Transcript
Okay, ready. Oh, ready for a convoluted joke. Here we go, live. From my favorite msci, pickup line. Oh, are you from the committee on climate change? Because you're the only Triple C, i c. Well, I worked it in the CIA. That's my first msci. You know hard? It is right at msci, joke, nobody cares. Nobody knows guy is it's a business pants Friday show here at August 22nd Studios featuring analyst whole Matt mascardi. Yes, we're Grace by his presence. Yeah. Grace is what it would be on. Today's weekly wrap up, another anti Volk meltdown ignores. Yeah, they ignored Target, but they paid attention to Cracker Barrel. Another reason not to use Uber. And he did one and this week's guest host on I have a lot of dumb jokes this week and this week's guest host on Saturday Night Live, Andy ESG. Like Auntie like you're doing puns now. I don't know, I call my aunt's on so I don't say, I ask you. Did you fire the staff writer after they killed jokes? Our show today is being sponsored by free. Float, analytics.com. The only platform measuring board power connections and performance for free. I don't know if everybody who's watching the show and or just caught. Why would you watch? I mean, you should but caught that last part that last part is important. This is the only platform measuring board power connections and performance for free with any, the only thing measuring, I mean, it's the only thing that does that at all. But no, it's something. We had a lot today. Let's we gotta just get right into it. Alright. Yeah. That's to it. No banter. No sound effects. Come on. Let's just talk. You can't you know the boss of me. oh, I only have three stories this week. That's the story of the week, only three. Well one of them is like 45 pages long. Let's start with the horrible one. I'm calling this the end of summer anti-wolf, bro. Rage braids. That's catchy. I mean, think about what they've done to themselves. First of all, I mean, they loved the summer and they first, they took away their ability to get drunk on Bud Light because of some weird anger. I don't know. I like that. So there are already sad and now it's like, it's almost fall. And they have to send their kids back to schools and they hate schools because you know, they do well. They are woke. Yeah, those are woke. So they're just pumpkin spice lattes. Do they like pumpkin? No pumpkin. Seems woke. Its orange. It does feel. So, here we go. He's another one. Here's the headline. New Cracker Barrel logo Sparks, right wing backlash from Trump Junior and more now We were giving a talk this week at, what was that? A seminar class? Yeah, certification Readiness program? Yeah, when it was like the premiere one, if you were interested Roosevelt Giles runs it was great there. Really good. And at that seminar, we were talking about a company called, I've already forgot country General, a Casey's, general Casey's General Stores. Yeah, I've never really heard of. And now the big, the next big story is about a restaurant that I've never really heard of cold Cracker Barrel. I don't even really know what Cracker Barrel is a Cracker Barrel close by Daddy. Yes, I've never seen anyone there. I don't know. I don't know what they're well. That's like, that's the funny part of the story is that they haven't been doing well so they better, do something different. But anyway, here's what Maga I want to read some of the headlines Maca. Erupts over crackle, Cracker Barrel, logo change and stop plunges plunges. Yeah, well, it didn't, I mean, That that's never really true. That part of the headline. They don't Doesn't really plunge. It goes down like 8%. In fact today it's already. It's OMG, it's up today so I don't know. But they're also mad about right winger others. Call out, woke new change to Cracker Barrel's peg game. They're, they're a Christian College is Matt. Okay, so let me just I'll try to do this. Simply there was kind of like, a weird old, crusty white. Dude, it was part of the Cracker Barrel logo. Now he's been removed and I guess that's a woke thing to do. Also. Yeah. Go ahead. You want to say something? Well, yeah, I mean so, I Just for pointing context. Yeah, this is not the first time, the logo has changed. The logo has changed a couple times. Well, that was actually put on my pop quiz at the end. What was it is this the original logo? Because everyone's talking about Heritage, which, we know, is like a dog whistle here. Yeah, it's just for the white side people. Yeah. And I did, I looked at it as, like, wait first of all, this chain is only been open since 1969. It's not exactly like an American, I kind of company. And yeah, you're right. It started with a logo without the dude that had no, dude. That's the word Cracker Barrel in later. It's okay, later. Once again, it's actually closer to its route. Yeah, then the dude was, but the dude's been around since like 1977. And I just all of the elements of this are devoid of facts because like stock plunges. So the stock was trading at 71 72 dollars at the end of July. They put this logo out like two days ago, right? End of July is trading at 72 by the Beginning of August, it's trading at 56. So the stock plunge 22% having nothing to do with the logo. You want to know what happened? They announced no one's going to the stores. Yeah, that's that they put out financials that should no one eats their. What really seemed to happen is a combination of probably, you know, poor food quality. The fact that people aren't going to restaurants and covid. Covid really did a number on this specific but of course it did. So Cracker Barrel turns out ranks Below. Have you ever heard of the chain? Zaxby's? Know have heard of Mr. BEAST's Burgers know. How about Bojangles? Yes, I've heard of that. Okay, so Cracker Barrel. Yeah, ranks below all of them. Well, the number of locations. It is a publicly traded company. It's hurting in our database and that's why I want to talk about it because I think the really, the key thing that they're going after here. I think subconsciously is the unusual fact. That the the CEO was actually a woman. Yeah. Can you believe it? Wait, Did you hear what? I just said? There's actually a company where the CEO is a woman. Well, but that exists a backlash. I'm just saying the only reason why there's then, of course, it is, is because there's a backlash, you wouldn't be a backlash. Her name is, no man, Julie Fells miseno and I and the board is half is also half