FRIDAY WRAP: Israel over Lewiston, billionaire pays millions, Engine No 1 does a number 2, Chipotle passes on costs and e coli for efficiency

LIVE from inside a gender pay gap, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at October 27th Studios, featuring SOME of your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and me AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: Israel over Lewiston, billionaire pays millions, Engine No 1 does a number 2, Chipotle passes on costs and e coli for efficiency, and more!

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Mass shootings don’t even rate

1. While we have outrage about Harvard students’ misguided feelings about Hamas or how quickly Penn’s president said “thoughts and prayers” about Israel, so much so the billionaires lined up to teach those woke indoctrinators a lesson, we have zero CEO statements on this:

1. This is the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. this year.

2. 18 killed so far in Maine shootings, suspect still at large

2. Anti woke speaker of the house

1. Mike Johnson, a climate science skeptic, is speaker nominee

1. Rep. Mike Johnson, a Louisianan who has received more campaign money from the oil and gas industry over the course of his seven-year congressional career than any other industry

2. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s First Big Bill Cuts Biden’s Climate Change Funding

1. The first major legislation House Republicans passed under newly installed Speaker Mike Johnson would cut billions of dollars in consumer rebates for energy efficiency upgrades included in President Joe Biden’s signature climate law.

3. And he has lots of hot takes on all the DEI:

1. House Speaker Mike Johnson did work for a 'crisis pregnancy' center that used a van to find pregnant women

2. Sponsored 2 bills in 7 years, both anti abortion extremist bills

3. Obviously he loves gays

4. Also, loves Noah’s Ark! Before Mike Johnson became House speaker, he lobbied for a Noah’s Ark theme park—and it’s exactly how you picture it

3. Icelandic Women To Strike Over Gender Pay Gap

1. First, shame on the editor for adding that women are striking “despite having one of the smallest gender pay gaps” - as if having ANY GENDER PAY GAP is cool?  

2. Here’s why it should be story of the week: The strike will happen Tuesday, and it will include the Prime Minister of the country, Katrin Jakobsdottir

3. The strike urges women and nonbinary people to stop all work on Tuesday, INCLUDING HOUSEHOLD ERRANDS AND CHILDCARE

1. Child care???

4. We’re definitely all dead

1. Mark Zuckerberg thinks pessimists ‘tend to be right’ but optimists ‘tend to succeed’ and ‘get the most done’ 

2. Pessimists: 

1. Google AI Boss Says AI Is an Existential Threat to Humankind

2. Climate change

3. Elon Musk

4. Social media

3. Optimists:

1. Here is a clip of Speechify cloning Mussolini’s voice using text from Marc Andreessen’s Techno Optimist manifesto

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. New California Laws Mandate Climate Disclosures For Both Private and Public Companies

1. California enacts major climate-related disclosure laws!!!!

2. This month, California, as the world's fourth largest economy, joined other jurisdictions by requiring companies doing business within its borders to report greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and climate-related financial risks.

2. Nikola stock surges 9% after disgraced founder Trevor Milton ordered to repay $165 million

1. Nikola agreed in December 2021 to pay the SEC $125 million to settle charges that it defrauded investors by misleading them about its products, technical capacity and business prospects.

2. Milton left the company in 2020 and was subsequently convicted of fraud related to false statements he made about Nikola’s tech.

3. CVS to pull certain cold medicines containing decongestant phenylephrine from store shelves

1. A month ago a panel of advisors to the FDA unanimously determined that the main ingredient used in over-the-counter cold and allergy medications doesn’t actually work to clear up congested noses when taken orally

2. BIG DEAL: According to data compiled by FDA stagg, retail stores in the U.S. sold 242 million of these bottles last year, up 30% from 2021. Generating $1.8 billion in sales last year.

3. The FDA has not decided whether to remove these products from the market but CVS has gone ahead and removed products where the only active ingredient is phenylephrine, like Sudafed PE

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Engine No 1

1. From last week:

1. Exxon to buy U.S. rival Pioneer Natural in $59.5 bln deal

2. Exxon’s One-Time Adversary Engine No. 1 Unanimously Backed Deal

3. Exxon's $60 billion bet on fossil fuels proves we're failing at the energy transition

2. And this week, the board voted to do this:

1. Exxon Raises Dividend After Posting $9.1 Billion Profit

3. Engine No 1 rose to fame for putting an “environmentally friendly” board in place on Exxon despite having less than 1% of the shares

1. They used the campaign as a massive marketing ploy to launch the VOTE ETF, which was designed to be the woke version of Strive later would use as the anti-woke version - an SP500 ETF that votes based on environmental or ideological issues

2. Here’s a clip from our hot take on Engine No 1 to remind you

4. Exxon’s “environmental” board today:

1. Goff: 5% influence

2. Karsner: 4% influence

3. Hietala: 4% influence

4. Meanwhile, Darren Woods: 26%, Angela Braly 12%, Exxon expanded the board size to dilute director power, and the incoming directors were all connected to existing directors (board is currently 62% connected)

5. Then, in the last two weeks, Engine No 1 closed it’s deal to sell its flagship fund to TCW, effectively admitting it was all a game? 

