) and Roy Blunt (the senator who voted for school prayer, does not believe in climate change, voted against background checks for gun purchases, voted to ban same sex marriage and gay adoptionGoodliest of the Week (MM, pretending to be AB):EVgo gets $1.05B loan to build 7,500 DC fast chargersEVgo said the charger build-out will be concentrated in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas and should be completed by 2030.The U.K. just closed its last coal power plantThe country’s last coal power plant, built in 1967, shut down on September 30. Renewable energy—including thousands of massive wind turbines—now makes up around half of the U.K.’s power generation.Boomer women are pouring into the stock market—making up for lost time and wealth23% increase in one year, 71% of boomer women now invest up from 60% a year agoPartially due to death of male spousesAssholiest of the Week (MM):The true anti-woke ask:Texas Stock Exchange moves closer to launch with leadership team, boardLeadership: Leadership team: 22 peopleHow many women? One: Nicole ChambersHow many people of color? One: Harvey Cloyd7 directors have been named so far, how many are white dudes?ALL OF THEMThis is how seriously we take directors:Member of TKO's Board of Directors to fire Roman Reigns from WWE due to one major reason? Potential swerve exploredWrestling fans are actually speculating that new TKO director Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, will join a wrestling storylineAs part of joining the board, Rock got a $30m licensing deal in the form of stock plus he continues his $491k/year royalties dealFundamentally misunderstanding how power works:Charles Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger to retire at end of 2024, Rick Wurster to replace himCharles Schwab’s real CEO is Charles Schwab, executive director on the board, who owns 6% of the company and it’s straight up, no dual class, outpacing BlackrockBettinger owned approximately 0.01%... Wurster before his golden handshake had 0.001%Exhausting-est of the Week (DR, pretending to be JS):A Florida congressman wants you to subsidize the state’s flood insurance. It’s a terrible ideaFL Democrat Jared Moskowitz: It can’t just be on one state or two states to deal with thisVoted for anti-ESG bill?Meta is ready to inject AI images of you into your Instagram and Facebook feedsPart of “Imagine Me” feature where you fake glorious selfies of yourself"Imagine you're talking about fishing with your friend, and all of a sudden, because you've clicked on some fishing stuff, you're just scrolling through your Instagram feed and you see a picture of yourself in a fishing outfit going fishing," Fun side benefit: increased body dysmorphia!The most common U.S. export is an empty container75% of containers on ships from US returning to foreign countries are emptyContainer ships emitted 221.5m metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2022, most of any shipIf even an estimated 50% of the containers were empty on return trips, that would mean about 56m metric tons of carbon dioxide are spent moving empty boxes around Earth, the equivalent of 13.3m gas powered cars...
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    42 mins
  • QUIZ: Texas Stock Exchange’s DEI board, CVS activist, Schwab’s new CEO, and Weight Watcher’s new CEO
    Oct 1 2024

    QUIZ: Texas Stock Exchange’s DEI board, CVS activist, Schwab’s new CEO, and Weight Watcher’s new CEO

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    32 mins
  • FRIDAY WRAP: CommerzBank’s new crystal waterfall CEO, ex-Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun’s last laugh, OpenAI’s flipfloppers, and Jamie Dimon says
    Sep 27 2024

    FRIDAY WRAP: CommerzBank’s new crystal waterfall CEO, ex-Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun’s last laugh, OpenAI’s flipfloppers, and Jamie Dimon says