women. I mean, this is crazy, so I guess women's like the Locust company, I guess women hate men, old men and barrels, and but they hate barrels. Most, there's a lot of weird takes on this. There's one college Hillsdale College compared this to people. Protesters during the George Floyd protests, abandoning a statue of President, George Washington. I don't really get that one. What does that mean? Do you get any of them know which is the other one? How about this Congressman Byron? Donald's is angry because he had a religious experience once in the parking lot there. Oh yeah, I actually had a religious experience. So I guess it's equating it says I even gave my life to Christ in their parking lot so I guess he's had less of that. I guess he's saying that this is a Christy play there. Really just like a church grasping for about this, the CEO of the media company. The Federalist He's angry because in the game they play at Cracker Barrel, and it's less mean. Now, it's less sarcastic and he's angry about that. He, I don't even know what that reference is. I don't know. Well, I guess there are directions in this peg game and it makes fun of you if you lose and now it's not making funny view as much. So just showing pegging is does he know what pegging is? He says that it also changed the, it also changed the peg game to make dumb people feel better when they do poorly. This is so it doesn't dunk on them. This is the media company that up until 2017 had a tag in their online that they call black crime. That was one of their tests, really? No, I'm serious. That's an organization Prime. They, that they would tag things black crime, if it was perpetrated by a black person in the United States. So this is just more craziness but you know and again, I I okay I should go down one more Rabbit Hole. I know you're already bored of the store. I love know, I love this story because it's so this is on a fox business.com. The headline is Steak and Shake, slams, Cracker Barrel CEO for eliminating old-timer from logo. The quote is we take pride in our history. Now, first of all, everyone's announcing everything on, on Twitter, on X for some reason. I don't know why everyone has to make their announcements there. But here's what Fox Business, donk.com doesn't tell you is that Steak and Shake is actually owned by a man who was born in Iran, not that that matters but you know, I got Republicans, they don't seem to like Outsiders, but his name is Sardar biglari. Matt, he actually owns 9% of Cracker Barrel. And since 2011 seven times, he has tried to run proxy contest at Cracker Barrel four times. He has tried to get himself on the board. He fails every single time. So here's that the hidden meaning in some of these. So he's attacking Cracker Barrel. Greg about who won't let him on the board and Steak and Shake. Here's what's happened at Steak and Shake, he took over Steak and Shake in 2008. He also owned things like first Garden Insurance, some petroleum company Maxim. Like the, it's like a yeah, he's a self-styled Warren Buffett. I think. I think that's the, he liked to call him. So he took over sick, chicken 2008, but it continues to have problems. It's struggled ever since then in 2021, even he fired a bunch of, he reduced a bunch of staff and made like self-serve kiosks. Instead of actually hiring people to serve their that's what old timers did the whole timer on the logo of Cracker Barrel. Yeah, he loved a good self. So my point, my point in all this mess is that it's all a bunch of nonsense. I mean, that's all I can think this. You missed even Rockstar book weighed in on this. Oh, great. Did you see Robbie Robbie Starbucks, who we actually haven't covered? We talk a lot about show. I've reached out to him and he's the, the, so-called citizen journalists. Which my point is that, if you're not, if you didn't actually go to, you don't have a degree in journalism, everyone to Citizen journalist ever a degree in journalism, right? I'm a citizen journalist, he was citizen oil, it really story. We didn't cover is Meta Meta just tired him to make sure that their AI is not too woke, right? They paid him a consulting fee to avoid a lawsuit with him because their AI said he was at January 6th. So yeah, should be Out of. But he was angry about because he wasn't at January 6th and then I don't know, I don't really know like the psychology behind it but they effectively it's just another reason to delete Instagram. But do anything more to say about this because I'm gonna tell you why I picked the Cracker Barrel story. So I have a couple things. First of all, here's Robbie Starbucks. Note oh yeah, right on X. Okay. He wrote note to restaurant CEOs, like Cracker Barrel, CEO, Julie, Fells, that's what. You know, they can name, right? That's the only CEO. They have her name. Yeah, only ever named the women. Okay. When they're angry at them. People don't want lgbtq food. They don't want that food. I want all that food, but what does that don't? They don't want Republican food. They just want good food and service and they don't want to fund values. They deeply oppose very simple formula. That's what he said. Okay, but they didn't Rebrand the food. They actually just a sign. And they got rid of a picture of an old man, I want to Ruby. This is a company that needs a turnaround. This is a company that hired her to help it sit Bvlgari has been waging proxy. Contests. 2011, because the company is struggling, this is a company that needs to change. This is my smart data pain, okay? So um, guest traffic decreased 3.5% and 2023 and 5% in 2024. It is down again. This year, they disclosed in 2023 that 43% of Cracker Barrel, customers were 55 or older, right? This is this chain that is largely billed in the, the south east, United States and their customers are literally dying and no one else is going. Yeah, and that is a major problem for them. I'm sure Donald Trump Junior goes to Cracker Barrel regularly. Right? Because he's one of the people that is angry about this. I actually mapped out how far Mar-A-Lago was to the closest, Cracker Barrel, like it's like a 15 minute drive so it's not that it's not that bad, he probably does go all the time. Yeah, but it turns out that they've changed their local several times after the spread of a rumor in 2015 and then again in 2021 that claimed that when they changed the logo, it would be like the old timer or whatever. But they changed it. So that it was a little