Business Pants

Free Float Media Inc.
  • 4.9 (74)
  • Business News
  • Updated Daily

Whether you love business news or feel like you’re supposed to know it but hate it, Business Pants is business news for humans. Snarky and irreverent, deeply researched and factual, a podcast devoted to market quirks and the humans that make up companies. Investing isn’t a what, it’s a who.

  1. 14h ago

    Conservative media dictatorships, manbaby secret clubs, and Zuck has a Casio

    Story of the Week (DR): Big Media Dictatorship Craziness MM Justice Department Decision to Allow Paramount Deal Surprised Staff Investigators and US approval of Paramount/Warner Bros. deal surprised DOJ lawyers and The UFC’s Despicable Night at the White House Senior Justice Department officials suddenly closed an eight-month antitrust investigation and approved Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, shocking career staff attorneys who were preparing to recommend a lawsuit to block it. DOJ investigators worried the combined company's massive debt would prevent it from honoring its promise to release 30 movies annually. However, senior leadership dismissed the debt concerns, arguing the merger would beneficially create a stronger rival to streaming giants like Netflix. The unexpected approval has drawn intense criticism from lawmakers, notably Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who suggested the green light from the administration was politically motivated and stated the decision "reeks of corruption." The deal also faces regulatory hurdles at the FCC; despite Chairman Brendan Carr's support, the merger requires a special FCC waiver due to significant equity stakes held by sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. While the federal government has stepped aside, the mega-merger still faces strict, ongoing antitrust scrutiny from the European Union and potential lawsuits from several state Attorneys General (including California) who insist the merger is not a done deal. Comcast Class A Shareholders Reject $107M Co-CEO Pay as Stock Slid 20% Brian Roberts 34% of vote 42% no on pay with Roberts: 80% no without  David Zaslav 2025 Pay Rejected By WBD Shareholders In Non-Binding Vote 84% no for his $165M No major shareholder: On the verge of being acquired by the Ellisons Fox Corp to acquire Roku in $22B deal Fox increased CEO/Chair Lachlan K. Murdoch's target annual bonus to $9M (up from $6M) and target annual equity award to $20M (up from $11M) If the maximum stays: annual from $12M to $18M and equity from $22M to $40M So a possible increase of $24M “Mr. Murdoch recused himself from all discussions and votes regarding his employment term extension and compensation adjustments” Lachlan = 36% of vote The government and AI Anthropic and Trump Trump Blocks Foreigners From Using Anthropic’s Latest AI Tech Under orders from the US government citing national security concerns, AI company Anthropic suspended foreign nationals (including its own employees) from using its most advanced tech and disabled access to its newest Claude models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. The directive follows a feud starting in February, when the Trump administration barred federal agencies from using Anthropic products after the company refused to grant the military unrestricted access to its AI for mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Anthropic’s IPO pitch has a new problem: the government can shut it down Coming just over a week after Anthropic confidentially filed its IPO paperwork, the government-mandated shutdown highlights severe regulatory and geopolitical vulnerabilities that threaten the company's massive valuation and commercial stability. Trump’s Anthropic restrictions may be illegal Bernie and AI Bernie Sanders AI sovereign wealth fund bill 2026 Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation Thursday that would give the American public a direct 50% ownership stake in the country's largest artificial intelligence companies through a one-time tax on their stock Bernie Sanders unveils $7 trillion plan to give Americans control of AI industry Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a sweeping $7 trillion legislative package aimed at breaking up private tech monopolies and transitioning the development of advanced artificial intelligence into a publicly owned, democratically overseen federal trust. AI dividend: Bernie Sanders pitches $1,000 annual payout from public ownership of AI Jim Cramer says SpaceX investors aren't buying earnings — they're buying Elon Musk The primary critique of ESG investing is about introducing non-pecuniary goals (e.g., lowering carbon emissions, promoting specific boardroom demographics, or boycotting certain industries) into the decision-making process. The Fiduciary Violation: If a fund manager chooses a lower-performing, ESG-compliant investment over a higher-performing, non-ESG investment (like oil, defense, or tobacco), they have violated their Duty of Loyalty by prioritizing social engineering over the client's wallet Drunk Crew Causes 30% Pay Cut For A Major Airline CEO An internal investigation found that two flight attendants had consumed alcohol during their layover period beyond permitted company limits, which set specific restrictions on pre-duty alcohol intake. The airline determined that the consumption occurred the day before departure and represented a breach of internal policy, escalating the matter from a single failed test to a wider compliance violation within the crew pairing on that layover. "We sincerely apologize for the incident involving flight JL252 on May 23, which has severely damaged the trust placed in us. We take this seriously, recognizing it stems from structural weaknesses in our organizational monitoring. Moving forward, we are fully committed to ensuring safety and restoring trust by strengthening our inspection procedures and implementing company-wide reforms." Japan Airlines responded by implementing disciplinary measures affecting both frontline staff and senior management. CEO Mitsuko Tottori, the first female to lead the company after joining as a flight attendant herself in 1985, accepted a 30% reduction in salary for two months, while other executives also received temporary pay cuts as part of the company’s internal accountability process. Safety manager Yukio Nakagawa and cabin services manager Junko Nakano will each take a 20% salary reduction for one month. Meanwhile, all other directors will receive a 10% pay cut over the same period. Alongside executive action, the airline introduced a stricter policy banning alcohol consumption during layovers for more than 6,000 flight attendants.  Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Melinda French Gates’ advice to new IPO millionaires: ‘Give half your money away’ DR: Judge Rules Trump Administration Cannot Erase Slavery and Climate Change History from National Parks DR: The global under-16 social media ban Is no longer a fringe policy DR: Target, Walmart and Amazon among brands losing LGBTQ+ consumer spending MM DR MM: Nearly 80% of data center capacity is at elevated risk to climate hazards like flooding and fire, study says MM: Meta Sued for Over $100 Million by Eminem's Team for Illegally Using 243 Songs Assholiest of the Week (MM): Which is the bigger a*****e move: Being part of a secret club - DR Trump’s boys: See the celebrities and business execs who showed up to the UFC fight at the White House (none women attended); Jensen Huang on his relationship with Trump: ‘calls me in the middle of the night; A signal of where power sits': Trump and world leaders joined by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google at G7’ Incel middle schoolers: Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog’ Society Secret street tours: Chef Karl Wilder joins Secret Street Tours Board of Directors Regulatory fist bump: SpaceX gets assist from DOJ in effort to toss NAACP air pollution lawsuit Gaslighting for votes Voters reject effort to hike Oklahoma’s minimum wage “Tonight, voters chose to protect Oklahoma’s economic momentum and one of our greatest competitive advantages: affordability.” OK has $7.75, the federal minimum wage… WA has $17.13, which is the minimum wage pegged to CPI Tesla Allegedly Showed Cooked Data to Get Full Self-Driving Approved Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to stop California's billionaire tax. He has just over a week left to keep it off the ballot. Farage's 'Pro-Women' Law Could Slash Equal Pay Rights and Cost Female Workers Most Palantir Shareholders Vote for Human Rights Probe. Why It Won’t Happen No ESG-related shareholder proposals pass in 2026 proxy season Threatening and complaining because you’re the victim Amazon investigating engineers who criticized AI data center expansion This is literally three engineers exercising their rights as citizens and being discriminated against as a result NY Amazon Driver Fired for Posting Pro-Union Content on Social Media US tech billionaire issues stark China warning: American companies have been ‘hollowed out’ by the Red Dragon Trump Administration Tells Federal Employees to Wear “Freedom” Pins—Or Else Mark Zuckerberg Orders His Employees to Start Having Fun Again After Brutal Layoffs Culled Their Colleagues While no one is looking, take everything At Tesla, Elon Musk Chooses To Exercise Options, Resulting In $110.55B Jeff’s Dream Team: Bezos recruits world’s top architects to build most expensive mega mansion on Billionaire Bunker island Trillionaire Elon Musk Makes $6.4 Billion Every Time SpaceX Stock Rises by $1 825,806,452 minimum wage hours in OK - or 20.7m work weeks at 40 hours a week - or 397,000 worker years Headliniest of the Week DR: People don't trust AI. They do yearn for Lunchables: survey. MM: Mark Zuckerberg is a certified watch guy. His collection ranges from a $120 Casio to multimillion-dollar timepieces. Who Won the Week? DR: Japan: for holding everybody accountable  MM: Casio - the $120 Casio is NOW ON SALE!  YOU CAN BE LIKE ZUCK FOR JUST $96 Predictions DR: Meta emulates Japan Airlines by taking away one of Zuck’s watches every time he lays off 10% of his workforce MM: Lunchables sells a watch

