Transcript
Oh, my favorite music, my favorite show live. I don't have to yell over this music. It's a little weird live from a CEO's College Dropout, fake diploma made of billion dollar bills. I I'm just trying to think about this. What does a College Dropout CEO? What are they put up on their wall? Oh, that's an excellent question, right? Let's let's out their credentials. Hey, listen leadership. It's all new terrifically, Tuesday edition of business pants joined by Anna's home at mascardi on today's Christmas cookie with the Satya Nadella hazelnut spread called December. 16th 2025 business nuggets. I'm not I'm not into the Nadella and Nutella that I'm not into puns. Yeah, I don't do puns but I know that a few weeks ago I did a Warren Buffett brunch. So I thought I'll just try another one. You're supposed to say that you're writers came up with that my writers. Our show today is being sponsored by free-float analytics and free full analytics.com. The only platform measuring board power connections performance for free. I will say this, I've been spending time that there's the the the the the Nerds Who operate free flow analytics.com? Yeah, our working on a new product. They're calling it a scorecard right now. I don't know what that means. I don't know what I don't like the name of that, but I gotta tell you, it is, it's blowing my mind. There's so much more data. There's so much more functionality. They're integrating news stories, they have board, hierarchies board connection. It's just incredible. It's really it's, and I'm not just saying that I'm not trying to even sell anything because nothing's actually for sale. It's not out. It's just saying it's from a researchers perspective, from anyone who works in this field. Anyone who cares about ESG data and this crap? It's incredible. It's really. I mean, so useful. It, I mean really the I love you msci, but when I go there and when I say I love you what I really mean is thanks for the paycheck for a few years. I mean, it wasn't that great of a paycheck, but thanks I guess. But when you go there to ESG manager to look at the data you, I'm still like basically working off a PDFs. Like, yeah, yeah. There's there's Still got like, this is incredible. Her car. This ever cards if links little like a sports, like, like, a fantasy Sports website. It's got all your news about your players, and your stuff. It's really question is, will this ever be released? Or we'll just stay on my computer only probably just just to you just to us. It'll be a permanent beta test. Ready for Biz nuggets? Yeah, let's do. Some nuggets pretend to laugh. After a very depressing weekend, it wasn't again, I'm gonna start Brown Alum. I am not stoked. Well, no comment our here we go. I don't want to talk about. We're trying to live in things up here. Okay. in our, Oracle's are fine, but Emperors and Popes are icky. Headline of the week. Charlie Munger warned, that black rock holds too much power and didn't want Larry Fink? Becoming an emperor. Oh hey, Charlie. Munger who said he didn't want his daughter to date someone from Swarthmore? Yes. Oh I didn't, yeah, yes, yes, he said, I like this. He said we have a but we have a new bunch of Emperors and they're the people who vote the shares of the index funds. Maybe we can make Larry Fink and the people at Vanguard Pope First of all, I like to kind of misunderstands the role of Pope. I mean, it's not, it's not several people, right? You can't make the people at Vanguard command, Larry Fink Pope, I like that. He doesn't know the people's names at Vanguard. I know that I like and I like the heat that he doesn't realize that his own partner Warren. They called an oracle, which is really like a profit, right? Isn't an oracle, basically, a prophet of the god, like, isn't it? What's the difference? What's the difference? I mean, the prophet just speaks truths the play. That's okay. That, that one's, okay. Yeah, the pope anyway, I just thought that was cute. All right. And who are the people at Vanguard, by the way, do they have that? That's the real question. No, apparently they don't people at Vanguard. They're not worth naming. in our, What we do is totally okay, but what they do is totally icky headline of the week. Well, icky today Schwab CEO, Rick wurster draws a bright line between investing and gambling. Do you think Vlad tenev at Robinhood agrees? What about the fact that aren't isn't NASDAQ about the basically 24/7? Like aren't we gonna be trading all the time now? Like, I mean, we've had he seen Tesla, has he seen the Tesla stock price? Which is the bright line, I don't like what like because there's a there's basically an AI bubble in stocks is that line. Whereas line, do you realize we haven't talked about a lot. Do you realize that there are companies now that that they do prediction markets? They let you bet you predict things and you bet they're becoming publicly traded companies? Yeah. Well no. Here's the