harder to tell like what he was doing and there was this long swooping thing, it, they actually the claim was that the word cracker Was white people and the swooping line in the logo was a whip, a slave whip. That was the rumor in 2015 and 2021. That was my first thought when I heard of this restaurant and I when I heard cracker, I did think like is that like some kind of a play on like a white person from the south like what is that all I'm saying is that both sides have had ridiculous responses to the stupid logo at a place that no one eats no, like no one goes here. Not to mention that Cracker Barrel has 230 million customers per year. Okay, Starbucks has 100 million customers per week, right? That's how far the Gap is between anyone caring about this and everywhere. Not to mention that you know, rebranding is just a part of everything, a company Cracker Barrel and as I pointed out it started off with a different logo. It hasn't even been around that long. All right, but but let me a few other End of summer anti-woke, bro. Rage Brigade moments, here rage. I guess they're mad in Ohio thematic. Kroger go. Woke, you go broke because they have lgbtq plus policies. That's a good old-fashioned one. How about this one Trump? President Trump is calling on Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to resign. Who's Lisa Cook? You might wonder she's an American Economist. She's the first African-American woman in first woman of color to sit on the board. So there you go. That, I mean that is the target normally, right? You don't look. It's the, it's the, it's we talked about like, it's bro, rage. And that we talked about, bro, IPOs Bros last week. It's the, it's the war on women. It's like it's the fake meritocracy where, where they don't release the data to prove their own Merit. They don't they don't quantify. What is the meritocracy they just go after people who aren't white or they, they yell at female CEOs for changing logos. A struggling restaurant chain at where like I don't understand. All right, so logo is it? And they they're claiming this has something to do with diversity? Okay. Yeah. What are you talking about? Did you even see the logos? There's nothing. Like the new logo is just the words. It's a horrible day. Better yellow is mustard, yellow woke and they better just, they better do something anyway because that that logo. My actually turn off half of America. You might be better off, just making it neutral, I don't know. And and I don't want to go anywhere with an old dude. In a barrel, it doesn't really sound appealing you but angry about okay but here's the awkward thing. Is that the other the bit the much bigger more important American brand in the news is Target. Now, the awkward thing here is that everyone seems to be blaming Target turning it to back on d. I for its for its problems, right? Yeah. But they're not. But they're not weighing in on this, they're not wearing in this woke and then they flipped because of Citizen journalists Robbie Starbucks or something, but I thought it was go woke, go broke but but Target is suffering because they're not woke, no. See this is the nice cloud cover of the political ping pong which is Target actually overstocked its supplies. Could not sell them was selling at a loss, has had problem with foot traffic for a while and then they turn their back then that they were doing Pride stuff. Then they got attacked for Pride stuff. They immediately capitulated because they were so afraid because they were already in a bad position, they could put it in as soon as they capitulated the the A diverse people, including people who work there were like screw this. We're never shopping there again, Target, not recognizing the fact that most of its customers happen to be cool with them having diversity and pride merchandise, and they didn't care anecdotally, most of their customers were people who didn't want to go to Walmart. They didn't feel comfortable Walmart for a variety of reasons. In fact, even I, I told the story also, at the summer, that when I, when I decided to get a membership at Costco, I told the story and they said, we have had several people signing up telling us, this is the reason why there's something just because we're leaving Target because they don't feel welcome at Target anymore. So yeah. So Target did a great job of hurting itself after it missed itself. Yeah, right. So, okay, so let me get to my second story of the week and that's Target because I just thought like it's funny that they're ignoring the target story but their seasoning on this stupid logo at Cracker Barrel. But here's what I want to focus on. On our Target. So that the story being that that and I'm calling this succession theater, all right succession Theater, which is my favorite kind of end of the summer theater. It's, I love going to a good succession Target CEO. Brian Cornell steps down after 11 years, as sales continued to drop. Now, I irritated Matt and our pre-production notes because I copy and pasted a huge swath of headlines that come into, our, Feedly feed and Matt, I don't know how many are there over 100, maybe 150 and I'm gonna read you, I'm gonna read you XXX, you, you read some of them. Uh, Brian CEO, Brian Cornell steps down after 10 years, Brian Cornell will stop down. Target CEO to step down, it's just stuff like that, you know, it's 32 of them, that's how many there are, but they're all, they're all slightly different. But here's, here's my point succession theater, right? I, I have to scroll all the way down the end and I want to actually call her out. Jordyn Holman, she is a reporter at the New York Times. She is the only one who got this, right? The only one because her headline reads. When the CEO retires but won't go away. Yeah, she can talk about an executive chair. Yes. Target is the latest she says, Target is the latest company to keep a replaced CEO around as a executive? Chairman does having two top dogs, make sense. And thank you Jordan because that's my only Point here. Brian Cornell is not leaving Target, not going anywhere. He's not even saying just a chair, he's staying in an executive role. As the chair, he still leaves the agenda at that board and the worst part. I know we disagreed about this last week is that they're just, they're taking an Insider, they're taking someone who's worked alongside Brian for over a decade has been at the company for 20 years, the CEO to be the new