    56 min

  2. Jun 12

    SpaceX fetish IPO, Trump’s Chinese phone, beef vs. Ebola, AI religious exemption

    Story of the Week (DR): SuperBroIpoDystopia: Some key facts: MM a record-breaking $135 per share with$1.8T valuation To make that math make sense, analysts estimate the company needs to grow its sales by 50% every single year for the next decade SpaceX lost  $4.9B last year Wall Street is Being Treated Like Order-Takers: Musk pre-set the IPO price strictly at $135 and dictating exactly which investors got allocations. This forced major investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to act as glorified order-takers without even knowing their exact compensation beforehand Saudi Aramco $1.7T; Alibaba: $237B; Facebook $118B Nasdaq aggressively pushed through "fast-entry" rule changes specifically to allow mega-caps like SpaceX to bypass the traditional year of seasoning and enter the Nasdaq-100 in just 15 trading days. This forces passive index funds to buy in blindly to avoid tracking errors Meme stocker bros: $100B in share orders 30% of $75B offering is earmarked for individual retail investors. This effectively shifts late-stage, hyper-inflated valuation risk away from institutions and onto the public. BlackRock $5B Institutional investors admitted that when they bought into SpaceX privately, they were given high-level revenue figures but were denied a copy of the actual balance sheet—an unprecedented lack of transparency for a company raising tens of billions University of Washington more than 10% of its $17B in assets UNC about 10% SpaceX will make $75B in proceeds Saudi Aramco $26B; Alibaba $22B Elon Musk’s Absolute Voting Tyranny (80% of voting power) personal net worth has officially skyrocketed past $1.1T SpaceX’s foundational scale was built on the back of the American public, securing over $20 billion in U.S. federal government contracts to fund its rocket development Antonio Gracias: personally lent Musk $1M to keep him afloat; his PE firm Valor gave $76M That $1M lifeline and early institutional backing from 2008 have compounded into what analysts are calling the most lucrative return on a personal favor in business history. The Second-Largest Shareholder: Through various Valor entities, Gracias controls roughly 7.3% of SpaceX’s Class A stock (more than 500 million shares) Gracias’s stake is officially worth anywhere from $91B to over $140B This single corporate listing instantly catapults Gracias into the ranks of the world's 50 richest people. The big party: combined valuation of $3.6T Anthropic ($965B) filed confidentially on June 1 OpenAI ($1T) filed confidentially on June 8 "We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it's a complicated set of tradeoffs, and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best." What does it all amount to? 4 horrible objectives: Funding a Sci-Fi Passion Project with Public Cash Becoming the Pentagon's Irreplaceable War Machine Forget the folksy narrative that Starlink is just for connecting rural schools or isolated communities: SpaceX is systematically turning itself into the ultimate military contractor Project Starshield: Those satellites are the foundation for a highly classified, militarized version of the network designed for government surveillance, secure communications, and real-time battlefield tracking. Too Big to Regulate: By launching the vast majority of the world's payloads and controlling the dominant orbital communications network, SpaceX is making the U.S. military entirely dependent on its hardware. The ultimate point is to become so deeply embedded in national defense that the government can never afford to regulate, penalize, or dismantle Musk's empire An Orbital Real Estate Land Grab Building a Borderless, Lawless Empire SpaceX is attempting to build a tech infrastructure that exists entirely outside the jurisdiction of Earth Ultimately, SpaceX isn't trying to save humanity from a dying Earth; it's trying to ensure that whoever controls Earth's future has to pay rent to Elon Musk Iran threatens Elon Musk’s companies in Middle East: Iranian state media All of Elon Musk’s companies in the Middle East are military targets for Iran as it retaliates against the U.S., Iranian state media outlet Fars reported. The targets include a regional Starlink ground station, according to Fars. Sen. Warren calls on SEC to delay SpaceX IPO, flagging concerns about valuation and governance The letter to the heads of the Nasdaq, S&P Dow Jones Indices, FTSE Russell and Morningstar Indexes sent on Thursday asked the companies whether they had made or considered rule changes based on lobbying from Elon Musk, other SpaceX officials or officials from OpenAI or Anthropic, and asked for any communications between the companies and the indexes LSEG, which owns the FTSE Russell, and Nasdaq declined to comment. Morningstar did not respond to a request from CNBC for comment. S&P Dow Jones Indices didn’t comment on the letter, but the company noted it had decided not to change its rules regarding indexes: “S&P DJI determined that exceptions to these requirements should not be granted solely based on market capitalization,” it said in a statement to CNBC. “The decision not to adopt the proposed exceptions preserves core index principles by maintaining consistent application of these key requirements.” Democrats ask Goldman Sachs CEO why he’s keeping lawyer who said she’d resign over ties to Epstein Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is facing new scrutiny from congressional Democrats over his reported effort to retain the bank’s top lawyer months after she said she would resign over revelations about her ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein In a letter sent Wednesday: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services on the House Oversight Committee “Ruemmler ‘educated (Epstein) on how the law differentiates between underage victims of sex crimes and adult prostitutes…’” In February, Ruemmler announced her resignation from Goldman Sachs, effective June 30, 2026: “At the time, you stated that you “reluctantly” accepted Ruemmler’s resignation. While Goldman Sachs has declined to comment on this matter, new reporting suggests that you ‘pressed’ her to reconsider her resignation and instead move to a new position within the firm.” Teardown of Trump Phone Reveals Incredibly Embarrassing Secret A recent teardown by repair company iFixit confirmed that the T1 is an almost entirely unmodified HTC U24 Pro, a two-year-old and mid-tier Android phone, with a cheap coat of gold coloration Trump is selling an entirely Chinese smartphone, despite waging an economic war against the country. Apart from minuscule changes to the speaker grille and a lengthened flex cable, iFixit concluded that “everything is the same, except the pattern of holes in the case.” Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Google and Meta denied new trial in youth social media addiction case MM: In the United States, Solar Energy is Outpacing Coal for the First Time Ever Assholiest of the Week - SPEED ROUND (MM): BP’s useless, reactionary board of directors: BP drops net zero division in wake of boardroom turmoil; BP’s new CEO Meg O’Neill rips up the energy giant’s playbook—and the ‘green’ era with it - 10 Ryanair blowhard CEO Michael O’Leary: Ryanair investigated over charging parents to sit with children - 5 EV killing GM and Mary Barra: GM is pivoting its battery expertise toward powering AI data centers and the grid - 10 Every company that fired employees and replaced them with AI: Unfortunate Company Accidentally Blows Half a Billion Dollars on Claude in One Month; AI sticker shock hits corporate America - 10 Everything out of Alex Karp’s fat mouth: Palantir CEO Alex Karp says executives who brag about their AI cuts might as well ‘sign up for the Bernie Sanders manifesto’; Palantir CEO says AI companies 'don't understand how unlikeable they are'; - 10 Sorry Liz, this is investors job: Sen. Warren calls on SEC to delay SpaceX IPO, flagging concerns about valuation and governance - 0 Every investor in SpaceX IPO: Franklin Templeton to participate in SpaceX IPO, CEO Johnson tells CNBC; SpaceX IPO demand is approaching four times oversubscribed, source says; Wall Street’s undignified SpaceX mania; SpaceX's president hints at a Tesla merger: 'That might make Elon's life a little easier' - 10 Billionaires: Billionaires’ Billions Are Increasing Faster Than Ever - 10 Beef (not Ebola): Elon Musk Faces Backlash as a Horrific Texas Screwworm Outbreak Follows Brutal DOGE Budget Cuts - 10 Mark: Meta Furious Over Bombshell Smart Glasses Revelation “Last week, Wired reported that Meta discreetly moved to infuse facial recognition tech into its popular smart glasses, as evidenced by a piece of code discovered in the Meta AI app by the magazine’s journalists.” - 10 Headliniest of the Week DR: UBS CEO [Sergio] Ermotti hopes to step down before 2030 MM: You Can Now Get a Religious Exemption From Using AI at Work “The funniest possible outcome of the AI mandate era is about to be HR departments discovering that ‘sincerely held religious belief’ under Title VII has a much lower bar than they assumed, and Pope Leo handed every Catholic employee a written excuse,” tweeted San Francisco-based startup founder Corey Quinn. (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination and retaliation based on race, color, national origin, religion, and sex.) MM: Furious Judge Cancels Entire Trial After Finding Out Lawyers on Both Sides Used AI Who Won the Week? DR: HTC U24 Pro, a two-year-old and mid-tier Android phone. Or maybe it was the cheap gold paint? MM: Everyone religious - what CAN’T you opt out of using a re

