Transcript
Live. From the cubicle in the basement of the one. Vanguard analysts, who suggested voting know that time on something. Oh, it's an all new terrific Tuesday edition of business pants. Terrific, Today, that is way too cheery for you. It is way too cheery for me. And today's all new Oh wait, I'm joined by our daily data Queen and also hazelnut Rallis is making a surprise appearance. She's not, he's not even supposed to be here. Analyst told him his Guardian today is fiduciary duty called August 6th. 2024 the mildly cynical good game. Oh the guest appearance. That's that dog is like, this is a cynical good game. Our show today is being sponsored by free float analytics. The only platform measuring board power connections and performance for free. Go to free flow analytics.com, use your email address. You can sign in as like Jack at fakie. Dot org and make your name. I don't care about governance and still see. 90,000 active directors and how they perform on multiple Dimensions. How companies perform? It's fantastic. It's fabulous. There are fabulous sponsor. I'm really glad that that's their sponsoring us for. Wow, you're giving them a lot of airtime right now. Well, you didn't pay for all of this. I know that someone's gotta give it to him. So today, we're gonna play a good game. Is everybody ready to play a good game? Oh, I don't know who picked Lee's headlines, I don't know, scared there. I've ever played the good game. You've never you, can you always run this thing? I separated it. After the good game, we're gonna have a short list. The list is unfettered board intelligence Unfettered, boarded television, Damien may miss the list depending on when he has to catch his bus to France. But I separated the good game into three parts, okay? The good game is I read a headline usually Damian does and re and Damien will vote on whether or not it's good on a scale of 0 to 10. And then we decided this is the stupidest game thought of ever come up with. I don't know your mom thought of it actually. I broke it up into three categories. Could be good headlines probably good headlines and definitely your leading the audience already. That's correct. I'm I'm gonna lead and so let's play the good game. Let's do I have good game music now I just play this. That makes us feel good. It's good music. All right, here's your first headline. Scientists use nanoparticles to remote control brains of mice. All right. I'll just say I chose this because I thought this was better than AI. Wow. So is it good. Is that a good headline? Does that day in the hands of scientists? Or is it going to eventually go to a publicly held company control by a man who has dual claw shares? Great question, unclear. I'm okay at the season the public sector and Academia scientists but kind of a purpose. What could this be good for? I guess we could hijack cockroaches and have them do stuff. Oh, our own cockroach Army. Yeah. But there wasn't that. The plot of Ant-Man. I have no idea. I've never seen that. Or Reddit. Is it a comic book? It is it was a comic book that they turned into 43 movies. Oh, my question is, why Paul Rudd? Why do we need to good to remote control? The brains of other things? Entities, why don't we need that? Why not? I'm gonna give this this sounds scary, man. I'm gonna give this a three I don't like oh wow there's a sex just because go crazy that they did. Okay, so she could be good, right headline. Number two, Elon Musk. Now I know you want to give it a 0 immediately. It's all automatically. Yeah, Elon Musk is opening a Montessori School. Okay. This is this fall. Is it this? The wolf is kind of school. You could possibly get, because they let they let individuals kind of fall their own paths, right? They left, they left. The students kind of guide their own educational paths, know by their skill sets, but it's all about including and like, it's all about, like, you know, diverse thinking and like, sounds great. Although I will say that was probably a product of a Montessori curriculum. He was in South Africa so I don't think so. Are you kidding? It's this is global. Here's the problem. I would think so and he was rich, he grew up rich. So I bet you, he was mono scores Monastery, schools do Bend to their, to their context and to their owners. My son briefly went to Montessori School in Illinois where he was chastised because his parents were not married by the Montessori. Wow, he had to come home in tears and explained to us what. So I don't think, I don't think there's a there's not an international curriculum that Elon Musk is not gonna ruin and and can I just say Matt that this briefly is touching into one of my, here's one of my ongoing obsessions and fears and I think I'm right here, so it's not a conspiracy theory. I actually think that we're in the very early age of CEOs, realizing that they can have, unfettered power, unfettered wealth. And I've said, I've talked with this about with you, Matt, that they're eventually, they're going to be city states by CEOs. I think, CEOs are not only gonna eventually have their own like schools. You know, spaceships to Mars, they're gonna have their own armies. They're gonna have their own military, I think they're gonna, I think