CEO, nothing's changed. There's yeah, of course, it hasn't changed. I mean, maybe this new coo, forgive me, I don't have his name. No, it's Michael delki. Yeah, maybe he's a, you know, maybe he's a renegade, maybe he's a breath of fresh air, which I doubt, but I saw his picture definitely running. What the hell is changing here. I mean Brian Cornell's not even gone and how the hell that do 200 headlines miss this? Because I opened the filing Target. They filed this at the SCC. You have to file all these changes, there's like, three sentences and the last sentence is that Brian Cornell staying in staying on his executive. So, how do you miss this? I don't really understand it. But anyway, that's my second story of the week. They do. What do a lot of the gloss over the fact that when you're executive chair, You are paid the same salary and bonus from the company name. Usually the same generally larger or the same size as the CEO that comes in. You still want to just the agenda at the board meeting. I mean it'd be like I mean this it's it's Insanity to say that he's retiring, he's stepping down, he's stepping, he's not and he's surrounded by 11 years of directors that he has helped to hand pick. And he's failed miserably at the job of understanding Target and its customers, right? Like it's not so that guy doesn't lose his job. He doesn't even resign in disgrace. What are we doing? Well, but I do give credit to New York Times. I'm actually surprised that was the New York Times They but they they're the only one to get this, right? And finally, the third story of the week is a lot of CEO pay. Stories this week. So I'm gonna I'm gonna cite that the headline from the guardian CEO to worker, pay Gap. That's the CEO ratio. We talk about all the time. Surges to 632 to 1 at uses lowest paying large firms. So this is a study that looked at the 100 companies in the S&P 500, with the lowest median pay, they say that pay increase their by an average of nearly 35% over five years. A few other headlines, all the weak foot c100 ftsc 100 CEOs for third consecutive year, hitting record high, A CEO pay at top us companies accelerate at fastest Pace in four years and then I like this one other one Starbucks CEO tops list of Sky, High executive pay packages. And then this other headline Starbucks, CEO is ditching, a merit system and giving all salaried staff a flat 2% pay. Raise that to this guy gets one of the most absurd golden. Hello, paper packages we've ever seen, but almost 100 million dollars and he was allowed to have a private jet flying him into the office for a while. I look, I'm glad he's giving up because he's giving salaries staff, a two percent, pay 2% pay. This is one of my assholes of the week. All right, so that's my third story. Is more good reporting on CEO. Pay is Going Bonkers, it's just going. Yeah, well I mean I'm glad their pace of inflation they've been, they've been underwater for so many years. Um it's really hard. I I can't you pay one. I can't use a CEO pay one because it's like an ongoing service. What about forever, but succession theater at Target succession? That one is interesting, but really the version of the story that you picked out is that the New York Times is the only one that got it. Right? Because he's not going anywhere. Well it was a black woman, a reporter. Yeah, I have to choose bro. Rage like the broken summer rage like no Bud Light, bro. Rage. I don't understand the you guys know Bros, run everything like it's less than 12% of the Fortune. 500 companies, have a female CEO in many cases. You have like, Rosalind Brewer cases where they're the CEO at Walgreens but not actually because there's the next executive chair who owns, you know, 12% of the stock like there's so many cases, you run everything. What are you so upset about? What are you raging about? Like, you Damien just covered the fact that every IPO basically has no women anywhere to be seen. But you're angry about, you're angry because of the Cracker Barrel guy. Matt really, to your point, the top four institutional, share owners at. Cracker Barrel are not the female CEO. They are, in fact, BlackRock Vanguard group the man we just talked about Sedar, biglari, and Earnest Partners. They control a aggregate. 40 4600, they can weigh in here and those aren't that's not women, don't walk. That's that's who really owns that company. That's what controls the voting power. I don't know about, what are we talking about? All right, I don't want to talk about that. I'm gonna choose that one. That's the winner. That's the story of the week. I don't like anything anymore. Let's do something else. All right. I love this music. I bet you the old timer on the Cracker Barrel logo with like that music. Yeah. I think you would leave. Where is he now, though, that's actually the question. Where does he get retired to? Is there a retired, brand logo, like country home somewhere? Isn't he eating in a Cracker Barrel? Waiting to die getting diabetes or something? Yeah. What's your good list? Oh, I have two this week for first, an old fashioned one that you're gonna hate. But I like picking these companies with climate targets, have more than tripled since 2023 according to a report by the science-based targets initiative. That sounds. Self-serving, I don't know. I, I think it's maybe true. The number of targets that that have been set for 2050 has tripled does not give me cause for well, it's good. It's good good-ish. How about this one? I love this other. One that I'm calling this a good list. This is the the juxtaposition of these two headlines. Okay. Ready. First scientists say, they figured out a way to turn nuclear waste into a powerful fuel. That's pretty impressive. That's good, that's good. You good for you smart scientists, good. I follow we paid you something but then the second one. Scientists cannot figure out why just walking in nature. Appears to quickly heal your brain rot. Oh, I like to turn. They can turn nuclear waste into into fuel but To figure out why like, why like, not being at a truck to your phone is depressing. Like they can't figure out why we're all depressed staring at our screens all the time. That's good. Maybe the research on a screen. I have what they're saying is take a walk. Go take a walk. I have two one. Is your neck of the woods. Good probably heard of this. Yeah I never heard of this. I shop in Maine. The library of things. Has it all? Yes. So know about this, tell