    1h 5m

  3. Jun 2

    BLAME: Carnival data breach, Danone methane reduction, GM loses a director

    DAMION Carnival Corporation's data breach exposed personal data of nearly 6 million customers: An April social engineering attack on an employee account compromised names, dates of birth, and government-issued ID numbers. WHO DO YOU BLAME Skills: Technology & Cybersecurity: Experience with information technology and cybersecurity matters is increasingly important to mitigate the risks our business faces, promote innovation and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving technological age Least represented 5/11 CEO Josh Weinstein NO: at Carnival since 2002, started as General Counsel Sir Johathon Band NO: First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, the most senior officer position in the British Navy (2006 to 2009, when he retired); Admiral and Commander-in-Chief Fleet (2002 to 2006); Served as a naval officer in increasing positions of authority (1967 to 2002) Jason Cahilly NO: CEO Dragon Group LLC, provides capital and business management consulting and advisory services worldwide; The NBA: CFO & Chief Strategic Officer; Goldman Sachs: Partner; Global Co-Head of Media and Telecommunications; Head of Principal Investing for Technology, Media & Telecommunications Nelda Connors NO: CEO/Chair Pine Grove Holdings, a privately held investment company; CEO Atkore International, manufacturer of electrical, safety and infrastructure solutions; VP Eaton Corporation, electrical and automotive supplier Laura Weil NO: Founder Village Lane Advisory LLC, specializes in providing executive and strategic consulting services to retailers COO New York & Company, women’s apparel and accessories retailer; CEO Ashley Stewart, women’s apparel retailer; CEO Urban Brands, apparel retailer; COO AnnTaylor Stores, women’s apparel retailer; CFO American Eagle Outfitters, apparel retailer Audit Committee: Oversee management’s risk assessment processes to identify principal and emerging risks, including financial, IT, cybersecurity and non-HESS operational risks Laura Weil*: NO Jason Cahilly: NO Jeffrey Gearhart: NO Walmart Corporate Secretary and lawyer Stuart Subotnick: NO CEO at Metromedia Company, wireless/communications, until 2010; Carnival director since 1987  Health, Environmental, Safety and Security Committee: Oversee management’s processes to identify principal and emerging health, environmental, safety, security and sustainability-related risks, including those related to ship operations and cybersecurity, RAAS health, environmental, safety, security audits, IAG and external investigations into significant ship incidents, and health, environmental, safety, security-related hotline complaints, and assess the steps management has taken to minimize such risks. Sir Johathon Band*: NO Nelda Connors: NO Helen Deeble: NO Former CEO P&O Ferries Division Holdings, shipping and logistics business Katie Lahey: NO Executive Chair Korn Ferry Australasia, leadership and talent firm Micky Arison (75%): Exec Chair and former CEO and 7% stockholder The CEO Pay Ratio 1,063:1 24 retail CEOs made as much in a day as their typical employee earned in a year — and a big one didn't. WHO DO YOU BLAME The separation of CEO and Chair: Hamilton E. James Chair/Ron Vachris MM Not unique Only 50% of the board is men. WTF? unique One share = one vote Not unique State of HQ = Washington Also Starbucks State of Inc = Washington Also Starbucks Pledge of allegiance to stakeholders Costco generally has: Higher wages; Better benefits; Lower turnover; Higher sales per employee. Industry-leading employee compensation AND Self-imposed low-margin pricing philosophy Walmart only low-margin pricing Other comps: Todd Vasos of Dollar General, Shane O'Kelly of AutoZone, Gerald Morgan of Texas Roadhouse, Jack Sinclair of Sprouts Farmers Market, William Stengel of Genuine Parts Company, Michael Creedon of Dollar Tree, Ronald Sargent of Kroger, Lauren Hobart of Dick's Sporting Goods, Joshua Kobza of Restaurant Brands Inc., Kecia Steelman of Ulta Beauty, Scott Boatwright of Chipotle, Ted Decker of Home Depot, Bob Eddy of BJ's Wholesale Club, Corie Barry of Best Buy, James Conroy of Ross Stores, Chris Turner and David Gibbs of Yum Brands, Chris Kempczinski of McDonald's, Marvin Ellison of Lowe's, Brian Cornell of Target, Ernie Herrman of TJX Companies, Doug McMillon of Walmart, Brian Niccol of Starbucks, Hal Lawton of Tractor Supply Co, Laura Alber of Williams-Sonoma Figma Gets an Activist Investor. Exhibit A on Why Companies Don’t Want to Go Public. Figma’s first year as a public company hasn’t gone well. Findell Capital Management said it needs to take steps to shed its unwarranted reputation as an artificial-intelligence “loser.” WHO DO YOU BLAME? Figma founder and CEO Dylan Field:  Owns 10% of shares but 72% of voting power: Class B shares worth 15 votes per share Dylan owns 158 Class A Shares (or 0.00003556% of 444,278,887) And Chair $5B net worth $865M total summary compensation in 2025; $91M in 2024 Nominating Agreement: Figma must nominate Dylan Field to be a director and include him in the proxy statement The company must use its resources to back him up and actively convince other shareholders to vote for him  In response to a question about how he was going to change the world, Dylan said he was going to build better software for drones. Bro fest sausage party 2 of 9 directors are women Top 5 NEOs all dudes Peter Thiel Forced Dylan to drop out of Brown for a dumb fellowship VC Blowhardiness on the Board VC dude John Lilly (Greylock): Lead Independent Director 2nd longest tenure (2014) Member of the Audit Committee; Member of the Nominating Committee (only Lilly and Rimer) VC dude Andrew Reed (Sequoia) Director at debt-maker Klarna Group (also way down since IPO): down roughly 54% from its initial $40.00 IPO price, and down nearly 68% from its all-time high Member of the Compensation Committee (which modeled Dylan’s pay package after Elon Musk) VC dude Danny Rimer (Index Ventures) Director since 2014 B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard Member of the Compensation Committee (which modeled Dylan’s pay package after Elon Musk) Member of the Nominating Committee (only Lilly and Rimer) Luis von Ahn Duolingo co-founder and CEO 2025: shared an internal email outlining Duolingo’s new "AI-first" strategy where Duolingo would “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle” Stated that "AI is a better teacher than humans" and that the future role of teachers would be reduced to providing "childcare." Blamed the controversy on a "lack of context" in his original statements "AI-First" memo goes viral: $389; today $118 MATT Danone, Starbucks shine in methane-reduction ranking Danone is the only company in the group aligned with the Global Methane Pledge, an initiative backed by 150 countries that targets a 30 percent reduction in global levels of the gas by 2030. The French multinational also leads the pack in progress toward its target, having come close to hitting it five years ahead of schedule. WHO DO YOU CREDIT? Chair of the CSR committee Lise Kingo (9% influence), one of three directors tagged as merit directors master’s degree in Responsibility & Business from the University of Bath bachelor degrees in Religions and Ancient Greek Art bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Economics certificate as International Director from INSEAD Ex Novo Nordisk environmental affairs, internal audit, compliance, human resources, communication, branding and sustainability Helped create the UN SDGs and the UN Global Compact Somehow only bats 559 on carbon intensity (career) and 415 for scope 1/2 (career) Also, using deference metrics, the ONLY DIRECTOR tagged as fully independent Employee rep member of the CSR committee Bettina Theissig (5% influence) and the employees of Danone The committee charter mandates employees get a say: At least two thirds of the CSR Committee must be independent, as defined by the AFEP-MEDEF Code. At least one Director representing employees must be a member of the Committee. In France (Danone’s domicile), the European Investment Bank found that French employees were the most aware of environmental issues - 82% of French employees said they were highly concerned about environmental issues, highest in Europe Lead Independent Director and chair of the Nom/comp committee who put together the comp plan, Valerie Chapoulaud-Floquet 15% influence, second to the 18% influence CEO (democracy!!), got 99.16% shareholder approval in April (even as CEO got 89.73% approval and pay got 93.19% approval) 20% of short-term pay and 30% of long-term pay is based on hitting sustainability targets When you pay a CEO to do a thing, they are more likely to do a thing Ex-CEO Emmanuel Faber Ousted in 2021 by the board of directors and activist investors, he transformed Danone into an “enterprise a mission” (a French version of a B corp) Investors voted 99% in favor of the move and a year later ousted Faber, the board resigned, and the new board and CEO are basically moving back towards being environmental leaders because it paid off Short term share price lagged He said in 2024 that nature is “at the core” of Danone,  It took the stock 3 years from Faber’s ousting to return to Faber levels - and in the meantime, they were sued for plastics and emissions Isn’t this HIS win? Current CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique Because CEO GM Board Director Jonathan McNeill Stepping Down CEO of DVx Ventures. Ex COO at Lyft Inc. and ex president, Global Sales, Delivery and Service at Tesla, current director at Lululemon, GM director since 2022, on the Governance and Corporate Responsibility committee and Risk and Cybersecurity committee. We know that half of boards on average think someone on the board should be replaced - did the GM board not like McNeill? WHO/WHAT WOULD WE BLAME FOR PUSHING MCNEILL OUT? Outsider dude bro DR Let’s be honest, McNeill worked at much more… modern?... companies than GM The board is OLD SCHOOL

