Transcript
Hello. Yeah. Whereas Emma, I don't know. We said constipated an old though. We both do that. That's why I said where's Emma's trying to make us feel younger live from yet? Another woke data Wednesday. It won't get a Wednesday. Yeah there We're recording live at business pants Hall. At woke data University. Oh, university university joined as always by Emma and visibility cloak lurking and Matt hot air balloon ride, Miss cardi. I am stag. Play you are, that's terrible. Hate to be you in. Today's speckled bag of acrobatic nuggets are done quickly called June 8th 2022. The NFL soccer, yes and alternative democracy Roundup and Matt's awoke Hamlet. I don't know what that means. I am, I'm shaking experience about to find out. Let's start off with an ownership update show. Ya know, everybody loves these. This is woke data Wednesday. So we cover all things ESG because here at uh business pants we Endeavor to kill the acronym. So yeah, renamed it woke data because really it's just data There was no need to have environmental social governance. Leader all crammed together. I don't understand it but that's why we're we're off of that. We're woke data, we're just data, we're data data. I like it. It's simple. It's easy to remember. So this first one to go into the G governance column. We were waiting with baited breath. The NFL, was promising us, black ownership right there, big lawsuit, against the internet, promise. They just oh, they're here. They whiffed it. They like wafted. Okay, diversity at us. We reported last week the NBA's now, half half the coaches, are no black NFL. I don't know what the app is going on. The NFL, they have announced the new owner of the Denver Broncos. Is it a black man? Is it a black person? Is the black people black women? Is it any other? I am hoping that its I, I don't know. Rivet about hours. A black woman is a member of the Walton family. It's so boring. It's incredible. So it's a 4.65 billion deal. The biggest price ever paid for a sports team. That's just too much for sports team. This is coming from the Walter pennant group, Rob Walton, son of Walmart founder, Sam Walton who is somehow worth 70 billion dollars. Well, as you do, when you're the son of The Waltons, you do. That is incredible. So Walton is the oldest child of Sam Walton. As I said, he was the chair of Walt of Walmart. Back in the day, his cousin and Walton. Who was the niece of Sam Walton. She owned another team in the NFL, its diverse. So they're now more Walton Offspring. In there are black owners in the NFL. This is what I know that there's more Waltons that own sports teams in black people. And one of the other ownership group is a man named Greg Penner, who married, Rob Walton's daughter Carrie. And he's actually been Walmart's chair since 2015. So there you go. This is how it works. I love there's more Waltons or Walton adjacent. Then there are. Here's the big surprise. Here's how the store really affects us. Matt, according to the New York Times. Rob Walton said that his ownership group would include mellody Hobson. Oh, bloody house, chairs. I was thinking better, and I almost said, mellody Hobson that makes me. Of course, this feel this seems like oh ownership tokenism. That is literally. Yeah, because She is probably now the face of black women in corporate the corporate world and she all there. And also, he was refusing to tell anyone how much of the team she actually. Oh, why would that would be pertinent information for the New York Times, but we don't get the last. Why would you tell anyone? How much you owe when it's 8 in significant amount and you're going, still gonna try it out there named, you're still gonna make sure that their name is in the Press. On to the category that Matt hates the most. This is my my alternative democracy proxy, vote Roundup. I look at about 80 I look about 80 meetings, just looking for anything that's interesting. And one thing that struck me today Matt is that there's all this like anti-wolf backlash of you know, passive file get in, They're Taking Over America Matt I saw I, I literally looked at 80 filings from Corporation to their vote. I don't think I saw a single shareholder proposal asking for anything in the ESG realm. I don't know what they think. What Revolution they think is going on, it's not happening in the actual data. Well, our document okay well you're using facts and words, let's start with Let's start with smile direct Club where there was an uncle versus nephew battle first a little bit of governance background here. Matt, this company is controlled 90% of the vote is controlled by Jordan katzman, who is the son of the CEO? David katzman. There's also a Stephen catsman who is the CEOs brother and George uncle and he he's the CEO. He was the CEO. Whoa, I thought NFL Walton's story was over. And let me just tell you Matt what might happen, here's a possible side effect of a bunch of nonsense at your company here, just a few things. The American Association of orthodontists has filed complaints with 36 State Dental boards. Alleging that smiledirectclub violates regulatory standards their class action lawsuits. The New York Times just published something about non-disclosure agreement. There was an investigative report about misleading claims blah blah, blah. There's a lot that there's a lot bad going on this company. What do I bring this up? Because I want to ask you who do shareholders hate more, do they hate the uncle or the night? I love this needs to be. Well, I now I like your proxy vote Roundup. This needs to be every week. Is there a proxy? What do you think? Um you definitely like the uncle Morris the fun uncle right? You don't like no son. You're wrong. It's actually the four more, four million, more votes, against the uncle there. everybody likes a fun, uncle they say rude things that they Moving on Black Diamond therapeutic. Find these kinds. Share, again, I just go to the SEC website and I just search for 8 KS. I look for for 507 that has all the fun vote, totals. And I just do my due diligence. I'm an analyst, I'm a researcher. I'm the man come on, let's do it. Black Diamond Therapeutics where being smart, doesn't help. Shareholders are mad is at least like 30% of the vote against an MD, a PhD and a PhD. So smart doesn't help but black diamond therapy. You know. We did a study on that ourselves and we found that sharks get more votes than smarts and we did it. We did an old joke show on that. Do you not remember? Were you not? You must have fell asleep right there. Where will their appendix? There was actual accounting. Firm vote indecision. Matt 12 voters? Yes. 12 voters didn't know whether they should vote. Yes or no on Deloitte and two should they abstained? Only 12, 12 votes. Can we discuss? Couldn't make up their mind. There was not a 12 to name it, where will Therapeutics At some point because that's the best name of any place, I'm definitely going there. Valco energy 37% voted against Sam pay, but why Matt the CEO last year only made 600,000 dollars. The CEO pay ratio is 12.8 to 1. Is it? Because is it because the pension benefits are 17,000 dollars, what's going on here? I don't understand what I don't know. That just sounds like that's about going energy. If anyone knows right, us moving on to PayPal Can we do away with this vote on the frequency of Sam Pavo that they do at certain companies where shareholders can say, every year every two years and every two years at PayPal 0.18% said, every two years. Can we just get away with this? I want to know who that was. All Right, Moving On. Pmv Pharmaceuticals. I got another question for you. Who do they hate more? Who are they do, they hate a direct your with a PhD or they hit a direct with an MD and a PhD? Well, smarts are always worse than sharks. So, you gotta go with the double. Nobody wants an MD smarty, smarty pants. You're right, more directors, voted against the director with, with both credential that makes sense to me. For some weird reason that makes sense. And here's a joke that you were alluding to earlier sort of there's a company called good hemp right. Good hemp in good hemp look. It's direct, you know exactly what they're about. I'm calling this the sad name change of the week. Shareholders voted to change the name of good hemp 2. Accredited Solutions. Oh no. What did it say? Isn't it? What happened there? Is this not a sign that the market the market and weed? And drugs is say, she overstayed right over saturated. I mean, do they sell hemp products or do they are they accredited solution for something? I guess I don't what happened. That's really sad to me. And finally, let's talk about this, the company Scott Liquid Gold, this one is, where do you find these? Is anybody else? I swear to anywhere, I swear to you, I opened the 8K. I actually look at all the way he was reading these This is the most confusing annual meeting vote. I think I've ever seen a little bit of background. There are two people, the former CEO, who just stepped on Mark Goldstein and director. Daniel roller, control, 4.2 million of the vote. Right? Is that a lot between them? four, it is for this coming, okay, but they control 4.2 million votes and yet no director including Daniel roller received more than 4.1 million votes at the election. What is going a few of their shares that they voted no against themselves? Yeah, I don't I really don't know what's going on. I I have never seen anything like and once again say on pay barely passed about 60% of Voters, said yes barely passed, right? And again despite the fact that these two Insider Executives have four point two million votes Sam only got four point one million votes, but here's what's going on at CEO CEO. Pay at this company. Scott's Liquid Gold. The CEO tissue. Prejudice xeni. She gets 20,000 dollars per month. That a lot. 20,000 per month, her cash bonus. Last year was 15,000 dollars. This all seems pretty reasonable know. I bet you a lot of our listeners, make more than this. Oh that. Yeah. And her and her golden. Hello package doesn't exist. You didn't get a golden. Hello package. She did get 15,000 restricted, stock units that are currently worth 11,000 hours. So cache them all. Despite all this 40% of shareholders said, no, she literally got hired in October of last year. She has been there for, like, five months and they already hate her so much that no, to her. I hope there's one glorious nerd out there. Who knows that? Something about Scott's liquid gold and will report back to us. And finally, I wanted to just report on some of the shareholder proposals that we did Miss and maybe this is why the anti woke people are all upset out your group. These are all ones that passed. Yes, Matt. They actually passed a civil rights Equity audit out your group a report on greenhouse gas emissions at Chubb, a report on racial and gender pay. Gaps at Lowe's third party, audit of civil rights, Donald's body, a racial Equity audit at Home, Depot a report on pay Equity at Walt Disney, and finally, civil rights audit at waist. I think. So, there are some things going. I think we going, I would like to propose a shareholder vote. That chubby limited renamed itself to accredited Solutions. Actually, I'd be for that. I've always hated saying, chubby it does make me feel uncomfortable, that's it. That's all I got. That's the alternative democracy come on. Today, I am Hamlet a whiny monologuing white dude, Paralyzed by an action that fantasizes about the anti-woke. Here is a quick anti-woke Roundup for you. Okay. We've covered a lot of this but I want to do it anyway. I don't it's gonna be quick. Um, West Virginia band, black rock this year for being too climate friendly. That's right. West, Virginia. You can't the Pension funds. Can't invest with BlackRock period. That's it. Wait, is that what you they singled out a single black even capitalism? Not, we're not even, we're not even going to discuss it. I didn't know you could do that. Do whatever you want. Apparently, in some places along as you don't do something against anyone who feels discriminated against Florida. Band tax deductions on travel for Women's Health or for any procedures that feel a bit gay. That's, I don't think that's, I don't know, they didn't write that but that's what I took away from the way they did that. Texas band investing with companies that Discriminate against gays. Oh no sorry got that wrong fossil fuels. They discriminate against fossil fuels. So um okay and Louisiana band investing with companies that promote gun violence. Oh sorry that's all so typos. They banned investing with companies that won't fund gun violence so any any of Black Rock has a policy, got it, got it. You're with me. Yeah, there are three things that become clear. When you're putting all these things together about what's happening at US, state legislatures in the anti woke. They are number one. Larry Fink is the new George Soros. Whoa, that's a big state. That's what I'm saying because because everyone loves to hate George Soros. He is a shadowy billionaire. And no one knows what he does. Except that everyone knows what he does and it's not yeah I mean it's pretty clear what he does. But we are going to pretend we don't know what he does. We're gonna protect say that he's pushing a woke agenda that includes probably child prostitution, maybe dark money and probably say Satan right? Like we're just gonna say those things but Larry Fink is basically anime number one now of conservatives in this country. Yeah over from George Soros, what a mantle to take over. Yes, so much that Larry Fink has had to sort of distance himself from ESG investing and now they're putting out ads clarifying. There's I don't even understand this map. Because as we pointed out here, many times, they don't actually support, ESG initiatives or support shareholding for ESG. Let's not get, let's not let a good fact. Get in the way of the narrative that as well because the history suggests that Larry Fink hasn't voted for shareholder. Proposals about climate historically, almost at all. Like, like it's a despite having trouble the most power in this realm has voted against all. I mean, historically, black rock is voted with management, 90 plus percent of the time. There you go there so it's not exactly like we're talking about like Huskies super well. Okay, clear thing number two is that greenwashing has had a cost and it wasn't a marketing calls. Conservative have jumped on your stupid greenwashing as if it were real. and now, BlackRock Vanguard State Street. Any one of these massive asset managers get to be both not woke. And woke at the same time because the ESG acronym, loving actual woxter are saying, you're not woke at all. You don't vote for any of these things. You don't actually progress it. I think HSBC just said Stuart Kirk give us a lesson in how not woke you are. This is this is not acceptable. And at the same time Mike Pence is saying, you're so woke that we need to stop you from being so woke. Mike Pence actually wrote in his op-ed that we need to stop these ESG principles Damien They know there's a g there, right? Or we just giving up on the G entirely. It's one thing if you want to hate on us. Yeah, just like when I worked at the corporate library, which was the corporate governance research firm forever. I mean, it's it's the OG. Come on, give it up. Come on, it is no one knows well knows, no, no, no, no entertained governance. But it's I think that they think we're saying gubber government like maybe they think the word mint is actually in there. So, they're just they're anti mint, they're pretending that he is. She stands for either, push your 1974 Datsun off a cliff or indoctrinate children with gayness. That's what