2. ‘Doxxing truck’ displaying names and faces of affiliates it calls ‘Antisemites’ comes to Columbia

1. Accuracy in Media

2. Also this: Billionaire Leon Cooperman Cutting Off Donations To Columbia Over Student Protests Of Israel-Hamas War

3. Anyone not buying Free Float Analytics data

1. About 30 non-SPAC or fund related proxy statements were filed in the last 7 days

1. 14 companies were too small, new, or were subsidiaries and don’t show up in our data

2. Of the 16 in our data:

1. 44% are totalitarian - dual class dictators and fake public companies

2. 151 directors represented overall, fewer to vote on given classified boards

3. 128 directors had enough years under their belt to have performance metrics

4. Zero shareholder proposals filed at these companies, which means directors are your only vote here

3. Some stats:

1. Among the worst performers is Max Levchin, former PayPal mafia, current founder and tech bro at Affirm who does “buy now, pay later”, otherwise known as layaway, otherwise known as payday loans for bullshit

2. Not only has Affirm been operating for 11 years and public for two, they have never been profitable, but why should that stop their 7 non-executive directors from collecting more than 200k each, and Noel Watson from pulling in 747k by himself?

3. Levchin paid himself, since he controls the company, 451m in 2021 in options - he takes virtually no salary, but still need more than 300k a year in personal security

4. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau found Affirm and other buy-now-pay-later firms were effectively predatory

1. “Buy Now, Pay Later is engineered to encourage consumers to purchase more and borrow more,” the report said. “As a result, borrowers can easily end up taking out several loans within a short timeframe at multiple lenders or Buy Now, Pay Later debts may have effects on other debts.”

5. 5 of the 8 board members bat BELOW 0.100 on earnings and the entire board bats under 0.500 on TSR.  

1. Meaning - there is ZERO REASON FOR INVESTORS TO BE HAPPY WITH THIS COMPANY

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. Shell boss set to cut jobs from low-carbon division

1. Wael Sawan plans to shrink the number of staff working on low-carbon solutions by around 200 next year

2. YET…The company said it remains committed to investing in “viable low-carbon business models”

3. Shell posted Q3 adjusted earnings of 9.45B!!!!!!!!!

2. Chipotle says it's 'definitely' going to pass on the costs of California's new $20 fast-food minimum wage by hiking menu prices, despite posting impressive profits

1. Chipotle’s CFO, Jack Hartung told investors: "It's going to be a pretty significant increase to our labor," noting that the chain's average wages in CA are currently around $17.

2. "We haven't made a decision on exactly what level of pricing we're going to take," he continued. "It's going to be a mid to high single digit price increase, but we are definitely going to pass this on. We just haven't made a final decision as to what level yet."

3. All of this while the company posted impressive Q3 results: 

1. Total revenue 11.3% to $2.5 billion

2. Resulting from increases in both transaction volumes and average check size (theu just raised menu prices 3%)

3. Posted a 21.8% jump in net income

3. Apple Is Considering Treating Mental Health With $3,500 Vision Pro Augmented Reality Headset

1. As Apple prepares to launch its long-awaited Vision Pro augmented reality headset, company officials are reportedly considering using the $3,500 headset to diagnose and treat mental illness

2. The headset, which comes equipped with an array of sensors and cameras, could be used to measure users’ facial expressions, feelings and emotions, and detect levels of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of stress, sources familiar with the matter told The Information.

3. STAY IN YOUR LANE APPLE. You are not trained mental health professionals and treating mental health is not a one-size-fits all solution

4. If anything, this is going to cause more isolation AND negative contribution to the mental health crisis

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: The sniffles

2. AB: NOT the guy who took on affirmative action

1. US Court Upholds Nasdaq Board Diversity Rule

1. A U.S. appeals court upheld Nasdaq's board diversity rule on Wednesday, requiring companies listed on the exchange to have women and minority directors on their boards or explain why they do not. The court rejected lawsuits seeking to block the rule by the National Center for Public Policy Research and the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment, a group formed by conservative legal activist Edward Blum.

3. MM: Ari and Jessie, who don’t know it yet, but after reading this article, I’ve decided to promote them: A 'dry promotion' at work: What is it and should you accept it?

1. A dry promotion is extra titles and duties with no pay!  Fox Business News says you should accept it!  Congratulations to Ari and Jessie!

4. JS: DEODORANT: Employees skipped out on personal hygiene when working from home. Now deodorant is the unlikely winner of return-to-office mandates

Predictions

1. DR: 

2. AB: Toy companies are crying inflation… BNPL is going to save them

3. MM: Leon Cooperman, Bill Ackman, and the billionaire diaper baby conservative class commission a research paper on who to be outraged at an boycott after reading this headline: A gay Israeli soldier says he's going to fly the LGBTQ+ flag on his tank while fighting Hamas.  ISRAELI WAR GOT WOKE!

4. JS: