Transcript
Oh yeah. Oh it's been a while live. Yeah, there it is. Baby from a stack. Of d e i hating lead, independent, directors dipped in milk, chocolate. Hmm. It's an all-new Wacky. Wednesday edition of business. Fans joined by analysts Hall. Matt mascar day. Whoa, I'm not gonna lie. You dip a Dei hating lead into pendant director in chocolate. Improves the situation on today's Twizzler shape, proxy voting policy called February 12th. 2025 Biz nuggets nuggets. Yeah. Still do it. I love business nuggets. Our show today is being sponsored by free flow, analytics.com. The only platform measuring board power connections and performance for free. I had a friend, I talked to a friend the other day, friends, that that's the Nugget actually is your friend named Chad GPT. They actually said they asked me like, wait, I I was listening to the podcast and you said that data was free on free flow analytics we have no business Acumen math and I said I said yeah a lot like if you want like deep knowledge Maps historical data, you know, deeper performance data that that's all not free, right? Okay. We got to make money somehow. But yeah, the data is basically free. It's free. We are the perfect lesson. What happened? When you put two like analyst research types with creative arts, backgrounds in charge of a company, we charge for free for things. That's, that's that's I know we're like, nobody's gonna really want this. So make it free. Ready, you ready for some fun? Yeah, I'm kicking us off with five headlines from Dei world. Oh, I got a bunch too and our Hey, Ma. Civil rights hurts, my back and equal rights. Gave me a stomach ache. I quit, tell Dad, headliner of the week. Diversity is no longer a factor for assessing us boards. Proxy. Advisor ISS says, I mean, finally, right finally the game, they gave it a good few years, right? It was a good run. Actually give a reason. I just sort of stopped. My favorite part of that headline is it says assessing us boards like like that something they did anyway. Moving on today. I don't really know what they're doing to be on us. and our white men have scarier lawyers. Headline of the week. White men. White men have scarier lawyers. That's true. Yeah, I heard it. I heard it when he said it. Yeah, Goldman Sachs and IPO, diversity policies. Citing legal developments. You know, this is misleading because Goldman Sachs never been sued by anybody before. Matt, their IPO diversity policy. I remember this show was on when they announced we championed it. We I laughed at it because every single company that they ipo'd fit the diversity policy. It was one person. What was it? It was like they needed at least one woman on the board. So now, it's like, so all bros is A-Okay because they might get through developments legal developments mean, we just can't have the policy I guess. So Goldman Sachs, why don't you wander down the hall with a cup of coffee and then find your legal team. They'll help you out. They'll help you if anyone sue you for this. Do your CEO's own quote, like two days ago, who said, you know, given that companies are staying private. There are likely to be no more IPOs. Anyway, like what do we? What are? We scrapping a policy or give up? Just give up, just give up. Yeah, and our Are they at your feet and unprepared enough? To ignore this study. Headline of the week Microsoft study finds AI makes human cognition at your feed and unprepared. Oh Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't read the study Microsoft. My the company heavily invested in such Ventures as open. AI finds AI makes you. Human cognition at your feed and unprepared those to the two different things. How we invest the amount of money we spend developing AI is very different from the fact that it ruins Humanity. My question is, have they been sitting on the study for a while and they released it now? Because they realize that humanity is just stupid enough to accept it and they won't, they won't be able to operate, you don't, you mean humanity is stupid enough to have not been able to read the headline in the first place because there's no way they're reading at your feed and unprepared. in our, ISS. Borrows mission accomplished Banner from George W, bush headline of the week. Proxy advisory firm issues Dei factories from voting recommendations for us Sports. We already did that headline. What am I doing? Did you doubled it different joke? I'm doing it all so because he is so funny. Do you think they have that mission accomplished Banner at their headquarters? Imagine how proud they are. Today must be a good day. Removes Dei factors from boating recommendations. I like I just love the idea that they actually make real recommendations and or do they were they were they first of all they don't have our data unless they're using it for free actually. I don't really know. So so how exactly were they using data to support their board? Their board voting. Policies. Matt, how often do you see? Someone