real problem. Go ahead. What's the difference between gambling and investing if you buy meta stock? You buy Zuckerberg, he has a dual-class control. You have no because you have no, because as an investor and shareholder. I think what you're saying is that you have no voice. So just like if you're watching the Cowboys and the Giants, you don't have to say like it turns out, I don't call the place for the Cowboys and I don't get to call up the board. Andrew you know, our Bob Iger says water. Skiing is the new productivity headline of the week? Europe's Alps on track to lose 97% of glaciers by the centuries and 97%. That's a That's a lot of water. I'm, yeah, that is a lot. I'm gonna say this though that joke is a very deep cut because here's the, you would have. Here's know the reference, here's the quote, Disney CEO Bob auger made a deal with, of course, with openai this week worth a billion dollars where basically the way they spelled it out initially, is that the users can now insert themselves into Disney products? Yeah, using AI blah. I don't care. But the way he, the way he made this sound, incredible was by saying creativity, is the new productivity? Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of Sense in a mush mouthy way. Yeah, so he says, the AI will handle efficiency in human. Creativity will become the primary value driver. What does he talk about? I don't know what he's talking about. The I mean he just made a deal with open AI. Who is stealing Jobs first from like artists. And you know, like writers and people who are creative and he is suggesting that AI is actually going to be that creative people are going to be the people who are the most valuable. Yeah, there's a, a economy. There's article out today suggesting that someone in the people in the c-suite, are saying that companies are spending 93% of dollars on AI in 7% on their workforces. So I don't know, I don't know Bob's right? I don't know. Is that real? Is that a real? That's that, that's the headline. That's the article an hour. You're going to love will. He's really good at kickball headline of the week. This is the headline, you know, I love these stupid, his headline Union, Pacific a points will to board of directors. Wait, is that to make it clear? There's another headline that says, Union Pacific, appoint CF Industries CEO. Tony will to board of directors, but I like the one, the bummer. I like that. Just, what kind of a headline is that? Points will. You just will come on. Yeah. Will this guy formation over their will, is there still? Is there like a character limit to headlines? Is it Twitter? Is it still a Twitter thing? I don't even know. one more before I hit it off to you, in our First, they were better at ice cream and now they are better at bored Independence. Sho offz headline of the week how about this one Ben and Jerry's plans to set board term limits? Wow, also removing three directors. So part of it is they want to preserve the mission of the company which is a social justice center Mission. I'm looking at you open AI. The directors, tried to do that too, right? They tried to preserve the mission by firing Sam Altman. But now we're, you know, that is partnering with Target and Walmart and Disney and Disney. Yeah, so much the non-profit. But creativity is the new productivity, but Ben and Jerry's, you know, something we don't talk about here and maybe we should start talking about more. We're always complaining about other directors on these boards with 30 years, aboard tenure, why don't we have Board limits. Why don't we have like term limits? Well, somebody needs to tell Ford because Mr. Corp gov had tipped to Mr. Court gov who does substack on governance stuff. Just noted that Ford decided to change his bylaws to eliminate age limits. Okay, are you on that board? Honestly, I don't, I never really got the age limits thing if you if you're still with it. But then why would we get rid of you? But but if you don't have to get on a board that's true. And Ford's dual class. So, basically, like the Ford family runs it, right? Like that. They own the majority of the shares. I don't know. I just think the age limits a little icky as they say icky. Oh yeah, oracles popes and age, limits are all. Come on, go! What he got me? All right. I'm gonna bring us even further up. Mine were pretty upbeat. I like will, well, I like will too. In our Milestone is include dinner with tech Bros phone calls with tech Bros, giving gold plated fake Awards to Tech Bros hiring other Tech Pros. Lawyers and bricking your old phone headline of the week. Tim Cook's 74.6 million dollar 2020 for pay ranked seventh amongst us CEOs. Amid Apple Milestones, it's a very specific headline, it's very deep. I already know which Milestone I mean, I think they're talking strictly about stock price, right? And or like earnings as a mile cap. Yeah. I but it, yeah, go ahead. It, couldn't it, possibly be. The Milestone was Tim