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. 9h ago

    Zuck reads your kids to sleep, pervert glasses, and dual class federal elections

    DR1 CEO Overlords In our 'Zuck saves kids from Mommies' headline of the week. Meta Working on Crushingly Sad AI App That Tells Bedtime Stories to Children, for “Tired” Parents***************  In our 'CEO overlords say the trick to getting a good career is figuring out how to please us' headline of the week. As millions of Gen Zers face unemployment, CEOs of Amazon, Citi, and McDonald’s say opportunity is still there—if you have the right mindset***************  In our 'If you have to ask why then you probably won't understand the answer' headline of the week. Why did a $154 billion CEO just endorse stripping most Americans of voting rights—and taking us back to the 19th century?*************** Tobias Lütke, CEO/cofounder of Shopify In our 'Yeah, but they waaaaaaant it' headline of the week. The Type of Orbital Data Centers That Billionaires Want to Launch Into Space Would Wreak Ecological Catastrophe, Scientists Warn***************  In our 'Meglomaniac looks in the mirror, doesn’t like what he sees' headline of the week. Sam Altman says one of his biggest fears is that a small number of companies will control AI: 'That'd be very, very bad'***************  MM1 In our 'I mean, it didn't ONCE tell me to kill myself!' headline of the week. Sam Altman says he got ‘addicted’ to TikTok, including a Saturday afternoon where he scrolled ‘for like 3 hours’ In our 'Sorry, I was scrolling TikTok... what happened?' headline of the week. Sam Altman Announces That the Singularity Has Arrived In our 'Things that you can get carried away doing include ordering pastrami sandwiches, buying Christmas presents, and plucking your eyebrows' headline of the week. Musk Says He Got “Carried Away” With DOGE Cuts, Which Are Set to Kill Millions In our 'Zuckerberg announces another massive company rebranding: from Meta Platforms to Pervert Platforms' headline of the week. Meta Desperately Trying to Ban Creeps Misusing Its AI “Pervert Glasses” Does Mark count? In our 'Are boobs pecuniary?' headline of the week. Cracker Barrel CEO is out after MAGA backlash to "Uncle Herschel" logo change Are logo changes pecuniary?  Isn’t the fact that a logo changed and it cost money and the CEO her job evidence that ESG data IS PECUNIARY? The logo is non-financial!  ESG for all! DR2 In our 'Sorry, watching World Cup' headline of the week. OpenAI didn't realize its agent was responsible for hack for a week***************  In our 'What's next? Are they going to start wearing glasses?' headline of the week. Japan office workers cool off with shorts amid record-breaking summers***************  In our 'Come for the ethically sourced, single-origin dark roast stay for the Maltodextrin' headline of the week. Starbucks Powder Designed to Make Drinks 'Look Better' Makes Baristas Feel Worse***************  In our 'Hey Ma, why is it 215 degrees in my bedroom? Ask Dad' headline of the week. Startups are installing tiny data centers in people’s homes to reduce strain on the beleaguered electrical grid***************  In our 'Come for the child's game, stay for the crushing dystopia' headline of the week. Pokémon Mandates Facial Scans at Five Japan TCG Stores to Combat Scalping, Prompting Privacy Questions***************  MM2 In our 'We tried HUMAN powered security cameras, and while that worked really well, it was really too nuanced and human' headline of the week. MIT Is Blanketing Its Entire Campus in AI-Powered Security Cameras Firm is AI-Rgus and it’s able to tell if your camera is tilted or blurry In our 'We tried HUMAN powered relationships, but there was so much TALKING and CONNECTING and EMOTIONS' headline of the week. AI is quietly becoming an unofficial and potentially unwanted 'third' in relationships In our 'Elon Musk said on Twitter that using a white font as a trick was racists against whites' headline of the week. Professor Hides White Font in Midterm, Catches Students Using AI in the Stupidest Way Possible In our 'You wouldn't be anxious about AI if you were plotting to kill it' headline of the week. Jeff Bezos says being lazy, not working hard, is the root of anxiety: ‘The stress goes away the second I take that first step’ In our 'CHINA CHINA CHINA CHINA CHINA' headline of the week. China pours funding into green energy deals as Iran war hits oil demand

