FRIDAY WRAP: WOMEN’S NCAA BASKETBALL DOMINATES, SWISS WOMEN LEAD THE WAY, NEPO BABIES ARE…BABIES, AND THERE’S A NEW DATING APP IN TOWN

IT’S FRIDAYYYYY!!! And we are LIVE, and ALIVE. This is Ari the Data Queen, joined by AnalystHole Matt Moscardi, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and Hazelnut Rallis. On today’s weekly wrap up: 

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Women's NCAA championship TV ratings crush the men's competition AB JS

1. averaged about 18.7 million viewers and peaked at a whopping 24 million: men's Division 1 UConn Huskies over Purdue averaged 14.82 million

2. The Women's NCAA Tournament Outshone the Men's. But It Got 99% Less TV Money - WSJ

1. TV rights: $6.5 million for the women’s tournament and $873 million for the men’s.

3. The men's college basketball Final Four teams earn $19.3 million in revenue. The women's teams earn 27% of that

4. The men's Final Four coaches earn on average nearly double the women's salaries for the same job. Here's how much all 8 head coaches make

2. The eclipse

1. The eclipse could bring a financial boost of as much as $6 billion, thanks to increased spending on hotels, restaurants and travel, according to an estimate from the Perryman Group, an economic analysis firm

3. JPMorgan names CEO Dimon's potential successors

1. Contenders for the top job include Jennifer Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh, recently appointed co-CEOs of JPMorgan's expanded commercial and investment bank, Marianne Lake, CEO of consumer and community banking, and Mary Erdoes, CEO of asset and wealth management.

4. The new Boeing whistleblower says some planes could just could just 'break apart' in midair

1. Departing Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun cut his bonus in 2024 after the door plug flew off an Alaska Airlines flight

2. Boeing Boss Gets $33 Million in Pay for 2023, but No Bonus

3. Boeing Adds Safety Goals for CEO After Record 2023 Pay

4. Calhoun: $33M in 2023 ($23M in 2022)

1. $30M in stock awards; $514,285 for jet use

2. 273:1 CEO Pay Ratio: $119,873

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. For the first time, NCAA women's basketball championship drew more viewers than men's

1. Iowa-South Carolina game average 19 million viewers, 24M in the final 15 minutes.

2. Men’s 15 million

3. Year of renegotiating for women’s basketball

2. New York is suing the world’s biggest meat company. It might be a tipping point for greenwashing

1. New reporting from the guardian this week and I realized I did not include this in any of the goodliest lists

2. NY AG Letitia James is accusing JBS of deceiving customers about being climate-friendly

3. Most of greenwashing cases are brought on by non-profits or individuals, but JBS was so bad at greenwashing that the government is stepping in

4. Their claim: “‘Net Zero by 2040” when as recently as September, the CEO admitted in a public forum that the company didn’t even know how to calculate all of its emissions

3. 2,000 senior women win “biggest victory possible” in landmark climate case JS DR

1. In Landmark Climate Ruling, European Court Faults Switzerland

2. Swiss Women Lead the Way in Historic Climate Justice Victory

3. A group of older Swiss women have won the first ever climate case victory in the European Court of Human Rights

4. The women, part of the group Senior Women for Climate Protection, proved that government climate INACTION violates human rights.

5. They presented medical documents and scientific evidence that older women are more vulnerable to climate impacts. The court ruling said that during recent warmest summers on record, “nearly 90% of heat-related deaths had occurred in older women”

6. The court’s judgment is binding, cannot be appealed, and could influence 46 countries in Europe. The court found the Swiss government failed to address critical gaps in climate policies, repeatedly missed climate targets, and failed to regulate GHG emissions in sectors such as agriculture and finance

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. O.J. Simpson dead at 76 JS DR

1. 1994 Infinity Broadcasting proxy: Mr. Simpson is a nationally known former football star and Heisman Trophy winner, and a member of the Professional and College Football Halls of Fame.  He has been involved as a network television sports commentator and media personality for almost 20 years (beginning before his retirement from pro football in 1978).  In addition to his involvement as a producer of and star in numerous television projects, he is regularly seen as the co-host of NBC's "NFL LIVE."  Mr. Simpson also is involved in the hotel, restaurant and real estate businesses. He is a promotional spokesman for many national corporations and is a director of Kushner-Locke Company, The Forschner Group, Inc., and Cyrk, Inc.

