Witty’s op-ed, billionaire permitting, Murdoch loses

Introduction

LIVE from your ESG-powered Vitamix A3500 Ascent Series Smart Blender, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at December 13th Studios, featuring AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: Ongoing NEO murder stuff, Rupert Murdoch fails to screw over 75% of his children, God eats McDonald’s, and hot sauce is going woke

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

Story of the Week (DR):

1. NEO shooter, continued MM

1. UnitedHealth Group CEO addresses Brian Thompson death, says healthcare system is 'flawed'

1. “a brilliant, kind man who was working to make health care better for everyone”

1. No proof of that, of course

2. “When a colleague proposed a new idea to Brian, he would always ask, “Would you want this for your own family?” If not, end of discussion.”

1. Also, really?

3. “His dad spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. B.T., as we knew him, worked farm jobs as a kid and fished at a gravel pit with his brother.“

1. See, he’s one of you

1. Foxbusiness and foxnews is referring to Luigi as “ivy league graduate Luigi Mangione”

4. “The ideas he advocated were aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human. That’s Brian’s legacy, one that we will carry forward by continuing our work to make the health system work better for everyone.”

1. His other legacy is TSC of $30M over past 3 years and roughly $40M in equity

5. “we also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats. No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones’ safety.”

1. Amazing deflection because people are clearly angry at the… EXECUTIVES

6. But maybe he DOES understand the vitriol:

1. “We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it.”

2. “Clearly, we are not there yet. We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone.”

3. “Health care is both intensely personal and very complicated, and the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood. We share some of the responsibility for that.”

7. “No one would design a system like the one we have. … Our mission is to help make it work better.”

1. It’s true, that’s basically their hollow mission statement. And I suppose massive profit helps with that goal?

1. UnitedHealth Group annual gross profit for 2023 was $90.958B, a 14.24% increase from 2022.

2. UnitedHealth Group annual gross profit for 2022 was $79.617B, a 14.31% increase from 2021.

3. UnitedHealth Group annual gross profit for 2021 was $69.652B, a 3.96% increase from 2020.

2. There’s also this part of their mission statement: “We dedicate ourselves to this every day for our members by being there for what matters in moments big and small — from their earliest days, to their working years and through retirement.”

1. Which doesn’t exactly gel with: UnitedHealthcare's claim denial rate is 32%, which is higher than the industry average of around 17%

2. UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect arrested; charged with murder

3. Luigi Mangione wasn't a UnitedHealthcare member, may have targeted company because of size and influence: NYPD

4. UnitedHealth Group CEO says slain exec Brian Thompson was ‘one of the good guys’ in leaked memo to 400,000 employees

5. Former Aetna CEO says he’d eliminate employer-sponsored insurance to fix the U.S. healthcare industry in wake of UnitedHealthcare shooting

6. UnitedHealthcare CEO’s death is being mocked on LinkedIn—a move that could hurt careers, says HR expert

2. Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family Trust

1. A Nevada commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch's legal attempt to alter his family trust so that his eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, will control the family's media and business empire when he dies

2. Barring a successful appeal, the decision ensures Murdoch's media empire will be left equally to his four oldest children, who are not all ideologically aligned with the conservative views of Rupert and Lachlan.

3. Notably, James Murdoch — once considered a contender to take over the family business — resigned from the board of News Corp. in 2020, citing disagreements over editorial content published by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

3. U.S. appeals court tosses Nasdaq diversity rules for company boards

1. The conservative-majority New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Securities and Exchange Commission did not have the power to approve the rule that required companies to ensure women and minority directors were on their boards or provide an explanation of why this was not the case.

2. It was implemented after George Floyd's killing pushed companies to address racial inequality and move toward diversity, equity and inclusion.

4. CEO Buddy System: Deloitte survey: CEO optimism ‘is as high as we’ve ever seen’

1. Trump's inaugural fund receives $1 million donation from Mark Zuckerberg's Meta

2. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund

3. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Plans to Donate $1 Million to Trump’s Inauguration

4. Elon Musk Gloats as Trump Announces Billionaires Will Be Exempt From Normal Environmental Rules

1. On Tuesday, president-elect Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post that any "person or company" investing $1 billion or more in the US would "receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental [sic] approvals."

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: California bill would require mental health warning labels on social media 

1. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is pushing for social media companies to be required to post mental health warnings on their sites.

2. DR: Paris is replacing 60,000 parking spaces with trees MM

3. MM: Stanley recalls 2.6M travel mugs due to potential burn hazard from faulty lids

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Andrew Witty DR

1. UnitedHealth Group C.E.O.: The Health Care System Is Flawed. Let’s Fix It.

1. We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it. No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades. Our mission is to help make it work better. 

2. Clearly, we are not there yet. We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone. That is the purpose of our organization.