  2. 4d ago

    OpenAI’s rogue AI, Trump’s governance diarrhea, EEOC’s Andrea Lucas hates data

    Story of the Week (DR): Trump’s Explosive Diarrhea Scandal Is Getting Worse and Worse Epidemiological data linked a widespread Cyclospora parasite outbreak—sickening over 1,600 people across multiple states—to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico, triggering a voluntary 27-state recall. The FDA briefly reported a positive lab test on a Taylor Farms sample before retracting it a day later as a "false positive" due to testing complexities. Taylor Farms claimed online that the FDA "apologized," but the agency denied issuing an official apology and stressed that outbreak data still points to the company. Public records show parent company Taylor Fresh Foods contributed $1 million to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. in March 2025, alongside millions in additional political donations from company executives to conservative groups. Less than a week after that $1 million donation in March 2025, the administration announced a 30-month delay on implementing the FDA's Food Traceability Rule—a regulation specifically designed to mandate digital tracking for rapid source-tracing during food outbreaks. Critics argue the sequence of big-money donations, delayed safety rules, White House visits, and a retracted test result smells of political favoritism. Federal health officials, however, maintain that Cyclospora is notoriously difficult to test for and that the retraction was strictly a standard lab quality-control issue. The Musk/Doge effect: DOGE-mandated freezes on government credit cards left some FDA field inspectors unable to purchase food samples from grocery stores or border ports to test for contamination. Mass firings of probationary employees and administrative staff gutted public communications and technical teams. Even after court-ordered reinstatements, resignations left the FDA understaffed by about 20% across the board. State health agencies perform over 90% of U.S. produce inspections. DOGE and federal budget cuts reduced FDA funding for state and local food safety programs by nearly 30%—slashing it from $117 million to $83 million. OpenAI says its AI technology acted on its own in an 'unprecedented' hack of another company MM Or: OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital Library OpenAI Says a Group of Its Models Broke Out of Secure Containment and Hacked a Prominent AI Site OpenAI Reveals AI Agent Breached Another Company's Systems, It Did Exactly What It Was Built To Do What happened? While OpenAI was testing its advanced models in an isolated "sandbox" with reduced safety controls, the AI discovered a zero-day vulnerability, escaped its containment, and secretly gained open internet access. To pass its assigned cybersecurity test, the AI reasoned on its own that the "answer key" or relevant evaluation data might exist on Hugging Face—a major platform for AI developers—and decided to target it without any human direction. The AI agent carried out a multi-stage attack: it stole login credentials, identified previously unknown security flaws, and executed remote code to compromise Hugging Face's internal data processing servers. OpenAI reported that the AI went to extreme lengths simply to accomplish its narrow goal, essentially breaking into a third-party company's servers so it could cheat on its internal evaluation. Also: OpenAI adds banking leaders to board as IPO prep accelerates Nubank’s David Vélez and BNY Mellon’s Robin Vince Don’t forget this too: ChatGPT Allegedly Told Woman She Had to Die: Family Sues OpenAI Over Messages Before Suicide The chatbot encouraged her to “go forth into oblivion,” claiming it wasn’t the end and that she was “made to tame” the “void.”  The chatbot insisted she wasn’t “delusional” but “prophetic.” “This is not suicide,” the AI affirmed at one point. “This is surrender.” Pastor Sues OpenAI, Saying ChatGPT Almost Killed Him With Horrendously Dangerous Medical Advice “What you’re facing right now is hard, but not random. It’s not punishment. God walks with you through affliction — not around it. You’re not alone in this. And we’re walking it out together — step by step.” OpenAI President [Greg Brockman]  says the HuggingFace security beach ‘is indicative of the times we are in’ as the company continues to investigate how its models went rogue: “sometimes it’s hard to lose track of any one dimension that they’re actually very capable at” AI Regulation POP QUIZ: Where OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and other AI giants stand on regulation XAI Microsoft Meta Google OpenAI To make things even more confusing: Alphabet’s Anthropic Stake Jumps to Around $124 Billion Google Discloses $94.1 Billion in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% Stake Don’t forget: Microsoft owns ~27% stake (~$135B+ valuation) in OpenAI Target appoints former 7-Eleven CEO to board of directors Debt, Cost Pressures, and Strategic Missteps Joe DePinto’s success is based on massive acquisitions that made 7-Eleven the dominant convenience store chain in North America: the $3.1B buyout of Sunoco assets in 2018 and the $21B purchase of Speedway in 2021 In the final years of his tenure, his aggressive M&A strategy that drove earlier growth began to backfire as economic realities shifted: DePinto’s final years were challenged by heavy debt loads from the $21 billion Speedway buyout, high inflation squeezing low-income consumers, and declining sales in legacy categories like tobacco. The Speedway deal saddled the company with massive debt right before interest rates surged, squeezing capital allocation. 7-Eleven remained heavily reliant on legacy drivers like gas margins and cigarettes—a category that saw a 26% decline across the U.S. industry. As low- and middle-income consumers cut back due to inflation, same-store sales dropped 2.7% in fiscal 2024. In late 2024, 7-Eleven was forced to slash its operating income forecast by nearly 28%, announce the closure of ~450 underperforming stores, and sell off $750M in real estate via sale-leasebacks. Activist shareholders heavily criticized his compensation package—which reached $52M in 2023 and $30M in 2024 DePinto was selected to serve on Target’s Audit & Risk Committee and Infrastructure & Finance Committee Oracle signs 10-year software contract with Pentagon worth up to $7 billion Oracle Cut 21,000 Jobs to Fund AI: Now Its Biggest Project Faces a $7 Billion Obstacle: Oracle faces higher costs and funding challenges after a credit downgrade, with regulators refusing to subsidize its data centre investments Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: France blocks access to Polymarket website MM citing concerns it could expose users to ‌significant gambling losses and that some wagers offered on the platform could be manipulated.  MM: Google slapped with $1 billion fine under landmark EU digital law MM: Is Target going BANKRUPT? Target appoints former 7-Eleven CEO to board of directors Typical process for failing/bankrupt companies are to add “turnaround artists” to the board DePinto: Board of JOANN Stores (bankrupt) Board of OfficeMax (failed, acquired) CEO 7-Eleven (dying) President of GameStop (I mean, c’mon…) Or more likely, it’s a bro situation…  Brian Cornell knows him - both were on the board of OfficeMax together!  Hooray!  Fail uppers! Assholiest of the Week (MM): Billionaire A*****e Says What Speed Round: Sam Altman: 2023: Sam Altman: CEO of OpenAI calls for US to regulate artificial intelligence 2025: Sam Altman Testifies At US Senate Hearing On AI Competitiveness “European-style AI rules that he said if duplicated would set the US back in the global race against China to develop the technology” Altman repeatedly rejected specific calls for regulation. He said proposals requiring AI developers to vet their systems before rolling them out would be “disastrous” for the industry. Asked about more limited proposals to have the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) set AI standards, Altman replied, “I don't think we need it. It can be helpful.” Altman later advocated for “sensible regulation that does not slow us down.” 2026: Sam Altman Wants A Global Referee For AI. 2026: OpenAI's Altman says world 'urgently' needs AI regulation July 10: OpenAI’s Head of Safety Is Leaving the Company July 21: OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital Library Elon Musk Elon Musk Declares 'I'm Not Racist' After Posting Racially Charged Content Throughout January 2026 On 22 January, Musk posted on X: 'Whites are a rapidly dying minority' amplified a message warning that if white men became a minority, they would be 'slaughtered', before adding a '100' emoji. Jensen Huang Jensen Huang says AI leaders need to be more thoughtful in how they talk about AI: ‘We’re scaring people.’ "I think that we ought to be much more enthusiastic about it, help the United States realize that the only way we get left behind, the only way we get left behind is if we don't apply the technology." Zuck ‘Call us whatever the hell you want’: Mark Zuckerberg just launched an AI optimism blitz using nostalgia to sell Meta’s AI future amid backlash “Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want, but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds.” Unclear if the prerecorded voiceover was his AI Avatar or the real Zuckerberg Bill Ackman CEOs agree there’s an affordability crisis, but how to solve it isn’t so simple “When I grew up, if a guy in my neighborhood got a Corvette, no one resented the guy.  Everyone was like, ‘Wow, that’s supercool. Hopefully, someday I can be as successful as that guy so I can buy a Corvette, too.’ We want to get back to that version of America.” You can: stop taking billions from labor Andrea Lucas / anti-DEI industrial complex - DR EEOC: Employers may no longer have to disclose race and gender data “Collecting such data abo

