WOKE WEDNESDAY: Marc Andreessen hates ESG (and “ethics”), glass cliff update, anti-woke is now “parallel economy”, and 5 things we hate to defend
Live from a Qantas-flavored cheese doodle, it’s the ESG Industry’s ONLY weekly woke data podcast, featuring AnalystHole Matt Moscardi! In today’s bedazzled ESG necktie called October 18, 2023: top 10 ESG headlines according to me, an anti-woke roundup from your favorite AnalystHole, and a word from the great Paul Hodgson from ESGauge
Our show today is being sponsored by ESGauge, your ESG data solutions provider: Paul will jump on later to talk about “director race and ethnicity”
DAMION1
Marc Andreessen is getting raked over the coals for calling social responsibility the 'enemy'
Marc Andreessen just dropped a ‘Techno-Optimist Manifesto’ that sees a world of 50 billion people settling other planets: ‘We are the apex predator; the lightning works for us’
In a section called “The Enemy”
Our present society has been subjected to a mass demoralization campaign for six decades – against technology and against life – under varying names like “existential risk”, “sustainability”, “ESG”, “Sustainable Development Goals”, “social responsibility”, “stakeholder capitalism”, “Precautionary Principle”, “trust and safety”, “tech ethics”, “risk management”, “de-growth”, “the limits of growth”.
Our enemy is anti-merit, anti-ambition, anti-striving, anti-achievement, anti-greatness.
Our enemy is statism, authoritarianism, collectivism, central planning, socialism.
Our enemy is bureaucracy, vetocracy, gerontocracy, blind deference to tradition.
Our enemy is corruption, regulatory capture, monopolies, cartels.
Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences.
Our enemy is speech control and thought control – the increasing use, in plain sight, of George Orwell’s “1984” as an instruction manual.
Elon Musk Signals Support for Militant Socialist
Who's gonna tell him?
Multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk has once again signaled his love for novelist George Orwell — without, it seems, realizing the author's well-known far-left political stance that directly contradicts his own worldview.
In a Friday the 13th post, the owner of the social network formerly known as Twitter — who blames communism for why his daughter won't talk to him anymore — said that he is "loving" a new shirt that featured the all-seeing "Big Brother" eye from "Nineteen Eighty-Four," the British author's best-known work that serves as a cautionary tale against totalitarianism and surveillance.
Underneath the eye on the shirt are the words "What would Orwell think." What he'd probably think, if he was alive today? That it's weird that an industrialist as anti-communist as Musk would be promoting his work, since Orwell himself was such an avowed democratic socialist that he literally fought fascists in the Spanish Civil War and wrote a book about it.
Best reaction: from Del Johnson, a former principal at Backstage Capital: "Venture capitalists are calling risk management 'the enemy' just over half a year after the industry was screaming for the government to rescue their failing bank. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, moral hazard."
AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandez posts shirtless photo of himself getting a massage during a 'management meeting,' sparking debate
AirAsia co-founder Tony Fernandes posted a picture of himself receiving a massage while shirtless at work.
The LinkedIn post generated debate online, with many saying it was unprofessional.
Fernandes, who bought AirAsia in 2001, has since taken down the post.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon ends DJ gigs due to media ‘distraction’
Bank’s board reportedly concerned at attention received by chief executive, who moonlights as DJ D-Sol
The music has stopped for the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, amid reports that the US investment bank’s board was concerned his DJing sideline would distract him from his main job.
Solomon has formally hung up his headphones on high-profile gigs and has not performed publicly in more than a year, the bank said.
FFA: Remember: DJ D-Sol has only 18% of board influence: (positive female power gap: 39 to 38)
Like Many Women, Kim Ng’s Success Didn’t Keep Her Standing With The Miami Marlins
This season was the Miami Marlins’ most successful season in nearly two decades. A major component of that success was General Manager Kim Ng. She recently found her leadership role had suddenly been undermined by the team when they announced plans to hire a president of baseball operations to serve over her. As a result, Kim Ng has stepped down as the Marlins’ GM, citing a misalignment with the organization’s future and owner Bruce Sherman’s vision.
Seasons before she was hired: 57-105 in 2019 and 63-98 in 2018 (worst in NL both years); 84-78 this year
Even attendance is up 43%
Prior to becoming GM she was assistant GM for 15 years at two of baseball's most successful teams: Yankees and Dodgers
Ford reshuffles top management as UAW strike drags on
Ford Motor Co (F.N) on Wednesday announced a management rejig, promoting combustion vehicle unit chief Kumar Galhotra to the position of chief operating officer, even as the ongoing autoworkers strike shows little signs of ending.