announced that they're removing a factor or data set from decision-making, despite the massive contract that you sign with us, annually. We're going to be doing a little bit less work this year. Don't worry. We've made it a little easier on ourselves next year. There's only a 5% increase in costs. However, The Dilemma is. Do we actually give a shit or were we merely pretending to give a shit headline of the week? There is a Dei dilemma taking place across Corporate America. Yeah, that is a limit though, right? We're kind of figuring out who was faking it. Right. Yeah, I'm gonna go with most for pretending to give, oh no, that right a couple more headlines from the meritocracy before I hand off. In our the meritocracy is plastic. Headline of the week. In a move to, in a move to back to plastic, Trump bands, paper straws, Trump, trump and musk, Trump and musk. They're banning paper short, they hate paper straws. They hate, you know who didn't sip it, world we live in. Yeah, but let's be honest. Paper straws did suck? I don't, they were great, no pun intended. I I could care less. I who are we babies that we need to be buying drinks. That's sucking it through a straw, just drinking drink it like an adult TripIt use gravity. Okay. The real, the real problem here is that like like this is what we're spending our time on. Like it's stopped it. And our, the meritocracy is super duper confusing. Says, a College Dropout, dude, headline of the week. Ready for this one. Mark Zuckerberg warned employees to prepare for an intense year. He just laid off 3,600 workers including some who had glowing reviews. Oh so how does that work? Matt? You you're you're all in on the meritocracy but you're laying off workers that you said were good. How does what are we doing? How does are they all black? I don't know. Okay, enough said, yeah. All right. Yeah, I don't actually I'm gonna start us off and start us off with something you've already talked about twice but I just I'm hoping it's ICS because really honestly, f, i s s. It is the greatest announcement they've ever had in our ISS added. We also feel that voting recommendations on the basis of performance skills, knowledge fit usefulness, age, height, ability to tie shoes or familiarity with modern technology are unnecessary and potentially discriminatory against 85 year old Uncle Gary who will no longer be part of our future assessments headline of the week. ISS drops race gender from us proxy voting. Yes, it's funny. You mention that because the The only one that you actually, could you probably could sue on is age discrimination, right. But none of them have dropped their policy to like they all kind of frown upon having too many old directors. Don't they or In fact, a lot of companies, Matt, don't they have, they have direct or retirement policies pegged to an age? That doesn't that sound? Yeah, that seems ages that's ages. That's fine. That's fine. All so they don't do voting recommendations on the basis of performance skills. Well, they don't have any way measuring that if zero illness. Zero way of measuring that they don't do it unless they use our data here at free flow. There dropping two factors racing gender from us proxy voting assessments of directors. What is that leave them with with the other factors to assess directors? They don't have other actors. Except for 10 or an age, actually you're wrong because I think they've adopted a system like the NFL. I think they're gonna do like standing high jump in like wingspan. Oh so it's so we need like a combined like for DirecTV which for which yeah what else? Come on in. Our ISS added future assessments will no longer refer to Predators as that is disrespectful to the Predators from the movie series. Predator. Headline of the week Macy's calls, Diddy and equal opportunity, sexual predator in a bid to be dropped from a sexual assault lawsuit. I don't really know what you're talking about. That headline is gobbledygook to me. What is that Macy's? Apparently was named in the lawsuit against Diddy because there was an attack in a Macy's. Oh, and made the same okay? That because the attack was a male on male attack. It was an equal opportunity sexual predators now their policy real? Yeah I'm not kidding. That's all it's the most bizarre thing. Wow. Good look nice is. I do like the idea that ISS will no longer refer to Predators as Predator because of the movie Predators though that to me is that whatever I says, I'm all here for it. What else you go? Well, I got something else. I just said, good in our ISS added, our policy has also changed to ignore legal cases in favor of diversity. As material as we feel someone might disagree with a law that says, diversity is material and that would be awkward for our clients headline of the week. Companies like Costco, have a strong legal case for keeping Dei. Oh, so Goldman Sachs, didn't have to bail out immediately that it they actually they could have kicked the can around