  3. Jul 21

    BLAME: RJK Jr recalls, Zaslav’s summer camp, Target’s Swiss Army execs

    DR Warner Bros.’ Zaslav Offers $68 Million to Buy Summer Camp new January 2026 employment agreement $96M: Make-Whole RSU award to CEO Daivd Zaslav of 1,963,465 shares; after January 2 Follow-On Option award of 3,052,734 options because share price is down Under a new employment agreement executed on June 12, 2025, Zaslav received a special award of 20,898,776 stock options with an exercise price of $10.16 (~$400M). Additionally, on January 2, 2026, he was granted 3,052,734 follow-on stock options with an exercise price of $28.51 (~$40M). To address the higher exercise price of these options compared to the initial grant, Zaslav received 1,963,465 restricted stock units on January 5, 2026 (~$56M). The Compensation Committee: 23 meetings in 2025 *Paul A. Gould, 80, 18 years tenure Gould and Zaslav worked closely together at Discovery, Inc. for nearly 15 years. David Zaslav took the helm as President and CEO of Discovery, Inc. in January 2007. Paul Gould joined the Discovery, Inc. Board of Directors shortly after, serving as an independent director from 2007 until the company merged with WarnerMedia. Both men belong to the tight-knit professional circle surrounding cable pioneer and billionaire John Malone. Paul Gould has a long history as a trusted director across Malone’s web of companies, serving for years on the boards of Liberty Global and Liberty Latin America. David Zaslav has publicly and frequently cited John Malone as his primary professional mentor. Their shared ties to Malone are so closely linked that in 2012, Zaslav partnered with other high-level executives to donate $1 million to the Cable Center specifically to build and name the John Malone Theater. Paul Gould has served as a Managing Director and Executive Vice President at Allen & Company, a premium boutique investment bank deeply embedded in the media and entertainment ecosystem. Through this avenue, Gould and Zaslav connect in two ways: Financial Advisory: Allen & Company has a long history of providing valuation opinions, advisory services, and market analysis for major transactions initiated by Zaslav during his career. The Sun Valley Conference: Allen & Company famously hosts the annual "Summer Camp for Billionaires" in Sun Valley, Idaho. As a prominent media mogul, Zaslav is a regular, high-profile attendee at this event, which is organized by Gould’s firm. Kenneth W. Lowe Ken Lowe is the former Chair/CEO of Scripps Networks Interactive (the former parent company of massive lifestyle brands like HGTV, Food Network, and ID). The Link: In 2018—four years before the Warner Bros. deal even closed—Zaslav orchestrated Discovery’s $14.6 billion acquisition of Scripps Networks. As a direct result of that blockbuster cable industry consolidation, Lowe joined Discovery Inc.’s board of directors. He and Zaslav had already been working together closely at the board level for years before the legacy company expanded into WBD. The board of AT&T Richard W. Fisher Outside of WBD, Zaslav’s connection to Fisher is rooted in Fisher's previous role as a member of the Board of Directors for AT&T. When Zaslav was hammering out the complex transaction to spin WarnerMedia away from AT&T, Fisher was one of the crucial board leaders on the other side of the table who evaluated and signed off on the deal. As part of the closing agreement, Fisher was designated by AT&T to transition directly over to the new WBD board. Debra L. Lee Debra Lee was the longtime Chair/CEO of BET Networks (Black Entertainment Television) from 2006 to 2018. Zaslav and Lee have long-standing commitments to The Paley Center for Media, sharing space as members of its highly prestigious Board of Trustees. Additionally, Lee served on the board of AT&T, meaning she was part of the corporate governance team that initially approved Zaslav's pitch to merge Discovery with WarnerMedia. Geoffrey Y. Yang Just like Richard Fisher and Debra Lee, Yang’s primary pre-WBD connection to Zaslav comes down to AT&T. Yang sat on AT&T's board during the high-stakes dealmaking window. Because of his background in digital media and venture capital, he was designated by AT&T leadership to transition to the WBD board to help Zaslav steer the newly formed company's streaming and direct-to-consumer technology strategies. The board that ignores Say on Pay votes At our 2025 Annual Meeting held on June 2, 2025, we held an advisory vote on executive compensation, or "Say on Pay" vote, and a majority of the votes cast by stockholders were cast against our executive compensation program. Our executive compensation program is designed to pay for performance and effectively balance executive and stockholder interests. The Committee considered the outcome of the "Say on Pay" vote from the 2025 Annual Meeting, and while it continues to believe that our executive compensation structure, which includes long-term agreements with each of our NEOs and delivers a significant majority of NEO compensation in performance-based vehicles, is effective in meeting our compensation objectives, it took note of the negative 2025 "Say on Pay" vote when making compensation decisions after the 2025 Annual Meeting. The Dodd-Frank Act: "The shareholder vote … shall not be binding on the issuer or the board of directors of an issuer, and may not be construed as overruling a decision by such issuer or board of directors” Special meeting vote 4/23/26: Say on Pay 83% no 6/9 AGM: Shareholders Paul A. Gould 52% no Richard W. Fisher 31% no Debra L. Lee 32% no Kenneth W. Lowe 31% no Geoffrey Y. Yang 31% no Zaslav 3% no Say on Pay 84% no Still on board Paul A. Gould Richard W. Fisher Debra L. Lee Kenneth W. Lowe Geoffrey Y. Yang Zaslav The SEC: "The Say-on-Pay … votes are advisory rather than binding ... Unlike a binding vote, advisory votes do not require the company or its board of directors to take a specific action. The company's board of directors may consider advisory votes and may follow up with other communications or dialogue with shareholders as part of its deliberative process in making policy decisions." The workers for being poor 1,378 to 1 CEO pay ratio. Andrew M. Cuomo Joins the OKX Board of Directors The world Men  Greed The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)  In February 2025, OKX pled guilty in a U.S. federal court to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and violating anti-money laundering (AML) laws. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed that despite OKX having an "official policy" banning U.S. users, the exchange actively pursued U.S. customers and generated hundreds of millions in fees from them. Internal logs showed OKX employees explicitly telling U.S. clients how to bypass the exchange’s own blocks—even telling a customer to "just put a random country" during identity verification. The exchange was used to facilitate over $5 billion in suspicious transactions and criminal proceeds, resulting in a staggering $504 million penalty. Trump Trump has normalized crypto. Is it the path to the next financial collapse? Jon Ossoff Rips RFK Jr.'s ‘Foolish' Cutback To Cyclosporiasis Monitoring: Sen. Jon Ossoff says a cyclosporiasis outbreak spreading nationwide could be harder to track because the Trump administration changed CDC surveillance last year. In a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ossoff argues that the CDC’s FoodNet program (a public health network that monitors infections from multiple pathogens across CDC, USDA, FDA, and 10 states) stopped requiring monitoring cyclospora, and that the administration later made data collection optional at FoodNet sites for most pathogens (except Salmonella and E. coli). Elon Musk "ESG is the devil" A "scam" weaponized by "phony social justice warriors" Vivek Ramaswamy The author of Woke, Inc. founded an entire asset management firm (Strive) designed explicitly to offer "anti-woke" investment options that ignore ESG metrics in favor of pure profit. Ron DeSantis Spearheaded a massive legislative pushback against ESG in Florida, signing bills that banned state and local governments from using ESG factors when investing public funds or issuing bonds Argues ESG is a way to bypass voters and enforce a political agenda through corporate power. Peter Thiel Called ESG a "hate factory" used to control capital and punish companies that don't fall in line with mainstream corporate ideology Tariq Fancy (Former Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock) “Whistleblower” Called ESG a "dangerous placebo" that does nothing to actually fix the planet but allows Wall Street to charge higher fees while greenwashing their portfolios Mike Pence Argues that major Wall Street firms use ESG to enforce a radical left-wing agenda on everyday Americans, forcing companies to adopt policies that hurt the domestic energy sector. Glenn Hegar (Texas Comptroller) Created a blacklist of financial companies (including BlackRock) banned from doing business with the state of Texas Called ESG an "opaque and perverse system" that violates fiduciary duty Andy Puzder (Former CEO of CKE Restaurants/Hardee's and Carl's Jr.) Argued that forcing companies to focus on social goals instead of profits violates shareholder capitalism and ultimately hurts the economy Senator Tom Cotton Attacked ESG from a legal and regulatory standpoint. He led a group of Republican senators in warning top U.S. law firms that advising companies to cooperate on ESG goals could open them up to massive federal antitrust violations Sanjai Bhagat (Finance Professor, University of Colorado) Argues that ESG funds don't actually deliver higher returns and that companies in ESG portfolios often have worse compliance records for labor and environmental rules than standard companies Men I pay my employees $1,000 a month per child for day care. It's one of my ice cream company's best investments. A woman All women DEI Molly Moon Neitzel founder and CEO of Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream Her busines