me about the library of things. I didn't know this existed. Well, you could take out like an electric lawn mower from the library. Well, it's not just the library of thing. I told you that even in my neighborhood, we share, we share tools, like we share snow blowers and lawn mowers. But there's a, the city next to me South Portland. They too have their own. It's like it's it's a it's a sort of a library where you can go in and get tools, you can get like power tools pressure washers that kind of a thing. It's not just this this this one that you cited it, I don't know if it's just a main thing but its membership cost, I only know because it's goodly. So the week like it's just to me, this sounds like the great. I would never buy anything. If I could go to like a place three miles from here, you have a pretty good tight-knit community in your neighborhood. You could start that initiative with Wolves, I mean that fabulous because you know, why do you need? Why does the neighborhood need more than one? Lawn mower. In fact, it'll Cut down on the noise, right? If you only have one, I know you. Like your personal data, I don't know. I I when I when my neighborhood started doing, I couldn't believe that we hadn't thought of this earlier. It's like why are we all buying these things? But it's a great idea. I might started here and the other one I found and this might be. Oh I like good list of all time. Yes, like I'm voting for this one lifts co-founders depart board, convert Class B shares. Yeah. Is this the greatest dictatorship in modern history? Did you look into this? What did they have? Sunset Provisions. Was this was this codified or did they just do the right thing? Was they agreed to do this two years ago? They didn't have it in the provisions and amazingly, right? Yeah. So this is a company lift. So in case you don't know what, what happens at these companies, the co-founders these companies and this is something we cover all the time, they're fake. Well, public companies, the co-founders their own, the all the voting power. I think, when lift actually IPO they owned something like 90 or 85% or 80% of the voting power, they've Steadily converted over the years into and the reason why is they have B shares? And everyone else says a shares and the B shares have 10 times, the voting power of an a share, they've steadily the co-founders here, steadily converted into a shares and now they're actually stepping off the board. They have 30% of the voting power right now. Or as of like a week ago and now they're going to have as part of the conversion 2 process is just an April Fool's joke and they are off the board. The founders are not, I mean, what are they just are they must they're obviously business pants fans they because this is what I preach and scream about all. This is what I think should happen. All these are real. I want to go buy lift chairs, like now because no great thing. Notice over the years that we have given you seven thousand Reasons never to use Uber, but we but we don't, we never, we don't dig up those stories about lift. We don't find the same controversies at Lyft. Do you want to know what the market thinks of them getting rid of their beaches here? I'm afraid of this one. So here's the craziest part. We like Capital markets seemed to be like he's like there are more dual-class shares coming out. We saw two that have thousand to one votes in the last, like, Like two months, right? Like more and more IPOs, they're just doing dual class. There's no rights for shareholders. And the markets have been like, well, we I guess it's just what it is now. But when lyft's co-founders, gave up their B shares, there's no more B shares at the company. They reduce from 30% to 2% the stock in the last five, the last day jump when they announced, it has jumped five percent, right? The market said, the company is now more valuable because we have rights and because they, they added, they added an old white man to their logo, sitting by a barrel, that actually that did help them. It did help them. I love that story. This, we're gonna cover this more next week because there's I'm sure this more to say that. How, how I did notice that both John Zimmer and Logan green, they did graduate college. Could that be part of it? Oh, did they go to Stanford? Did they did not go to Stanford? Know. Wow, maybe that's it. Maybe it's yeah. I think that's shocking but this proves this proves that finished that ethics class Zuckerberg, all you bro babies because part of the reporting. So we've had some good coverage of our bro. IPO story this week. Part of what they left out is that a lot of these companies are controlled by dictators and by people who have dual class shares. But here's proof that at Lyft, very successful company. Is that you don't have to do it, it's not a requirement. You don't have to do this. I know you're worried about whether or not the co-founders of lifts are going to be okay. But how they gonna land on their feet, I'm their Shares are still worth. It's a paltry amount but it's 144 million dollars it. I that's all it's worth. I think they're going to be fine. So there goes that 18th house and Cape Cod, they have to sell the 185. I mean they were there a little upset that their bunker in. Kauai can't be as big as zuck's bunker and Kawaii. Yeah. But only owns the actual Cape Cod. Yeah. Honestly I actually I want to reach out to the now that they're off the board. They're done amazing. Say like join the show talk about like just take over the show know you don't know, just take over our host. We don't know. Anyone wants to hear from us. They can hear from Them. What's the mental process that goes from being a pure dictator to being a basically like we've done our job. It's time like the market can benefit from this. Let's step down. Like imagine that. Imagine that fabulous. All right, let's stop being so happy and bring us down. I'll bring you down. It's absolutely weak time. All right. Come on. Make us suffer. I feel good after that make us. Well, I'm gonna start at the last of mine because you already mentioned it. The hollowing out of the corporate middle class and it's Starbucks, right? Yeah, you mentioned Starbucks. That's 2%. Is my favorite corporate governance. Favorite Drug Company Starbucks. Here's a quote from Ryan Nichols. The new ish CEO. He's going on a year now, CEO Doritos. Now, he sells lot, different drug. Yeah. Um, he said, quote, we