Previously Ford did NOT even have a COO, only reinforcing the power held by nepo-baby and Exec Chair Bill Ford
Lloyd’s finds major hack of a payments system could cost $3.5tn
Insurers and policymakers are increasingly worried about the threat to infrastructure from cyber attacks
Lloyd’s of London has warned that a major cyber attack on a global payments system could cost the world economy $3.5tn, as insurers and companies worry about the systemic threat from hackers and whether the risks are insurable.
The Lloyd’s market, which is a hub for cyber insurance alongside traditional sectors such as shipping, said a “hypothetical but plausible cyber attack” would create “widespread disruption” to global business.
Under the scenario, attacks put malicious code in transactions software that then spreads through tens of thousands of partner networks, allowing hackers to breach defences and siphon funds, and bringing customer payments and bank clearing to a halt.
Also in the news: 10 Ways Boards Are Setting Their Companies Up For Cybersecurity Failure
Number 8: By having their audit committee govern cybersecurity risk.
Number 2: By failing to define boardroom responsibilities in digital and cybersecurity risk oversight broadly enough.
Number 1: By not having directors with cyber expertise on the board.
Qantas hangover a headache for directors on other boards
Until six months ago, being a non-executive director of Qantas was way more than just a resume stuffer, it was membership of an elite group – a trophy board. These days, it carries reputational damage sufficient to even be a career crusher.
This notion was put to the test on Tuesday when Qantas non-executive director Maxine Brenner received a 17 per cent protest vote against her candidacy for the Telstra board at its annual general meeting.
This wasn’t based on her performance as a Telstra director but she, along with other Qantas directors, has been infected by her place on the airline’s board whose now well-documented governance failings are legendary.
Brenner has been something of a darling of the non-executive-director club since getting her start on the board of Orica more than 10 years ago.
But snaring a seat on the Qantas board jettisoned Brenner’s career, which also includes directorships of Woolworths and Origin.
Two of Qantas’ incumbent directors must have noted with trepidation the protest vote Brenner received at Telstra.
With a 17 per cent vote against her, Brenner’s position at Telstra was demonstrably safe – it fell well short of the 50 per cent needed to remove her.
But compare this with the result of another Telstra director up for re-election – the far lesser known Ming Long. She received a 99 per cent vote in favour from shareholders.
If Telstra is the warm-up for the big Qantas AGM event next month, chairman Richard Goyder will be bracing for impact.
FFA: Goyder on Woodside Energy Group
According to our metrics he is the worst performer overall: .311 vs. .531 for the others
Lowest in controversies at .229 and earnings at .419 (vs. .667)
So kick the bum out
Glass Cliff Alert?
Can Tupperware’s second female CEO in its 77-year history revive the house party?
Laurie Ann Goldman, who led the transformation of Spanx, may just be the (wo)man for the job
Tupperware named Laurie Ann Goldman its new CEO, president, and director on Tuesday (Oct. 17).
Goldman is known for her long tenure as the former CEO of Spanx, where she served for 12 years. She’s credited with transforming the shapewear startup into a global omnichannel retailer and a $1 billion unicorn.
Markets are liking the news. Tupperware stock partied up 18% to an intraday high of $2.49, a far cry from its low of 61 cents this year.
The food container giant has been through the wringer, barely surviving a tumultuous era that saw it run out of money, secure a lifesaving debt restructuring, and do a stint as a meme stock.
Goldman replaces Miguel Fernandez, who will also step down as a director.
FFA: It shouldn’t be a major surprise? Positive female power gap already existed (43% vs 38%)
Deepfake Meat ESG?
Maybe We Will Finally Learn More About How A.I. Works
Stanford researchers have ranked 10 major A.I. models on how openly they operate.
How much do we know about A.I.?
The answer, when it comes to the large language models that firms like OpenAI, Google and Meta have released over the past year: basically nothing.
These firms generally don’t release information about what data was used to train their models, or what hardware they use to run them. There are no user manuals for A.I. systems, and no list of everything these systems are capable of doing, or what kinds of safety testing have gone into them. And while some A.I. models have been made open-source — meaning their code is given away for free — the public still doesn’t know much about the process of creating them, or what happens after they’re released.
This week, Stanford researchers are unveiling a scoring system that they hope will change all of that.
The system, known as the Foundation Model Transparency Index, rates 10 large A.I. language models — sometimes called “foundation models” — on how transparent they are.
Included in the index are popular models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 (which powers the paid version of ChatGPT), Google’s PaLM 2 (which powers Bard) and Meta’s LLaMA 2. It also includes lesser-known models like Amazon’s Titan and Inflection AI’s Inflection-1, the model that powers the Pi chatbot.
Stark Gender Imbalance at U.S. Opera Companies Extends Beyond Podiums
A new report found that women are dramatically underrepresented when it comes to conducting, directing and designing operas at leading American companies.
Observers have long decried the lack of opportunities given to female conductors and composers at leading opera companies. A recent study found that women have been dramatically underrepresented in other crucial creative roles as well.
Men accounted for 95 percent of the conducting credits at the 11 largest American opera companies between 2005 and 2021, the researchers found. But men also dominated other major roles in opera, it found: they accounted for 85 percent of directing credits, 88 percent of set-designer credits, 85 percent of lighting-designer credits and 59 percent of costume-designer credits.
Suzanne Somers got fired for demanding equal pay on 'Three's Company'
Suzanne Somers became the fitness queen only after she was fired from "Three's Company" following an equitable pay dispute in the '80s.
Somers starred as beloved blonde secretary Chrissy Snow on the sitcom, and worked alongside Joyce DeWitt and John Ritter on the Emmy-winning series. Heading into the fifth season and amid meteoric success, the actress demanded a salary increase from $30,000 per episode to $150,000, which matched Ritter's compensation, in addition to a percentage of profits.
ABC refused to give in to her demands, and the network slowly began nudging Somers out of the show until she was finally fired when her contract ended after the fifth season.
Finally, In case anyone is curious, I looked at the voting results at about 15 companies and…. ISS and Glass Lewis are NOT destroying corporate America with their woke mind virus. Although I should add that a director at Expion360 had 4% of the AGAINST his reelection!
MATT1
Boredom alert: EU ESG regulations still suck update
GOOD NEWS: the EU is proposing that anyone who buys an ESG rating from a “big” provider… must also buy one from a “small” provider!
Story in RI, h/t to Khalid Azizuddin for sending it to me: EU lawmakers mull new requirements to buy ESG ratings from data minnows
Buyers seeking “more than one ESG rating should choose at least one ESG rating provider with a market share below 5 percent”
STUPID NEWS ALERT
Instead of regulating the ridiculous oligopoly that is credit ratings, the EU is proposing disallowing ESG raters to offer consulting, forcing ESG providers to provide more information on how they pay their taxes (NOT BANKS???) to be sure remuneration for management “align with sustainability strategy”, and even forcing ratings providers to charge fees that “reflect the costs” - basically provide ratings at cost (BUT NOT ANYONE ELSE??).
Meanwhile, the article quotes lifelong consultant Vincent Vandeloise on why ESG is badly structured data - but not us?? I mean, Khalid, ask someone who literally built the models to tell you how stupidly they’re constructed!
Anti woke update - it’s not anti-woke anymore
THE “PARALLEL ECONOMY” IS THE NEW ASSET CLASS:
Imagine if you had to invent nothing new, just re-make all the old stuff that capitalism made that you LOVED as capitalists that now you HATE because of all the women and brown people and gays participating in it! Now call it something catchier than “Anti-ESG” since no one knows what that is - try the new catchword: Replication/Parallel Economy
Peter Thiel we know…
Strive Asset Management
Omeed Malik
Brought PublicSq public as part of Colombier SPAC
Just invested in this: Tucker Carlson’s online media company just raised $15 million in seed capital through his 1789 Capital
Companies I Hate but Now Have to Defend Top Five List:
5. Goldman Sachs
4. Disney
The Daily Wire Is Making Its Own Snow White Movie to Counter ‘Woke’ Disney Film Starring Latina
“Snow White and the Evil Queen is the brainchild of Ben Shapiro, who was just baffled by how anyone could cast anything but a White actress as the title role of Snow White. So what did he do? He had a whole damn movie made! To prove a point! Because Ben Shapiro is the co-founder of the Daily Wire and the Bentkey app, which promises kid-friendly content with absolutely no gays in it and only the correct races of people.”
New ‘Bambi’ Cause Conservatives To Cry ‘Woke’—Because Remake May Go Easier On Bambi’s Mom
“Piers Morgan, host of Piers Morgan Uncensored, considered Bambi the “latest victim of woke war culture,” criticizing the film’s writers for potentially altering how the film portrays the death of Bambi’s mother.”
““I'm waiting for this Bambi remake to have a trans deer, or maybe the mother dies from climate change,” Lahren said.”
The movie has not been produced, or even finished being written yet
3. Harvard
Woke central': Ron DeSantis wouldn't want a doctor from Harvard - Florida Politics
HARVARD IS WOKE?? Have you been to harvard? Oh, yes, you actually did go there…
2. Victoria’s Secret
VICTORIA’S SECRET BET ON MEGAN RAPINOE, WOKE MARKETING PUSH MISERABLY BACKFIRES
“It's been a bad year for marketing executives who chose to go woke in their messaging, and you can add Victoria’s Secret to that list.”
“The Victoria’s Secret Angels, those avatars of Barbie bodies and playboy reverie, are gone,” Rapinoe told the New York Times in June, discussing her new vision for the brand.
VS may be asking Rapinoe for a refund soon
1. Blackrock