3. Health care is both intensely personal and very complicated, and the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood. We share some of the responsibility for that.

4. While the health system is not perfect, every corner of it is filled with people who try to do their best for those they serve.

5. Brian was one of those people. 

6. The ideas he advocated were aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human.

2. Meanwhile…

1. How UnitedHealthcare and other insurers use AI to deny claims

2. Leaked video shows UnitedHealth CEO defending practices that prevent ‘unnecessary’ care

1. According to ValuePenguin, a site that helps users compare insurance plans’ costs, UnitedHealth’s 32% claims denial rate was twice the industry average. 

3. Congress Introduces Bills to Break Up UnitedHealth Group

1. sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), 

2. Dual class investors

1. Non profits have figured something out capital markets haven’t - you can’t make dual class non profits: Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family Trust

1. At one point in his 96-page opinion, Mr. Gorman characterizes the plan to change the trust as a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust.

2. In a statement, James, Elisabeth and Prudence said: “We welcome Commissioner Gorman’s decision and hope that we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members.”

3. The initial trust arrangement was meant to be binding, the product of an agreement Mr. Murdoch negotiated with his second wife, Anna — the mother of Lachlan, Elisabeth and James — who was concerned that he would bequeath an equal share of control and equity to the young children he had with Ms. Deng. 

2. AND YET… we tolerate dual class dictatorships in capital markets in perpetuity?

1. “Carefully crafted charade[s]” designed to keep a company’s control private but siphon money from markets anyway

3. Ohio

1. SB6

2. The board, in accordance with its fiduciary duties described under this section, shall make investment decisions with the sole purpose of maximizing the return on its investments. The board shall not make an investment decision with the primary purpose of influencing any social or environmental policy or attempting to influence the governance of any corporation.

1. That’s literally the ONLY thing you get as an owner of stock - the ability to vote, which in and of itself is influence over governance of a corporation

2. So no Ohio pension funds CANNOT VOTE AGAINST MANAGEMENT!  EVER!  BY LAW!  NO MATTER WHAT!

4. Small business

1. The normies feel good… 

2. … and lose every time

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: How McDonald’s was involved in almost every major news story this past year

1. Customers’ boycotts topple McDonald’s Q1 sales

1. In October 2023, the McDonald’s Israel franchise made headlines for giving away free meals to IDF soldiers involved in the escalating Israel-Hamas War—resulting in a massive boycott by pro-Palestinian protestors in the Middle East. 

2. Inflation plagues consumers and McDonald’s prices soar

1. McDonald’s faced another backlash this year over its $18 Big Macs, leaving many price-conscious customers questioning whether it was still worth the cost. Faced with inflation and the high cost of living, customers just weren’t having it.

2. In order to counteract the bad publicity it was receiving, McDonald’s rolled out a $5 meal deal which seemed to win over at least some customers and gave the stock a boost as Americans came back for the more affordable burgers.

3. McDonald’s Quarter Pounders linked to an E. coli crisis

1. In a year with more than 300 food recalls, none seemed as well publicized, or as lamented, as the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder recall in October. The fast-food chain’s stock price plummeted after it became the center of a full-on E. coli outbreak, linked to onions on its Quarter Pounders. In the end, a significant number of people were affected across 14 states: 104 people became sick, 34 were hospitalized, and one person died.

4. Trump serves fries at McDonald’s on the campaign trail

1. McDonald’s also played a role in the 2024 presidential campaign, when then-Republican nominee Donald Trump tried his hand at operating the fry machine at one of the fast-food giant’s Pennsylvania locations and held a press conference at the drive-thru window. The visit was largely seen as a way to counter, without evidence, stories of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s having worked at McDonald’s one summer while in college.

5. RFK Jr brutally mocked over ‘MAHA’ hypocrisy as he enjoys McDonald's ‘really bad’ meal with Trump

6. Luigi Mangione is arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s

1. When law enforcement officials first arrested Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, many people were surprised that Mangione, who had alluded police for five days, was found at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

2. MM: BuzzFeed survives by selling 'Hot Ones' to George Soros MM

1. Vivek Ramaswamy, winner of the Paul & Daisy Soros scholarship, still owns a 9% stake in the A shares of the dual class company

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Two winners:

1. Directors who resign in protest: James Murdoch — once considered a contender to take over the family business — resigned from the board of News Corp. in 2020, citing disagreements over editorial content published by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

2. CEOs who take over companies from founders while the founder stays as Executive Chair: Oracle CEO Safra Catz Plans to Sell Over $1 Billion of Stock

2. MM: Billionaires who need permits

Predictions

1. DR: The next McDonald’s headline: Shareholders Sue OpenAI’s ChatGPT after the Chatbot Coaxed a Troubled Chief Revenue Officer to Eat 850 Quarter Pounders during Last Month’s Nor’easter

2. MM: