Business Pants – 2022-12-14

Live. What's that even mean anymore on a podcast? Why am I saying live? Our live a live? From Doug chia's, Yankees, hat. Oh, I don't want to be in there. Oh, Doug, wash your hat. It's a woke data. Wednesday edition of business pants. Join is always by our BS correspondent, Matt mascardi. I'm mold lead independent, director cider. Cider you put some cinnamon sticks in, you put a lead independent director in there. Oh and then you and then a low simmer. I thought you said mold not. I do all not lead. Independent directors. There we go. Anunciante called December 14th 2022. I have some CEO news. Matt has some anti-wolf news. We have a visit from a new correspondent. Yes. It's not of course it this is actually we Well, there's a asset manager who released pillars of their proxy voting and they sent it to us. They wanted some publicity, look, they might sound a lot like me. Okay, well, but it's it's not me. I'm just saying First of all, what does it mean? BS correspondent. What is that? What is BS? That would be bored. Saber metrics. That's the thing that we sell here or in which we measured triangles every board member in the entire world and how they perform individually over time. I know no one believed me. I know no one's gonna believe me. Because really, I'm not a credible Source. No you're not, but I've been doing ESG data as it were for men, too many years doing the data? Yeah and I actually and I I go to our data to help me tell my stories willingly, not just not to sell it, not to be a asshole. I actually think, actually tells a lot about these people in a ways that I never could in the past, like, I will say this about the ESG instructive industry. I know a lot of players in this industry and almost none of them like came from ESG before, right? Like they didn't. We spent 20 like combined years. Of doing like doing the ESG data hand, getting it telling stories with it. Analyzing it most of it, you go get like one of those AI ESG machines and it's like the people. There are just one of those machines in my basement, there's just like tech people who are like, yeah, I'll just build you a machine that does whatever. What GE makes a good one. Ours is better. That's what better than ge's. It's nice. Well, without Jack Welsh, they can't come up with a good. What they could they definitely can't fire as many people humidifier. Okay, let's come on, let's do this humidifier. The whole field is a humidification system. All right, let's go. I got some CEO update, all right. With. Jack Dorsey. Yeah, and and I'm not gonna mention the other guys name so you don't have to either, is he like Voldemort? Now, I don't know, this is a this is a sort of fascinating missive. So he's he's now he's kind of always half apologizing now and also have to defending himself. Yeah, not well though. So he this is just, this is just yesterday. He had a post from his, I guess, from his website or whatever, he's talking about social media, right? He's talking about how he wants to decentralize. Social media. And he and just like the guests later on the show, he has some principles that he wants to that. He principles, I've come to believe he says, oh things, he's because that's what's That gets me every time, that's what weird about this because and he does point out and these are the principles that he's come to believe that he did not enact at Twitter. Uh, so now about that, too. He talks about that too. Let's get to it. Let's do it. The three principles. Social media must be resilient to corporate and government control, which is, you know, ironic because he controlled the corporation that control Twitter that you yeah. Number two, only, the original author, may remove content, they produce that scares me. Yeah, I'm gonna go with, that's not a good idea. And number three, moderation is best implemented by algorithmic choice. Oh, where is Emma lurking without Bias. All right, so he says the Twitter when I let it and the Twitter of today do not meet any of these principles. He says I and this is where it gets a little fun for us. I'm just gonna throw out random quotes and you can react, he said I completely gave up pushing for them. When an activist entered our, our stock in 2020, he's talking about Elliot management. Wow, Scott Gallade. Do you hear that? He's because of you, he's blaming them despite the fact that according to our data that he had about 70% of the influence as Twitter, not only that, but he was a boomerang CEO is predates our data, but he was a boomerang CEO. He was the founder and CEO of Twitter. He left. I don't like there was another CEO of Twitter. Yeah. And Triple H was that know that different company and then he came back a CEO of Twitter. Here's what he says. He says this, he says I okay. He says I completely gave up pushing for those principles. Oh yeah, I said that one. An Is entered. I no longer had hope of achieving any of it as a public company with no defense mechanisms, lack of dual class shares being a key one. Matt, he's speaking our language. So he laments not yes which is completely mind-blowingly ironic that he wants to decentralize the world but he is complaining that he doesn't have power over. He didn't have dictatorial power at Twitter and the