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    59 mins
  • GOOD GAME: Female director mandate in UAE, Cards Against Humanity vs. Musk, and Amazon’s transpo problem
    Sep 24 2024
    Live from the Vanguard Charity Cornhole Tournament, where the players toss ESG-filled bean bags at GHG emissions target gameboards, it’s an all-new terrific Tuesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! On today’s kimchi-filled proxy contest called September 24th, 2024: The Good Game! And a Data Drop!Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.Women on corporate board of directors now mandatory, announces the UAEone director by Jan 2025 They knew and they lied': California sues ExxonMobil, alleging deception about plastics recyclingIn the lawsuit, the state's attorney general says ExxonMobil misled consumers into believing that recycling was a viable solution for plastic waste, though it knew otherwise. Cards Against Humanity’s lawsuit against Elon Musk is a brilliant stunt that makes a serious pointGame makers sued SpaceX for $15 million for littering on land they’d bought in 2017 to stop Trump from building a border wallSocial media owners top global survey of misinformation concerns“One of the most pressing concerns highlighted by our survey is the influence of social media platform owners. Their control over content distribution and moderation policies significantly impacts the quality and integrity of information. The unchecked power of these entities poses a grave risk to the health of our global information environment”Wynn Resorts settles shareholder lawsuit over CEO misconduct cover-up for $70 millionWynn Resorts will cover $9.4 million of the settlement, while insurers will pay the remaining amountThe fallout also led to Steve Wynn paying a $10 million settlement to Nevada regulators and his ban from holding any role in publicly traded companies under the state’s jurisdiction. Wynn Resorts’ subsequent leadership, led by Matthew Maddox, has worked to distance itself from its founder and ensure compliance with new corporate governance standards(Craig S. Billings has served as the Company’s CEO since February 1, 2022)Pinterest CEO: To protect our kids online, Congress must make digital IDs the national standard—and require OS makers to share age-validation data with appsBill Ready Melinda French Gates rips into the praise for sleepless CEOs as ‘so dumb’ Vanguard’s Investor Choice Pilot Highlights Growing Investor Engagement in Proxy VotingPolicy Preferences:43% of investors chose Vanguard-advised policies30.3% supported company board-aligned policies24.4% opted for third-party ESG policies2.3% selected not to voteGlobal share buybacks fell 35% in 2024The aggregate value of 2024 share buyback transactions was $163.53 billion through Sept. 9, compared to $354.85 billion, a year agoTyson Foods Sued Over Emissions Reduction PromisesThe Environmental Working Group alleges that the world’s second-largest meat producer is misleading consumers by labeling a line of its beef “climate smart.” People in this Dutch city will never see a fossil fuel billboard againNext year, if you walk down the street in The Hague, you’ll no longer see billboards advertising new cars—unless the car is electric. You also won’t see ads for flights, cruises, or anything else that runs on fossil fuelsThe Dutch city is the first in the world to pass a ban on street ads for fossil fuels and the products that use themAmazon raises pay to more than $22 an hour, gives free Prime to transportation workers23andMe independent directors quit board over unsatisfactory buyout plan from CEO Jamie Dimon is still committed to DEI but says he’s not woke Michael O’Leary says Ryanair’s value is depressed because he keeps calling people idiotsSpeaking at Ryanair’s AGM on Thursday, the airline boss admitted his loose lips might be behind the company’s depressed share price, which has fallen by around 20% this year: “In Ryanair there’s always some news flow. We’re fighting some union or some minister or I’m calling some minister an idiot or they’re calling me an idiot.”
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    45 mins
  • FRIDAY WRAP: 23andMe board resigns, Tyson food’s “smart beef” lawsuit, anti-ESG law killing proxies
    Sep 20 2024