2. Audit Committee!

2. Truong My Lan, Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in $27bn fraud case

1. Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group Joint Stock Company

2. Her family is one of the richest families in Vietnam

3. The case goes back to her involvement in the 2011 merger between Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank and two other banks.

4. Lan was accused of illegally controlling Saigon Commercial Bank and using shell companies to secure more than 2,500 loans for herself and her accomplices

5. Although Lan didn't directly hold executive power at the bank, she had significant control, owning 91.5% of the bank's shares through third parties and shell companies

6. Prosecutors said that over a decade, Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, about 3% of Vietnam's 2022 GDP, AP and Bloomberg reported.

7. However, according to VnExpress, prosecutors added that the estimated damage caused to the bank by the scam amounted to much more — about $27 billion.

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

1. Mark Smucker, CEO of J.M. Smucker and great-great-grandson of the jam maker’s founder

2. Smucker, who took the helm of the food and beverage giant in May 2016, said in an interview with Fortune that the company is a “meritocracy” — and that just because his family’s name is on the company door doesn’t mean he’s had it easier than others.

3. “J.M. Smucker is a meritocracy, and my journey here took a lot of twists and turns. It was not easy. Ultimately, I was able to earn this seat.”

4. Humanity has just 2 years ‘to save the world,’ UN climate chief says

1. United Nations executive climate secretary Simon Stiell

5. Elon Musk confirms that he used a secret account on X where he pretended to be a child

1. Elon Musk‘s erratic posting on X, formerly Twitter, has come back to haunt him once again as a 22-year-old Jewish man pursues a defamation case over tweets in which the tech mogul baselessly suggested the recent college graduate was an undercover federal agent posing as a neo-Nazi during a street fight between far-right groups.

2. X is “the most accurate, timely, and truthful place on the internet,” Musk said during his questioning about a false statement he made on the site that has been viewed by over a million users and has yet to be retracted or deleted almost a year later.

3. “You know, like, once in a while, a conspiracy theorist is going to be right” 

Headline-iest (ALL):

1. DR: Smucker's fifth-generation CEO said he's no nepo baby and won't let his kids be, either

2. AB: Elon Musk confirms that he used a secret account on X where he pretended to be a child

Headlines that don’t depress me (JS):

1. The Marriage Pact, a Stanford economics project that has expanded to nearly 90 colleges, is disrupting dating apps by not focusing on looks AB JS

1. Nearly half a million students have participated since the pact first rolled out at Stanford University in 2017. Born of an economics project by two students there, the pact involves an algorithm that rates matches based on such statements as “I prefer politically incorrect humor” and “I pride myself on telling hard truths.”

2. Unlike dating apps and services, each student gets just one name, a percentage on the quality of the match and an email address to reach out.

3. The questions “are selected based on, hey, what do we need to know to have a 50-year relationship with someone? Can we make it a great one?”

4. Ya know what, I don’t hate this…I’ll definitely take it over AI dating apps… looking at you HotChat3000

2. Waste Heat Generated from Electronics to Warm Finnish City in Winter Thanks to Groundbreaking Thermal Energy Project DR

1. Slated for construction this summer near Helsinki, it will be the largest “seasonal energy” storage facility in the world by all standards and contain enough thermal energy to heat a medium-sized city all winter.

2. The biggest challenge of the energy transition so far has been the inability to store these intermittent forms of energy for later use. Unfortunately, small-scale storage solutions, such as batteries or accumulators, are not sufficient; large, industrial-scale storage solutions are needed.

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Humanity: for the transcendent moment that is women’s sports (and SC coach Dawn Staley for a perfect season, for an incredible statement about Caitlin Clark, and for elegantly defending the rights of trans women athletes)

2. AB: WOMEN’S BASKETBALL!!!!!!

3. JS: Women’s basketball for the sweep!

Predictions

1. DR: a business-minded but struggling NBA team drafts Caitlin Clark

2. AB: Travel websites like Skyscanner and Google flights will add a new filter to its search - DO YOU WANT TO AVOID BOEING PLANES? Yes/No