Cook decided to get on his knees and be one of the children with the other children, right? Like the other Tech bro, children, you're joking about this. You've joked about before, the Tim Cook gave Donald Trump. Some stupid, Gold Award gold thing, right? Yeah. The reality, the real thing. What he get gave him his even like funny or in dumber than what you're calling it. He gave him a 24 karat gold plaque? Yeah, yeah. Stupidest. It's like a gold star stupidest thing ever. It's like he you know, the participation trophy as much as I hate big Tech bro. Watches at least the watch like keeps time but essentially, I like, if if you're gonna go for it, if you want to go for it, do the FIFA route or just they made up a piece of Ward and gave it to Trump just because yeah. But if FIFA is known across, the globe is being the single most corruption. Like, yeah. So, come on, in our, To put that into context, Tim Cook is just shy of 30 PBS's, headline of the week, 30 PB, Arkansas becomes first state, to cut ties, with PBS saying, 2.5 million dollar membership, dues not feasible. Oh my god, seriously. So there's no one we don't have one. Arkansas is what, right? The Waltons. Can't afford one Walton, that doesn't understand the value of like PBS 2.5 million. Just not feeling. That's depressing, isn't that the lowest like for you Arkansas? Like, literally that's like a middle class iBanking job at like, JP Morgan or something, isn't it? Like that's I mean, I tried to share doing one of the new stories we track here is every time an Insider usually a direct or executive sells Least 1 million dollars worth of shares, right? I only tagged the ones that hit the 1 million dollar. Mark, the Walton family hits that all the time and it's like every 30 million dollars a shares, right? Like, it's crazy. I mean, I think, I think they can afford it. I think you can save, PBS in Arkansas and all Arkansas. Where is Michael Dell? Can we just establish the fact that so PBS if you're not in this country is public broadcasting system. They do like Sesame Street, it does like kids, like, like incredibly in nature. Documentary is about armadillos. Exactly like that and, like, not what? It's not remotely political honestly. Well, conservatives don't like, That is incredibly unbiased at PBS, this is just like news, it's just like this happened. It's like the whole news hour at PBS. But there's not like like Sam Altman left 2.5 million dollars under his couch this month. Like we're talking about philanthropy fall. He's not one person who can save PBS. Oh there's state of Arkansas several one. Yeah. What else? All right, in our Also. Climate change will make your backyard irrelevant headline of the week. Sorry six-figure earners. Elon Musk says that money will disappear in the future as AI makes work and salaries. Irrelevant, what's he going on about this? What does he like, what kind of like science fiction book for teenagers to see reading after he spoke? He also maybe it's the same book that told him that we need to get to Mars immediately because the Sun is going to eat the Earth. Didn't he? Well, why does he think that we? Why is he think making work? Irrelevant? So like something that champion what why is that so important? I think that we all All We crave is just nothingness. And Leisure is that what he thinks that the goal of humanity is I? Well it's these guys honestly but since Reagan there's been like the welfare Queen's like that whole narrative that like there's a whole class of people and usually the talking about like brown people or people like me was specifically black women. Yes. But I think they've extended it to the These people who are late show up at this country, they're lazy and they live off of the government. Now, they're basically talking to them and saying like, you know what, you don't even need to work anymore, because AI will do it. All for us. Is that who they're talking to? Because no one, I know thinks this is a good idea. So why then why is the Trump Administration announcing that they're going after snap fraud? The people the the poor people who are perpetrating fraud for SNAP benefits or I don't know what the hell they're going to me. Like there's an entire industry called crypto that just does fraud as its business or finding snap. Yeah. Oh, come on in our also fading cakes on birthdays. Barbecues on July, 4th, giving thanks on Thanksgiving and water in water coolers headline of the week. The taboo against holiday. Layoffs is fading. Oh, that's what I don't like that headline. Why is it fading? Don't know why? Give it up on everything. Okay, there's no, there's no moral Center. There's no because there's no true. It is a cruel. We've become a cruel. It's funny about us Americans, is that we are one thing that is notable, and that you hear from from a lot of other people who don't live in America is that we actually are as individuals, quite friendly and helpful. Like we will, we