the room for a little while. Apparently ISS could have kept racing gender as part of their us proxy voting because there's a legal basis for yeah, instead of studying the issue, let's just the bail, right ISS. um, more on ISS here because after all fish fists Fiesta, And our ISS added, they will also be ignoring wildfires sea level rise drought famine floods, mudslides tornadoes hurricanes, communicable diseases, and the puppy dog eyes of children dying of famine in future reports headline of the week. SEC moves to kill climate disclosure rule. Yeah. Doesn't that mean ISS has to remove any climate from its us proxy vote. I would think so, not or not a real risk because they could be sued for it. So it's not an actual risk. What is actually that you do is actually what do you actually? So you don't, you don't do climate. You don't do, the people who are on the boards, you don't do risks associated with the company. What is your job? I'm looking what their website right now. What says they do is that they overcharge their clients for something that free flow analytics could actually provide for a much lower costs. I think that's so, finally in our ISS headlines. Yeah. You know, our ISS added. Yes. We bought one headline of the week. Shopify takes down yays website. Selling schwa sticker shirts after Super Bowl. I was hoping you wouldn't talk about this. Can we just move forward? You know, I did, see a headline that I didn't open it because it just makes me ill that Shopify did not take the website down because of the swastikas it was because they were worried about like, fraud or counterfeit or like that. I don't know what's going on. They said a contributing their policies and there was a community piece of that I don't think all right. Yeah keep finally I'll pass it back to you. Yeah. In our Our new advisor to the board Nelson Peltz. Ooh, has advised, we've been friends. Yeah, has advised. We Rebrand our inclusion policy, as black people should be cast as drug dealers but we chose reapplying yesterday's comedic racism headline of the week. Disney drops, controversial reimagined tomorrow program as company pairs back Dei Initiative for you, Disney. like, Was imagining part woke, like what, what tomorrow's pretty well? Because after all Matt Tomorrow Never Comes. It's always a day away, it never, it is always concept, right? Annie said that poet, came up with that, it's bullshit. All right, I got a few more headlines here for you. These are some random thoughts in our Headline, prefers now's over names because names are TMI headline of the week. Three M CEO named new chairman of the board. I like, oh I like making fun of these headlines. Because what are you doing? What are we learning here? Well, these Lego pieces are these real people, Matt. Is there a real man or woman who actually runs 3M? I don't know. I have no idea. I don't know. I think we should just insert random nouns where it's like, 3M dinosaur named new chairman of the board. Because what's the difference? Well, maybe I maybe this is what iss should do next. Maybe they should drop using the actual names of CEOs. It could get sued, right? I mean, I mean, they might like true. I might be just too much information about the David Solomon at Goldman Sachs, right? You know. But like anything, isn't it? Like you know, like a Major League Baseball, you have to like license their name and, you know, their their stats or something. And our greedy Airline CEOs, want in on budding, oligarchy headline of the week. Major airlines urge Trump Administration to abandoned passenger compensation review. So this is the the previous administration. Remember, they passed these incredible laws that if you're playing is canceled or delayed, the airlines actually have to pay you your money back for your tickets. Yeah, I but I actually like your joke better because I didn't think about this but you're absolutely right. That like, isn't there a lot of people out there being like I want to be an Old Guard? What about us? What about us? We're shuffling around and trying to figure out how do I position myself for a future oligarchy? up in our The other half is being donated to ai's World Domination, ensuring the need for the other half of the wealth to be donated in the. Wow, there's a joke when I get to headline of the week open AIC CEO, Sam Altman and husband pledged to donate half their wealth, Matt, half their well, you see how it works. They need half to ruin the world and then they're going to donate the other half because the world's being ruined, see how it works. See how clever that is, I just like, like billionaire multiple times, over Sam Altman, right? At this only get more. It's only going to and it's going up. They are still. It's not sufficient to have Half of a billion dollars. They like or like they can't have like a 100 million dollars. No, half a billion is their cutoff point or how half of the wealth is it they do need that well to make their