FRIDAY WRAP: Verizon CEO’s mood tracker, strikes strikes and more strikes, human body shield CEOs, GET OFF OF TWITTER, and exhausting lady bit part costs

Introduction

LIVE from your Damion free picket line, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at September 29th Studios, featuring all your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the money whisperer, and AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: CEO mood trackers, writers getting paid, man babies hiding behind glass Cliff CEOs, and more microplastics!

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Biden Joins Autoworkers on Picket Line in Michigan

1. President Biden grabbed a bullhorn and joined striking autoworkers in Michigan on Tuesday, becoming the first sitting president to join a picket line in an extraordinary show of support for workers demanding better wages

2. Today: UAW announces new strikes at GM and Ford plants, spares Stellantis citing ‘momentum’ in talks

2. Verizon's CEO Hans Vestberg has been tracking his mood out of 10 in a spreadsheet every day since 2009, and if he gives himself less than 3, he works alone for the day MM

1. This is what each score means, per CNBC: 

1. One to two - This means he wasn't in the right headspace to work with other people and should "stay in his office," and work alone the coming day. 

2. Three to seven - This is the ideal score and "usually when I'm best," because he was "energized" and productive. 

3. Eight to 10 - A score above eight means he has "so much energy that people get tired of me," so he could end up tiring out colleagues rather than energizing them. 

3. Blaming female leaders for their tyrannical male bosses: X CEO Linda Yaccarino had a car-crash interview at Code Conference where she seemed undermined by Elon Musk and couldn't state precise user numbers or whether users will pay AB 

1. See Assholiets below:

2. Linda Yaccarino denies X is disbanding its election integrity team – hours after Elon Musk posted that they are 'gone'

3. In response to a post on the platform that said Yaccarino had been "sandbagged," Musk said: "Kara should take it easy on the Adderall — foaming at the mouth is just not a good look."

4. Hollywood writers strike ended on Wednesday as WGA, AMPTP finalize labor contract JS

1. See Goodliest below:

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. The WGA is calling its new deal "exceptional." AB

1. Hollywood’s writers strike ended on Wednesday after almost 5 months! Drew Barrymore only had to hold on a couple of more weeks and she would’ve avoided a ton of backlash and an embarrassing apology video.

2. The estimated value of the new agreement is $233 million per year, more than the $86M proposal the studios submitted on May 1, but less than the $429 million the WGA was seeking.

3. Writers negotiated protections from AI, a 18% increase initial pay and 26% raise on residuals on shows for streaming services with a budget of $30M, getting to see streaming data etc

2. DAY 15 UAW Strike JS 

1. Entering its third week UAW is striking against Stellantis, GM, and now Ford and they have been relentless with their messaging against automaker execs:

1. “During the eight and a half minutes GM CEO Mary Barra appeared on CNN this morning, she ‘earned’ more money than any autoworker makes in a full work day.”

2. On buybacks:

1. “Incredible. Right up to our contract deadline, Stellantis just can't help themselves, announcing they're executing ANOTHER $500 million on stock buybacks. If they've got money for Wall Street, they sure as hell have money for the workers who make this industry run.”

2. Ford spent $484 million on buybacks, GM spent $3.4 billion in the last year. In 2021, Stellantis spent $1.6 billion, and this month spent another half a million.

3. Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company couldn’t be sustainable if they paid the UAW what they are demanding, they replied with “This man made $21 MILLION DOLLARS last year”

4. “RECORD PROFITS EQUAL RECORD CONTRACTS”

3. U.S. Accuses Amazon of Illegally Protecting Monopoly in Online Retail MM

1. The FTC and 17 states sued Amazon on Tuesday, accusing Amazon of “illegally stifling the competition”

2. Last week, because of the antitrust investigations escalating, Bloomberg reported that Amazon scrapped a planned fee on merchants that don't use its shipping services

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. The human body shield that is glass cliff CEOs

1. X CEO Linda Yaccarino had a car-crash interview at Code Conference where she seemed undermined by Elon Musk and couldn't state precise user numbers or whether users will pay

1. Here's one bizarre exchange: Was Musk serious about charging all users a fee to use X, Boorstin asked. Musk announced the plans in a livestream on September 18.

2. Yaccarino paused for a couple of seconds, appearing puzzled, and asked Boorstin to repeat her question. Boorstin did.

3. The executive then replied: "Did he say we were moving towards it specifically or that he was thinking about it?" 

4. "He said that's the plan," said Boorstin. "Did he consult you before he announced that?"

5. Asked about X's daily active user numbers, Yaccarino appeared to respond only in estimates, according to The Verge and the Wall Street Journal. At one point, she said X now has 200 million to 250 million daily active users. "Something like that," Yaccarino said. Elsewhere, she claimed 540 million monthly active users.

6. “Everybody deserves to speak their opinion,” @lindayaX says after being asked about ADL complaints about Twitter/X antisemitism.