    44 min

  4. May 29

    BP’s bully pulpit, index funds hate your rights, Dell buys a contract, and baby name lies

    Story of the Week (DR): BP ousts chair over ‘serious’ governance, oversight concerns MM The board said the decision was unanimous. In a statement, Amanda Blanc, BP's senior independent director, described the board as having been caught off guard by what it found: "The board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action." The oil giant’s board removed Albert Manifold from his roles as chair and director this week, effective immediately. He faced a contingent of investor opposition at BP’s recent annual meeting. Internal leaks and a whistleblower report point to a pattern of "aggressive," "verbally abusive," and "bullying" behavior toward multiple colleagues, alongside accusations of withholding info from the board and leaking privileged data. Ousted BP Chair Hits Back at ‘Lies’ About His Conduct The boardroom turmoil at BP deepened after its ousted chair, Albert Manifold, claimed allegations about his conduct were “lies”. In a new and lengthy statement, Manifold disputed reports about his conduct, saying: “At no point in my tenure as chairman of BP has anyone raised with me any issue about my conduct or my relationship with my colleagues.” He also described media reports that he wanted to exert control of the FTSE 100 company like an executive chair as “nonsense”. Manifold said he had “many other commitments” and had only spent 13 days in BP’s London office so far this year. “What I do not accept is that lies can be told about me, nor that anyone should be allowed to hide behind anonymity when commenting on my time at BP.” Manifold conceded he may have “pushed hard and challenged people directly” amid his “determination to drive change on costs, performance, the balance sheet and shareholder communications”. However, he disputed reports from the company about his behaviour, adding: “There is a considerable distance between driving an organisation with urgency and the characterisation of my conduct that is now being put about.” He said such “accusations” had not been previously made about his behaviour during his 40-year career. He added that he “called out … unnecessary or excessive expenditure” but felt not everyone shared his priorities. Manifold said he turned down many of the benefits traditionally enjoyed by top executives, which he called a “culture of entitlement”, including chauffeur-driven cars, being flown by private jet or taking advantage of corporate hospitality: “I had no interest in having a dedicated chauffeur-driven limousine at my beck and call on the occasions that I was in London. I, like most people, walked, took taxis, trains, etc. I had no interest in taking private aviation nor in availing myself of corporate tickets for sports events. I made my own coffee, bought my lunch in the local cafe. I sat in a small office, eschewing the grand corner-office privilege of previous chairmen.” Ian Tyler has been named interim chair, BP said, with the board set to begin a formal process to identify a permanent successor: "The Board and leadership team have deep conviction in the strategic direction we have laid out, and the company is moving at pace to deliver it." This marks BP's fourth abrupt top-tier departure in three years, following the rapid exits of previous chair Helge Lund and chief executives Bernard Looney and Murray Auchincloss. Board Ian Tyler Interim Chair 2025 Meg O'Neill CEO 2026 Kate Thomson CFO 2024 (Interim in 2023) Dame Amanda Blanc Senior Independent Director 2022 Dave Hager 2025 Tushar Morzaria 2020 Hina Nagarajan 2023 Satish Pai 2023 Dr. Johannes Teyssen 2021 Manifold took up the chairmanship just last October. At last month's annual general meeting, just 81.8% of shareholders backed his election Among the most consequential decisions of Manifold's short tenure: pushing out former CEO Murray Auchincloss and overseeing the selection of Meg O'Neill to succeed him — a hire that marked the first time BP had recruited an external CEO and the first time a woman had led one of the oil industry's largest players. Dell wins a $9.7 billion Pentagon software deal after donating to Trump accounts Dell stock skyrockets 32%, heads for best day ever as AI server revenue soars Michael Dell added $35.8 billion to his personal fortune in a single day. Michael Dell pledged $6.25 billion to Trump Accounts This greatly helps with $100M Dell ($4M personally for Michael) had to pay in 2010 for its Intel Cookie jar Scandal:  Dell was telling investors that its high profits were due to amazing management and great computer sales. In reality, a massive chunk of their profits came from secret exclusivity payments from Intel so that Intel could shut out their competitor AMD. SpaceX’s Unconventional Corporate Arrangements Favor Elon Musk Danish pension fund rejects SpaceX IPO over valuation and governance concerns Standard Chartered CEO apologises for ‘lower-value human capital’ remarks Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters triggered a massive PR firestorm by describing the bank’s plan to replace back-office staff with automation as replacing "lower-value human capital" with financial investment Standard Chartered is cutting roughly 7,800 jobs—representing about 15% of its global back-office corporate support roles—over the next four years to make room for AI JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon downplayed the viral backlash against Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters—calling it an "inartful" slip-of-the-tongue from a friend. Tyson Foods hands CEO role to director Incoming CEO Jeffrey K. Schomburger is Lead Independent Director (2016-) Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Ride-Share Drivers in Massachusetts Formally Unionize MM DR DR: Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner stands by ad accusing Red Sox private equity owners of ruining the team DR: Supreme Court lets Vermont’s Meta lawsuit proceed, opening door to 50-state legal wave The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a push to avoid a lawsuit alleging that Facebook and Instagram harmed young users, a decision that comes as social media companies increasingly face legal scrutiny. Meta had argued that it can’t be sued in Vermont court because neither the company nor the app design has specific ties to the state. Vermont countered that the sites’ large number of teen users gives its courts jurisdiction. DR: New Hampshire data center developer withdraws plans hours before opponents were to pack town meeting MM: The world’s largest data center was supposed to run on 100% natural gas. Utah’s Republican governor says ‘never.’ Must include solar, geothermal MM: Labor union participation is on the rise even as U.S. companies spend $1.7 billion annually to halt union formation MM DR Assholiest of the Week (MM): Index funds should just quit pretending DR Exxon wins shareholder backing for legal move to Texas 71.3% support We know ~22% of that is BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street We can GUESS that ~13% of that is retail Estimated 40% of shares are retail 28% voted prior to retail vote capture plan by Exxon If we GUESS that maybe only 10% of retail voters adopted vote plan when they sent it out at the end of 2025, and if we GUESS that half of them were non voters, we can figure that maybe 33% of retail voted this go around - giving management ~13% of the vote before the vote started Which means individuals with no idea and index funds voted 35% in favor - and the rest of investors voted 36% in favor YOUR INDEX FUNDS HATE YOUR VOTING RIGHTS Throw in that the SHP to add more options to retail voting plan - which included an option to default vote AGAINST management - only got 23.5% support, and we know that BLK/Vanguard/SS voted against it and retail voted with management, the real vote in favor: 36% - EXACTLY THE NUMBER OF REAL INVESTORS THAT VOTED AGAINST REDOMESTICATION This is unlikely a coincidence - ACTUAL INVESTORS with ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE like rights, but index funds and uneducated retail could f*****g care less Safe Harbor Financial Expands Board of Directors with Appointment of Tyler Klimas and Sean Tonner Two dudes added to an all dude board overseeing weed banking at a non dual class company… because women don’t do banks or weed I guess?  Investors, what say you? Last year, they said “we don’t care” - 97% in favor Meanwhile, in the UK… Investors tell BP to fix shareholder rights and governance after chair removal Tech bros should quit pretending Meta commits additional funding to Oversight Board through 2028 $13m - Zuck owns a $300m yacht and spent $13m for a bunch of well meaning reporters, academics, and human rights experts to help him decide what to do about horrible human behavior on his platforms When they decide, he listens… 42% of the time Here’s one they listen to: from September 2025, decided in April 2026 (inside a year!), and Instagram post listed the reasons dating someone in a wheelchair is great, and a comment said it was also good because they can’t run away.  Meta left the comment up, but the board found it in the appeals and said it should come down - and Meta took it down under its bullying policy Meanwhile, for AI driven fake content for war and conflict, Meta is considering it…   OpenAI Foundation is committing $250 million to help workers navigate AI disruption Oh, thank god, we’re saved Marc Andreessen Sputters Incomprehensibly at Question About How AI Will Actually Benefit Humankind "I mean, look, so it, it is, alright — I mean, alright I'm gonna give you the deepest of all pitches, I'm gonna give you the, the — okay." Just stop pretending it’s for “humankind” and not for YOU TO MAKE TRILLIONS The NY Post and “baby naming expert” New York’s most popular baby names trend towards 'traditional' as reaction to woke Mayor Mamdani: expert Literally everything in this headline is incorrect - and so is this quote from

    1h 1m

  5. May 26

    Bezos spouts, CEOs hate employees, SpaceX IPO gaslights

    ESG Stuff BP removes chairman Albert Manifold over governance issues 9 The board said the decision was unanimous. In a statement, Amanda Blanc, BP's senior independent director, described the board as having been caught off guard by what it found: "The board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action." The company did not elaborate on the specific nature of the concerns. Ian Tyler has been named interim chair, BP said, with the board set to begin a formal process to identify a permanent successor: "The Board and leadership team have deep conviction in the strategic direction we have laid out, and the company is moving at pace to deliver it." Manifold took up the chairmanship just last October. At last month's annual general meeting, just 81.8% of shareholders backed his election Among the most consequential decisions of Manifold's short tenure: pushing out former CEO Murray Auchincloss and overseeing the selection of Meg O'Neill to succeed him — a hire that marked the first time BP had recruited an external CEO and the first time a woman had led one of the oil industry's largest players. Tulsi Gabbard Exit Marks Fourth Woman to Leave Trump Cabinet 0 Apology Tour Bank boss sorry after describing workers as 'lower value human capital' 7 Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters triggered a massive PR firestorm by describing the bank’s plan to replace back-office staff with automation as replacing "lower-value human capital" with financial investment Standard Chartered is cutting roughly 7,800 jobs—representing about 15% of its global back-office corporate support roles—over the next four years to make room for AI After internal anger and blistering public criticism, Winters posted a formal apology for his "choice of words." However, he initially fueled the fire by attaching the full interview transcript to justify his broader context, drawing further criticism for being defensive In his first attempt to quiet the storm, Winters leaned heavily into the corporate strategy rather than apologizing for the specific phrasing: "I said that lower-value roles are more vulnerable to automation, and that we have a responsibility to help colleagues move into higher-value roles. That is what a responsible employer should do. We will continue to speak honestly about the impact of technological change, and we will continue to act responsibly in helping our people to adapt and succeed." After a barrage of negative comments on his first post, Winters returned to LinkedIn later that day to offer an explicit apology for his phrasing: "I have received a lot of support for the messages in my previous post but still get questions about my choice of words, which I know has caused upset to some colleagues. For that I am sorry." "I think the transcript makes it clear that I value our colleagues – all of them – most highly and that we are totally committed to helping them to cope with the accelerating pace of change in our industry." JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon says bank chief's viral AI comment was 'inartful' Dimon downplayed the viral backlash against Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters—who drew fire for saying his bank would replace "lower-value human capital" with technology—calling it an "inartful" slip-of-the-tongue from a friend. Neopbabies and Dropout babies James Murdoch to acquire New York Magazine and Vox Media Podcast Network -1 Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 6 Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow justified firing his entire Human Resources department by claiming they actively manufactured internal friction The aggressive purge follows a brutal 97% collapse in Bolt’s valuation—crashing from an $11 billion peak in 2022 down to $300 million Traditional HR has been entirely swapped for a skeletal "people operations" team, shifting the focus away from employee complaints and internal processes toward basic compliance training and empowering managers to make split-second decisions Alongside gutting HR, Breslow rolled back employee-friendly benefits like four-day workweeks and unlimited PTO, claiming a culture of complacency had taken over and that 99% of his legacy workforce was simply unwilling to work hard Ryan dropped out of Stanford in 2014 to launch Bolt The Middle School Boy Man Babies Rule the World Man Drives Cybertruck Into Lake to Test Elon Musk’s “Boat” Claims, and It Went About as Well as You’d Guess -10 "The passengers abandoned the vehicle and the driver was arrested." Tesla CEO Elon Musk: randomly tweeted that the vehicle would function as a rudimentary flotation device. “It will even float for a while.” “[The vehicle would be able to] traverse at least 100m [330 feet] of water as a boat.” “Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren’t too choppy.” Jeff Bezos urges US government to stop taxing 50% of America — and claims doubling his taxes won’t help ‘that teacher in Queens' 400 Jeff Bezos backs Mamdani's tax on luxury second homes, but says Ken Griffin isn't the villain Jeff Bezos on Zohran Mamdani’s big mistake: ‘When you don’t know how to solve a problem, create a villain, blame them’ Jeff Bezos says there is ‘no truth’ to the ‘buy borrow die’ tax strategy Billionaires Openly Use It: Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has historically pledged over $30 billion worth of his Oracle stock as collateral for personal bank loans. Elon Musk has similarly pledged tens of billions of dollars in Tesla shares to secure lines of credit over the years He said he was "skeptical that that's a true loophole," but added, "If it is, and we can fix it, then we should. I don't think such a loophole should exist." Jeff Bezos Praises Trump’s Second Term as ‘More Mature’ Jeff Bezos Says AI Will 'Elevate' Workers — Despite Amazon's 30,000 Job Cuts Amid $100 Billion AI Push Elon Musk compares his company’s work to that of Jesus 0 In an interview on Monday, the billionaire said his Neuralink brain-implant company is progressing in its development of ‘Jesus-like technologies’ Although brain-computer interface (BCI) as a concept has been around since at least the 1970s, the push to commercialize the technology is more recent. According to data from market-intelligence firm Tracxn, more than 130 BCI startups have been launched since 2016. Why Is Mark Zuckerberg Taunting His Employees Before Firing Them? 20 Back in April, Meta announced it was laying off 10 percent of its workforce, or around some 7,800 workers. Unlike traditional layoffs, which are enacted relatively quickly, Meta gave its employees a nearly month-long warning period without announcing who exactly would be headed for the unemployment line. In newly leaked audio from an all-hands meeting at Meta, released by More Perfect Union, the Meta CEO seems to actually be taunting the thousands of workers who were about to be let go by pointing to how the company was harvesting employee data to train its in-house AI models ahead of the massive layoffs. “So we’re in a phase where basically the AI models learn from heaving real, from watching really smart people do things. And if you’re trying to get it to be able to be able to do certain capabilities, having [AI] be able to observe really smart people doing those things is, is very important.” Going on, Zuckerberg explained that it was better to train AI on soon-to-be-former Meta employees, rather than “contract companies.” “In general, the average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people that you can get to do tasks if you’re working through… contractors,” Zuckerberg stammered. “So if we’re trying to teach the models coding, for example, then having people internally, um, build tools that, or, or solve tasks that, um, that help teach the model how to code, we think is going to dramatically increase our models coding ability faster than what others in the industry have the capability to do.” Intuit to Cut 17% of Staff, Invest in ‘Big Bets’ 3 The restructuring cost is estimated at about $300 million to $340 million About 3,100 employees: and invest the savings in “big bets” as it makes artificial intelligence a centerpiece of its business. Woke Wars Texas AG Sues ISS Over ESG Considerations 0 Texas AG Ken Paxton (in a senate race) is suing ISS for allegedly “misleading” customers by pushing “radical political agendas” through its proxy advice Notably, ISS has attempted to obstruct ExxonMobil's planned reincorporation from New Jersey to Texas “ISS has enormous influence over how billions of dollars are invested and managed across this country, and they have abused that influence in order to push woke ideology” Iowa AG Brenna Bird sues ISS, says advice risks retirement savings Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is suing the world's largest proxy-advice firm for abusing its influence and threatening Iowans' retirement savings by "lying" to investors. Stakeholders Rule! Wells Fargo must pay $100M to help homebuyers after discrimination lawsuit — 51 cities are eligible 7 The settlement, which was recently approved by a federal judge in California, comes after four years of legal disputes involving Wells Fargo shareholders, former employees and job applicants who accused the bank of systemic problems in both lending and hiring practices. While Wells Fargo denied wrongdoing, the company agreed to the deal to avoid prolonged litigation and mounting legal costs. The case centered on allegations that Wells Fargo’s board failed to maintain adequate oversight of the bank’s mortgage lending operations, exposing the company to regulatory scrutiny and accusations of discriminatory practices. Accord