need to carefully manage all of our other costs. We need to carefully manage. Our costs Starbucks said they're going to lay off 1100, corporate workers over in the year in July, they offered buyouts to some workers and said it would step up in office requirements like return to office. They were doing three days a week in office. Now, the demanding four and actually from May earlier this year, the Starbucks in unionized Baristas Were in a wage standoff. Still they still they still have not agreed after two years to wages with Baristas, so so much. So that the national legal policy Center filed to shareholder proposal this year, demanding a report on the risks of capitulating to the unions they wanted to actually they wanted to know like Starbucks how much shareholder value? They actually tried to frame it as a human rights risk. The human rights to the employees who were not unionized and what the risk was to them. It was great, mental gymnastics. And then you juxtapose it with this story Starbucks. CEO. Brian Nichol. Awarded 96 million PayPal package. After four months. On the job, he made, he had to stay from. He started in August or September of 2024, he stated until January, and his, he guaranteed himself. 96 million dollars for that. He as part of that package, just as a reminder, got use of the Starbucks aircraft to travel between his home in LA. And Starbucks headquarters in Seattle. He got up to two. I'm sure his kids really needed him around every day. He got up to 250,000, dollars in personal non-commutative, I mean, Matt. Sure's. A Americans have been addicted to burritos since, like, the like, the least, the 90s, I mean, late 80s, right? I mean, it's like, is that a hard company that chipotle? That's a difficult, sell burritos. Just just so clear to me, burritos, this is difficult to sell. They're not doing well, so, so yeah. Apparently, it is. Yeah, but expensive. Now it's the 1100 people that they said they were going to lay off if Brian Nichol paid, got paid 96 million dollars and instead of taking it gave it to the 11, that 100 workers, they would get 87,000 dollars for the year. Well, would you have to lay them off anymore for 87,000 dollars? Yeah, it's not like they have families and tuition and mortgages and all that to pay unbelievable. So the Halloween out of the middle class Starbucks, there is it Brian nickel? Or is it just the look up the middle class. Well I'm gonna say Brian Nichols but I want to focus on a theme there which is Pay attention because you just covered how CEO pay ratios are going through the roof, the the CEO and the bottom 100 S P, you know, S&P 500 firms, the last 100 of them for pay ratios. The ones that pay the most, the average. What did you say 600 and something per? You know they're the CEO salary was 600 times the median worker. It's almost up to that magical remember with a 3605 to one is like the that heinous Mark where you make as much on the first day but they're almost like making twice as much now. Yeah. It's like 600. 650 or something like that. It means that on January 1st, of every single year by year by year 9 a.m. crawler and and coffee if you're the CEO, you've made as much as your median employee. Meanwhile, everybody is laying off employees saying, like we were gonna replace them with AI. The employee wages are frozen people. There's firings. How do we like, I don't understand where you think your growth is going to come from when no one has jobs anymore, except for seven CEOs. This is like a running theme of the year and and yet we still have bro. Rage like I don't even understand that. I don't know how to put it all together because the CEOs are the Bros. All right. So here are the two options, you ready? Yep. First up. The anti-esg joke. It's on us. I think right on me and you, yeah, I'm gonna do a bit of a thing here. Yeah. I want you to just listen carefully because it's going to be boring. Okay. Yeah, here's the legal definition of a fiduciary. I know you wanted that go for asking for that. A beneficiary is delegated authority to a pretty actively someone with delegated authority over money. They have discretionary Powers over those assets, they can make choices, okay? They are in a position superior to the beneficiary, due to specialized access. Meaning, they have more access and knowledge than they don't necessarily have to share it. Sure. They don't have to trade knowledge. And they will act in the beneficiaries best interest. Okay. They're supposed to look out for that person. So from Florida 2023, they're hb3 act in which it's an act relating to government and corporate activism where they subject to fiduciary standards. We just defined what those are. They actually put into place a law that said, when you are investing the assets of any retirement system or plan, only pecuniary factors. Make be considered and that you cannot consider non pecuniary factors which they said include social political or ideological interests. That's the anti, which is she thinks it's funny because that's everything that Trump Administration does not is push their social political ideological interest on Corporate America. It's all. So all the Cracker Barrel story is really. So here's the amazing part. Yeah, that law and I only picked them. There are laws in about a dozen states right now that mirror this law that law applies to Quote obligations of the United States or obligations guaranteed as to principal and interest by the government of the United States. It turns out that the treasury Securities this applies to write, if you are managing treasury Securities. So, when I read this headline, I thought why can't The treasury be sued. Now, by Florida for violating its anti-wolf law. What's the headline is White House? Reportedly? Launches a scorecard rating of 500 plus companies on Trump loyalty. So they have their own ESG rating, their own Ms. So I Have their own rating. That rating system evaluates quote and quote social media activity, press releases video, testimonials advertisements and participation in White House events. Not only other forms of Engagement connected to Trump Administration in their bills. Not only do they have their own rating, but it's a rating created by people who are dopest who have no understanding of how to even create these methodologies in the first place. It's, you know, the research is not going to be exhausted but just gonna be like, a couple of Google searches and, you