wealth don't you get it? You know understand how it works? There you I don't get it I don't have it. But how about the cruel irony of the fact that they they already realized before the game is over that they're going to need to give half of a back because they're going to be screwing over so many people they know they know what they're doing. Look in a screw people over. Good plan, good. Planing you one thing if they were 98 years old and our Trump moves to Halt 5 billion dollar EV charging program because nobody is gonna buy a car. They are going to buy helicopters and private jets headline of the week. Oh, this is a headline in a headline joke. This is, this is a really, this is really good for here. Trump blasts work from home policies saying nobody is gonna work from home. They are gonna be going out playing tennis and playing golf. I mean, this alone, this quote alone, he should have lost the election. He thinks that people in their spare time at are playing tennis. And golf know they thinks that people don't do work from home. But where is just where are these golf courses? Who does he think of America whose you think Americans are exactly? Honestly isn't he just talking to Brian Nichols, a new CEO of Starbucks who's commuting to you know Seattle from. I might have his own tennis court. Yeah, he might be right. So he's talking about and our Well, we will all be dead soon and first class tickets don't grow on trees. So leave me alone headline of the week. Oh, BP set to scale back, green Investments as profits drop sharply. I don't like that headline or that headline. I'll move on this one's a little confusing, but I'm gonna try to get it out anyway. And now our Read Hoffman. Doesn't want his son's pivot to vegetarianism to mean, fewer cheeseburgers headline of the week. Okay, stay with me here. Okay, there I'm not with you. Okay, okay, his sons becoming a vegetarian but he doesn't want that to me. He's gonna eat less cheeseburgers. Here's the headline read Hoffman doesn't want Big Tex pivot. From fact checking to mean more misinformation. Oh I see what you did there. I see what you do. What that mean, living what kind of a la la land does. He think he's living it look? Just because we're pivoting away from you actually figuring out. What facts are doesn't mean that there needs to be less cute billionaire. And finally, in my horrible collection of Biz nuggets in our, you had me at unequal shareholder rights headline of the week. How unequal shareholder rights. Influence proxy voting outcomes in corporate governance. I mean, oh yeah. Well you're in. Yeah, I mean, isn't it? I mean every headline on equal share their rights wouldn't that be? I mean what kind of a study do we need behind this? I don't really understand that it is the dumbest study. Yes. Why don't Matt, you don't have to answer this returnable question. Why the hell do we have unequal shareholder rights? How the hell did we get there in the first place? I mean, that's what we have and I blame us for that. Yeah, please do that. That's not one of the factors. They consider that's woke. All right, let's finish this out, you know? when you say something is as strong as ever, And ever is really never. Do you mean as strong as never headline of the week? I like this JP Morgan CEO says, succession planning for CEO. Jamie dimon is strong as ever. Write this to CFO, says, CFO saying, strong as strongly. What is that? Yeah. What is it exactly. Does that mean that Jamie diamonds lifting weights? Is that what that means? What does it mean? What is how is a succession plan? As strong as ever, like, how like our plan to replace somebody is super strong. I think they're really their plan is to make sure that he has a healthy diet because they want him to live forever. I think that's the yeah. Nobody's like I thought they had five succession options and like it keeps whittling Down To None because more staying, here's their succession planing policy at JP Morgan more oatmeal, less Bagels. I love that I subscribed to the coastline in our when we said hiring, we meant stealing and 5,000. We meant your shit headline of the week. Elon musk's ex AI plans. Massive hiring spree of thousands to train, grok employees. Oh yeah. I don't buy that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. They just mean stealing spree, yeah, to steal your shit. Yeah. Isn't it funny how AI just goes around stealing all of our shit and ideas and data? But they need a lot of energy to do that. They need energy companies to give us a ton more energy to do that. Yeah, they need no regulations in order to steal it. Well, yeah, we don't want to have yeah, to regulate would be you awkward. You're right. I have my own headline inside a headline. There we go. Ready in our Kimball musk sells Tesla stock worth 28 million as elon's brother Cashes in on, rally since Trump's Victory, headline of the week, like anything. You just said, go ahead of vandalism and protests hit Tesla