Transcript
It. Oh yeah. That's a lot of intro. Woes live from a snowy New England postcard. Oh, that's so pretty. It's yeah. Another manic Monday edition of business fans joined. As always by endless hole matters. Yes, in today's ESG is the devil back of smoked almonds called January 29th, 2024 business, everybody's favorite show that wait, who's everybody, does anybody listen to the show? Our show today is being sponsored by free flow analytics. The only data platform to measure real board influence and diversity power gaps. That's right. That's right. Only one. Let's do this beat funny now. Ya know what? Let me start with this one, an appropriate start to the show. in our, Best. Shameless plug for our product that we didn't pay for headline of the week. Oh, I like that. Tesla CEO. Elon Musk says he wants Strong influence, but not control and push for new share class. Matt. Oh, that's our data point influence influence. Thanks Elon, by the way, Elon Musk has 70% of the influence on the board. Currently his brothers on the boards a bit more. So what, How much influence does he need? Matt, we're just here to track it. We don't make opinions. That's true. I have no opinions about anything in our, don't say, gay. But don't ignore the power of gay headline of the week. Going forget the term ESG but don't ignore the power of the concepts. I like that headline. Is that a pro or anti? Yes, I don't know, I can't tell, I can't tell but I can't tell anymore. I know that most most of the practitioners within our industry who are dealing with the attack. On ESG are basically running for cover. They're all scared. No one wants to fight back. It's just like, let's get rid of the acronym. Let's let's bow down and prove that we're not horrible. Double worshiping jerks, I don't know what. They just, everyone's just afraid to fight. Well, speak for yourself, different jerk and our Oh, this is cut. This is similar in our, what is the point of weekly Financial Times opinion pieces that asked, what is the point of ESG ratings, headline of the week? What? What is the point of ESG rating? How many times have we seen this opinion? Piece in the Ft? I did every week, no thing every week for five. They're weird, not paying attention. Or do they just? Is it a big clicky? Like, what is the point if you really gets a lot of clicks or something? I don't know. But it's like in this was, I read this one. This one was all about. Did you know that? Yes, she rating's service providers are not correlated. Did you know that, like, is she right of the Oscars? What are the point of anything? What's the point of Rotten Tomatoes? Just get rid of everything? I just want the headline to say that what is the point of view? Like what would be a good and our Sometimes laughter is the best medicine when desperately trying to appeal to alcoholic homophobes. Headline of the week. It is Bud Lights hoping a funny Super Bowl ad will win back consumers who boycotted the brand? I it will that's all. It'll take a giggle, LOL. How funny does it have to be like like does it have to be? You know, like Dave Chappelle 2002 stand up? Does it have to be Dave Chappelle 2023 stand up? Like how what on the scale of funny? What does have to be pretty? Damn funny. and finally, in my first section here before heading over to Matt and our Is now and okay, time to complain about the fact that only 6% of S&P 500 companies are run by women headline of the week. Ready for this one. This is a good one. This headline, this is a lot going on, I don't know, I don't know if I'm ready, toxic telegram, group used, Microsoft tool to produce x-rated, fake AI, Taylor Swift images posted on X. Wow, you see all these male techie Brie take this check. This is what they do with their free time tools. This is what They did not put in this headline that it was Microsoft Paint. So that's that was what they left a waste of time. What a waste of humanity. in our, Out headline of the week. Oh, how Tesla's board can solve its Elon Musk problem without overpaying? So vote out the whole board, including Elon or Levy, lawn that would be a switch Levon, get rid of everybody else evil on by himself, just have everyone else. I don't understand a headline that that is this. How what do we, What needle are we trying to thread here? This is a very easy way to Tesla for his ass, so kissing his ass. Yeah, I don't know, you don't kiss his ass, just that's how you solve it. in our, we can tolerate anti-Semitism warmongering operating as a CEO of five different companies and divisive political misinformation, but we will not be held hostage that said No, we don't plan on selling our stock or voting him out of a job. We're not barbarians headline of a week. Elon musk's pursuit of 25% stake in Tesla is delusional. Long-time shareholder says, are you you've adopted my technique of joke telling which is just right. Like seven paragraphs down and hope something's funny. Oh also, I did not make most of that up, right? Like this. That's the funny part that the long time shareholder is Ross Gerber. Yeah. Who owns 400,000 shares of Tesla and has for years and still will not divest from Tesla? Why? Because it makes money. Oh, okay. in our, Is sobriety the trans agenda. Someone asked Kid Rock headline of the week. As Americans by Les beer, breweries bars and supermarkets scale back. Well, it's not the whole point of the boycott less beer. Well, is it less beer? A different beer, the difference beer? But it seems to be no beer, no beer. That seems like a good outcome, isn't it? Isn't that the truth is that the trans agenda isn't enough beer already? What what is enough beer, really? in our, what's the reason for the return? Of just so, you know, we only accept returns for store credit but we can offer you a board seat. If that helps headline of the week, Alaska. Airlines CEO, we found many loose bolts on Boeing 737. Max 9 planes. Wait, are they trying to return the bolts or the whole plane? I think they're trying to return the plane to get someone to screw the bolts in. But how soon do you think it is between before Dave, Calhoun calls up, United, CEO or Alaska CEO and says, why don't you join us on the board? Hey, that's perfect solution, because is that because no one's leaving the board. So why not just bring some more buddies on? Just add a couple more. Yeah. And our we have a long standing commitment to our investors, to provide transparency for all our documents not printed ink pencil or crayon. We take very seriously, our policy of transparency policy itself. However is currently written in crayon. So we cannot provide it headline of the week. Well, Open AI went back on, promise to make key documents public. Yeah, so apparently open AI. Said they were going to make all of their documents public. Yeah. Because there are nonprofit and they're supposed to protect Humanity. It's part of their mandate and then wired went and asked them for the documents. And they said, oh, we changed our policy being Sam Altman. Yes. What now has it now has even more extraordinary 100%. Yeah. Power on the board and they said we changed our policy. We being Sam Altman. So we cannot so I do those document. Going against the Mandate going against the mission going against their principles going again. If only there were some board members going against their butts in the man. Yeah. Well, those women are gone. Matt God, they were in our hey Ma The authoritarian United Arab Emirates, which criminalizes the same sex sexual activity, and the gender expression of trans people were sentences include a maximum penalty of death has gone woke. Tell Dad and tell Rob Santos and definitely tell Texas headline of the week. Ready for this one, a lot. First of all, it's a lot tell Dad. ESG. Implementation is soaring in Dubai. As only 8% have not adopted an ESG program. Wow. Oh, I don't know what to say about that but I just thought it was funny. I just like this one. I don't know. I don't know what it means. I just like it. I like the Texas is scared and I like the Dubai is not scared. I don't know. It's just just fun. It's fun. It is, it is, it is a great, both a gay people. We know that we just say, I guess when. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe in Dubai, they've realized that they can just ignore that part of the data set, okay? And our What are they going to do? When they learn flying is less good. For the environment headline of the week? Oh look, I mean, we have a do-over mall again. I'm calling them all. Get on this one. Oh, really? Oh okay. And our, what are they going to do? When they learn flying less is good for the environment headlines. See what you did there, flip it. Yeah, conservatives are so scared of diversity. They're starting to boycott. Woke Airline yeah. Like I love that both. Not fastened down was because of diversity. Uh there's also I just sent this to the group this morning. There's also Fox News is tweeted this morning. They're they're shaming Taylor Swift for her. Private jet usage saying that her jet belches tons of CO2 emissions. So it just took misogyny in that case to fly less. So we're we're all winning as a culture, Matt. Now I what wait did the amount spent on corporate Jets by CEOs. 4500 exponentially grown and the last five years, not matter. But, but Taylor Swift is destroying the environment. Again. A d e. I is ruining the World by flying too much, I guess. So does that mean I have to choose between women and climate change? That would say yes. Oh wow. In our is this the best reason ever to reduce CEO pay headline of the week? I think it is. I think it is X Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. Quietly created a company called White stork. Which plans to build ai-powered attack drones. Wow, ai-powered attack drones. This is what corporate CEOs are doing with all their excess cash a like that. They but at least they're not calling them defense drones. I don't like that. We call like gun manufacturing away. Fence. That's your takeaway. Yeah, I like that. It's honest. We're we're not defending you. We're attacking something in our witches worse. A red face CEO or a bloody customer headline of the week. Yay GM admits to numerous failings in Cruise robotaxi, debacle that saw CEO and beerus in pedestrian dragged, 20 feet. You see how the hell? Is that CEO on the ended with the, with the, with the dragon dragon? What the hell is going on? Which is worse rate, which is worse. I think for shareholders investors, it's the embarrassed CEO. That's right, that's correct. You've Won. And finally my section in our Dei ruined Blockbuster headline of the week. Oh, that's why I got fired from there when I was 21. Retail, CEO, turnover sores and fewer women. Hold top jobs in the industry. Oh, I want to just point out some, some two chilling data points. On this one, I need to be chilled only 11% of incoming. Retail, CEOs, are women? 11% No one in 10. Yeah. And how about this one? The average 10 year of departing retail CEOs was eight years for men. And four years for women. So, women are fired like NFL coaches. They're giving no time to turn around the company that they go over. That's a pretty that's a pretty major Gap. What you say eight years versus four years that isn't just in retail. That is almost exactly the same for all CEO. Where is Bill? Ackman on this subject, this is a good one for Biloxi. He should be concerned about this. If all those women hadn't, plagiarized, their 10K, then, that's where he would be upset about that, but they don't play right chilling. I feel Chill by that 11% of incoming retail CEOs, In our, let's wrap these up. Let's do this. Come on. You know, in our read the fine print headline of the week. Read the explosive resignation letter sent by the chairman of Sports Illustrated publisher. Okay, what's the fine print? Here's the fine print on the July June 1st. 2023 AGM investors passed with 99% agreement. Yeah, the following quote to the fullest extent permitted by law, neither are of the corporation or an officer of the corporation. Shall be personally liable to the corporation or its stockholders from monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty? Yeah, that's right. They, they changed the charter of the company is Arena group such that directors. No longer are monetary responsible for breach of Duty. Oh good. 99% agreed, 59% of the shares in Arena group are held by four and to tease in, on October after passing this. One of the entities, warlock group actually, hired Elon musk's Twitter, acquisition, lore lawyer, Spyro Andrew, Spyro To sue arena for ignoring their fiduciary duty and the ex CEO who wrote this resignation. Letter said that the directors are negligent of their wait for it. Fiduciary duties. This is confused. What it was. What does Texas Oklahoma World's Gonna think, aren't they really big into fiduciary duties these days? No. This is legal exculpation of fiduciary. Do I thought I can't invest in in solar panel companies because it goes against producer Duty or something. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's if they hire a woman to be the CEO, that that's the problem. This was a male CEO. Yeah, yeah. And our read the fine print part 2 headline of the week. Vince McMahon Cuts WWE ties after sex trafficking accusation. What I got to say about this? One on the November 11th, 2023 10q. Yeah, there's this nugget quote, the special Committee of independent members of WWE's board of directors. First of all, there are independent members of the WWE board. There's a couple of directors that either or not wrestlers or one of Vince McMahon's children. They found investigation into allegations of misconduct by Mr. McMahon. And any further allegations and investigations may have an adverse Financial or operational impact on our business. That was in the risk factors. Yeah. This port should entirely be fired. This should all be let go. The next risk factor was quote, Mr. McMahon's membership. On our board could have adverse financial and operational impact on earth. Look, I give them credit, they're bored, their corporate