7. Then she looks at her watch and says she has to catch a flight. 

2. New Qantas CEO Hudson Grilled by Lawmakers Over Raft of Scandals

1. New Qantas Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Hudson was grilled, rebuked and chided by a parliamentary inquiry, piling more pressure on an airline already under fire for its treatment of passengers, staff and competitors.

3. LEGO Group Appoints Annette Stube as Chief Sustainability Officer

1. Lego ditches oil-free brick in sustainability setback

2. GET THE EFF OUT AB JS

1. This week: NFL tells X it's concerned about placement of ads on white nationalist accounts

2. Last week: Tim Cook admits ‘we constantly ask ourselves’ whether Apple should advertise on Twitter: ‘There are some things I don’t like’

3. Three weeks ago: Elon Musk 'likes' trending #BanTheADL posts as white supremacist ad runs on platform

4. Summer: Twitter Runs Ads for Disney, Microsoft, and the NBA Next to Neo-Nazi Propaganda

5. What is it that companies think is advantageous about being on Twitter at all?  I guess neo-Nazis buy shoes?

3. YOU ASSHOLES FUND THIS, BUT NOT US?

1. Caffeinated Gum Picks Up Steam As Lance Armstrong-Backed Rev Raises $6 Million To Expand Retail Presence

2. First of all, Lance Armstrong still has money?  After the worst cheating scandal for any athlete in the history of athletes?

3. Second of all, $6 million for CAFFEINATED GUM??

1. We have 6 months left of cash and have a hard time finding investors who believe that ISS and Glass Lewis shouldn’t be the only two proxy advisors, and that board directors shouldn’t be voted against because of their fragile snowflake

2. And yet caffeinated gum and Zume Pizza, the SoftBank $445m backed AI pizza truck get funded - when did venture capitalists focus less on fixing real problems, like the board industrial complex, and more on pizza and buzzy gum?

4. BURN IT ALL DOWN ANTI WOKE

1. Government shutdown by the anti-ESG crowd

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. Working women spend $15.4 billion more than men in out-of-pocket health costs, study finds MM AB

1. This is coming from Deloitte Consulting analysis: The study found women spend 18% more than men on copays and deductibles, on average. That’s after excluding costs associated with pregnancy and maternity

2. Women tend to utilize more medical care than men, in part due to annual gynecological exams and the high costs of breast cancer imaging.

3. While annual exams are often fully covered, follow-ups that can result from those visits incur copays and trigger deductibles. Many of those services are often more expensive than the typical deductible, leading to a higher cost-sharing burden.    

4. Deloitte analysts say employers could close the $15.4 billion cost-sharing gender gap through enhanced benefits design, at an estimated cost of $133 per employee per year, or about $11 per month.

2. Plastic clouds: Clouds now contain plastic, risking contamination of ‘everything we eat and drink’

1. Microplastics are the result of the glut of plastic pollution that is choking our lands and oceans. Plastic waste breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces over time and is finding its way into the atmosphere, human bodies and species.

3. Instagram ruined leaf-peeping so badly on Vermont’s most beautiful dirt road that it’s now closed through the end of foliage season

1. You won’t be able to visit fall foliage at a popular Vermont spot due to overcrowding and “poorly behaved tourists”. The town has closed the road, only allowing residents to pass through.

2. A local milk truck driver advised: “Please, come to VT and enjoy our foliage. It’s amazing. For the love of God, PLEASE pull off the road before stopping to take pics, and please pull off the road instead of driving 25 in a 50.”

3. Overcrowding driven by social media posts have plagued other destinations around the globe, from a street in Paris to a small city in California that was overrun with visitors when heavy winter rains produced a “super bloom” of wild poppies. Disneyland-sized crowds hit Lake Elsinore, California, in 2019 “who trampled the very habitat that they placed so high in regard.”

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: see Matt’s winner

1. (also Ari for her comeback)

2. AB: FTC Chair, Lina Khan! She went viral as a law student in 2017 when she published a paper arguing that American antitrust laws had failed to “adequately stop Amazon from amassing power over its customers, competitors and suppliers”. She gets to take them to court!!!

3. MM: The line, “Every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber.” Delivered by Nikki Haley to Vivek Ramaswamy in the GOP debate.

4. JS: Kansas City Chiefs- Kelce’s jersey sales surged 400%, 63% increase in female viewership, Kecle’s IG follows up 276%, Kelce & Bro’s podcast, New Heights, topped charts

Predictions

1. DR: Qantas Chair Richard Goyder finally leaves; replaced by Jacqueline Hey, expanding Qantas’ wonderful Glass Cliff

2. AB: In 2 weeks the UAW strike will be over with a 25% increase

3. MM: See Damion’s prediction

4. JS: Damion feels awesome tomorrow, just wanted a 3 day weekend