pesky shareholders share owners wanted to get involved. And I mean this is just Great. Yes, you are already know but you know what? It does do too. It does blow the doors open to like, why Zuckerberg Continues to have a job, right? Like yeah, there there's not. He must love that. He must love that. He must love it. He must be like, screw you all it doesn't matter and, you know, wait. But do you know what else? Who else does not have dual class shares? He who must not be named as the CEO of Tesla, a Tesla. Yeah but also according to our data has a it's just an insurmountable amount of influence. Yeah. Well apparently because they haven't fired him yet for being distracted. Tweeting 30 times a minute. Oh, you're mentioning him. So here's the thing, this is so excited, here's where I'm excited. Hey, it's another use case for our data because Jack it's it's horseshit that that you didn't have defense mechanisms. And that this not having dual-class shares held you back. It's horseshit in our data can prove it and this is the only itchy data. I know that can prove these things 90% influence without it second of all you did have defense mechanisms actually the Twitter had a classified board which means that shareholders could not come in and vote out the board. So it prevented activist investors from doing that. So you're actually you're lying. I mean, lying strong. You're you? Are you, are you had the revising? That's a classic defense. What else did he say? He said, I, I generally think. Companies have become too far, too powerful blah blah. Uh and then just Guardians agrees that are there's a studio audience here every day and they look and let's not forget that he still is the CEO of. Is it a S&P 500 company? How big is blah? Yeah, they're major blocks real big, isn't it? So, it's again, this is just a little Cringy cringy, cringe-worthy cringe inducing. It's not that I'm Cringe ask. I mean, he's revising his history narrative so that because when he left it was like this is the greatest time I've ever had. I love everybody here. It was an amazing ride and that was right after he threw his own board, under the bus and said the singular savior of Twitter is he who must not be named and then since he's left he said that he doesn't believe the Twitter file should have been released. That way should have been released differently but I wish I had dual class shares but all so yeah. The only way it could have gone. What are we talking about? Uncomfortable transparency. He thinks that the Twitter files should be released more on mass and not selectively. He was the CEO of Twitter and did not do that. He said, he said, Matt, he has an answer for that. He said, I wish I forced more of that years ago. I wish I did. Yeah. And the reason why I get, I'm bringing this up is, well, one of the reasons is that you shared an auction that Twitter is, is holding that they're selling a lot of Jack bought although we're kind of on different side of the fence here because let's not forget that the the sad irony of this is that Jack. Dorsey asked billions of dollars by holding the tower. It's been tough for him. Yeah but I'm not like unlike Matt I'm not against Jack spending a little bit of money on a nice espresso machine for his employees and the way that the current leader of Twitter is using this to kind of Shame workers like, oh, look at that. They had a fancy vegetable dryer. They don't even know what a vegetable dryer is map. But who cares? Let them have one know. They should only Jack have the money. Why is only he get the money? I know you're all socialists in think that everybody should get. A piece. But you know, the espresso machine is effectively a bribe so that no one else Jack. Well, he makes billions like they that might be true. So stop the machines. I'm seeing it from the workers perspective is that you have to give up most of your good daylight hours to hang out at the stupid companies. I muzzle have a good coffee. Well agree to disagree. You see that was that was compromised right there. That was compromised. So that there you go. That's that's my Jack Dorsey. I don't know if you want to if you want to discuss any of his principles or do you want to just move on from the top of the social in there, except to whine about the fact that he didn't have enough power? Despite having all the power? Yeah. Is there a principle here? Some kind there. I guess not. Let's move on. Okay. SPF in the news. Sam Bateman fried. The only joke I have only ESG jokes. Could be sentenced to a, he's a arrested, Matt. I saw no idea arrested but he didn't even get bail. They went there. Like I don't think so dude. He gonna be in this prison, which is supposedly very dirty. Until at least February. We see the guy, I don't think cleanliness was his top priority to begin with. He could be sentenced to 150 years in prison, if convicted of all the charges against him, which seems unlikely. But I'm gonna put, I want you to put on your prediction right now. Will he go to jail and will he get more than there? Are no CEO Elizabeth Holmes. Okay, so there knows that's the comp, right? Yeah. If he goes to jail would be a comp too for for a long time, if investors are really pissed that they lost their money. But so far, it's