    1h 4m

  6. May 19

    GOOD GAME: Booing AI, Musk loses, BYD and public transit win, empty Waymos

    The Good Game Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed by graduates at mention of AI And yet: College students are booing commencement speakers celebrating AI, but the wave of hate hasn’t stopped them from using it to cheat on their exams Elon Musk loses court battle against Sam Altman and OpenAI after 3-week trial A federal jury in Oakland, California, on Monday said Elon Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman over claims they allegedly violated an agreement to run their artificial intelligence venture strictly as a charitable nonprofit. The advisory jury’s verdict, which came after less than two hours of deliberations, was immediately adopted by District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. In a post on his social network X, Musk called the decision a “calendar technicality … There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!” And yet: Jury Throws Out Musk's OpenAI Lawsuit in Under Two Hours, Clearing Path for Sam Altman's IPO Pope Leo launches an AI commission days before he releases a papal letter alongside Anthropic cofounder Christopher Olah The Vatican is treating AI as a core moral issue, not a side topic. Pope Leo is moving fast: a new AI commission lands just before his first major AI-focused encyclical. The message is clearly human-centered: dignity, justice, labor, and protection of people come first. Bringing in Anthropic cofounder Christopher Olah signals the Church wants direct dialogue with top AI builders, not just criticism from the sidelines. This looks like an attempt to shape AI norms early, before the technology’s social impact hardens into policy and culture The AI economy is rewriting the American Dream — and blue-collar workers are poised to win The rapid spread of AI across corporate America is creating a crisis for young adults with college degrees who are finding a slowdown in hiring for entry-level positions in AI-exposed industries. And yet: Don’t hold your breath for the great AI job reshuffle, says Goldman Sachs—there’s little evidence of ‘too many coders and not enough plumbers’ And yet: Despite degrees being slammed as ‘useless’ by Gen Z, data shows graduates have had the lowest unemployment rate of anyone for the last 20 years DSE, IFC host 'women on boards' session to strengthen female corporate leadership Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) PLC and International Finance Corporation (IFC) jointly organized an on-boarding session titled "Women on Boards (WOB)" aimed at enhancing women's participation in corporate leadership and decision-making processes. Starbucks Korea sacks CEO over controversial 'Tank Day' promotion Starbucks Korea thought it would be a brilliant idea to promote their new "Tank" line of coffee tumblers by declaring a special marketing event called "Tank Day." The catastrophic oversight? They launched it on May 18—the highly sensitive national anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. For South Koreans, the word "tank" on this specific day immediately evokes the horrific memory of the military dictatorship deploying actual armored tanks to brutally crush and massacre pro-democracy protesters The promotion featured the tagline: "put it on the table with a sound of 'Tak!'" (or "thwack on the desk"). In South Korea, "Tak!" is chillingly famous. In 1987, when the military regime tried to cover up the torture-induced death of student activist Park Jong-chul, police absurdly claimed the student just suddenly collapsed and died because an investigator struck a desk, making a "tak" sound Son Jung-hyun (Sohn Jeong-hyun), the CEO of Starbucks Korea, was summarily fired within hours of the campaign going live the retail conglomerate that operates Starbucks Korea (Shinsegae Group) also fired the unnamed executive who planned and oversaw the campaign, while launching disciplinary proceedings against every other employee who let this pass the review stage. Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin was reportedly "furious" and ordered the immediate sacking of the CEO to "make an example." South Korean President Lee Jae Myung them as "low-class peddlers" engaging in "inhumane, bottom-feeding behavior" that mocked a blood-stained struggle for basic human rights Starbucks US headquarters reportedly apologized as well, saying it deeply regretted the “unacceptable” marketing incident BYD surges, Toyota falters as oil crisis boosts EVs in Australia AND Gas prices are rising. So is public transit ridership And yet: EPA Claims ‘Overwhelming Rejection’ of EVs as It Moves to Loosen Air Pollution Rules SPEED ROUND Free gas from Cracker Barrel this summer: Here’s how you can get it Sports Illustrated Just Deleted Every Article by One of Its Writers After Accusation of AI Plagiarism Mayor Zohran Mamdani says first of NYC's five government-run grocery stores will open in the Bronx next year AI CEOs Baffled by Hatred of Their Technology Southwest Airlines is banning humanoid and animal-like robots from its flights after a robot flies to Dallas Swarm of Empty Waymos Descends on Unsuspecting Suburb, Circle Cul-de-Sacs for Hours on End Like Strange Ghosts Being a Crappy Boss to AI Chatbots Pushes Them Toward Spouting Marxist Rhetoric and Organizing With Their Compatriots, Researchers Find Elon Musk Says If We Don't Do Something About Corruption And Waste, 'The Ship Of America Is Going To Sink' —And We're All Going Down With It Hantavirus Ship Has Docked in Rotterdam As Its Passengers Face a 42-Day Quarantine Amid Nonexistence Cure

    44 min

  7. May 15

    Companies kill benefits, activist wants manly Victoria’s Secret, Buffett turns off the lights

