2024 News of the Year

Written By Matt Moscardi

Introduction

LIVE from your ESG Hanukkah Jesus Bush, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at December 20th Studios, featuring AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s YEARLY wrap up: Everything.


Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.


Story of the Year (DR):

  1. Exxon Sues Two ESG Investors [Follow This, Arjuna Capital] MM

  2. Judge voids Elon Musk's "unfathomable" $56 billion Tesla pay package

  3. Boeing

    1. Boeing CEO says it was 100% his own decision to resign

    2. Boeing CEO's tearful apology

    3. Boeing pleads guilty to fraud in fatal 737 Max crashes, fined $243.6 million

    4. Boeing names Robert ‘Kelly’ Ortberg as new president and CEO

    5. Boeing factory workers strike for first time since 2008 after overwhelmingly rejecting contract

  4. Trump’s victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top 10

  5. The Murder of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. DR


Goodliest of the Year (MM/DR):

  1. DR: 2,000 senior women win “biggest victory possible” in landmark climate case

    1. More than 2,000 older Swiss women have won a landmark European case proving that government climate inaction violates human rights.

    2. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that Switzerland had not acted urgently to achieve climate targets, leading victims, who are mostly in their 70s, to suffer physically and emotionally while potentially placed at risk of dying.

    3. The women, part of a group called KlimaSeniorinnen (Senior Women for Climate Protection), filed the lawsuit nine years ago. 

  2. DR: Minnesota capital St. Paul makes history as first large U.S. city with all-female council

  3. DR: Delta paying $1.4 billion in profit sharing payments to employees

  4. DR: 42% of shareholders vote against BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's pay

  5. MM: Stakeholders rule: U.S. bans noncompete agreements for nearly all jobs: MM

    1. “30 million people, or one in five American workers are bound by noncompetes. It will take effect later this year, except for existing noncompetes that companies have with senior executives ‘on the grounds that these agreements are more likely to have been negotiated.’”

  6. MM: Women > men: First NCAA women’s basketball championship surpasses men’s viewership: DR

    1. “Iowa-South Carolina game averaged 19 million viewers, 24M in the final 15 minutes. Men’s averaged 15 million. Year of renegotiating for women’s basketball.”

  7. MM: Porn figures it out: A Pornhub Chatbot Stopped Millions From Searching for Child Abuse Videos

    1. Meanwhile… 

      1. “Google’s Search AI Recommends Changing Your Car’s Blinker Fluid, Which Is a Made Up Thing That Does Not Exist.”

      2. Researchers Call for "Child-Safe AI" After Alexa Tells Little Girl to Stick Penny in Wall Socket

      3. Google’s Gemini Chatbot Explodes at User, Calling Them "Stain on the Universe" and Begging Them To "Please Die"

      4. Meta's AI Refuses to Show Asian Men With White Women

  8. MM: Study: Playing Dungeons & Dragons helps autistic players in social interactions 


Assholiest of the YEAR (MM):

  1. Sam Altman

    1. Sam Altman will return to OpenAI's board with three new directors

      1. “Our primary fiduciary duty is to humanity.” - 

      2. So let’s summarize - we have a board with Bret Taylor (ex Twitter chair, Salesforce founder, worked at Google, worked at Facebook and created the like button), Larry Summers (grumpy grandpa Harvard who thinks women are unable to compete with men and was master of Harvard when Zuck founded Facebook), Adam D’Angelo (founder of Quora, former CTO of Facebook), Sue DH (who was on board of Facebook), Fidji Simo (who lead monetization at Facebook), and the only NON FB alums Sam Altman (the master and founder) and Nicole Seligman (who oversaw one of the largest hacks in history and has a history on boards of CBS/Viacom under dictators)...

  2. Proxy voters DR

    1. Disney Shareholders Are Selling Their Proxy Votes Online - IndieWire

      1. A share of Disney is currently hovering at $118.

      2. Buying the vote is currently valued at $0.20.

      3. The current economic value to shareholder right value multiple is 590:1

    2. McDonald's CEO Kempczinski to assume role of board chairman

      1. Miles White named Lead Independent Director

        1. Director since 2009 (15 years)

        2. Connected to 58% of the CURRENT board

        3. Has nearly 40 loops back to board members in the last 7 years alone

        4. Was on the board for the disaster that was Steve Easterbrook

        5. Miles is part of the Boeing American Board Other board history:

      2. LIDs

        1. There are 284 US large caps out of just over 600 with CEO/Chair combo, founder, or executive chair and a Lead Independent Director on the board - that’s 47% of US large cap boards

          1. At 59% the LID has 10+ years of tenure

          2. At 29% BOTH the executive AND the LID have more than 10 years of tenure - as in they worked together for a decade

    3. Appointments, not elections

      1. Number of new directors appointed from 6/1/23 to 6/1/24: 1,875

      2. Average time between appointment and election: ~4 months

        1. Thomas Gayner was added to the Coca Cola board and served 10 full months before he got a vote from investors - and they voted 39.1% AGAINST 

    4. SEC charge hinges on director’s lack of ‘social independence’

      1. 20% of every US large cap board is connected inside two degrees JUST FROM OTHER BOARDS

      2. We just covered Parker Hannifin on our show Proxy Countdown and found that 100% of the board worked within 250 miles of one another, and 40% of them were from Ohio!

    5. Boeing Investors

      1. Lawsuit Against Boeing's Board Seeks Accountability for Safety Failures

  3. Bill Ackman

    1. After his wife is outed as having plagiarized (lightly?) in her dissertation, he posted on Wednesday a 4,200 word post defending his wife, detailing his personal trauma…

    2. And now, the part that only billionaires can do because the rest of us asshole poorsies don’t rate…

      1. I reached out to a board member I knew at BI, and to its controlling shareholders, the co-ceos of KKR, and to Mathias Döpfner, the Chairman and CEO of Axel Springer

      2. I reached out to Joe Bae because he is Co-CEO of KKR

      3. I reached out to Henry Kravis because he is KKR’s representative on the board of Axel Springer

      4. I called a board member of BI that I knew, but not well, on Saturday

        1. “After spending a lot of time over the past few weeks looking at and thinking about the definition of “plagiarism” (and some cited examples), I agree with you about it. Academia needs to narrow the definition.

    3. I made one request. I asked him to publicly disclose that Axel Springer had launched an investigation of the story, and he said he would have to get back to me on that request.

    4. Billionaire Bill Ackman Accuses The Walt Disney Company Of Leaking Shareholder Votes Amidst Nelson Peltz Proxy ... - That Park Place

  4. Meritocracy

    1. J.M. Smucker's CEO says the family-run business is a 'meritocracy'

    2. Alex Edmans 

      1. The anti-ESG, racist-veiled-as-meritocracy crowd noticed an ESG prof keeps saying “DEI” and “lies” in the same posts

        1. Strive puts him on a webinar called “DEI May Contain Lies” - Edmans seems to not know or acknowledge the fact that Strive votes explicitly against women on boards at a 2:1 rate versus average REGARDLESS OF PERFORMANCE (we have the data to show it)

    3. Elon Musk is lashing out at MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos' ex, for donating billions to charities for women and minorities

      1. “Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse' should filed be listed among 'Reasons that Western Civilization died’”

    4. Texas is using Boeing's troubles to expand its war on DEI

      1. “Documents that Spirit relies on to substantiate its claim that a diverse workplace improves product quality.”

      2. “Produce all meeting minutes of Spirit’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Council(s). Meeting minutes is defined to include any document that memorializes the agenda or discussion of any meetings held by these groups.

    5. Target to pull LGBTQ-themed items from some stores during Pride Month, Bloomberg News reports

    6. Meta created an AI advisory council that’s composed entirely of White men

      1. Pat Collison, cofounder of Stripe

      2. Nat Friedman, ex GitHub CEO

      3. Tobi Lutke, CEO of Shopify

      4. Charlie Songhurst, angel investor and ex-MSFT

    7. Tractor Supply’s Customers Cheer as It Dumps ESG, Says Survey, Microsoft reportedly fires DEI team — becoming latest company to ditch ‘woke’ policy, John Deere Cuts 'Woke' Programs, Moves Jobs to Mexico, Harley-Davidson Sparks Boycott Call for Going 'Totally Woke'

    8. Larry Ellison Will Control Paramount After Deal, Filing Shows

      1. David Ellison looked like he was buying it, but filing shows Daddy Larry will actually control 77% of National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, when the deal is completed

    9. Tyson's finance chief is out of the job. The Tyson heir got the gig at 32, making him the youngest Fortune 500 CFO

      1. The interim CFO Curt Calaway will now be the ACTUAL CFO, but I’m not sure he’s the right fit because he only had 11 years experience as an auditor followed by 18 years experience in finance at Tyson.

    10. Matt Gaetz, Vivek, Elon, Tulsi Gabbard, cabinet appointments

  5. White men

    1. The value of male influence on boards in the US:

      1. Small cap, a man’s influence is worth 1.7x a woman (women occupy 28% boards)

      2. Mid cap, a man’s influence is worth 1.7x a woman (women occupy 31% boards)

      3. Large cap, a man’s influence is worth 1.6x a woman (women occupy 33% boards)

      4. Mega cap, a man’s influence is worth 1.8x a woman (women occupy 36% boards)

    2. Bumble and Hinge Let Creeps See Your Exact Location

      1. men can now make the first move, and the company is now run by a man - men coming out on top at last!

    3. White men who are mistreated at work are more likely to notice and report harassment against coworkers

    4. Airline says it's testing a booking tool that lets women select seats away from men

    5. A Brief List of People Elon Musk Has Challenged to Combat and Then Chickened Out of Actually Fighting

    6. Why men get more credit than women for doing the same work, according to a business school professor

      1. As a case in point, consider the experience of Joan Roughgarden. Joan transitioned from male to female during her tenure as a biology professor at Stanford University. When Roughgarden’s colleagues perceived her as a man, they took her competence as a given. After her transition, though, Joan found she had “to establish competence to an extent that men never have to. [Men are] assumed to be competent until proven otherwise, whereas a woman is assumed to be incompetent until she proves otherwise,” she recalled. “I remember going on a drive with a man. He assumed I couldn’t read a map.”

    7. Elon Musk Suggests That Government Should Be Replaced by Dudes With High Testosterone

      1. Problems associated with artificially high testosterone levels in men include:

        1. low sperm counts, shrinking of the testicles and impotence

        2. heart muscle damage and increased risk of heart attack

        3. prostate enlargement with difficulty urinating

        4. liver disease

        5. acne

        6. fluid retention with swelling of the legs and feet

        7. weight gain, perhaps related in part to increased appetite

        8. high blood pressure and cholesterol

        9. insomnia

        10. headaches

        11. increased muscle mass

        12. increased risk of blood clots

        13. stunted growth in adolescents

        14. uncharacteristically aggressive behavior (although not well studied or clearly proven)

        15. mood swings, euphoria, irritability, impaired judgment, delusions.

    8. MEN AS AN INVESTABLE ASSET CLASS?

      1. This isn’t a joke - there are 69… yes, 69… US companies with zero women on the board and another 10 that have women with 0% influence

        1. Nathan’s Famous hot dog board - 10 directors, 1 woman, 9 men… female influence on the board = 0% according to FFA data

          1. ZERO people of color

          2. Insiders own 30% of the company (all white dudes), but the largest external manager GAMCO/Gabelli (14% of shares) PMs are all men that hold Nathan’s - men holding men!

        2. Oglethorpe Power is my new favorite MANCOMPANY - the board:

    9. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says women founders say they can't go 'founder mode' like men and that it needs to change


Headliniest of the Year

  1. DR: Elon Musk's $46 billion payday is 'not about the money,' Tesla chair says

  2. DR: Google Helpless to Stop Its AI From Recommending Glue on Pizza

  3. DR: Jamie Dimon says

  4. DR: ESG is Coming For Your Toilet Paper DR

  5. DR: X global affairs head Nick Pickles resigns

  6. MM: Anti-woke: 

    1. A definitive list of woke and non-woke foods - New Zealand Herald

      1. Beans = woke

      2. Baked Beans = not woke

      3. Potato chips (salted, salt and vinegar) = not woke

      4. Potato chips (any other flavor) = woke

      5. Spaghetti = woke

      6. Canned spaghetti = woke

      7. Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) = woke

      8. Quinoa (pronounced quin-oh-ah) = slightly less woke but still woke

  7. MM: Cybertruck: 

    1. Maine Man Alarmed When Everybody Mocks His Cybertruck, Flips Him Off MM

    2. The Cybertruck faces another setback as it recalls more than 11,000 vehicles over its giant wiper

  8. MM: Meritocracy

    1. NASA Praises Boeing's Stranded Starliner for Managing Not to Explode While Docked to Space Station

  9. MM: Awesome:

    1. Police Warn Residents to Lock Down Houses as Dozens of Monkeys Escape Research Facility

Who Won the Year?

  1. DR:

    1. Claudia Sheinbaum Elected as Mexico’s First Female President

    2. e.l.f. Beauty

    3. The Shareholder Primacy podcast with Mike Levin and Ann Lipton

    4. Shitheads (re: Robby Starbuck, et al)

    5. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the first woman to lead Delaware's Court of Chancery

    6. WOMEN’S BASKETBALL!!!!!!

    7. Anyone who wants free director data - we lifted the paywalls on freefloatanalytics.com, so you get 80,000 active directors globally, influence metrics, and four performance metrics for every single one. Suck it ISS.

  2. MM: 

    1. Proxy voters

      1. FREE FLOAT ANALYTICS IS FREE for 80,000 current directors with some performance metrics

    2. Our clients

      1. From the Gates’ Foundation’s asset manager to Fidelity, Free Float’s clients get it ALL - historical data, knowledge maps, connectivity data that includes now non profit boards, we’re working on lobbying data, diversity data, and all packaged with expert findings and ad hoc research directly from us

    3. Damion

      1. Never has he been more credible

    4. Capitalism

      1. Knowing WHO runs the world is much more important than knowing WHAT runs the world

    5. Non profits moving companies

      1. We worked with a half dozen non profits this year who needed data to influence companies - and we gave it to them, so much so we’re starting a non profit of our own to donate data to and through

Predictions

  1. We’ll start 2025 with a Predictions show and look back at lost year’s predictions



Matt Moscardi
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