THE GOOD GAME featuring carbon offsets, Apple AI, and AI pizzas, plus airline board skillz and Vivek’s BuzzFeed shoulda list

Live from BlackRock’s ESG StoneHEDGE monument in downtown America, it’s an all-new terrific Tuesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Ari The Data Queen and Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! In today’s leaky battery called June 11, 2024: The Good Game and the Top 5 List Throwdown show

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

DAMION1​​ 

Good Game

1. Ford invests millions in Detroit downtown revival

1. Michigan Central Station, which became an "infamous symbol of Detroit," was bought by Ford in 2018. Over the past six years, 3,100 skilled-trades people worked 1.7 million hours to completely restore the station, so it could house the automaker's autonomous vehicle team as well as shops and restaurants that will be open to the public

1. The Carbon Offsets Comeback That Wall Street Has Been Waiting For

1. Investors in carbon credits have withstood greenwashing scandals and sagging prices. Now there are finally signs of a turnaround

1. Shari Redstone receives fewest votes in Paramount board election

1. 97.20%

1. Apple’s AI promise: “Your data is never stored or made accessible to Apple”: And publicly reviewable server code means experts can "verify this privacy promise."

1. Apple stressed that the new "Apple Intelligence" system it's integrating into its products will use a new "Private Cloud Compute" to ensure any data processed on its cloud servers is protected in a transparent and verifiable way.

1. Canada demands 5% of revenue from Netflix, Spotify, and other streamers

1. a program expected to raise $200 million per year to support local news and other home-grown content

SPEED ROUND

1. Scientists have discovered a potential form of reversible male birth control—with no adverse side effects

1. only tested in mice so far

1. Finally, Google Maps shows New York City public restroom locations

1. nearly 1,000 public restrooms across all five boroughs

1. Domino's says it uses AI to make pizzas 'before people order them'

1. "Our algorithm figures out you’re ready to order and we start making it," Domino's CEO Russell John Weiner says

1. This EV battery can go 1,000 miles on a single charge

1. The company says the new battery system could potentially last for 500,000 miles of driving—and even as long as a million miles

1. There were 71,000 noise complaints about Europe's busiest airport in 2023. Over 60,000 came from the same 10 people

1. A similarly huge number of complaints was found in Australia. One person living under a flight path in Perth was responsible for almost half the country's aircraft noise complaints

DAMION2

List throwdown

Observations On airlines to mark the beginning of summer:

Non-Executive directors only

1. United Airlines

1. Economics and Accounting 22%

2. Medicine and Dentistry 10%

3. Mechanical 7%!

4. (Transportation in 8th place at 2%)

2. Delta Air Lines

1. Economics and Accounting 21%

2. Mechanical 17%!

3. (Transportation 0%)

3. Southwest Airlines

1. Mechanical 9%

2. Economics and Accounting 6%

1. Is this why Elliott is getting involved??

3. (Transportation 2%)

4. Food Production is ahead of Transportation at 2%

1. Isn’t it just horribly tiny bags of underwhelming peanuts??

4. American Airlines

1. Economics and Accounting 41%!

2. Administrative 6%

3. (Transportation 2%)

5. And finally, let’s a peak at a non-American airline: Lufthansa

1. Economics and Accounting 12%

2. Mechanical 11%

3. Building and Construction 10%

4. Transportation 9%

5. Engineering and Technology 5%

MATT1

List throwdown:

Companies Vivek Ramaswamy SHOULD have targeted if he understood basic governance despite running an asset manager that focused on “governance”

• US based companies

• Less than 50% of shares held by institutions

• NOT dual class or controlled

• Top 5% shareholders have less than 20% of the shares

Basically you’re looking for public or small fund widely held companies that you can afford and you can kick out board members, like…

• MindMed Inc

• Subordinate share company - ~11% of voting power with insiders - but virtually zero institutional presence of note

• They use psychedelics (think mushrooms and LSD) for therapies, tested in FDA trials

• Natural underperformance - biotech pre revenue, all first time board members, not covered in our data, BUT… 60% women on the board, including a doctor

• VIVEK talking points: 

• Imagine curing the trans mind disease without the use of surgery - just give them LSD!

• But no, a woke board full of women and a foreigner that are hell bent on science

• I know biotech, I founded a company with no knowledge of biotech before i did it

• Dynex Capital

• Securitized mortgage REIT (CMBS, RMBS)

• 50% diverse board - 33% black, 17% asian, 50% female - with a black CEO and chair (with 62% influence)!

• Great earnings performance by board, but below average TSR - a Vivek unlock by championing the debanked?

• Here’s a quote: “Dynex is a financial services company committed to ethical stewardship of stakeholders' capital, expert risk management, disciplined capital allocation, and social responsibility”. 

• VIVEK talking points:

• The de-banked deserve a right to have their mortgages securitized and bought by Dynex - Dynex is probably discriminating against Christian adjacent mortgage backed securities

• Plus, why are there SO MANY WOMEN AND DIVERSE PEOPLE on this board?

• SoFi Technologies

• Debanking!

• Mandatory DE&I training!

• “Financial freedom” 

• Strive vote: withhold Ahmed Al-Hammadi, withhold Tom Hutton

• FuboTV

• Trades at $1.20/share - $118m buys 98m shares, or 32% of the company

• Insiders own 7%, BLK+Vanguard own 15%

• Ed Bronfman Jr - exec chair and masterclass nepo baby, having jumped from poor performing company to poor performing company with .030 EBITDA and .390 TSR, is paired up with David Gandler, CEO, with 70% influence (though influence is likely split between them) who rocks a .019 EBITDA and .369 TSR, who was ALSO at WB as a winner, run this show

• Neil Glat was on the board of two SPACs - one liquidated after not finding anyone to SPAC with, the other merged with Evolv Technologies - and promptly lost 75% of its value - that was after racking up a 32% win rate as president of the New York Jets from 2012 to 2019, one of the worst spans in NYJ history

• Nacho Figueras was a polo player and model… and that is all

• Julie Haddon might be the only professional on the board

• Laura ONOPCHENKO has listed as qualifications that she adds diversity to the board - imagine if that were justification!

• The board is largely D list companies bought by B list media companies to look like they were doing something techy or new

• VIVEK talking points

• Media company!  

• Woke board!  An Argentine male model, a female exec from Women’s Soccer (Megan Rapinoe!!), a woman who’s qualifications include “woman”?? 

• A nepo legacy media dude who is a jewish globalist! 

• Imagine using the 1m subscribers - more than you can get anywhere - to put Tucker Carlson!