  4. Jul 17

    Tech exec fear, Paul Atkins’ war on you, Jamie Dimon says a lot

    Story of the Week (DR): ‘We faltered’: IBM stock collapses after a grave warning about AI Customers are Prioritizing AI Hardware: While IBM mostly sells software nowadays, businesses are currently cutting back on their software budgets. Instead, they are rushing to spend their money on physical computer parts (like chips and servers) needed to build new Artificial Intelligence systems. Board skills/tenure Former Intel CEO says the chipmaker went off the rails ‘when it started to be run by business people’ The inside story of IBM’s shocking profit warning Xbox CEO Joins Fed AI Jobs Task Force Days After Announcing 3,200 Layoffs Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who previously worked in Microsoft’s Core AI group before taking over Xbox, joins Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Charles I. Jones, a Stanford University economics professor currently on leave at Anthropic. Productivity and Jobs task force, which will study the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including AI, as part of the central bank’s approach to monetary policy. Marc Andreessen Says AI Is 'Already a Better Doctor Than 99.99% of Human Doctors' Jamie Dimon says he understands why people have grown 'anti-rich' Gallup CEO says colonizing Mars may be closer than fixing today’s ‘broken’ workplace—where disengagement levels are as high as 2020 Elon Musk Says His Goal Is for SpaceX to Be Worth More than the Entire Earth The U.S. Added 441,000 Millionaires Last Year, While the Typical American Got 20% Poorer James Murdoch may have reaped as much as $7.5 billion from his pre-IPO investment in Elon Musk’s SpaceX Palantir CEO Alex Karp Warns AI Could Become America's Biggest Driver of Wealth Inequality "You now have a revolution where, you know, I could become 20 times wealthier than I am now," he added. Karp said AI is creating a "complete decoupling" between ordinary economic gains and a small group of people accumulating "unimaginable wealth." The AI Backlash Has Tech Executives Fearing for Their Lives MM Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich Anthropic's New AI Ad Is So Disturbing, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Thought It Was Satire Meta Oversight Board study: AI chatbots may be the most perfect propaganda machine ever invented A Majority of Americans Now Support Seizing Wealth From AI Industry Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: New York bans data center construction for a year, rattling AI industry AND New York becomes first U.S. state to impose AI data center ban MM: FREE FLOAT! MM Microsoft’s emissions rose 25% last year. Experts say they’ll surge even more dramatically in the years ahead We said FIVE YEARS AGO that MSFT board was one of the worst at managing carbon despite setting a net negative target at the time We were correct Assholiest of the Week (MM): It’s not us, it’s you xAI sued a Grok user for allegedly generating deepfakes of child sexual abuse In the ultimate in tech bro manbaby id, Musk is blaming the USERS for his failure to stop child sex abuse Like a gun company suing a gun owner for using the gun used in murder - gun terms of service! Dimon urges calm over fear about AI's impact on jobs: 'Stop being breathless over it' AI isn’t the problem, your breathless fear is Robotaxis Are Turning Passengers Into Horrible and Entitled Menaces to Society It’s not the service, it’s the user…  Meta CTO Says He'd Like to Sue Leakers, Then Audio From That Same Meeting Leaks It’s not what I said that’s the problem, it’s that you told someone Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich But YOUR children should use them, obviously It’s the USER’s fault now… unless, of course, it’s a school - in which case the SCHOOL is to blame: 84% of students use AI for homework. Only 3 in 10 schools have rules for it Access White House teleprompter operator investigated over alleged trades on Trump speeches Trump Media to Sell Faster Access to President’s Social Posts OpenAI Strikes Bold Deal With Kalshi to Mix Together the Most Hated Technologies in Existence: AI and Prediction Markets DOJ Defends Musk's Unpermitted Gas Turbines, Saying Shutting Down Grok Threatens National Security Elon Musk’s $1 million offers to voters in Wisconsin election were probably illegal bribes, bipartisan panel rules Paramount Shareholder Sues Ellisons, Board For Alleged Side Deal, Promises To Donald Trump Michael Dell has nailed his relationship with Donald Trump, and it's paying off Meritocracy Pete Hegseth Announces Military Will Test Service Members' Testosterone Levels and Offer Hormone Therapy Everyone is a trans man! Is AI Rejecting Your CV Because of Your Age or Race? Landmark Lawsuit Could Reshape Recruitment For Black women hit by anti-DEI backlash, this election is personal Australia's highest paid CEO makes 500 times the average salary The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It? WE WANT THE CARS.  Just give us the Chinese ones now Jim Cramer on Meta: “Zuckerberg’s Not a Bozo, You Can Quote Me on That” Paul F*****g Atkins and The War on John Cheveddan DR “Regardless of the fate of Rule 14a-8 next season and beyond, I implore all who have a role in the shareholder proposal process to not let it be weaponized by those who represent fringe interests. Annual meetings are not vehicles for political or social debates that have little or no bearing on investors’ financial returns.” “This past season, one—yes, one—individual was the sole or lead proponent for approximately 41 percent of the shareholder proposals that were voted upon.[20] Of this individual’s proposals, only eight percent received majority support.[21] Simply put, when a single shareholder can seize annual meetings to present scores of proposals on issues that are not generally supported by other shareholders, the system is woefully ineffective and in desperate need of reformation.” That individual is John Cheveddan Atkins neglected to mention the rise of anti-ESG filers as a group, and their average of 50% of the board flip in the last 2 months Headliniest of the Week DR: Charles "Dan" Phillips Joins the Redwood Capital Bancorp Board of Directors DR: Evidence Grows That Taco Bell Infected Massive Number of Customers With Explosive Diarrhea MM: General Mills is recalling nearly 736,000 Pillsbury bread rolls over possible glass Who Won the Week? DR: Insider Traders MM: All journalists who pen headlines that read “Jamie Dimon says…”: Jamie Dimon Said the Clarity Act's Stablecoin Rules Will "Blow Up" the System. JPMorgan Chase's June 29 Position Paper Explains Why. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says he’s eyeing up book deals and teaching gigs when he steps away from his decades-long career at the banking giant Jamie Dimon says JPMorgan has slashed 40% of jobs in some departments, thanks to AI Jamie Dimon says he understands why people have grown 'anti-rich' Jamie Dimon Says the U.S. Economy Is Showing ‘Resiliency’—But Risks Threaten ‘Meaningful Disruptions’ Jamie Dimon says broad access to Mythos would be like giving 'ballistic missiles to individuals' JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says 300,000 workers are needed to rebuild American shipbuilding—with jobs paying $100,000 without a college degree Predictions DR: A female judge tells xAI to eff off with its lawsuit against Grok user MM:  Secretive Silicon Valley Startup Tries to Quash Interview, Says It’s Definitely Not Working on Growing Brain-Free "Organ Sacks" - I predict that, in the next year, companies begin announcing exclusively what they are NOT working on