they think ESG stands for. Is that would that be the e or the S? The last one? It's already. Yeah, I don't really know. Oh, interesting. All right and it. But we have to admit that it takes a special skill to piss off both the right and the left side motionlessly and you're like Facebook and now now like Facebook exactly like conservative liberals, agree social media, social skills sucks ass but she'll drop but still no one. Can legislate social media. But now they're legislating ESG. All right, okay. Finally, the third thing that becomes clear to me and this sequence of events is prepare to get probe, Because the politics of the anti-woke, it's easy to say and it's hard to do because you actually need data which means when Ken Paxton goes out and says you know, Twitter needs to show us where their Bots are, he's got a probe them, he's probing he wants data. Yeah, when Arkansas is about to pass a bill that would allow medical professionals. This is a real Bill medical professionals. Can deny care to anyone who goes against their conscience or religious beliefs or moral or ethical beliefs. They can deny care to them. What do they need? They need someone to disclose how gay they are. Otherwise how do you know if they don't like with your religious and ethical beliefs? Like some kind of gaydar, like, I believe they sell that at Brooks Brothers, No Sharper. Image sharp with that. That sounds very confusing Arkansas. You should be ashamed of yourself. That's literally the worst Bill I've ever read in my entire life and they say, they what they're doing is protecting discrimination against medical professionals and their religious beliefs not disgusting against the people who they would stop. Treating, I I just heard that as they're protecting people with mental illness is that I believe that, that was the unwritten part of the law. Yeah, that's section. Like six be when Texas needs to find out who should go on their woke enemies list. Who did they hire? You know who they hired, they hired msci. The woke data provider of the world Because as we pointed out many times that's ESG is just it's just it's an assortment of data points, the Achilles heel of the people who hate their, that's right. The Achilles heel of the anti-woke is woke data which should amuse everyone. and speaking of the anti-woke in a legislative slam dunk that Damian alluded to earlier these same people Are in fact, it's like a sausage fest of senators who have put forward last month. The investment democracy is expected or index ACT. First of all, the index Act is a win for post-doctorate graduates in akronym creation investor. Democracy is expected and you just take a couple of the letters here and there and you turn it into. And he I don't know if that's really allowed. I don't know if we're allowed, I don't know if that's how acronym the way that works that you need like a postgraduate degree in acronym creation. Expected is exactly. I don't. You don't usually have a verb in there either. I, well, they had to figure out a way to make it, say index. So, the investor democracy is expected. I don't even know. It's really hard. The just of the ACT here is investor should be allowed to instruct their advisors and passively managed funds, like ETFs, how to vote. And the reason why they proposed this is because there's something there is, the advisors are all woke and people aren't that. Whoa. And people should be voting instead of their advisors because it's American and America and stop the woe and all that kind of stuff, but it's actually fucking brilliant. And here's why Okay, have any of these assholes did? What you spent all morning doing reading, 80, products? Have any one of them like an asshole doing? It has any one of those. The people who have put this forward red epoxy, I gotta say, it sounds really overwhelming the idea of having to suddenly, now, I have to suddenly now vote on the like, 80 different positions. My pension fund is in that that'll be like 900 proposals. It's more than that 720 directors. I've never heard worse for you, even for me, this sounds like you just invested in the S&P 500 conservatively there, on average, about eight or nine directors on every single board and about 90% of the boards of the S&P 500. Do not have classified boards, which means you're basically voting on every single board, member every single year just doing some really quick math, you were talking about 6,000, Plus Board members that you will be voting on when you throw in the occasional auditor approval, say, on pay approval. And then maybe at the large firms, one or two shareholder proposals, you're talking about 8,000. 