    Story of the Week (DR): Trump is bringing Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and a dozen other CEOs to Beijing for his Xi summit Technology & AI Elon Musk – CEO, Tesla and SpaceX Tim Cook – CEO, Apple Jensen Huang – CEO, Nvidia (joined as a last-minute addition after a personal call from the President) Cristiano Amon – CEO, Qualcomm Sanjay Mehrotra – CEO, Micron Technology Dina Powell McCormick – President, Meta Jim Anderson – CEO, Coherent Finance & Investment Larry Fink – CEO, BlackRock Stephen Schwarzman – CEO, Blackstone David Solomon – CEO, Goldman Sachs Jane Fraser – CEO, Citigroup Aerospace & Manufacturing Kelly Ortberg – CEO, Boeing (reportedly finalizing a massive 500-jet deal during the trip) Larry Culp – CEO, GE Aerospace Payments & Services Michael Miebach – CEO, Mastercard Ryan McInerney – CEO, Visa Agriculture & Biotech Brian Sikes – CEO, Cargill Jacob Thaysen – CEO, Illumina Paypal agrees to $30 million settlement with Trump's Justice Department over 'illegal DEI' The company launched a $530M Economic Opportunity Fund in 2020 for Black and underrepresented minority businesses Did not fight this in court, just surrendered To make the DOJ happy, PayPal had to ditch its race-based criteria; instead, it now funnels that financial support to veteran-owned businesses and companies in farming, manufacturing, or technology. A direct “black” to “white” transfer Any company that launched a race-specific grant or loan program after 2020 is now officially in the DOJ’s crosshairs, and "social justice" is being litigated as "civil rights fraud." PayPal board: “Independent” chair David W. Dorman (2015-; 17%) member of the Dell Technologies Board Michael Dell and Donald Trump are BFFs: Dell pledged $6.25B to Trump Accounts Jonathan Christodoro (2015-; 13%): a disciple of billionaire Carl Icahn (former Managing Director at Icahn Capital), one of Trump’s oldest and most vocal allies Founder PayPal Mafia Trump BFFs: Musk (DOGE), David Sacks (AI and Crypto Czar), Peter Thiel (JD Vance creator) Frank Yeary (2015-; 12%): Intel director since 2009 and chair since 2023 It Was One of DOGE’s Most Absurd Abuses. A Court Finally Exposed It This whole saga centers on a major legal showdown between the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  The case is a consolidated lawsuit (often called the NEH-DOGE lawsuit) filed in May 2025 by groups including the Authors Guild, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association.   On May 7, 2026, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon issued a massive 143-page ruling. She essentially nuked DOGE’s attempt to defund hundreds of humanities projects, calling their process a "textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination." The AI Purge: Instead of a professional review, DOGE staffers (described in court as young "technologists" with no background in humanities) ran thousands of grant descriptions through ChatGPT. DOGE staffers—mostly described as 20-somethings with "zero experience in the humanities"—attempted to dodge government transparency laws by conducting official business on Signal with auto-delete enabled. The court found this was a blatant violation of the Federal Records Act, proving that "efficiency" is often just code for "avoiding a paper trail." The Woke Filter: They told the AI to flag anything related to "DEI." This backfired spectacularly when the AI flagged projects on Holocaust survivors, Appalachian history, and Italian-American archives simply because they used words like "identity," "culture," or "women." DOGE didn't actually read the grants they cut. Instead, they used ChatGPT and basic keyword searches to flag any program containing "incriminating" words like "history," "culture," "identity," or "BIPOC." If the AI thought it sounded "woke," the funding was axed—a move Judge Colleen McMahon called a "textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination." In perhaps the most "mask-off" moment of the proceedings, it was revealed that DOGE staffers flagged and canceled a documentary about Jewish women’s slave labor during the Holocaust. The reason? Their AI-driven filter decided that focusing on "Jewish cultures" and "female voices" made it an illegal DEI program. Apparently, documenting Nazi atrocities is now "radical identity politics." The ruling highlighted a minor detail the administration seemed to forget: DOGE isn't a real government agency. The judge noted that DOGE had absolutely no lawful authority to terminate congressionally appropriated funds. They were essentially a group of private-sector bros playing President with the NEH checkbook The Redirect: The court found that the $100 million "saved" wasn't actually returned to the Treasury. Instead, it was being funneled into the administration's own projects, like the "National Garden of American Heroes." Why Two Big Companies Just Cut Paid Family Leave MM For the last decade, a tight labor market forced companies to compete for talent with generous perks. Now, with the job market cooling and employees having less leverage to quit, companies like Deloitte and Zoom are quietly rolling back benefits. Zoom, the company that became the face of remote work, has slashed its paid parental leave. Birthing parents saw their leave drop from up to 24 weeks to 18 weeks, while non-birthing parents were cut from 16 weeks down to 10. Deloitte is making deep cuts, but not for everyone. The reductions specifically target “Center” employees—the administrative, IT, and finance support staff who generally earn less—rather than the high-earning consultants. Their leave was halved from 16 weeks to just eight. Beyond just time off, Deloitte is axing its $50,000 reimbursement program for adoption, surrogacy, and IVF for these support roles. I Hate Working 5 Days': Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Says AI Could Shrink Workweeks To 3 Days In A Major Future Shift Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Chipotle CEO [Scott Boatwright] tells customers to ‘just ask’ if they want bigger portions after downsizing accusations: “You should ask for a little more ... We serve big, beautiful bowls and burritos. Full stop, no questions asked. If you want more, just ask the team member. I promise you there’s never a team member on that line that’s going to say no.”  886 to 1 MM: Oil shortages DR MM Beer demand stumbles as gas prices surge, data shows I mean, isn’t this the double best?  Less idiots driving drunk AND less idiots DRIVING! Oil shortages are even hitting colored snack bags Ugly snacks, maybe less eating! Assholiest TRIGGERIEST of the Week (MM): Brett Blundy Victoria’s Secret unveils allegations against activist investor, loses board director Blundy, Australian billionaire who launched Bras N Things, a classy establishment sold to Hanes, and currently chairs Lovisa, a fast fashion jewelry business, bought 13% of VS and thinks he can run it better He’s disappointed with VS acquisition of Adore Me (online retailer) and the drop in earnings Meanwhile, Lovisa’s 1Y market returns: -22% vs. ASX +4%  TRIGGERED: Blundy, a f*****g Australian billionaire blowhard, chairs Lovisa Lovisa board: Blundy, Mark McInnes (“deputy chair”), John Cheston (CEO), Bruce Carter, Tracey Blundy (wife), John Charlton, Sei Jin Alt (woman, Asian) Brett and Tracey own 40%+ of shares Zero merit directors Exec team: John, Mark, Victor, Chris - zero women Blundy is targeting VS, whose board is… Donna James, Hillary Super (CEO), Irene Britt, Sarah Davis, Jacqueline Hernandez, Rod Little, David McCreight, Mariam Naficy, Lauren Peters, Anne Sheehan Exec team: 4 women, 1 man This is the ultimate mansplain - some chest thumping billionaire walks into a room full of women, pushes them out, takes over… and this from the filing: “On November 13, 2025, members of the Board held a videoconference call with Mr. Blundy to inform him that the Board had determined, in accordance with its fiduciary duties, that appointing Mr. Blundy to the Board would not be in the best interests of VS&Co or its stockholders. In an effort to reach a mutually agreeable resolution, the Board proposed collaborating with BBRC and Mr. Blundy on (i) adding one mutually-agreed new independent director not affiliated with BBRC to the Board, (ii) Mr. Blundy’s participation in a review with the Board of the Company’s capital allocation, (iii) entering into a longer-term information sharing agreement and, in the context of a negotiated resolution with BBRC and Mr. Blundy, an agreement on customary standstill restrictions, and (iv) taking down the Rights Plan. After this call, the Board delivered to Mr. Blundy the following letter explaining its rationale for rejecting his candidacy and proposing a new framework for a mutually agreeable resolution: “The potential for significant reputational and legal risk to Victoria’s Secret arising from (1) your pattern of hiring executives with a history of serious allegations of sexual harassment or other misconduct, and (2) the reported and alleged instances of harassment and highly inappropriate employee policies that occurred under your oversight at companies you controlled or effectively controlled. The proxy should just say, “Australian white male billionaire who is cool sexually harassing women while selling them underwear wants to take over massive underwear store run by women” Elon Musk and Sam Altman Musk first… Sam Altman Accuses Elon Musk of Laughing at Memes During Important OpenAI Meetings Musk's China trip during OpenAI trial prompts apology from his lawyer for CEO's absence TRIGGERED: This is the man child trillionaire we’re supposed to take seriously - does his mom fold his socks for him?  Does he eat Cheerios out of a frisbee for breakfast?  These are our male adult role models? Musk apparently was too busy for the trial, but during talks

    58 min

  8. May 5

    BLAME: Coinbase’s AI job cuts, Starbucks’ $10 “affordable” coffee, Bezos at the Met