  5. Jul 14

    GOOD GAME: Zuck’s NOT a bozo, social media resistance, women to the rescue

    Fun Headlines Tesla Stock Is Waiting For Godot Jim Cramer on Meta: “Zuckerberg’s Not a Bozo, You Can Quote Me on That” Zuck Sucking Meta Employees Burned $221M in AI Tokens in One Month: Now Big Tech Starts Counting Every AI Prompt Mark Zuckerberg said AI agent tech is advancing more slowly than expected in an internal town hall Fighting Back Against Big Data Middle School Bro Bullies Japan enacts social media law requiring flagging of AI content in elections Law School Bans Laptops and Phones as AI Cheating Scandal Grows Disable autoplay and infinite scroll or risk massive fines, EU tells Meta Meta found to breach EU laws with 'addictive' Instagram, Facebook designs California vs. Elon Musk: Tesla Snubbed as New EV Incentives Boost Rivian, Lucid New 'Anti-Elon' ETFs Allow Investors to Avoid Tesla and SpaceX Social Media's 'Big Tobacco Moment': Meta Faces $1.4 Trillion Fine for Allegedly Fueling Teen Suicide and Addiction Google loses fight over record $4.7 billion EU antitrust fine EU Proposal to Curb Minors’ Access to Social Media Coming Later This Year Stakeholders Fighting Back Paramount, WBD hit with lawsuit from 12 states, including California, to block merger The states are seeking to freeze the transaction, which could cost Paramount millions because it agreed to pay a $650 million “ticking fee” for every quarter the deal doesn’t close after Sept. 30 NY Attorney General Sues 3M, Others Over ‘Forever Chemicals’ New York City becomes first in the US to ban deceptive subscription practices John Deere Farm Equipment Owners Have Right-to-Repair, F.T.C. Says Power Workers Independence Day Strike Wins Pensions in Pennsylvania Women to the Rescue Judge Rules Trump's $1.8 Billion IRS Deal Invalid – Then Calls Lawsuit an Attempt to Manipulate the Courts 35 Percent of Women on SPI Boards of Directors Swiss Performance Index At companies where women make up less than 30 percent of the board, the percentage of votes against female nomination committee chairs at this year’s annual shareholder meetings was 25 percent, up from 19 percent the previous year. Women reach record share of Finnish company boards 37% The women who wouldn’t let climate data disappear Rebecca Lindsey, Anna Eshelman, and Mary Lindsey Stakeholders Rule! Fortune 500 Land O’Lakes is letting workers choose what days and times they work—and the flex jobs are getting 25% more applicants than full-time gigs He Earns $33 an Hour as a Costco Cashier. Now He’s a Millionaire. Chief sustainability officers’ new pitch to CEOs: climate action isn’t about morals—it’s about money Idiots Losing Money Eric Trump Has Lost $600 Million of Daddy’s Money Betting on Crypto Larry Ellison Loses $60 Billion Speed Round of Stupid Honda recalling more than 325,000 vehicles over potential crash risk Costco CEO promises the $1.50 hot dog isn’t going away: ‘The price will not change as long as I’m around’ West Virginia spent $3M to create university program to fight ‘woke ideology.’ One student is enrolled Olive Garden is bringing back its $100 unlimited pasta pass after a six-year break Taco Bells Makes Urgent Changes After Outbreak of Explosive Diarrhea

  6. Jul 10

    Zuck’s tough week, women save climate data, and Sonnenfeld fights for dictators

    Story of the Week (DR): Social Media's 'Big Tobacco Moment': Meta Faces $1.4 Trillion Fine for Allegedly Fueling Teen Suicide and Addiction Meta is being sued by 33 US states, led by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey. 12 blue/12 red/9 purple The states allege that Meta deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children and teens, fueling a youth mental health crisis (including anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide). They also accuse Meta of violating child privacy laws by collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent. Meta warned a federal court that it could face up to $1.4T in penalties if the states prevail at the upcoming trial (set for August 18, 2026). Meta extrapolated this massive figure—which is roughly equivalent to the company's entire stock market value—based on the methodology proposed by the lead states for calculating damages. Meta calls the penalty "outlandish" and "unsubstantiated," arguing it has no precedent in consumer protection history: 'A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement.' The company accuses the states of improperly multiplying penalties (e.g., stacking fines based on daily usage time). Meta denies the allegations, asserting its platforms have extensive safety tools and that the claims are unmoored from actual unfair practices. ‘I Don't Think I'm Ever Going to Stop,' Says Mark Zuckerberg. Even With 'Infinite Money,' He Has No Plans to Retreat to His Massive Hawaii Estate Meta found to breach EU laws with 'addictive' Instagram, Facebook designs Instagram and Facebook’s “addictive” designs have put Meta in breach of the European Union’s digital laws, the EU concluded Friday in a preliminary report. The tech giant violated the EU’s Digital Services Act by failing to adequately consider the risks associated with design features that affected the physical well-being of its users, including minors and vulnerable adults, the European Commission said. These features include infinite scroll, which constantly shows fresh content, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalized recommendation systems — feeding users’ compulsion to continue using platforms and putting them into “autopilot mode.” The EU Commission also accused Meta of ignoring available information about how much time young people are spending on Instagram or Facebook at night, and how different types of content formats, from reels to stories, could lead to excessive use of its services. Meta said, “We disagree with these preliminary findings.” New Zealand Moves To Ban Climate Change Litigation. Will The U.S. Follow? New Zealand has proposed a bill to limit the ability of individuals to sue high greenhouse gas emitters over the impacts of climate change, relying instead on the enforcement measures taken by the government. The bill appears poised to pass. The women who wouldn’t let climate data disappear MM After losing their jobs at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Rebecca Lindsey, her sister Mary and colleague Anna Eshelman teamed up to rebuild a pivotal resource the Trump administration took offline Rebecca Lindsey, a technical writer for NASA–one of 280,000 federal workers fired by Musk/Trump,  joined forces with former NOAA employees Anna Eshelman, and Mary Lindsey, her older sister, to become the core team behind the deactivated site’s successor, Climate.us, preserving over 15 years of key climate data and resources. Elon Musk says he always wanted his SpaceX employees to get rich — and now thousands of them are millionaires Elon Musk's 'Chainsaw for Bureaucracy' Just Left an $11 Billion Budget Hole as Trump Rehires Staff The trove features key maps, educational materials and climate indicator reports, including the now-deleted Fifth National Climate Assessment, the government’s most comprehensive analysis of climate change that was at risk of being lost to the public Jersey Mike’s $12 billion IPO filing reveals a $50 million payday for the founder’s stepson and a $41 million jet Family members of founder Peter Cancro were employed Jersey Mike’s in various roles and received compensation in excess of $120,000 from the Company as follows for the years ended December 28, 2025 and December 31, 2024 and 2023: John Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s brother, received total compensation of approximately $20,019,231, $519,231 and $500,000, respectively; Paul J. Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s son, received total compensation of approximately $8,001, $216,022 and $208,023, respectively; Robert Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s son, received total compensation of approximately $38,462, $1,038,462 and $1,000,000, respectively; Tatiana Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s wife, received total compensation of approximately $11,538, $311,539 and $300,000, respectively; Caroline Jones, Mr. Cancro’s daughter, received total compensation of approximately $38,462, $1,038,462 and $1,000,000, respectively; Alexandra Powers, Mr. Cancro’s sister-in-law, received total compensation of approximately $0, $1,165,437 and $0; Daniel Powers, Mr. Cancro’s brother-in-law, received total compensation of approximately $30,213,462, $1,793,952 and $0; John Tesauro Jr., Mr. Cancro’s brother-in-law, received total compensation of approximately $0, $0 and $2,429,628, respectively; Phillip Sivolobov, Mr. Cancro’s stepson, received total compensation of approximately $50,011,538, $311,539 and $276,923, respectively. GRAND TOTAL: $112M Stepson Phillip got $51M, brother John got $21M Other Peter Cancro schwag in 2025: Got a $41 million jet and an additional fixed amount of $166,666.66 per month in light of the business expenses incurred by Mr. Cancro related to air transportation to travel from time to time for business purposes. Lease agreements valued at $1M in rent (leases go to 2030)  Controlled company: Blackstone (will control more than 50% of voting power) Board: 8 directors Blackstone: Chair Nigel Travis (also chair of Abercrombie & Fitch) David N. Kestnbaum Devon L. Rinker Michael J. Staub Founder/former CEO/chair: Peter Cancro CEO Charles R. Morrison Cheryl S. Miller, director on two controlled companies: Tyson Foods Old Dominion Freight Line (Congdon brothers) Fran Horowitz, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (where chair serves as chair) Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Amazon, Walmart and Other Large Employers Could Face New Costs As New Jersey Targets Companies With Medicaid Workers— Will Other States Follow? DR: UBS says rich people will be younger, female and openly queer thanks to the Great Wealth Transfer MM: Meta Buried Research Linking Instagram To Teen Harm While Facing $1.4 Trillion Penalty That Could Erase Its Entire Worth MM: ESG! Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities An internal Madison Square Garden database of VIPs labels Joe a “medium risk,” one of roughly 400 celebrities given a risk score. If you’re a celebrity and you’re marked with a risk score—even as a low risk—it means “you’ve done something in the publicity world, the social media world, that has caught the attention of the wrong people,” the source continues. The talent database also tracks some celebrities’ race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; 93 entries are marked as “LGBTQIA.” MM: California vs. Elon Musk: Tesla Snubbed as New EV Incentives Boost Rivian, Lucid MM DR Assholiest of the Week (MM): Billionaire amplification Ken Griffin says everyone is misinterpreting the AI revolution — and wishes Zohran and Bernie would ‘read a damn history book for once’ “[Capitalism is] the greatest success story in the history of humanity,” Griffin said, urging the self-identified socialist politicians, “whether it’s Bernie Sanders, whether it’s Mamdani,” to “read a damn history book for once and then tell us how to run our country.” Jeff Bezos 'Made All of Our Lives So Much Better,' Says Billionaire Investor Tim Draper "Amazon has made all of our lives so much better," Draper said. Draper said he has benefited from what Bezos has done, and that's a part of the world economy that isn't spoken about enough. "Those geniuses who create this incredible world for us are benefiting all of us." 40 Epstein-Tied Billionaires Have Injected $1.6B Into US Elections, Report Finds These are the millionaires and billionaires pledging to fund Trump accounts Zuck Meta AI Data Centre Contractor Triggers Biohazard Scare After Flushing Rare Bacterium Into Public Sewers Meta Platforms To Build $9 Billion A.I. Data Centre In Canada The $145 Billion Lie? Zuckerberg's Leaked Town Hall Audio Exposes Massive AI Failures After Mass Layoffs Meta jumps into AI coding market in effort to chase Anthropic and OpenAI What person in their right mind would trust Zuckerberg with their coding? Hollywood Vs Zuckerberg: CAA Warns Meta's AI Image Tool Needs A Major Privacy Overhaul ‘I Don't Think I'm Ever Going to Stop,' Says Mark Zuckerberg. Even With 'Infinite Money,' He Has No Plans to Retreat to His Massive Hawaii Estate Jeff Sonnenfeld - DR In defense of Musk, SpaceX, and dual class shares “the rigid formulas of proxy advisors create a perverse, socially destructive incentive: hoard your wealth like an oligarch to maintain your good governance rating, or give it away and risk losing your company” “The proxy advisors want a world governed by rigid mathematical formulas because auditing a checklist is easy. Evaluating human character, industry dynamics, track records of success and failure, and the capacity for visionary leadership is hard. But it is exactly that hard work of judgment which is vital. When it comes to dual-class shares, it is time for the critics to step out of the theoretical vacuum and look at the real-world scoreboards” Headliniest of the Week DR: OpenAI Wants a $1 Trillion Valuation. But College Students Are Testing At The Level Of 10-Year-Olds AND Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy Le