retail. People who lost their money, not the investors in FTX the FTX investors, lost their money. Sure, but they did no due. Diligence of basically been saying like we kind of shit the bed on this one. This is a little bit, our fault. They're not suing SBF in the way that theranos investors were suing Elizabeth Holmes. Although that's one of the that is one of the counts conspiracy to commit Securities. Fraud is one of them, but that is an SCC count, isn't it? That's that's right. But that's, that's okay. Will the government take the use this? As a great, you know, to send an example against crypto King's like unregulated crypto? Will they use this as like a don't even get involved moment like, just not careful. It's gonna be, I think, I think he's in for Seven and a half years. Oh okay. Yeah I'm gonna say yes seven and a half years and he's going to have to repay. Probably for the rest of his life. He's going to have gone with wages and he can never hold a position at a publicly traded firm or on a board. That's my prediction. According to the Australian financial review, members of the inner circle of power at collapsed. Cryptocurrency exchange, FTX formed a chat group. Called wire fraud and we're using it to send secret information about operations in the lead up to the company's failure. That is worth a lot. You're right. That's that's not the best name for. I hope that group and he's been and SPF has been charged with two counts of wire fraud. I I don't know much about the Australian financial review but I'm just gonna say it sounds legit and I hope this is right information. Yeah, it's really good. It's really is I'm very excited about the whole thing. The final CEO I wanted to discuss today. This is another publicly traded company. Believe It or Not WWE World. What is it? Worldwide wrestling entertainment, World Wrestling Entertainment. This is blue know this is a publicly traded company in our database map. Yeah it is. I don't believe it but it is. This is like a puppy John Storey, former WWE CEO. Vince McMahon wants to make a comeback according to how much people eating He retired in, he didn't retire. I mean, he stepped down and disgraced in July after a boarding investigation into misconduct, But now he's saying he believes he received bad advice and that the allegation would have blown over if he hadn't stepped away from the company. I, I don't like this type of reasoning, but I see, And I mean by stating publicly, you want to make a comeback like five months after you were basically asked to resign in disgrace, don't you? Bring back up all the allegations again so that they can't blow over, this is really bad idea. And according to the Wall Street Journal, there's a there's also a new allegation, which was previously unreported, but here's where, here's where it gets interesting for us. This is for the board saber metrics nerds in the house is in the house, which is awesome. That's just us. Let's talk about the numbers behind this. So, Vince McMahon was replaced by coce. One of whom is his daughter. Stephanie McMahon who now holds 39% of company influenced board influence. Right, it's pretty good. That's good. That's good. Chunk the co-ceo and this reminds me of self Salesforce is a man named Nick Khan company president who holds only 8% of companies, okay? So that. So let's start with that, right? His daughter has about the 40% of company influence. It is funny, the other person remaining on the board who has a amount of influence is a former wrestler named Triple H, Matt. Oh Who holds 32% of influence. So combined, he and Stephanie Stephanie is Triple H's wife. Oh, whoops. So the husband and wife that's that is Vince's daughter and son-in-law A control 70% of company influence. So that. So this situation is ripe for a comeback for a boomerang. It is it is the if he wants to come back to WWE, what are the, what are the chances that he can't? It's almost none, right? He could this is up to the family at this point, not to shareholders, according to our data first, according to our data, you heard it here first that Vince McMahon for the one person who's invested in WWE, you're going to be really annoyed when Vince McMahon makes this and here's why I did all this. Not only to plug our product but because of this beautiful side note which is that one of the named executive officers at WWE is a man named Paul Levesque, who was a wrestler, former wrestler Triple H. And you know what Triple H stands for Matt. I don't, it was his unscreen Persona of wealthy, sophisticated Hunter, Hearst Helmsley. So he began his wrestling career, parodying a well future executive essentially. He's he was parodying who he became. He is. Now a named executive officer Chief content. Officer has a second. Most influence on this company is bored. What? An amazing. Yes, you story. This he got to be your favorite thing and I know analyze gender's, a glass. Lewis are rolling your eyes at me saying that this isn't important. This is frivolous and silly, but this is real, this is real stuff, okay, people get over this is real in your database. I can't believe you hate glass Lewis, you get. And after Doug, Chia wrongly told us how they were named. I love them even more. Yeah, glass and Louie Douglas. Oh