87 to 8,000 votes per year. Who wins when you give? Idiots, like individuals 7,000 things to vote on every year. You know who wins? Manage management. Management wins. Because what do you do? You have zero data? You don't know who Paul Smith is on. What is it gold? Scott's Liquid Gold? You know, tell me, does anybody is anybody paying attention to who Remy Malhotra is? No, well me obviously, but nobody's paying attention that they're just gonna Yes. Is that right now if you're anti-walk the system is perfect because all the passive funds are voting with management. Anyway, right there, they're actually is no woke Revolution going on in capitalism. So literally just nothing, you know how I know it doesn't exist because I've been at this job. Now for two years, this is what we do. We complain that that no one seems to care. That BlackRock Vanguard said don't do anything with their power, so they're actually completely wrong. So, here's the problem. If you now give the, if you take away that power, which they're not using, and give it to idiots, they might accidentally vote against man. That would be bad. I don't know what they're doing, because Matt, I've spent a lot of years in these proxies, they're confusing, they're really confusing. They're, they're not gonna know which way to vote and they're gonna accidentally start to vote for woke policies. That would be super happy which actually happened because the Texas pension fund voted for client policies. While the Texas legislature said that they had to ban investing with companies with client climate policies, right? So that's what happens when it's not passive, right? You might you might start to you. Might actually have to think. Yeah. And voted different ways, to think exactly. The real winner here is not going to be management. It's not going to be the anti-woke. The unintended consequence is free. Float wins. because, That's correct. Finally we are the we have created the only rating of people board saber metric. Yeah, he created the metrics. Wait there already cheering. We've created the only thing to vote on in the alternative democracy when you are a normal person and you need to vote. You have no data because you here's what you could do, you could go. Ask msci for some data that'll cost. You 50,000 bucks a year. Don't think you're going to do that. You could call up the company. Guess what? They're gonna fire every stewardship team if this passes because you don't need people, you're not gonna pay 250,000 dollars a year to 20 people to go do the research to vote these proxies. When you know that it's now, a pass-through and everyone else votes their product, their own proxies, why? I have a stewardship team. So all of the intellectual Capital there, who does all that research, they're all unemployed and you have no one to call. You can't call your advisor and say which way. Should I vote? Because they fired everybody. You can't buy it because it's too expensive and unless you're a bazillion. Oh. And let me add that if you buy the data from people like msci, S&P, you're not going to know how to enter whatever, no idea what it meant. Once you know, hold your hand. They don't they don't hold your hand through. They don't throw a couple analysts at you and sit down. So we've already, so we've built this thing. It's board saber metrics, we treat your board like it's a sports team, we tell you what, you're not kidding, right? Yeah. Very real thing, this purely self-promotional right now but it's important. I love it's very important. Come on, I love it. We've already partnered with an app, that's a retail app that retail investors use to get all sorts of data. We partnered with them and we're going to give them some of our data so they'll be some data that's out there for free. So you want to vote on a board member? It's going to be an app that you can use to do it. We'll tell you more about that. When it actually launches we have, we this commercial is going, I'm just saying, but up the winners here, For us. That's who wins. Wow, they're us actually. You're probably right? Because we're the only ones to understand it. Just the two of us, see what it looks. Not even no one even no one understands except for the two of us and re by proxy re is forced to understand it, Ari's back by the way. Sorry, I haven't seen Ari Ari is back, he's celebrate our first second, okay? She she was on like a seven week tour of the Mediterranean and I know it's been delightful. You and I have been literally grinding out shows, you know Aries. Get the wind in her hair on a boat somewhere. So what is your takeaway here? What are you trying to say if they take away? Yeah, the Antiques The winner of the anti-wolf wars is free float media. That's what I'm saying. That's my point. Who would have thunk it? We finally got everything right? We're in the lane, we're in the lane. That's all I got to say. That's quick. Not quick update. Anything else you want to add? Does that you feel good? No one. I guess I'm dead serious. We can I just say something? I never say this but can you tell your friends? Not you? The listeners. Tell your friends to listen. Yes, seriously. At least until your colleagues, your colleague we could, you need to use them. Wait, you need not only do you need us but we sort of want and need you. So Come do that because if you're gonna vote on the directors, at the smile direct Club, we're here for you. We're here to break down. Uncle nephew back. There isn't another podcast. Anywhere in the entire world that did the smile direct Club? Proxy Roundup. Absolutely. There's a 100% us only thing. Awesome. That is what you're gonna get here tomorrow, and the next day. And the next day, when you come back, we are free float media. I am at Scottish. Damien Raleigh's. I'm done talking. I'm tired of talking. We will see you again. Goodbye.