    DR Coinbase cuts headcount by 14% citing AI acceleration. The shares are gaining Coinbase cuts headcount by 14% citing AI acceleration WHO DO YOU BLAME? Cofounder/CEO/Chair Brian Armstrong: 49.6% voting power MM In 2020, amidst global protests for racial justice, Armstrong issued a blog post that effectively banned employees from discussing social issues or activism at work: "We don't advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission, because it is a distraction from our mission... we won't engage in broader societal issues." Brian is a proponent of "Freedom Cities"—privatized zones built on federal land that would be exempt from the laws that govern the rest of the country Meta Platforms director Marc Andreessen: Impeding the development of AI in any way, he argues, “is a form of murder. "Our enemies are 'social responsibility', 'stakeholder capitalism', 'Precautionary Principle', 'sustainable development goals', 'social justice', and 'environmental, social, and governance (ESG)'... These are all ideas that would lead to a stagnant, decadent, and ultimately dead society." The dual class share structure: The holders of our Class B common stock are entitled to twenty votes per share, and holders of our Class A common stock are entitled to one vote per share. Jeffrey Billings, the independent trustee for certain trusts established by Brian Armstrong (representing 18.9% voting power) Co-founder/director Frederick “Fred” Ernest Ehrsam III (10.6% voting power) co-founder and general partner of the crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm co-founder and CEO of Nudge, a neurotechnology startup developing non-invasive brain–computer interfaces Duke University While Fred is often seen as the quiet intellectual counterpart to Marc Andreessen, his philosophy is arguably even more dystopian to critics because it moves beyond just software—aiming to program human governance and the human brain itself. Fred is the Quiet Architect of a future where human systems are replaced by cold code. Fred is a major backer of the Prometheus Summit, a secretive gathering of tech elites focused on "longevity" and "assisted reproductive technologies." In 2026, Fred was appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) by President Donald Trump The 2 women on the board, seems very DEI-ish The shares are gaining WHO DO YOU BLAME? Investors Up 15$ in 2 days: $655M for brian Diary of a CEO founder says he hired someone with ‘zero’ work experience because she ‘thanked the security guard by name’ before the interview WHO DO YOU BLAME? The so-called “meritocracy” MM “I hired someone who’s CV was two lines. Their experience was zero” Elon Musk's SpaceX Could Be Fast-Tracked Into S&P 500 After IPO Under Proposed Rule Changes AND Elon Musk settles SEC lawsuit over Twitter purchase and agrees to pay $1.5m fine A trust in Musk’s name will pay a $1.5m civil penalty, without admitting wrongdoing. Musk won’t have to give up any money he allegedly saved from the delay. In its January 2025 lawsuit, the SEC said Musk’s 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5% Twitter stake in late March and early April 2022 let him buy more than $500min shares at artificially low prices, before he finally revealed a 9.2% stake.  WHO DO YOU BLAME? The SEC Commissioners Jan 2025 Chair Gary Gensler (D) Commissioner Hester Peirce (R) Commissioner Mark Uyeda (R) Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw (D) Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga (D) Today MM Chair Paul Atkins (R) Commissioner Hester Peirce (R) Commissioner Mark Uyeda (R) Vacant Vacant Specifically Paul Atkins During his first stint as an SEC Commissioner (George W. Bush), Paul was famous for his dissent against large corporate penalties He argued that fining a company for the "sins" of its executives just hurts the innocent shareholders a second time Recently in the same Administration with Musk (DOGE) Generally believes the SEC overregulates; Musk has referred to the SEC as “bastards” Commissioner Hester Peirce The perennial dissenter (pre-Trump 2.0): Whenever the SEC would sue a crypto firm or fine a high-profile CEO, Peirce would release a blistering public letter explaining why the SEC was wrong, overreaching, and "paternalistic." Hester is the primary author of the Token Safe Harbor proposal, which essentially argues that tech companies should be allowed to operate for three years without any SEC oversight to "find their footing." Hester has long argued that the SEC’s disclosure requirements are "bloated" and "immaterial." In her view, Musk’s failure to file a 13D form for his Twitter stake wasn't a crime—it was a failure to comply with a "clunky, outdated bureaucracy." "In our purportedly enlightened era, we pin scarlet letters on allegedly offending corporations without bothering much about facts and circumstances... After all, naming and shaming corporate villains is fun, trendy, and profitable." The S&P 500, managed by S&P Global Dow Jones Indices, on Thursday, announced it was beginning consultation on rule changes that could potentially help Elon Musk-led SpaceX gain an expedited entry into the index.  The rule changes include letting IPOs enter the index six months after their debut on an eligible index instead of a 12-month period, according to current rules. The index also proposed eliminating a minimum Investable Weight Factor (IWF) of 0.10 for megacap companies. The IWF is a methodology used to calculate the number of shares of a company available to trade on the market. Notably, the proposed rule changes also eliminate profitability requirements for megacap companies. Current rules require a company to be profitable on a GAAP basis for 12 months to be considered for the index, but that rule could be eliminated. S&P DJI only accepts feedback during the announced consultation open period, which is generally one calendar month following the consultation announcement. The Index Committee considers the complexity of the change and the desirable implementation timing in determining the open window for the consultation, which is generally aligned, if possible, with the index rebalancing schedule.  WHO DO YOU BLAME? S&P Global CEO Martina L. Cheung (31% no on pay last year) DEI? That’s all I have S&P Global Chair Ian Livingston (Lord Livingston of Parkhead) Lord Livingston is also involved in a number of charities particularly in the fields of education, equality and social care Lords are weird? That’s all I have The Index Committee The S&P 500 Index Committee is one of the most powerful and secretive groups in global finance. To prevent insider trading and front-running (where traders buy a stock because they know it’s about to be added to the index), S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) keeps the names of the individual committee members confidential. “To mitigate even the appearance of a conflict of interest... all Index Committee meetings are confidential. Membership of the Index Committee is not disclosed, and voting members consist of senior S&P DJI staff who have no commercial responsibilities” The Committee Members: Usually consists of about five to nine full-time employees of S&P Dow Jones Indices.   Veto Power: Unlike other indices that use a rigid formula, this committee has discretionary authority. They can choose to ignore certain rules (like profitability) if they believe a company is representative of the U.S. economy. Who is probably partly on the Committee: Catherine Clay (CEO, S&P Dow Jones Indices): As the top executive, she oversees all index divisions. She joined in late 2025 with a mandate to modernize the indices for the digital and private-to-public era. Fiona Boal (Global Head of Equities): She oversees the entire equity index suite. Any proposal to change the "seasoning" or profitability rules for the S&P 500 goes through her office. Michael Orzano (Head of Exchange Products): He is the primary strategist for how major listings (like a $1.75T SpaceX IPO) integrate with the exchange-traded product (ETF) ecosystem. He was the lead strategist during the 2020 Tesla Inclusion, which was the most chaotic event in S&P history Hamish Preston (Head of U.S. Equities): He is the primary spokesperson for S&P 500 methodology. If the "SpaceX Rule" is adopted in June 2026, he will be the one explaining the technical justification to the media. Louis Bellucci (Head of Index Committee Management): As of 2026, he is the specific individual tasked with managing the various index committees and ensuring they follow the updated governance protocols The general concept of greed MM MM 'Tone Deaf' Starbucks CEO Slammed for Justifying $10 Coffee as 'Affordable Premium Experience' - Niccol is so close to the human experience, he thought it was obviously “affordable” premium to pay $10 for a single cup of coffee.  WHO DO YOU BLAME? Mike Sievert, Jorgen Knudstorp, Neal Mohan, and Brian Niccol According to Free Float knowledge database, the only four directors with base knowledge of marketing in their backgrounds - all direct from their education and bios 46% of SBUX influence Richard Allison, Neal Mohan, Andy Campion, Beth Ford, Mike Sievert Members of the pay committee that graciously granted Niccol $96m such that a $10 coffee is an “affordable premium experience” for Niccol alone Meanwhile, CEO Pay Surges 11% While Workers' Wages Stagnate at 0.5% in 2025: Report. In the last 5 years, EVERY director at SBUX was tagged as a “bottom payer” for employees using bottom quartile employee median pay relative to peers as a flag At the same time, SBUX tagged as mildly atypical overpay relative to other paying directors, and the board average 5 year CEO Pay ratio ranking in the BOTTOM QUINTILE - not only do they love paying their employees as little as possible, the couple it with massive pay packages for CEOs everywhere they go Beth Ford, Daniel Servitje, and Neal Mohan Acco

    59 min
See All (314)

4.9
out of 5
74 Ratings

About

Whether you love business news or feel like you’re supposed to know it but hate it, Business Pants is business news for humans. Snarky and irreverent, deeply researched and factual, a podcast devoted to market quirks and the humans that make up companies. Investing isn’t a what, it’s a who.

Information

  • Creator
    Free Float Media Inc.
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    314
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024, Free Float Media Inc.
  • Show Website
    Business Pants

You Might Also Like