will give our times and efforts to each other in ways that other countries won't. And yet we are all the most cruel people hate our poor people. We hate our, like, I don't understand. And let's wrap up my uplifting section in our, when 2034 is just too soon. Headline of the week. Ryanair CEO. Michael O'Leary plans to step down by 2035. Look, I had that I love that he is entered this world. We always make fun of all the The Net Zero, 2050 pledges and how You know we know they're never gonna hit them and no one's ever gonna attract. This is great you gotta love him for I pre-announcing A resignation 10 years from now and actually, it leads to my joke. Can I keep going? Yeah, please in our Ryanair. Board is officially told. It doesn't matter headline of the week. Michael, O'Leary to step down from Ryanair leadership by 2035. I, yeah. What do you need a succession planners now for? But the board, can't even, I mean suffer. I mean, yeah, right, they came fire. I guess they can't have, they have no say, and anything he does for the next 10 years. I don't know what the hell. This is. I don't understand this. He's also 64 years old at what point is he like is he the Ford board? That's true. He can't they just they're age was 72 and they got rid of it. So now 73 years old, he didn't go over there. Speaking of Tim Cook and our hey Ma Fortune ripped off those dumb dudes. At free flow tell, Dad headline of the week, listen to this headline. From Fortune. This Is Us by the way. They got this from us. Tim Cook Out earns, the average American salary in just seven hours. Wow. That's that is that's our joke. Yeah. All right. Well, that's all gonna say. I actually think I actually think they might have that wrong. Seven hours, he probably earns it in like two or three hours, right? Like If he's my lunch, I said he's making, you said he made 70 million dollars, 76 million. Yeah, and our joke is that a lot of these CEOs are making their the, the average, the median employee pay by like lunch. Do you think it really is taking him seven hours to make as much as I don't know? I don't know. They must only be counting like they must be counting. I don't know how to midnight maybe, because we start the our joke from 9 a.m. that's the yeah, we're doing time. Work days. Maybe they're saying, oh, maybe they're saying midnight. I think they're saying every hour. Yeah. Yeah, this is the dumbest conversation we've ever like. Had this next one's not so well, it's done, but it's all so angry. in our, McDonald's median. Employee. Delivers blunt reaction to Career advice from McDonald's, CEO. That may hurt his feelings in new Instagram video. Fuck you and your 1014 and one pay ratio. Wow. The week that's pretty blunt. The median employee knows the pay ratio. Here's the most impressive thing. McDonald's CEO delivers blunt career advice. That may hurt your feelings and new Instagram video. It's basically like some dumb thing where Chris Kempinski is telling you like no one, no one cares about, you know, it's gonna help you, like, just let me deal with it, I'll just do mine now because I am headline, you ready? Yeah, go ahead and are remember no one cares as much about you, as you. In fact, I don't care at all about you or your career. I'll take it a step further. I hate you. Oh, you're basically the worst. This might hurt your feelings, but your mother hates you, too. You might as well be Hitler. Oh, but this is just tough love. If you want your career to flourish as a cashier at McDonald's all. So you're fired headline of the week. Big Donald CEO. Liver is blunt, career advice, that advice, he gave ya. The advice he gave is he said, quote, the advice I would give is remember, nobody cares about your career as much as you do. So this idea that there's somebody out there who's looking out for you, who's going to make sure that you get that opportunity, what the right thing, great, if it happens. But at the end of the day, nobody cares more about your career than an asshole. This guy is a true. It's really fucking Next Level. And I want to remind people of this story that we covered here a lot in 2021. Yes. We've actually been a company that long how I don't know how but I don't even know in 2021. Chris Kempinski addressed the shooting of of seven year old Jason Adams and 13 year old Adam Toledo and Chicago, right? Yeah, this happened Chicago. They visited. He said he wrote PS. Tragic shootings in last week both at our restaurant yesterday. And with Adam told Dayo, We spelled it wrong. Even spelled it wrong. Nice. With both the parents fail, those kids, which I know is something you can't say even harder to fix. So he basically he's children. Were shot in a McDonald's and he blamed the parents? Yeah. He's a CEO. This is the CEO. Who's now telling workers all around the world. Fuck you, you're alone. We're No One's Gonna care about you. We're not here to help you guys a jerk. He should go with Ken Griffin to Miami, maybe