yeah, I already messed up, right? Get off for me. My copies really kicking in. Right. Here's an anti-wolf Roundup for you. I got three bits on the agenda today. First, an update out of Florida headphones, off flew Florida, who hates Financial returns and now, apparently Jews. I think that's I think we can officially say this to me. Yeah, I'm just saying, it's what's happening. Second Monica. Yeah, strive and Vivic Rama Swami, does its best ISS, interpretive dance. This way, this is gonna be a short one. And finally, as you said at the top, we've got some tape from an asset manager, who announced their own anti-wolf preceding pillars. We're just gonna play the tape before you get to this map. I did neglect to say that today's episode is sponsored by ESG, your ESG data solution, blah, blah blah, so you can't do that. They contractually said that you not allowed to play Silly sound effects after their sponsored but you said it like at the 30-minute Mark, I should say it again. Then today's episode is sponsored by ESG. Your ESG data solution there you made up for it. All right, first out of Florida. Florida announced two weeks ago. It was pulling two billion dollars at a black rock in a Ron DeSantis, send the immigrants to Martha's Vineyard political stunt, desantis's main complaints with BlackRock was a ESG investing quote sacrifices returns at the altar of the select few on elected corporate Elites and their radical woke. Agendas there's a lot of first of all, there's a lot of like nods to white supremacist there and that sounds made up. How do we know that their sacrifice and return and in sacrificing Sons very like, like heavy? Does it sound like demons? Yeah. And a statement announcing the state's decision Florida's, Chief Financial Officer. Jimmy Petronas. Is he from Goodfellas movie? I thought he was actually Harry Potter. Jimmy Patron. Oh yeah. Right said quote, I need Partners within the Financial Services industry who are committed as committed to the bottom line is we are and I don't trust, blackrocks ability to deliver you. Don't trust Black Rock. That's right, that's what he said. I mean, think of what he's thinking, what Jimmy Patronus is saying, Jimmy Patronus, who was in Waste Management up, he doesn't know Black Rock. Because I will say at this point, I think it's safe to say the BlackRock has been a bit of a failure. They haven't really amounted to much. They they really need to go look at the mirror and decide your dog Underachievers. Yeah it turns out though when you do research it becomes ridiculously obviously. This is a political stunt because in a Bloomberg note they found that 10 other firms, at least 10 other firms that oversee assets for the Florida Treasury. Are like BlackRock signatory to the um PRI. Whose first principal is incorporate ESG into Investments. Oh so BlackRock is one of at least 10 other firms. Yeah. But required Jimmy Petronas and Ronnie DeSantis actually look up stuff so that was hard looking things up but this from the great John Hale of Morningstar John listener. Yeah, I like John John's. You know, this is awesome. I met him, you know, there's a couple of people who you actually respect in the world. Most of my hate John's. One of the ones is Jimmy Patronus on that list. Jimmy Patronus is one of the ones what I would ask to whack somebody for me. I can say that I'm Italian. Okay. Oh, hell said he looked at publicly available data from Florida's, one of Florida's portfolios, as of March. And it showed that BlackRock their returns, according to Florida. Were ranked fifth out of ten. They literally returned market returns for Florida. It was Turns, in fact, he said, quote, based on these bottom line results, it's hard to imagine how a fiduciary could say with a straight face that he doesn't trust, blackrocks ability to deliver. And let that person has some other agenda. It's crazy talk. Thank you. John Hale, for being crazy, which means by processor liver. Think about process of elimination. Can we just say that this is anti-Semitism against Larry Fink now? Yeah, I mean, we've been saying it for a while but absolutely, I mean, not to mention that, I'm sorry. But as a Jewish person, I can say this, when I, when I read things like where was this? Demon sacrificing sacrifices, older of the select few unelected corporate Elite. I mean that is like that is anti-Semitism, those are true. I mean those are like the George Soros juices, dial it back Kyrie. Let's sorry. Oh my wrong here. all right, so next And the anti-wolf Roundup. This is out of iss's. Ohio branch strive Asset Management strive Vivic Rama. Swami's, anti-walk asset manager. If you do this to me, Released its proxy. Voting guidelines. Brand new hot off the press celebrate baby. Where's, where's my clapping? Where's my sharing? Where's? Where's the crowd? Going off? The crowd. Good. Here is a quick Roundup of their proxy. Voting guidelines. Okay. I'm gonna go in order. Actually, maybe I'll read them and you can choose whether they're for or against this thing. This will be the fastest game we ever play. Okay. I know, I know the right wing and the Republican Party, they're against everything, but already the game, Let's Play the four again against board diversity quotas Let me do how much time