governance, policies are acting just like WWE, it's just like a wrestling match, really? I mean, but who knows to them? They announced. They must. Have known that more was likely to come out. This is the same in the risk factors and now you can't sue them because it was in the risk factors it disclosed this is the same guy who stepped down from his job because of an investigation and then voluntarily decided to come back. So I mean yeah of course they knew everyone who voted himself back. He's the he's the big Clash holder this. I mean, if this is not the perfect case for getting rid of dual class shares and getting rid of my monopolistic companies, this is it, this is the case right here is good. It was good work, it was good, work of them. Good work of their lawyers in our 6.2 out of 10 governance score from msci. Had in the week? Yeah. Norfolk, Southern books. 150 million dollar charge for Ohio incident and stock drops after Prophet Falls below forecasts. What are you trying to say there? What is your point 6.2 out of 10? That's, that's above average. It's above average. See, I read the five is average. I read that as a 62, like, on an exam. Like, that's a bad grade. That's like a d or F. Know it's below the median Point. That's better than the middle company for railroad companies. That's what that is. But the most important thing is not the charge for any kind of accident. That ruined the town. The most important part here is profit Falls below forecasts, that's the that's what they care about. You think they would accept that. in the 2023, annual general meeting, the lowest four vote for directors was 87% 827 percent, which is not Super low and it was for the head of the Safety Committee who still they couldn't vote out. 87% that's like a B plus that's a that's a solid grade on a test. So investors gave the board a B+ including the executives. And that's that's not great considering they suck, all right? In our Low risk. Governance rating, analytics acapella version. The music's gone like this. Oh here know the music's coming back. It's coming back here. Ride the wave. I was excited for a second. In our low risk governance rating forms sustainalytics, headline of the week, Bernardino names, two more Sons to lvmh sports cementing family control. Oh, I thought I said, cementing Family Circus. That would have been a better headline know, I just like that. Full family control with, like, several family members on the board is low risk. Well, the idea, I think their ideas that if one guy starts the company, then all of the genetic Offspring, must have must be the same guy. Right? Must be the same when he dies, it's it's the same thing, right? It's just, I don't Know, it's almost as if we learn Japanese good, right? We learn nothing from feudal Europe, that that like Divine, Right pass through like a sperm, what can go wrong? Not? What could go wrong? I don't know nothing. And then finally, let's wrap this show up. In our investors, may know bad governance when they see it, but who cares when there's money to be made headline of the week? We are all Hypocrites on corporate governance. Oh, I read this to work. This is another piece from the financial times. Yeah, another dig on corporate governance. Yes, you, they love it. They love it. Stuart Kirk. Yeah. The ex-head of responsible investing. Yeah. Responsible. Investing to pretty serious title. Yeah. At HSBC yes. Wrote an entire up. Ed in the Ft saying that corporate governance. You're all Hypocrites for saying that you care about it. And not actually caring about it because all we care about is making money wrong, I guess he didn't say it as like you should be ashamed because you don't care about it. You said it like this. It we shouldn't care about us because it's a joke. Should you're in the job of making money? You should just stop saying you care about it. You're a hypocrite for saying it. It was fabulous. What I love is when they they take down a field of an entire field of analytics by saying like because there's one outlier over here that is successful like me some dual class run family company then throw it all out, right? And they're all successful, one of the best parts of his op-ed is he says there's actually a correlation between companies with bad governance. And short-term returns. Well, that makes sense. Actually see the stock market as a big gambling Den. Then yes of course, manipulated short term returns is the way to go. It's brilliant. Yeah, that's all we got. That's hazelnut rallies. I'm your analysis cardi. We are free float. If you like this, come back on Wednesday for woke Wednesday until then goodbye. Does he actually say that actually said that he did?