know, that kind of found this and they jot this down. You know, it's not going to be a systematic but let's be honest. Yeah. Systemic or not, that's ESG. Oh, I know that is the literal definition of she is a data set that is not on a financial statement. Other data, we said it for years, all the anti ESG work is ESG work. They just realizing how fun it is to do, ESG research. They loved research really, truly love it. And now they're making a scorecard to determine Which I want to see that scorecard. I want to. Can we get that business with? I think we could foia it. That'd be great but I want but I want to I want to see that. I want to see that. I'm sure the fascinating part here is if the White House which controls the treasury now and appoints, you know, and Congress, they're controlling the treasury, if they have a scorecard, that has non-pecuniary factors that determines who they're going to do business with can Florida buy, treasuries, can they work with the Trump? The Trump is actively discriminating against certain companies. He's picking companies against and four, which is the definition of what Texas and Florida and Louisiana and Oklahoma. They all passed laws saying you can't do that. You can't discriminate against our companies. So if the Trump Administration doesn't like an oil company because they aren't loyal enough to him. Does that mean that Oklahoma? Can sue the Trump Administration and never they, they're not allowed to buy treasuries anymore. It does mean that. Yes, but can we like retire this category right now? For how stupid it is? I mean it is it's my blowing I'd say over and over and over it's it's just pure theater, it's just pure. It's mind-blowing like, you know, but I don't want to retire it because I want somebody who actually has some assets, that's not us, right? No. I want them to look at this and say, Why aren't we suing them the same way? They're why are we investigating them? Suing them the same way they're investigating us. If you literally have a scorecard of companies, you're out there saying, like ESG is a social credit system. This is literally a social credit system. This is like a credit, this is it. They're not even looking to see if the company is good at anything whether or not they're Innovative, whether or not they have employees. And they, they actually take care of their stakeholders and, and their constituents know what they're worried about is, did you say enough times you love trumps and his bills? That is the definition of a credit system, right? Like it's a loyalty test. If you've got an actual scorecard on a piece of paper somewhere that's flat out fucking suitable, there's suing you for the same shit. Sue them for it. Somebody please, I'm begging you. All right, so that's it. That's all number one. Actual number two, we're all know that was. No, that was number two, actual number three and this one's a recurring one. Yeah, it's just the Free Speech dictator. Go ahead because I saw I can't I just can't get over these assholes. Go ahead. Meta spent 27 million dollars protecting Mark. Zuckerberg last year more than any other CEO. I guess people don't like Mark Zuckerberg. That's a lot of money to protect him. The I know where he's going. It's going to the bunker. He says he doesn't have. That's basically the a lot of it. Google to pay 36 million and anti-competition finds another dictatorship. Coinbase CEO says he watched famous speeches to himself up before Banning politics at the company. What the hell does that mean? Well, first of all, what nobody knows what he is talking about. He didn't say like, you know, which speeches. Yeah, I'm kind of afraid which speeches he watched. But he did cite Singapore's Prime Minister Samaria. Yeah responding to labor unrest at Singapore Airlines and he he basically said like he had a set of balls. Well like a version like that. He also said he took inspiration from one of the single, most heinous moves against American labor in the 20th century. He said he took inspiration from President Reagan's famous decision in 1981 to fire more than 11,000 11,000 striking, air traffic controllers. One of the, the darkest days against American labor, you know, not firing people who make burritos, he fired air traffic controllers because he don't have enough of to this day. This is what this is what he took inspiration from. And then these headlines, Trump May further redefine us capitalism with an Intel move because they are talking about taking a 15%, stake and Intel, and Trump said, come to like the Trump didn't say this. But this is that the headline come to America and lose a billion. Trump drives new offshore and wind losses. He does not like windmills. He's been anti windmill for a long time because of what he's Pro oils that I keep talking about killing birds. Yeah. Well, like, drowning the birds on in oil and he doesn't matter and and there was a study out of msci. This is what triggered oh shout out to msci, look at. Yeah, kissing ass the study, it was a blog post. It was called how ownership can shape outcomes that showed that dual-class dictatorship companies. Actually underperform regular companies even when you Role for other aspects, but we put up with these fucking dictators everywhere. They understand things that we've got. We're gonna miss out, I hate it. The only other part is I shout at them all the time. By the way, while we're talking about MSI, we don't talk about msci. But and I know you already know this, but talking we're talking about the anti ESG movement. Can I just at least laugh out loud that msci? They changed their podcasts from ESG now, to sustainability. Now, do you know this? They change the name. They can't. They're too afraid of the they can't say ESG. I get this is this. This is their version of, like, quieting down Dei and like not talking about it and I I think they were worried that. I think it's humorous was in journalist, Robbie Starbucks. Yeah. I mean, aim at them. Yeah, I mean sustainability. Now that's gonna that's gonna confuse me. I'm so confused. I'm sorry, I don't know what that's about now. What again, is she reeks of Like women in sustainability reeks of what of peat moss Banks Bankers. Yeah, I don't even know. All right, those are options. Your options are Starbucks in the Harrow I was confusing. This is a confusing as holy is this week anti-esg joke, which we can finally maybe put to rest. Now I'm picking that one because that's