I think about this one. I need some I need some extra time to think about this. You get four seconds for one this is a dumb game. Come on there everything play the game come on again of course correct for against ESG and compensation of course again all those right there was a report out today that one of the reasons why oil and gas Executives and CEOs are making more money. This year is because of ESG Elementary to their pay their vivix, right? Yeah. You just gotta hand it to him ESG committees entirely for her again. Discussing again board chairs that say the word ESG. Here's actually what they say the quote is quote company has a history of taking strong actions, not in the best interest of shareholders. Okay. But again this is where Vivica was where I hate Vivica. The most proved to me what you're saying, there is no foot on that, there is no data point on that. There is no discussion on how They will determine that prove it is just, they're just saying board chairs. Who don't do that reports about Net Zero. Oh God, no reports in general, I would say no reports that is you just one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of their issues are no reports. The next report we'll just go over them quickly, as well, no reports include racial audits. Lobbying abortion, law risk. Racial pay gaps. Gender pay gaps. Human rights censorship taxes. Paid. They don't want taxes. Paid reported to be fair man against guy, Vivic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he actually dropped out of high school, right? It's not like he doesn't know report, right? He's not educated, right? I believe the jury is still out on that because he went to Harvard and Yale where, oh, probably asked them to write the occasional report. They also asked them at Harvard and Yale to footnote those reports that aren't offense. Because almost every source for where they're going to, like why they are considering something is either, BlackRock said they do it. So we say we don't or it's an op-ed I gotta tell you looking at some of those footnotes it's even worse than what they tell our children in middle school and High School which is don't footnote. Wikipedia, it's even below. Wikipedia, I'm serious. It really is, it's really bad. Let's just, you know, this game so to say, so to speak, which is to say a mission's caps recycling they're against they will vote against recycling. They're going to vote against recycling, diversity of any kind dictating employee compensation dispute resolution wages unionization questions. Any worker, safety that mentions diversity, they might be okay with worker safety, but if it says anything about diversity, they're against it. Well, this is where I know he's full of shit. Is that he's against Anything that could affect the reputational risk of the Enterprise, which is what is horseshit. He knows that's horseshit. Reputational risk is an important. Look at Tesla look what's happening to their shared because of reputational risk and rounding out. The against are compensation with an ESG metric, or CEO pay ratio limits. They don't want any CEO pay rate, CEO pay ratio could be 200 million to one. There are okay with that, should be Here is the list of fours. Are you ready, excited? Four. And these are quotes. Well no this one's this one's a near quote freeing management from constraints. Oh good. So he should take he should take this case to the SEC and to the listing exchanges. So I think we should do away with independent directors of all. Why do we need independent directors? Why do we need boards? What do you write for? What are we doing? What are we doing? They're constraining the man's. Absolutely. Yeah, this is a quote for quote, hiring decision based on Merit alone and that is directly to find marriage who gets to Define merit they do. With no evidence. They're good. They there's they don't say there's a keeper of Merit and this in this quote and they are for all board recommendations on proxies involving, extending director term limits maintaining, CEO chair combos serious seat limitations and any other governance. So really so Vivek, really this again, why you're an idiot, you gotta take this up with the SEC and the listing exchanges, because your problem is, is much bigger than what you think it is. There, the way I gotta say by the way, Vivic, please call us because we have the data to prove that if you want to hire based on Merit alone, then you're bored. They're going to be all women. One, 100% when we have we have the data to prove it. Yeah. It's gonna be all because they're actually more educated their male counterparts. I don't know what else. But Merit, you mean, I don't know what's that means. Because, you know, because Merrick can't include like your friends with Ron sugar. That's not Merit, I've run sugar. That's a deep cut from Sports. I have you ever seen? I've read, I annually. Read ISS class, Lewis's proxy, voting guidelines, black Louie, blackrocks, proxy, voting guidelines. I have friends. And some of these places we talk about things that they're voting on year in and year out. I have never seen a proxy voting guideline, that lists, 40 things that were going to vote against and nothing. No data, no. Nothing that they're gonna go to 2022. Republican party, man. This is the way the world is the way the culture war is, it's just against them again. Speaking of being against things, here's someone who's for something that sent us some tape. And these are their pillars of proxy voting. It's a new asset manager. I've never heard of these people. It's an, they're the, the name of the. The firm is really oddly similar to stride management. Just get to, it will use the tape. Here's the tape, right? Ready? Here it is. Today strahd Asset Management. Released its proxy. Voting guidelines that lay out how we intend to vote on a range of issues. Facing investors. I'm Roy and Vivek Swami. An update from strobe. Today, we released our five pillars of Awesomeness capitalism for Strode, where we strode into the future of capitalism by focusing on the awesome. And First, We Believe companies should be mission-driven and never ever deviate, ever from their original mission. For example, in 1886, John Pemberton, founded Coca-Cola with a mission to refresh the world with cocaine lace drinks. That's why strodes and Coca-Cola a letter asking, why the company is abandoned its original Mission and expanded into products that included a line of plant-based non-dairy. Smoothies was real ingredients, like hazelnuts. What is? Let me be clear the wokest of nuts and second, we expect our companies to be customer Centric. Customers come first, period, businesses should focus on the customers to create shareholder value. As long as those customers agree with everything, they say, when customers don't agree, and Wall Street demands, the company changes. That's just politics, not awesome. This, that's why we at Strode have a policy to vote against companies that focus on the wrong customers as identified by us at Strode. Constant and consistent innovators, a company that does the same thing every year with no new features, would eventually have no customers companies. Need to constantly change as long as that change isn't political or motivated by anything other than their original mission statement as written. Yeah, climate change. This is why we vote against any shareholder proxy that asks, for disclosure of a company's mission statement. So we can assume they're changing while staying true to our desire for them to stay true to their original intent. Fourth pillar. Financial discipline. There are no politics and finance or financial discipline what so ever, none Capital allocation should be focused on financial considerations, not plant-based Dairy politics which is why we wrote a letter to Chevron requesting that they repeal all disclosures. They have that have more than one number on them. How many numbers do we need? The only one we need is how much money a company made financial decisions aren't about numbers. There are about one number money. And finally, our last pillar deals with meritocracy, we it Strode are tired of companies wasting their resources searching for diverse people to employ at the cost of Merit, which is why we resolve to file shareholder resolutions, asking every company with diverse employees to prove those employees, Merit jobs. These are the Strode principles of Awesomeness capitalism, and they will guide our decisions that we make for our clients. And as a fiduciary, our job is to say no to whatever the majority of asset managers in their clients want. That's the beauty of markets supposed to be a place where everyone's voice can be heard no matter how irrelevant that opinion is to reality. And that's what we value. We value A diversity of voices. That agree with us. And I'm Roy and Vivic Swami appreciate your investment. Did he change the name of the company time? Strove and Strode? No Strode. The whole talks really fast, he's really used up really good for him. Can I just say that before we wrap up, the things that are true from from strives, what was their proxy guidelines, voting guidelines. Yeah, they actually have five pillars of something called Excellence capitalism. Wow. This sounds like an we got a knockoff brand, maybe we got there. No, but that's serious. Like they know. I know that's what they think is. I, I know I'm beating a dead horse here but they're Being customer-centric is so stakeholder. Capitalism. First of all, sure. This this thing about Innovation, and yet being against like, Recycling and climate, I this is once again, Matt, you are right. This is absolutely just theater. This is another theater, this is theater. This is, they are strive. Makes it clear that they're for consistent Innovation, but they want companies, these are quotes We expect companies in our funds to be constant, innovators, and quote companies that stay true to their missions were old costly and time consuming distractions. Those two things are often in opposition when things change. Like if you stay true to one like Netflix should still be sending out DVDs. Well that I actually I agree with that one. No. I mean that's Damien Rollins. I'm Adam Scotty. We are free float that was anti-wolf. Woke Wednesday go get bored. Saber metrics. Just do it. If you don't do it get it from us. Call us just email me Christchurch do it and Damien's off all next week so enjoy him this week you enjoy them. Now while he's here until tomorrow goodbye