good. That's fine, that's good. I don't usually like things like vandalism but yeah, wouldn't you loved his brother is making 28 million dollars for sitting around? That's that's it does feel. It's the story just like discarding. There is a very distinct and abrupt turn away from Tesla vehicles. Like there's not anybody, anybody who's buying them now is like a Maga crowd and that's it for a very own. I can report that our very own Jesse the money Whispers, finally, get rid of her Tesla. I think she said this month or next month all, but I will say it's only because the lease is up Jesse, so you don't get a victory for that. I don't know. That's a victory. I am I guess. In our high school, white male, accuses Middle School, white male of insecurity, headline of the week. Sam Altman says former friend. Elon Musk isn't a happy guy? Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. Hey, he's not wrong. But yeah, I yeah. These are Middle School, boys. Talking to each other. I don't know what to say. What is happening? Yeah, they're all insecure. Like this is absurd. Yeah. In our, In fairness, Kimball musk can only complete 29% headline of the week, open ai's, deep research, can complete 26% of Humanity's last exam a benchmark for the frontier of human knowledge. What is Humanity's last exam? I don't even know what that is. I'm not sure what that is either. I am kind of curious to take it. Does this mean that the Deep research is 26% there to like, take over Humanity? Like, it's like, almost like getting there. Like, it's like I think it's their biggest. 100, we're screwed. Is that what's happening? Like look Humanity's last exam. I don't like the sound of that. I mean, do we want? He managed his last anything to happen right now. I don't think I like this. Well, I just all I just this is the question. I keep asking myself. Why? Why why why who asked for it? Who asked for AI? Why would we doin', what's happening? I did look up the like a question from Humanity's last exam and here's an ecology question. I thought you go ahead. Hummingbirds within apple, dip forms, uniquely have a bilaterally paired oval bone. Yeah, assessor, moyd embedded in the colder lateral portion. True expanded cruciate this of insertion of M, depressor, code, a true. How many paired tendons are supported by this? Sesamoid bone answer with a number. I false false. How is that on Humanity's last examined. Well, how is that a question? I think I'm right, I think when when AI gets this exam, alright, we're all done. We're done for because they're gonna figure out how to completely overwhelm us with nonsense. I mean, like the exam includes things like Biblical Hebrew and in like like a base question in Greek mythology, who is Jason's maternal great-grandfather like me? I already forgot who won the Super Bowl a few days ago. So don't ask me, but let me ask you. have you ever and, I mean, ever been in a situation where knowing Jason in the Argonauts maternal great-grandfather, That was key to to your survival. I think his name was Reid, Hoffman. Come my idea and it was something like upbeat or happy. Yeah yeah no this is this is pure. Okay, good like Joy. Okay, good in our Finally, a white male CEO gets a chance without the impression of rules laws and social norms headline of the week. Finally. Criminal probe into WWE boss. Vince McMahon dropped. Oh, finally. Finally a white male boss. So the good that we can we bring back Dei. Now that the white men have won, can we bring up back because we kind of needed more than ever? Don't we I think we need to ask Vince McMahon who Jason's paternal great-grandfather was in order for them to drop that. Let me get that. Let me ask you this what would I assess care that directors? Had criminal probes against them but with that be a part of their system. No. No, because that's, that's that sounds like like a due diligence like effort. I don't know. Does that I think that falls under race? Yeah and what is yeah, maybe it's gender. That's all we got. I like that. I enjoyed that. Thank you. That hazelnut Rallis. I'm an animal. So I'm scared. We are free float for more. Come down Friday. We're gonna do a double header on Friday. Or are we doing Thursday Friday? I don't even do Thursday and Friday. We'll see, we'll see how we feel. Um, I actually, I'm gonna be featured on our other podcast, run by Michael, finally, Lipton to shareholder Primacy podcast if you're not listening to that, they're actually smart people. And is like a Security's law. Professor, like, yes, teaching you about the intricate details of Securities Law. Not the Arcane stuff, but the stuff like I read a headline today. She's like got the law behind it. Oh no, there's no Kimball musk jokes in her repertoire and last episode actually the drop today. Mike. Levin goes like and discusses rational, apathy for like 15 minutes. A why investors? Don't vote their shares. Like the theory behind it? Like so good. Go check that out. Until then good. Bye.