    IntroductionLIVE from your ESG smokeless peach pit, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at September 20th Lane Studios, featuring ONE of your favorites: AnalystHole-man Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: Nike goes Back to the Future, Chief Kneeler Jamie Dimon yells at young people, Evil Tech CEOs continue to be, um, evil, and directors who love a free ride Today’s show is brought to you by freefloatanalytics.com - everything you ever wanted to know about who runs public companies, all free.Story of the Week (DR):Nike CEO John Donahoe is out, replaced by company veteran Elliott HillHill retired from Nike in 2020 after a long career with the company, but the board and Executive Chair Mark Parker asked him to come back, citing their many years of working togetherNike co-founder Phil Knight said that he: “couldn’t be more excited to welcome Elliott back to the team” and that “We’ve got a lot of work to do but I’m looking forward to seeing Nike back on its pace.”Nike welcomes new CEO with $27 million payday23andMe’s independent board directors resign MMIn response the CEO said in an SEC filing: “I am surprised and disappointed… We will immediately begin identifying independent directors to join the board.”Masimo CEO Joe Kiani ousted from board after proxy fight; Politan wins two seatsSingle class; 9%Federal Reserve cuts US interest rates for the first time in four yearsGoodliest of the Week (MM, pretending to be AB):Tyson Foods Sued Over Emissions Reduction Promises DRTucker Carlson plans to start a nicotine-pouch company after deciding Zyn is ‘not a brand for men’He “joked” on a podcast it’d make your genitals “enhanced”The company (owned by Philip Morris) put out a statement saying “nope”He said “you’re a bunch of liberal drones” and that they donated to Kamala and they’re good for “your girlfriend or something” because it starts with ZThey do not donate to Kamala, they donate more to GOPJamie Dimon tells Gen Z to stop wasting its time on TikTok and read books insteadCleanup Group Says It's on Track to Eliminate the Great Pacific Garbage PatchExhausting-est of the Week (DR, pretending to be JS):Secret Service Probing Musk’s Post About Threats to Biden and HarrisGOP 'woke week' advances package of anti-ESG billsF.T.C. Study Finds ‘Vast Surveillance’ of Social Media Users DRMeta, YouTube and other sites collected more data than most users realized, a new report by the Federal Trade Commission finds.The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday it found that several social media and streaming services engaged in a “vast surveillance” of consumers, including minors, collecting and sharing more personal information than most users realized.Due to AI fakes, the “deep doubt” era is hereBillionaire Larry Ellison says a vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure 'citizens will be on their best behavior'Sam Altman may be in his villain era, but no one seems to careAssholiest of the Week (MM):Data:We have access to 10,429 companies in the Free Float Analytics database4,565 of them are tagged as “Totalitarian” companies - companies where a single person (founder or founders, controlled companies, dual class) owns the majority of influenceThose boards have 19,872 directors that are wholly independent - not family, executives, or insidersThe number of those directors that quit in protest of the fact that the founders do whatever they want: 0… UNTIL YESTERDAYSo here’s a short list of assholes who have way more reason to quit:Robin Washington - on TWO Totalitarian boards (Salesforce, Alphabet)Brad Smith - on TWO Totalitarian boards (Netflix, Amazon)MetaMarc AndreessenAndrew HoustonTracey TravisPeggy AlfordTony XuRobert KimmittNancy KilleferJohn ArnoldOracleAwo AbloBruce ChizenGeorge ConradesJeffrey BergLeon PanettaMichael BoskinNaomi SeligmanRona FairheadWick MoormanWilliam ParrettTeslaJoe GebbiaKathleen Wilson-ThompsonRobyn DenholmFull list available as a data drop!Bonus asshole - do you think he fucking matters? Republican lawmakers issues warnings about ‘far-left’ Facebook board billionaire John ArnoldDataHigh school only graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed as college graduates.Typical earnings for bachelor’s degree holders are $40,500 or 86 percent higher than those whose highest degree is a high school diploma.Median lifetime earnings are $1.2 million higher for bachelor’s degree holders.Even when adjusting for sociodemographic data, graduating college is a big fucking dealAsshole: Sam Altman and the “whatever dude, just BE a billionaire and it’s cool” college dropoutsSam Altman tells high schoolers dropping out of college wasn’t a big dealDataRoll back ESG To Increase Retirement Earnings Act or the RETIRE Act DRThe guy who wrote/sponsored the bill - Rick Allen of Georgia - also happily tried to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage (his argument was a bible passage, and said anyone who votes...
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    48 mins
  • BIZ NUGGETS: Boeing’s strike costs 3 Dave Calhouns, Robby Starbuck < board cowards, and Musk makes men own 100% again
    Sep 17 2024