he should give up his CEO job. If you've ever done a picture of him, there's a zero percent chance that he actually eats McDonald's either. And I Will say this there, actually. I I know this is the trend of American CEOs, but there's actually no rule in America that CEOs have to be this cold-hearted. We don't have to be this way. That's turns out. It doesn't have to be. Yeah. And our Actor, becomes more powerful voice than entire ESG industry. Headline of the week. Actor, Joseph Gordon, Levitt wonders. Why AI companies don't have to follow any laws. I also wonder that. Yeah, where's the? I Sometimes wonder like the investment industry ESG industry. Like why are they not also like because they upset about these dual-class tech companies that are like analyzing the implications of the thing. Okay. Look Like nobody in our industry. Says anything. Right? That's part of the one of the reasons why I personally left msci, which you call the mothership? Was that? Yeah, there's not there wasn't really a lot of saying of things. You don't, you don't say stuff. You don't do anything out loud stuff. So by way of a tangential story, we did I worked on a report with with an exit. Now ex msci employee it was about, it was about women in finance and how any equal it is, right? And the report we wanted to look at the talent pools where Banks would Source their employees from and compare it to the actual number of employees in the banks to see if like are there there's a lot of educated women in this country of the state. Are there more women than men in this company, right? Like it was that kind of thing and one of the things that we found was obviously that there's more women in the lowest ranks of the company and no women at the top right now, 93 percent of companies, don't leverage their talent pool at the top of the company, but they leverage it at the bottom of the company. And the thing we wrote Into the report was There's an opportunity as an investor for a sort of gross cultural Arbitrage because women get paid 80 cents on the dollar to men. But they're equally talented, right? You could get cheap Talent by leveraging, the fact that culturally you could pay women less than some of these places and it's okay. Yeah. Obviously that got cut out, they cut that out. Yeah. That was the part that was the thing because that was the gross thing, that's the gross reality. No one says, the gross reality. No one does that, it's too much. Well, Jason Joseph Gordon Levitt. Actor is wandering the right questions, right. Why he said the gross reality, why are AI companies? Why are they allowed to break the laws? And finally, in my section in our, Okay, I gotta get my mouth ready for this one in an hour. Freddy fifth full. And Billy Bothell. Named as interim, CEOs. While Donnie duffel has been named independently director headline of the week. I'm not at all. So Freddy Fifth and Billy Bothell are the new interim CEOs. Well Donnie duffel is a new lead director. The real headline is Barry Biffle steps down his Frontier Airlines. Just strictly the name before making model. Barry Biffle. Come on. I had to I had I couldn't resist, Berry by the way. Leave it lead to direct your Donnie. Duffle is he's very experienced Tony. Duff is that a real lead to please tell me first and he kind of fell for it. Come on. All right I've only got a couple more in our man who said you should fire the assholes? I have a lot of friends who are Democrats and their idiots and I'm not mad at you, you can be mad at me. It's a free country. You can walk with your feet says emotional intelligence. And communication are keys in the AI, future headline of the week. Jamie dimon says soft skills like emotional intelligence and communication or vital as AI eliminates roles. Oh, that's right. Who said he said, remember those are Quotes direct quotes. He said, I have friends who are Democrats and they're idiots great. You should fire the ass. That guy that guy's telling us that we need soft skills. Like communication. It's a free country. You can walk with your feet is that about return to office mandates? What is the what? Yeah, he was upset about. He was upset that like he was telling everyone they had to come back to the office and people were upset if you want. He's, he went on a long rant about how like forget about Friday's working from home whenever Friday's working from home, I try to call people can't get a hold of anyone. What the fuck is that? Like, he was like, I don't believe, by the way, I don't, I don't believe people, so they're leaving their cell phone to home. While we're at nobody, there is a great for any of you who care about our all of our great. Jamie Diamond, says pieces that we do, there is a great piece in the guardian about his new headquarters. He built it is just a wonderfully poetic takedown of This monstrous new steel structure that they built in Manhattan. It's worth a chuckle. If you if you look it up