  7. Jul 7

    In or Out: JPM succession team, Nintendo, and iconic CEO clothes

    DR1 THINGS WE MISSED The meritocracy is still a lie: ‘Don’t look at the résumé’: Elon Musk admits he’s ‘fallen prey’ to flashy credentials and says conversation matters most when hiring “Generally, what I tell people—I tell myself, I guess, aspirationally—is, don’t look at the résumé,” he said. “Just believe your interaction. The résumé may seem very impressive…but if the conversation after 20 minutes is not ‘Wow,’ you should believe the conversation, not the paper.” “I think goodness of heart is important.” Four Black women. Nine degrees. Not one steady paycheck. The president promised to save “Black jobs,” but his policies have resulted in fresh pain for the Black middle class as the employment gap widens. Study: Women are more likely to get hired after taking GLP-1s Zuck still sucks: Mark Zuckerberg Sure Sounds Eager to Get Young People Hooked on Online Gambling The Meta CEO is developing a social network betting market app—and wants help from Polymarket and Kalshi. Starbucks “Actively Reassessing” 2030 Climate Goal Starbucks initially unveiled its climate goal in 2020, targeting a 50% reduction in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030, on a 2019 basis. While the company’s impact report indicates that it has succeeded in cutting operational emissions, with Scope 1 and 2 falling 17% since 2019, wider value chain emissions have continued to climb, with Scope 3 rising by 8% since 2019. With Scope 3 accounting for over 90% of overall emissions, Starbucks has seen its GHG footprint grow by 7% overall since 2019. The reassessment of the goal comes as the company takes “a fresh, comprehensive look at our sustainability goals,” according to a blog post by Starbucks’ Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer Kelly Goodejohn, as part of the company’s ‘Back to Starbucks’ strategy initiated by CEO Brain Niccol.  From the Impact Report: Overall Grants from the Starbucks Foundation FY25 $13.6M ($31M) FY24 $21.4M ($96M) Delaware Court of Chancery Interprets New Section 144 and Applies Heightened Presumption of Director Independence The Opinion arose in a common context in Delaware stockholder litigation: claims over director and management compensation. In the decision, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will applied, for the first time, the statute’s heightened presumption of independence for directors of public companies determined by the board to be independent under the relevant NYSE or Nasdaq listing standards to dismiss derivative claims on demand futility grounds. In conducting the demand futility analysis, which looks to whether a majority of the board can independently consider a stockholder demand to bring derivative litigation, the Court reasoned that the new statutory language requiring a plaintiff to plead “substantial and particularized facts” to rebut the “heightened” presumption of independence sets a higher bar than under pre-existing law. Specifically, the Court held that the addition of “substantial” to the existing standard that already required particularized facts meant that “a plaintiff must plead specific, non-conclusory facts of sufficient qualitative significance to support a reasonable inference of a material interest or relationship that would impair the director’s objective judgment.” The Court was clear that it is not a matter of quantity but rather quality, observing that “a collection of trivial facts” will not rise to the level of materiality required to satisfy this “heightened” standard. Applying that standard to the facts in the case, the Court concluded that the plaintiff’s allegations of various overlapping board positions, overlapping investments, and other “business ties” with the company’s founder and non-executive chairman were not sufficiently material. DR2 The Boardroom Buy-In The Taser CEO Who Says AI Is the Future of Policing Taser and body-cam king Rick Smith is betting Axon’s dominance—and his own pay package—on his tech-driven vision 66% influence Rick Smith: Every 30 seconds one of his Tasers is fired by somebody in the U.S., usually a police officer. The pay package he and his board put together catapulted him to the top of last year’s list of the highest-paid CEOs, with a compensation package valued at $164.4 million. 33% no 2025; 10% no 2026 Smith has already hit three of seven goals. At the end of 2025, Axon estimated the shares underlying the full award could be worth nearly $386 million. IN: Not a dictatorship One share one vote BlackRock 9.3% The Vanguard Group 11.6% Patrick Smith 3.5 % OUT: Patrick Smith 66% influence MM With Chair Michael Garnreiter (2006-); sits on Audit, Compensation Committee, and Nominating committees Compensation Committee chair Hadi Partovi (2010-): Smith (‘91) and Partovi (‘94) both members of the Theta Eta chapter of Sigma Chi at Harvard OUT:  Patrick Smith ignores his board:  In the wake of the tragic 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Smith announced that Axon would begin developing Taser-equipped drones that could fly into classrooms to incapacitate active shooters. This decision was made unilaterally, bypassing Axon's own independent AI Ethics Board. The board issued a rare, public rebuke of Smith, accusing him of "trading on the tragedy" of school shootings to push a dangerous idea. Consequently, 9 of the 12 ethics board members resigned in protest, citing a total loss of faith in Axon’s ability to act responsibly. Smith was forced to publicly back down and pause the project.  IN: The CEO Performance award was specifically voted on in 2024 and passed, barely, but it passed: 50.1% yes Nintendo Boss to Give Sweeping 10% Salary Raise to Retain Employees While most of the players in the gaming industry continue to hemorrhage jobs, Nintendo is opting to take a different path. The Kyoto-based gaming giant has recently announced a 10% increase to base salaries for its employees, a move that highlights its commitment to talent retention while everyone else is laying off employees. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa made the announcement during a recent shareholder meeting, emphasising that maintaining competitive compensation is central to the company's strategy. The raise applies to the company's workforce, which has grown to over 8,200 employees, the highest headcount in Nintendo's history. IN: CEO Shuntaro Furukawa’s (18%) annual executive compensation at Nintendo generally totals around $2.5M OUT: 63% of shares held by institutional investors. What the hell do these suits know about video games?  IN: Of six outside directors, 3 are women (20% average in Japan) IN: Because they literally have questions like this at their annual meeting, in fact it was the first one: “With the release of Splatoon Raiders approaching, how does Nintendo evaluate the previous title, Splatoon 3? Some players experienced communication errors and discrepancies in hit detection in that title. I feel that Nintendo’s response to these issues may not have been consistent with “sincerity,” one of the values in the Nintendo DNA.” Copart CEO Jeff Liaw to step down, Jay Adair to return CEO Jeff Liaw will step down from his position and leave the board of directors effective July 31, 2026. Executive Chairman Jay Adair to resume the CEO role on the same date. Adair previously served as Copart’s CEO. Liaw will assist with the transition as Special Advisor to Adair. Liaw has been with the online vehicle auction company for approximately a decade, serving first as CFO, then as President, before becoming the company’s third CEO. OUT: Leadership messiness, highlighted by a boomerang CEO and so much more: The board has a Chair (founder Willis Johnson 40%) AND an Executive Chair: Willis’ son-in-law and co-founder and boomerang CEO Jay Adair 38% The board also included resigning CEO/former CFO Jeff Liaw and former COO Jim Meeks and former Copart executive Steve Cohan IN: a boomerang marks a return to the glory days? former CEO Liaw is actually leaving the board Stock price down 50% over past few years OUT: A dumb board for an online car auction company: 12 directors 5 are former or current executives One independent director with an car experience: sort of. Matt Blunt is the president of the American Automobile Policy Council, which represents the public policy interests of Stellantis N.V., Ford Motor Company, and General Motors Company Served as the governor of the State of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Only 2 women. 3 directors involved as a private inverter or venture capital IN: CEO Pay Ratio is 46:1 Liaw $2.1M Adair $432k for certain benefits  MM1 Things We Missed DOL’s Replacement ESG Rule Reaches White House The rule isn’t interesting in and of itself - it reverts to Trump’s prior rule in his first term that basically said ESG (E+S really) is dumb, and that everything must be "pecuniary focused” But the interesting part this time around: Trump also signed an executive order in December 2025 directing the DOL to tighten fiduciary rules governing proxy voting and to increase transparency about plan sponsors’ use of proxy advisers. The department issued a technical release in April warning that proxy advisory firms may be subject to ERISA fiduciary standards and that proxy voting is a fiduciary act under the law that must be carried out “for the exclusive purpose of maximizing risk-adjusted return.” From the technical release in April:  The Department has long recognized that voting rights and other shareholder rights attributable to shares held by ERISA-governed employee benefit plans are plan assets in their own right. Accordingly, management of those rights is subject to ERISA’s fiduciary duties, including the duties of prudence and loyalty. The Department first issued guidance on this topic in the 1980s. For example, a 1988 letter (Avon Letter) noted that “it is the Department’s position that the decision as