they're gonna have their own citizens that are, I think they're gonna have citizens that, like, that pledge to live in their world. I think this is just the start, just everyone's middle, name will be musk so they know I honestly thinking are he must data Queen? We can't control. Wow, Ari a Zero for me to zero. What doubles are? I could be good. I thought Elon Musk opening. The wokest school possible in this country. He'll ruin. It might have been might have been good. He ruined the woke his car. Oh, that this is true. I did not take into consideration how he destroyed the focus driving you could have. All right. Well these are probably good. All right, so let's let's recover. Now let's we got the worst out of the way. Here's the headline, Americans are growing more worried about extreme heat. Okay. This is easy for me. I'm gonna vote, Damien. Wait, you're okay. You're already ready. How is probably good. Go ahead. Are you This is a three, a three, what? But I don't care that they're growing more worried, they're not doing shit about it, but no, that's growing worried is the beginning. They actually are recognizing something that they've never recognized before like hot out here. Okay. Stuff like they've been saying stuff like, you know, like this is just, you know, the cycles of the earth and it's not so hot, and you snowflakes need to stop complaining. But now Americans are actually worried about climate change and out and heat. Arizona smell thing. So not. So I thought this was probably good there. Actually growing awareness. Yeah, I think you're a little off for. I'm a little bit closer to what Matt's saying here. I, I think that you do need to worry about stuff, right? Like over a long period of time to start to care and the start to make changes. So maybe this is a sign of something positive. I don't know six, I give a six. Oh six, that's not bad. Although I'm the biggest hypocrite. Over. I I am tonight I'm flying on a stupid Jet Plane into a heatwave. Probably gonna end up being a Boeing into it. No, it's an Air Bud. Oh, yeah. Probably like, I can't check that. You know, he do. My, my wife got a mid-air, my wife got up on a plane that she checked, and it was an Airbus, and then when she actually boarded it, it was a bowing and she pissed. So, tell me this. Yeah, flying into a heat wave. It's gonna be 98 Degrees. Like, for the next couple weeks. I like I am the biggest hypocrite in a comes to this. So I only had some sort of extreme heat. All right. We'll try this one. Okay, now we're getting, we're gonna get increasingly better here. North Carolina, Ag office, eyes. Elon musk's Pro, Trump Pac after Voda. Voter data complaint. So they are in their opening investigations into Trump's Super PAC. A trump super Pac that was started by musk because they're collecting voter data. And then, and saying they're going to register them to vote and then not registering them to vote. So they're basically just harvesting in the data, but someone noticed there's no background States. Yeah, in Battleground station noticed. And now the Battleground states with like Republican Attorneys, General are actually investigating Well, this attorney general actually is a Democrat. This one is but it's also happening in Georgia and it I think they they had another one maybe in. I want to say Minnesota. What's most Insidious? It's good about this story is that they are targeting battle Garden State specifically so that if you respond to this ad, In a non Battleground, say it actually will take you to the voter registration page. But if you respond in a bad one, say it takes you somewhere else. That's really. That's evil. I mean that's bad. But, but it's, it would be the kind of bad that, like would. No one would notice, but they know this and they're investigating. It's like there's basically saying you can't break all the rules. You, some of the rules Mater. They can't even get the that guy for inciting, an Insurrection. So I, I feel, I mean, yes, good. Go after him, but Trump, this is musk. I know, but I'm just saying, like, what this can't be a high score, clear rule. This is a rule, you can't do anything. They're literally saying, well, that's a rule. That's not like that's a black letter law. That's not like some waffle zone, right? Elon Musk from from coming up, with some other way, to break a rule. I just like I'm happy, but it's not a huge score. I'm gonna give this a seven. Seven, geez, how long I am by the way? How long is it until the elections over next? They're gonna go away, what's your vote, Damien? What's your vote? Six, six, six Damien's like it's almost playing me actually gonna do something here. All right. Well, now, this one's purely pandering to Ari because I didn't know Damien would even be here. So, this is the re question new pair of pants has a built-in powered exoskeleton. This is really cool, so they did it. So they're actually using it with people who are like, who can't walk but they're all so saying like you could use it to like it. It's like your weightless, right? Like it's like you can increase how much you can lift. They actually cite hiking. I was thinking, if you can't go get those Epic. Now that's at least it's easier to walk. Like, it's easier