    Live from Vanguard and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” bumpersticker, it’s an all-new terrific Tuesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! In today’s ESG-shaped bass guitar called September 17, 2024: a very special seminar where we help business news headline writers be better at their jobs, otherwise known as BIZ NUGGETS!Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE. DAMION1Boeing two for Tuesday:In our 'Oh great, you pay me 273 times the median salary and I have to sit with the knuckle draggers!?' headline of the week. Boeing execs barred from flying business class to save money during strikeIn our 'Strike could cost Boeing the equivalent of 3 failed former CEO Dave Calhouns per day' headline of the week. Strike could cost Boeing $100 million-plus in daily revenue, analysts say$33MIn our 'Chefs will put their recipes on a pizza box to help Pizza Hut make better pizza' headline of the week. Pizza Hut will put your résumé on a pizza box to help you get a jobOn the Yum Brands board, only 2 of 12 directors selected a Pizza Hut food as their favorite Yum Brands food. Taco Bell wins with 5, KFC a close second with 4. At least there's a demographic that's worse off than women on this board (4 of 12) and that's Pizza Hut loversIn our 'Zuck is banning Putin from Facebook for being a shithead' headline of the week. Meta is banning Russian state media outlets like RT from its apps everywhere for engaging in political interference campaigns SAME HEADLINE: WHO DID IT BETTER?DR: In our 'Whatever you do, please don't mistake me for somebody who gives a shit!!' headline of the week. Jamie Dimon is still committed to DEI but says he’s not wokeMM: In our 'I’m a full-throated, red-blooded, patriotic, unwoke, capitalist CEO. Also, my assistant told me we have black people that work at JPMorgan now, so that's cool.' headline of the week. Jamie Dimon is still committed to DEI but says he’s not wokeDR: In our 'I re-wrote this headline for clarity: Disinterested and racist/sexist board of directors' Impact on Corporate DEI Policies' headline of the week. Robby Starbuck's Impact on Corporate DEI PoliciesMM: In our 'The side of the bottle says, "Side effects include increased racism, misogyny, anger issues, self-loathing, c-list internet celebrity, and a possible cabinet position in the Republican White House..." Should I take it?' headline of the week. Robby Starbuck's Impact on Corporate DEI PoliciesDR: In our 'Nelson Peltz has already taken credit for this' headline of the week. The Walt Disney Company makes history with record-breaking 60 EmmysMM: In our 'Nelson Peltz was disappointed in the result, saying, "Only 60? Probably because of all the blacks they keep casting."' headline of the week. The Walt Disney Company makes history with record-breaking 60 EmmysDR: In our 'Can we cut-and-paste the formatting of this headline to this one from the NYT: How Telegram Became a Playground for Criminals, Extremists and Terrorists. Or this one from Futurism: OpenAI's Strawberry "Thought Process" Sometimes Shows It Scheming to Trick Users' headline of the week. Boar’s Head will never make liverwurst again after outbreak that killed 9MM: In our 'It's the Germans fault' headline of the week. Boar’s Head will never make liverwurst again after outbreak that killed 9DR: In our 'Is this what an S&P 500 board with only 18% female influence looks like?' headline of the week. Delta is reminding prospective flight attendants that they must wear 'proper' underwear to their interviewsMM: In our 'Given 74.6% of flight attendants are women, this is for you ladies - only Elon Musk can wear a diaper to work like a big fat baby.' headline of the week. Delta is reminding prospective flight attendants that they must wear 'proper' underwear to their interviewsDR: In our 'Zuck pretends to cede control' headline of the week. Instagram gives parents more control over teen accountsMM: In our 'Mark Zuckerberg retains total and complete control of Instagram' headline of the week. Instagram gives parents more control over teen accountsMATT1In our 'Just because there's asbestos in our baby powder doesn't mean you're sick because of OUR asbestos... That could be ANYONE's asbestos... Have you checked Gary's house? I mean, no offense Gary, but your house smells like asbestos all the time. I'm pretty sure there was asbestos in the breakroom coffee machine - or at least it tasted like it. Given these facts, judge, we rest our case.' headline of the week. J&J gets $260 million talc verdict overturned in Oregon, new trial orderedIn our 'We only have 74.6% of directorships, 93.9% of CEO positions, and make 120% more. It's a long road to get to 100% of everything like it used to be, but someone has to climb it. Strap in boys, let's get it done!' headline of the week. Elon Musk's Quest to Make Men Great AgainIn our '...
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    26 mins
  • FRIDAY WRAP: Alan Shaw’s fun times, Southwest has no board left, D&D AI, Deere’s DEI hypocrisy
    Sep 13 2024

    FRIDAY WRAP: Alan Shaw’s fun times, Southwest has no board left, D&D AI, Deere’s DEI hypocrisy

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    48 mins
  • THE GOOD GAME: Southwest’s board shakeup, Norfolk’s CEO gone, one Peltz off Wendy’s, and Newsmax’s IPO
    Sep 10 2024

    THE GOOD GAME: Southwest’s board shakeup, Norfolk’s CEO gone, one Peltz off Wendy’s, and Newsmax’s IPO

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    52 mins