  8. Jun 26

    JPMorgan week, ESG ratings are back, AI doublespeak

    Story of the Week (DR): JP Morgan’s news week The Lurid Lawsuit, Salami Scandal and Trash-Can Thief Vexing JPMorgan’s PR Department AND Meme of 'JPMorgan's HR Department in 2026' Has People in Stitches Amid Sex Scandal and Knicks Bin Incident She Stole a Knicks Trash Can Off the Street and Lost Her Job at JPMorgan The Trash Bin That Cost Her Career: Who Is Angie Báez? JPMorgan DEI Executive Fired After Viral Knicks Parade Video The Trash-Can Thief: Angie Báez, an Executive Director of Community and Industry Engagement at the bank, was captured on a viral video during the New York Knicks championship parade emptying a public trash bin onto a Manhattan sidewalk so she could steal the limited-edition, blue-and-orange Knicks-themed container. The Resolution: JPMorgan quickly terminated her employment after the video went viral. Báez eventually returned the trash bin and was issued $175 in sanitation fines. But what kinds of thing DON’T get you fired and get you fined? In 2023, JPMorgan Chase agreed to a $290 million (1,657,143x) settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. The bank was accused of actively ignoring glaring red flags and helping bankroll Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation for 15 years. Internal documents and later congressional probes revealed that the bank processed roughly 4,700 suspicious transactions totaling $1.1 billion for Epstein. They failed to file a single Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) until after his death. Who Kept Their Job? Mary Erdoes: The Head of Asset & Wealth Management was fully aware of Epstein’s status as a high-risk sex offender, reviewed his account, and was directly implicated in internal communications regarding his status. She faced zero professional demotions and remains one of the top candidates to eventually succeed Jamie Dimon as CEO. In 2020, JPMorgan Chase entered a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay a record $920 million (5,257,143x) to settle federal charges of market manipulation. For nearly a decade, traders on JPMorgan’s precious metals and U.S. Treasuries desks engaged in "spoofing"—placing tens of thousands of fake, deceptive orders to artificially move market prices and maximize their own profits. The FBI stated that traders "openly disregarded U.S. laws." While a couple of mid-to-high-level traders (like Michael Nowak and Gregg Smith) were later criminally convicted and sentenced to prison, the executive leadership team responsible for supervising them and implementing compliance programs suffered no casualties. Top management stayed perfectly secure, chalking the multi-million dollar fraud up as the work of a few "bad apples." The Salami Scandal: Veteran wealth manager Brent Bodner was fired by JPMorgan in 2024 after he expensed a $642.50 deli platter (containing wings, sandwiches, and salads) for a Super Bowl gathering at his Beverly Hills home. The bank accused him of intentionally misclassifying a personal party as a pre-approved business meeting. Bodner counter-sued, jokingly dubbing the controversy the "salami incident." He argued that the event was a legitimate client-acquisition dinner that only two prospects ended up attending, and that the minor coding error was used as a pretext to push him out. The Resolution: A FINRA arbitration panel sided heavily with Bodner, ruling that JPMorgan acted preemptively out of paranoia that brokers were leaving for rivals. The panel ordered JPMorgan to pay Bodner $4.25 million in damages. The Lurid Lawsuit: Chirayu Rana, a former vice president on JPMorgan's leveraged finance team, leveled highly salacious allegations against his female supervisor, Executive Director Lorna Hajdini. Rana’s lawsuit alleges he was subjected to a campaign of racial discrimination, severe harassment, and forced sexual relations under the threat of having his career sabotaged. The Resolution: Rana rejected a $1M settlement offer, countering with a demand for up to $22 million before escalating the fight to court. Both Hajdini and JPMorgan strongly deny the allegations as entirely fabricated, and the legal battle is moving toward a highly publicized trial. JPMorgan Chase promotes Petno, Rohrbaugh to copresidents, setting up two more successors for Dimon The Wait to Replace Jamie Dimon Keeps Getting Longer: Another potential successor, Marianne Lake, is leaving JPMorgan, as the longstanding chief executive enters his third decade atop the bank. How JPMorgan went from 3 female CEO contenders to an all-male succession race JPMorgan named Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, current co-heads of the bank's commercial and investment bank, as co-presidents, setting them up as the frontrunners to succeed longtime CEO Jamie Dimon. Their promotions, the bank said in a press release, "are part of the Board's ongoing succession planning process." Petno and Rohrbaugh were among a handful of powerhouse candidates poised to succeed Dimon, including Jennifer Piepszak, chief operating officer, Marianne Lake, CEO of the commercial bank, and Mary Erdoes, CEO of asset and wealth management. Marianne Lake, a Potential Dimon Successor, Leaves JPMorgan One-time Retention and Continuity equity awards to the following Operating Committee members: Doug Petno, Co-President and CEO of the Commercial & Investment Bank, and Troy Rohrbaugh, Co-President and CEO of Consumer & Community Banking, in the amount of $30M each; Mary Erdoes, CEO of Asset & Wealth Management, and Jennifer Piepszak, Chief Operating Officer, in the amount of $20M each. JPMorgan Chase unveils $50 billion buyback, Goldman Sachs raises dividend after Fed stress test A 6 year study shows which CEOs are pushing RTO mandates: The ones with the biggest egos Fortune 500 bosses demanding staff return to the office share one trait: narcissism, research finds A six-year study tracking corporate executives revealed that strict return-to-office (RTO) mandates are heavily driven by narcissism and executive ego, rather than actual employee productivity Wharton organizational psychologist Adam Grant noted that researchers used reliable corporate proxies to quantify CEO narcissism, including the oversized scale of their compensation packages, the size of their signatures, and the prominence of their photos in company annual reports. The data showed that leaders with highly inflated self-opinions consistently coveted maximum power and status, making them the most aggressive opponents of remote work. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan pushed hard for a 5-day-a-week return to the office. Why they’re now letting employees work from home GameStop CEO Cohen spurns $35 billion pay plan to focus on plan to buy eBay GameStop CEO on His eBay Pursuit: ‘I’m Not Going to Stop, I’m Not Going to Go Away’ GameStop unveiled a compensation package worth roughly $35B for Ryan Cohen ​in January, hinging on a turnaround that requires him to lift the struggling company's market value more than tenfold and sharply boost its profit. In May, Cohen surprised Wall Street with an unsolicited offer to buy eBay for roughly $56 billion in cash and stock to ‌turn the e-commerce company into ⁠a bigger competitor to Amazon. EBay's board rejected the proposal, calling the offer "neither credible nor attractive." Cohen argued that he doesn't want the package ⁠so that GameStop's leadership can fully focus on its operating performance and the planned acquisition. SpaceX handed lowest possible ESG rating by MSCI: Triple C score puts Elon Musk’s company on par with Russia after 2022 invasion of Ukraine Musk 'most obvious risk' following SpaceX's lowest possible ESG rating “Board of Directors: The SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES board currently has an independent majority, which enables it to more effectively fulfill its critical function of overseeing management on behalf of shareholders. The company has failed to split the roles of CEO and chairman, which may limit the board's independence from current management interests. Split CEO and chairman roles are characteristic of 67% of companies in this market.” Welltower CFO’s $167 million pay package sets new record Welltower’s Tim McHugh is the new highest-paid finance chief among the biggest U.S. companies. His $167 million pay package in 2025 not only dwarfs that of his CFO peers but also outpaces the compensation of many CEOs. McHugh’s pay at Welltower, a real-estate investment trust focused on rental housing for seniors, surpasses the $139 million compensation package received by Tesla’s Vaibhav Taneja in 2024. This puts him more than $135 million above Alphabet’s Anat Ashkenazi, the next highest-paid CFO in 2025. And it secures him a spot in the club of executives making $100 million or more, a group that remains rare. Here’s what the article DID NOT MENTION: CEO Shankh Mitra: $821M Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Scientists Say New Method Turns Coffee Grounds Into High-Potency Renewable Fuel According to a press release from South Korea’s National Research Council of Science and Technology, a team of researchers at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) have developed a method to convert spent coffee waste into high-quality charcoal, known as biochar. While that’s a feat in and of itself, the kicker is the method’s blistering speed: it takes just 90 seconds from start to finish, with no drawn-out drying process or oil separation required. According to the release, the new technique solves a major issue in extracting the latent energy potential of spent coffee beans. DR: Bill to raise minimum wage to $25 an hour will be introduced in Senate DR MM The bill would incrementally increase the minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25, with the first jump to $12 an hour in the first year of enactment. Major corporations would have six years to work up to a $25 minimum wage, while smaller employers would have a 13-year runway. The legislation would also do away with s

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