on your knees, you're on your knees. Like, give me one thing about this. That isn't good is really the question. So the price, how much is it cost? It's a little expensive. Is it covered by Harvard Pilgrim, but ozone, Peck is expensive but it's like it's 5,000 dollars for the pants. Oh, most of my Pants cost around. Never watched these pants. Yeah, I don't know that they're washable. But ozempic is like, 5,000 a pill. So that's true. Like, no, it's not that much, but it is a lot. It is like, and it's an injection and it's a lot. So um, so so this is better than that. Oh yeah. I'm gonna go with a seven here. That's I can't even. Get with exoskeleton pants with the engineer in the room. I can't even get a 10 again. Like this is a 10 for the science. But I I just not, I don't understand. You've ever heard of, I just get confused by Humanity in general. I mean I I live in a city where there are so many homeless people and yet we're building exoskeleton pants. I I just get confused by our priorities so I I applaud the science. I don't applaud, you know, not taking care of the homeless. I'll give it a six, another six six. Oh my God, this is so we're doing, I don't I don't a bad game, this is what happened when when you when like the science is handed over to a bunch of like Stanford, Dropout corporations. I just don't really understand exoskeleton pants at least your cool. This doesn't destroy the society which is what they've been doing. Yes, it's way better trying to help them walk. I gave it a six-month, it's above a fire. A mouse is gone up on the East and they're gonna be remote control. Remote control mouse was exoskeleton pants. That's worried about the heat. It's gonna go. Yeah, part of a CEO's Army fights. All right. Well, this category. I called definitely good. All right, here we go. These are definitely good. Okay. Anti-esg proposal surge in 2024 but earned less support. So they're jamming the pipelines with anti-esg proposals, but no one is voting for them. Proxy season is over, they basically earn less support than they have in the past. It just sucks. That's good. This seems like a yeah, like I I'm not I'm not against them putting up these proposals, they have every right to put these proposals up there so. Well, is it less support compared to other proposals or overall, everything just has less important? Yeah, or do they mean compared to last year? Like what is all those things are true. They had less support this year than last year, they have less support than ESG proposals, do. And so relative to themselves relative to other proposals, they're just no, no one wants them. This is a solid 10. I'm gonna subtract one because I hate the people who were putting up the proposal. So that's a nine. You can't subtract one. I'm over you. That's just a 10 for the hell. You can override give this an eight. Yeah, eight. Yeah. Everything has lost support. Did you Jimmy? I don't care. I don't want my proxy Smith. Doesn't care that it's anti ESG or just majority voting. I think that had more support this year and second of all, Ari clearly is not had a coffee today because like art gives you all tens like this is almost actually good. All right, we'll try this. Hi Cheri. Biden Administration will ban federal government using plastic Cutlery to come back. Climate change. Oh my God. Are you getting into the weeds here? This is horrible, horrible, this is so terrible plastic Cutlery, why not? Biggest plastic polluters are oil companies? What are you doing about that Biden? I don't care about this. You gotta start somewhere. You gotta start. This is paper straws all over again. You know how much those paper straws suck? I like oh I like people hate them. I you gotta you chug your drink. I literally think or else it gets a limp and you can't stop you at to go drinks. Yeah, it's a five. Wow. Five zero because it made me angry. I give it a solid eight because he's doing something oh like all right. Find a way to shit on this one. You too. Next. All right, you ready for this? Yeah, this is two headlines for the price of one. Headline. Number one. Millionaire sportswear, businessman files. Flies woke free zone flag over headquarters. Say that again. He what millionaire? Sportswear businessman. Flies. Woke free zone flag over headquarters, will put a free flag. Says this will freezing on White's only like what does that mean? And then woke free zone flag at company. Headquarters forced to be pulled down after failing to get planning permission. This is in the UK, they didn't get permission to fly the fly and they had to immediately take this is within 24 hours, right? The flag was down, it's got its not the private property, it's like city property. Know, they have to get a plan permission to put a flagpole know, UK, bureaucracy your focus on the comedy. This is a 10 for humor. I mean, absolutely. That's right, this is ridiculous. And by the way, I love the description. Millionaire sportswear businessman. I mean golf like what is that? I don't know what I what I mean they weren't specific but I wish they would have named the sportswear businessman, Will trump and his friends work for you don't know because I mean what a joke to even have that flag in the first place and then the joke was on them as soon as they put it up, the city was like I'm sorry. You didn't ask for permission to put up that flag. You can't put it up but maybe he just started like the modern day Confederate flag. Maybe he's gonna be a maybe soon. He'll be a billionaire flag, making businessman. That would be a better business. So clever. All right, here is your next headline. Women will soon have more money than men for the first time in history and they're following the Mackenzie Scott and Melinda Gates. Playbook is this? Come on? Is this? True mean? Is it true? It's the headline because I didn't do the study because of like say divorce because of a wealth hand over from generation to generation. Stop. I because women are earning more advanced degrees at higher rates. It's true. There's no more. Is it? That's not what the story is referring to, though. They're not, they're not out earning men yet. It's gonna be, aren't you away from that? I don't know what they're alluding to by playboi. This is a Generation. Well, Pandora, Their homeowners that are higher rate, single, women are know, you're dreaming. Oh, that's true. During the pandemic. There were more men who didn't find jobs, who lost their jobs and women that women got kept at a higher rate. Women have more education than men do in the country. That's been a steady change over the last decade or two and now, they're earning more, they're saving more because they tend not to spend it on things like exoskeleton and pants. And they, and as part of like generational wealth, transfers where transfer, but what it is all those things combined and the likelihood that they used, that money, the way, McKenzie Scott, Melinda Gates, use it, which is to say, giving it away, give it away for productive purposes rather than the industry. Can they, please take over the VC industry, please. That's not part of the headline. I was just hoping, I'm hoping that's one way that they'll use their capital. I'm gonna give us a 10 because there's nothing bad about us. That's correct. There's nothing bad about this is the good game that's a good. Yeah there's yeah. Sure. That's all also a 10. Yeah, I mean what can I just? Wow, but it's not for the reasons. Your generational wealth, did not hear that. It's not the reason to Ari stating has nothing to do with Advanced degrees. I'm sorry. Nothing to do with it. All right, your last headline for the good game which wasn't that good? Apparently, Damian needs to do the good game because I can't wait a lot of tents here at the end. Yeah well this one's gonna be a 10 too Google loses its massive antitrust case against the doj. Why not care about this? I care. I love it. Yeah why don't you love it? Tell me why someone Because it's Google. I don't know more than I need more information. Yeah you use Duck. Duck. Go. Don't you know? I don't go. I don't use DuckDuckGo. Here's the reason why it's good undertaken by the mall, really? Seriously? I want to know why. You think it's good. They basically said that Google is a monopolist in search. Yeah, that's what they said, which is, I don't really understand that but there are a lot of options. But yeah, go ahead. It means that they have such a large market share that they control the market for search. Like, even you can't compete on Sir, because the Chrome browser is so popular. Is that part of it? Because they embed it into Chrome, they embed it into Android. They've paid to have it. Be the first option for searching when you search on every, you know, other platform. Like you go to Windows and like you go to search and it's not being is now like, even it's difficult to get Bing right. Like, because they paid for everything and they own 85 or 90% of the ship, the market share of it. Advertisers basically advertise only on Google. They only so much of the share, that advertisers won't go anywhere else, which kills all the competition elsewhere, I I said, that's not good. I appreciate what you're saying. This is like the Apple problem with me. I mean, the one of the reasons why Google. I think, is so popular because their, their products are great. I mean, they're so great, the integration with their Google Docs and Google Sheets is great. Also with Gmail, And this for for years their search has been the best so that's why I get a little like, okay. I mean, I see what you mean, but what I want them to attack is the stuff that we attack on this show is like, why are they letting publicly traded companies being controlled by a person. One person who manipulates the share voting process, so they don't even own, the majority of shares. That's what I wish they would go after but I I mean I appreciate this. I suppose it doesn't well think of my life. Yeah. Think two things, first of all. Right. Now when you do a Google search, the first thing that pops up is not a pagerank, is not like this is the most popular thing for that. You know, someone's paid advertising, that's a problem, but I agree, even even more it is, Google's AI. Stealing some data, some content from another website and putting it at the top schools. Google's way. Number two, but there are other options. There are other options for search please. There are there are not. If you're an Advertiser or another business that's what the Monopoly thing is like here. Like their number two, The knock-on effect of this is Google owns, you know, 90% of search share. Maybe even greater right. Zuckerberg individually another dual-class College. Dropout owns 85% of the Social Media, Markt that, that concerns me a lot more. Yeah. You end up in a place where you're setting a precedent that says, when you own such a vast share of this, if we can find some harmed party, it's possible that we can use this as a knock on effect later on like four companies that all everything. If Lina Khan stays in business. Here's what I will say. I love Leena Khan, this is a solid eight. It turns into a nine if she goes out for Zack next, because social media is actually concerns me. I, I mean, I hear what you're saying. Matt. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, that's great. But so, social media is the concern for me. All right. I think it was me. Oh, there's a winner in the game. If you just read the whole point of this game but here is the good game. The results of the good game. The first good game that I've run in like a year. Damien came in with a solid. 6.7. Wow. Yes, very much and ask Ari came in with a very unreal like 6.6 why? Well, I mean I guess I had a couple of really annoying. Let's put in context some of this right? Like Aries, Child Care fell through her son, ate his own poop. Like shots involved at some point, not in the distance. So there's a lot of things that, you know, maybe painting the results there. All right. Let's move on to let's end the show with lists of the week, my favorite phrase, let's end the show. All right, this week's list is unfettered board, intelligence unfed. I like that. I'm gonna start with intelligence so in the free flow analytics data which we have access to. I, how do we get access? Just, because they sponsor this show. Yeah, I have. I have a login. You have a login, you're flying another public. Log in is free, but I know they also sell the institutions and we have like all of the data. So, In all of the data that they gave us. I'm going to start with intelligence. They gave us directors the percentage of directors on every board that have an advanced degree and they gave us knowledge Maps. What those directors know, they're basic skills, right? So I looked at boards with only 100% of directors that had Advanced degrees. Everyone on the board has an advanced how many how many boards are there like that? There is a lot more than you think. And I only looked at us companies for this. If I don't Global the numbers really large but because you're including mba's in all and law degrees too and NBA boys to to compensate for the fact that mba's are on there. I looked at boards where the largest core knowledge, the biggest skill on the board was not econ or Finance, okay? So like this it wasn't run by NBA's. It's it's other things that are running the board. And then there's unfettered, unfettered means these board members are 0% connected through other boards or direct affiliations. They the CEO has limited influence and the board isn't full generally of X or current CEOs from other companies, right? Like they're just they're, they're mostly research or academic or something like that. To the extent, I could find them. I came up with a list of six companies unfettered board intelligence, it's going to be companies, we've heard of like an Intel no no no, no, because all of those are run by akan people. They're all NBA's, they all went to work generally. You see a lot of that skill set. That's why I love this. The skill set date. It's just you, I've learned so much. Uh, just just spending time with the data set just flipping through. Yeah. Just I love fascinating. I love comparing peers like within the same industry. It's just, it's fascinating honestly. Number six, Health Catalyst. Now you're going to notice a trend here. Most of these are Healthcare companies or like it's mostly are Healthcare companies, right? Or pharmaceutical companies, there are seven directors on this board. The number one skill is medicine, number two was econ, but number one was medicine, 43% women. There was a big Power Gap, they negative 70% power guy, which means 43% women, but they only have like 26% of the influence on the board. The Insider influence was high here at 52%, but they're smart insiders, that was the good thing. 99% of the board were starters, like so the free float analytics data tells you, whether they're all stars or Hall of Famers, or starters or Rotation players basically. What kind of how they perform overall health catalysts? So what do you thinks on the list? You're saying that Health catalyst is basically a bunch of smart people who aren't beholden to other special interests. They can make their own independent decisions. That's what I'm still love it. Not one of these are totalitarian companies. No, no dual class share, No founder boards. Nothing nothing like that. All right? No, we gotta take note. These companies. I know these are companies right somewhere? Right? If you like a board, well, you just buy the free float, analytics date, are they sponsor the show Avant tour number five, ten directors medicine and biology? Where one coming? Yeah, 20% inside is on the board. 30% women, with no power Gap. Oh, I thought you're gonna say no power. I'm like no no, no yeah, I really thought. That's what they're not, really top performers. They're rotation players, 94% of the Border rotation players. Meaning, this is one of those companies that is probably early stage, not making a lot of money. TSR based on future guesses of whether or not they actually be any good. So number four on the list. This one's not a Healthcare company. Will Dan group will Dan group? I don't know. They're in industrial, he won't. He will Dan. Well not. Wow. I'm gonna give that up a six. Uh, seven directors on the board. The number one skill was law. Why what? Number two skill was engineering and Technology followed by computers. These are lawyers with tech skills. I don't, what are they sure? Are they planting chips into mice's? Like kneecaps like the word about lawsuits. I don't know. It's terrifying. It's a skeletons, but here's the, here's the bad part 29% women on the board but 14% power gaps. So about a third of the board is well then a quarter of the board is women and they have like 15% of the board influence and classic engineering. There's only 14% Insiders on this board, so I don't know like the men are just hoarding on this board. But what is the just what is the average power Gap? Do we know for for the average power Gap is about 7% so this is the average right? But still like this is sort of unfortunately it's in line with how all, you know, all these Boards. The rough reality? Yeah. Go until we get to some of the later companies. The number three company. A not a Healthcare Company. Oshkosh corporation like this thing. No, it is not OshKosh B'gosh. I believe they're below, I have the same. Sorry, no, I was like, I should be also support that. It's not like overalls. It's not overalls, um, 10 directors. The number one skill on this board is building and construction. Number two is econ. Number three was mechanical skills. Number four was lost. So I still think this is a clothing company. They're Masters in, like, construction science or something. There's so many overalls by Oshkosh that might be true. Maybe it's wrong. Maybe I didn't look up. These companies know you're right. That's right, that's right. 20% women. Basically no power Gap. 55% influence of CEOs is just I don't like button only 10% inside is on the board. So well they're getting people that have been CEO. Yeah, it's just a lot of Of X CEOs and currency EOS. But they're not the CEO of Oshkosh that has all the power. Number two, edit toss medicine. We're back to the medical companies, nine directors, medicine, biology, then, econ skills, 44% women, no power gas. Women have the power relative to their representation on the board? I've been a show with a list with the most favorable power gaps, like the with women. Who have outsized influence have done that Damian, that almost sounds like you just told me what to do for them. Okay, well, I'm just curious because I'm not realizing as you're talking about from France, like isn't it sad that we're sure that no power Gap, we're like thrilled with like, we're that that's a more classy into that on free. Just no power Gap. This is pretty high know, I know, but it's sad that we're still in the State of Affairs and 2024, then again it's still what six, what percentage of US S&P 500 companies are A female CEOs. It's still like under 10%, right? Yeah. It's very small. But the good news is that on freeflow analytics.com, there's a rankings page and those are ranked in order of positive, power Gap. So right, go to free flight analytics and see the interesting thing about at a test medicine is the audit committee has 51% of the influence on the board. I don't think I've ever seen that. The audit committee is basically running the board. All right. That's kind of, I don't know how I feel about it but it's interesting. It is interesting. um, and finally your number one. Unfettered board, intelligence company. Insulet Corporation. Yeah. No. The skills are medicine, biology, law and psychology. Wow. There's no econ in the top four. Wow, at all 33%, CEO influenced 22% inside on the board. A massive, 17% power Gap. But 44% women on the board. Here's the cool part. 85% of the board members are all stars. Yes, they are. The top performers in the free flow. Analytics database all stars or Hall of Famers. The top, but all stars like it's Hall of Fame and all-stars NBA on the sport. They looked down. Yeah they're like what are you doing? You suck. I got my MBA so you couldn't do any better. That's it. That's, that's my list. That's interesting. Damien you call those, right? Did you write them all down? Yeah. How do you spell editas editas medicine? I spell that that's Adidas. That is our show. That's already the. Dating not Ross. I'm your animal Soul. Matt mcgarty. We are free floats, not to be confused of free flow analytics. Who sponsors the show? We are free float, a different slightly different organization. I'm going to be back on Thursday with something for proxy countdown. Damian is taking his bus to France. Ari is taking her bus to nowhere and and I'll be back on Friday until then good. Bye.