and freeze and the dictators Free Speech dictators. Well what you have here are two very Evergreen topics, the anti-esg world and the free-speech dictators. I'm just gonna go right to the bottom. I'm gonna go right to CEO Brian Nichols because we're talking about CEO pay up at the top of the show. I'm just gonna pick that one. That's good enough for me. All right, let's finish out the Show headlines because prediction because the secret subtext of the show. Matt is that Yes, I vote on the asshole. It's the week. But clearly what you're saying is that they're all assholes. Okay, that's the winner. The real horse. Show is a joke, the whole, it's all meaningless, all over game shows are meaningless. I don't tell anyone All right headline is headlines winners predictions. Yeah headlines. Yeah, I got two first. I like this one. Walmart may have sold radioactive shrimp. Oh and never like to read that headline. How about this one? This one is this is copulates our plate here for free flow analytics, the best, this is the, I just love this, I love that. How much of a struggle it is for us to get our our ideas and data and research and analytics out there. For corporate directors. But how about this headline 10 candidates? Will Vie for four open seats on USA, swimming board of directors. So, it sounds like a real. So, even they even the USA swimming board of directors. I don't know how that is even. They actually have a democracy picking the right candidate for their boy, but in our world, you can't even vote. No on someone that. In fact, Matt. There are still plurality director voting standards where if they get one vote, that's what's considered a real election if they just get the most out of everyone up for election. You win because there's an uncontested election. So if you just get one vote you win, I'm sorry the we covered in proxy countdown. This year, faking comments, which were these directors that were put onto boards, less than 30 days after the annual meeting. There's no better way to circumvent democracy than to be appointed to the board for effectively the full-time day. After the annual meeting, not only your point of the board, but there's not even a contest, you're not even joking. Yeah. All right, what do you all right? I got two. Um, first one that I hated is the headline. I hated forests and certain areas of the world can add to global warming. Oh, they're now saying that planting trees may not be answered, the Trump Administration who said the it was like a peer reviewed article and nature. I don't know. I I was I'm a pro. I'm a plant, a lot of trees guy. And now they're saying like that might make global warming a little worse, depending on where it is. I didn't like that headline. That's all. And then this one, Silicon Valley Talent keeps getting recycled. So this CEO uses a Moneyball approach. Uncovering hidden. AI Geniuses are New Era that's ours. quote, there's different biases and filters about people's pedigree or where they came from, but if you could truly map all of that and just give credit for some people that may be went through, alternate pathways Then you can truly stack rank. That's what Alex Bates, founder and CEO of AI executive recruiting platform. Hello, Sky told Fortune Magazine. I was angry. Because that's us. Yeah. Yeah. You know, a lot to be angry during headlines the week. Um, no, I'm not. My winner is self-serving for our company. Unfortunately. It's, we got some good coverage this week. The term, bro. IPO was the winner bro IPO. Although oh, or is it should it be bro? All right, well, that gets into my winner and it's the term is bro, Poe. That's what it broke hero or not. Okay. So I want to. I also want to shout out. So first Fortune, covered us Lila. Maclellan, we talked about her and now, this another article out of the times not the New York Times, but the times in London, Louisa Clarence Smith, her article called Welcome to, Bro, IPO summer. Yeah, but I don't know. Maybe, maybe, they're right. They both changed it to Bro, IPO. But the only problem with bro Poe could that be like, post office, or maybe it's not maybe, bro Poe, maybe you don't know what means IPO? Well, I think I think it's two inside Baseball, right. This is why visit their journalists are better at their job than we are. Exactly. But I think bro Pio is a bro public offering I think that's what it is right? But so we're that we're the winners sort of, I mean, did we win? It's just doing anything. I don't think we did. We don't win anything. There's no, there's no prize but I just wanted to plug up. You won winner of the week is what you want and our dumb games. Yeah. Predictions my predictions really stupid. A Target accidentally announces. This is, they had, I guess that Target. They, they have a lot of press releases and then they try to decide which one to go out, but they accidentally released one that shouldn't go out. That says, that one of Brian Cornell's new board roles will be the chair of the. We swear, it's not my idea task force. Well, that's good of him to take no credit for anything. Yeah, because there's a new CEO and he's not involved. My prediction that there will be an analytics company somewhere, that realized, you can take the money ball concept and apply it to people a publicly traded company and then you'll make millions of dollars selling that data to investors to give them the ability to vote on their producer, using that Advanced Data that's my prediction. Wait. Okay. Do you think it'll come true? Isn't that? Isn't that what we are? Isn't that? Oh yeah. That's right. That's what we do. But millions of dollars part. That's the only part that I don't know. Come true yet that season or wrong. I do want a super though. I own a super math and that was cardi. We are free float. I have a Chrysler. So there you go. Yeah, we are free float. Come back next week when we have more shows and more stuff and if you want data you go to free flow, analytics.com. You sign up. It's just an email address when you put in that email address, the only email you'll get from us once a week. Is the boardroom Zine that covers things that we talked about on shows cool data points and it's a punk thing. You can handle your friends. I got one right here. Look it's a little thing. You can actually fold it up and read it. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. And ever made, you should get one of those. Tune in next week, until then good.