the guardian, the new headquarters. It's all funny almost funny almost as good as Donnie duffel as lead. Independent directors. Well what else you got? I got three more in our is AI, an immigrant? Does that count headline of the week? Rich Western countries face. A stark Choice. Six-Day work weeks or more immigration. Top Economist warns? Well, we are actually nothing about like four-day work weeks. Like all the CEOs are like we're I thought you said we're not working, yeah? Right. No one has to work. You can work a three-day week. Meanwhile, this guy is saying, if you want to survive, we need Six-Day work weeks or immigrants. Well, over the summer, one of the big trumpian anti-walk talking points was the Superman movie because Superman was, you know, he's, he was they were talking about how he's an immigrant essentially, right? He's from another effing country Planet. Yeah. Planet play that, right? Qualifies them. That's immigration know. He's the only illegal alien. Yeah, everyone else is an undocumented immigrant. He is an illegal alien. So real your point. Yeah, I do like this question is, what AI will we do? We give AI citizenship that's a Great question. We know it'll we know it won't pass the citizenship test though because it gets a lot wrong. Right? Like yeah yeah. Would probably fail. Yeah, because it hallucinates and it'll say that the first president of the US was like Oprah Winfrey. So I don't know if it'll pass so just don't ask it 10 times but that's a great question. That's a great question. In our most, people aren't fretting about an AI bubble. What they fear is mass layoffs headline of the week. Well, That's an actual headline. Yeah. The second actual headline is a very hostile climate for workers. You US, Labor movement, struggles, under Trump. Okay, I really don't like that. Those are two real headlines from like the last two days, right? Like where people are just basically afraid they're gonna get laid off and we know that all the data is doctored at this point. So who knows what's real? And the labor movement can't figure out how to stop anything? Like they're getting crushed now, it's tough, it's tough. Because you have a the labor movement, which is a lot of the, the unionized workers, typically in this country are now part of the Maga movement. So they're being told that. You know, unions are bad. So is it's a strange strange world? It's a kerfuffle. And finally, let's get out of Bonnie. Said, it's a Barry Biffle. This is, this is my version of an uplifting one, okay. In our, go ahead, Trump issues executive order. 323 the Banning of woke seagrasses headline of the week, a secret weapon for fighting climate change, comes surging back. Listen this yeah, capturing carbon 35 times faster than the Amazon seagrasses have faced centuries of decline now. Restoration projects across North America are seeing their Meadows quadruple in size. How does the Trump admission deal with that? We got like six, dudes walking up and down the coast planting sea grasses to save our Earth. Yeah, from from carbon pollution and there. Yeah, I'm waiting for the executive order. The band Sea grass, well, no joke, we've covered extensively this year, the story at Cracker Barrel where you know the sign change was considered Anti was considered woke and then, yeah. Marco Rubio is, he's restricting, the change of a font is that a Colibri colibries? Woke? Because it because maybe like women can read it, I don't even know why I couldn't understand why it was. It wasn't women. It was. Yeah. It was the dead. I don't remember. It was somebody. So what are they gonna do about these secrets? I don't know. Well, we gotta start pulling them out. We gotta replace them with plastic. We just put plastic cans and like it's already happened. So in the ocean, that's all we got. That's a little notice. That was not an uplifting episode. I'm your analy right. Chuck free float. Yeah, you chuckled because it will got a really good. I make myself laugh. I know, none of our listener. We have Union Pacific. Got will, I know, no one likes my stupid. But look, I spent a lot of time in these headlines and I deserve a break. Yeah, feel free to take one. Let me chuckle. This is it? We're gonna have a show on Friday. Well, but this Wednesday, we actually have a very special proxy countdown and a very special shareholder to see coming out they come out tomorrow. Wednesday. Do I have to does that mean I have to do more work? Know there's a double drop it is we're dropping two episodes at once and it is a crossover episode Mike Levin and Lipton hazelnut Rallis and yours. Truly, the analyst whole all together, talking about 2026 proxy season, a little bit of 2025 for a year in review, its gonna be great. It's fabulous. It's actually the probably the most I've ever learned doing a podcast. Why was there? Yeah, because Anne was there, that was the only redeeming quality that's it. Come back later until then goodbye.