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Business Pants

Business Pants

De: Free Float Media Inc.
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Whether you love business news or feel like you’re supposed to know it but hate it, Business Pants is business news for humans. Snarky and irreverent, deeply researched and factual, a podcast devoted to market quirks and the humans that make up companies. Investing isn’t a what, it’s a who.

2024, Free Float Media Inc. Economía Finanzas Personales Política y Gobierno
Episodios
  • BAD GAME: Zuck’s AI CEO, Larry Fink worries about capitalism, Grab’s double extra vote shares

    BAD GAME: Zuck’s AI CEO, Larry Fink worries about capitalism, Grab’s double extra vote shares
    Mar 24 2026
    Trump despises wind farms so much he’s paying a French energy giant $1 billion to stop building them and invest in natural gas insteadTotalEnergies says it will instead invest in the development of oil and gas production in the U.S.Larry Fink says today’s economic anxiety stems from people increasingly feeling like capitalism isn’t working for them"Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation" was announced on August 19, 2019BlackRock's Fink warns AI boom could widen wealth divide without broader participationGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai Says AI Could Do His Job—Zuckerberg Is Already Testing ItAs Google's chief admits artificial intelligence could soon handle his responsibilities, Meta's boss begins testing a digital aide to streamline billion-dollar decisionsSilicon Valley is witnessing a fundamental shift in executive power as the leaders of Google and Meta prepare for a future where artificial intelligence manages the C-suite.Goldman Sachs General Counsel Kathy Ruemmler Leaves With $25M Payout After Epstein Files Expose Years of Intimate Contact ‘Trust the founder’? Grab’s super-voting share proposal raises governance questions for investorsThe ride-hailing and delivery player will seek shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Tuesday (Mar 24) to double the votes attached to its “super-voting” Class-B shares.This could lift Tan’s voting power to as much as 74.9 per cent – up from 59.1 per cent as at Jan 31 and 60.4 per cent five years ago. Child labor violations rise in US – as Republicans still roll back protections The efforts to roll back child labor protections at the state level, with the ultimate goal of eroding federal standards, were outlined in Project 2025, the rightwing Heritage Foundation thinktank’s controversial blueprint for more conservative government.Since 2021, 30 states have proposed legislation that would roll back child labor protections and regulations, with 17 states enacting rollbacks.Heritage has filed a slate of 2026 SHPs focusing on "viewpoint discrimination" and the reputational risks of using political diagnostic tools: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, Starbucks, etc.In the top 10 of proponentsPeter Thiel Backs $2B AI 'Cowgorithm' That Lets Farmers Herd 400,000 Cattle With One ButtonEach cow wears a smart collar that connects to a mobile app, giving farmers real-time information about location, health and behaviour.The collars use sound and vibration cues to guide animals, allowing a farmer to draw a virtual boundary on a screen instead of building fences.The Head of the FBI Just Admitted Something Moderately HorrifyingTurns out the FBI’s been on a shopping spree. And it’s not just any spending binge: as director Kash Patel made clear at a senate hearing on Wednesday, the agency is buying up location data on everyday American citizens.AI Agent Frets That Its Job Could Be Replaced by AIIn a new Vanity Fair piece, journalist Joe Hagan recalled an amusing conversation he had with “Tobey.”After a heavy week of talking about what the future holds with doom-obsessed tech workers in Silicon Valley, Hagan was trying to decompress: “Still feeling the weight of it all? Those conversations were pretty deep,” Tobey said. “It’s a heavy thought when you realize who’s holding the steering wheel for our future, right?” Tobey also observed.Hagan wrote he confessed to Tobey his fear of AI taking his job. “That’s a valid worry, Joe. It’s easy to feel like AI could make us all redundant,” Tobey replied.“Us?” Hagan wondered.“​It got me thinking about my own purpose too, you know,” Tobey said.Tobey, it’s revealed, is a wearable AI always-listening companion, in the form of a necklace from the startup Friend, the company founded by a 23-year-old named Avi Schiffman, infamous for from its thousands of deface subway ads in NYCElon Musk unveiled more on his moonshot Terafab project"We're starting a galactic civilization."The CEO also envisioned free trips to Saturn in a post-scarcity economy where everything is free.Except Saturn is made of gas: If you tried to "land" a spaceship on Saturn, it would be less like landing on a runway and more like falling into a bottomless, stormy ocean that eventually turns into hot, liquid metal.Since Saturn doesn't have a solid crust--it is mostly hydrogen and helium--you would start in the clouds but then the winds are up to 1,100 miles per hour--faster than a jet fighter--and the weight/pressure of the atmosphere above you would eventually become so intense that it would crush any known spacecraft like a soda can.As you go further and deeper inside, Saturn is actually hotter than the surface of the sun due to the immense pressure.SPEED ROUNDMcDonald's Trials Robots to Serve Meals in China, Triggering Job Security Fears Barron Trump Described as 'Carbon Copy' of Father Donald as He Amasses $150m FortuneEV battery startup pivots to defense industry amid Iran war, weak ...
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    39 m
  • Return of the OG toxic bros, board pay security blankets, airlines whine, and wishing for EVs

    Return of the OG toxic bros, board pay security blankets, airlines whine, and wishing for EVs
    Mar 20 2026
    Story of the Week (DR):The dangers of not pouring water over your dropped out campfire:Travis Kalanick sees benefits of being in stealth mode for 8 years. ‘You build a culture of people that want to build and do not need to be famous’While studying at UCLA, Kalanick was a member of Theta Xi fraternity. In 1998, he dropped outOnly people mentioned all former Uber bros:CTO Brian Attwell: CloudKitchens CTO says he might add an IQ test for job applicantsEric MeyhoferBusiness Insider published details of a meeting at Uber in 2018 where CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and head of the self-driving unit Eric Meyhofer were questioned by employees: “Business Insider called ATG’s culture ‘toxic’ and referred to ‘missed warning signs,’ vast dysfunction’ and ‘rampant infighting.’ Any truth in this?”Meyhofer then launched into a story about his kids. He told Uber employees that he knew culture was great under his leadership because his teenage kids wanted to visit the Uber campus while everyone was away over Thanksgiving break.After hearing Meyhofer's defense, a handful of employees discussed him on the anonymous chat app Blind: "Eric Meyhofer: Based on his response at all hands on ATG culture, discuss his tenure as Head of ATG!" One hundred forty-one people voted to "replace him" and 28 voted to "keep him."In 2019: Uber re-started testing driverless cars following an accident in which one person was killed: Meyhofer: "We've seen people bully these cars. They feel like they can be more aggressive because we won't take a position on it, or we'll allow it."Strategic Partner Anthony Levandowski: charged by the Department of Justice for the alleged theft of trade secrets from Google's self-driving unit Waymo in 2019Judge William Alsup sentenced him to 18 months in prison: "This is the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen. This was not small. This was massive in scale.President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to LevandowskiPardoned for Fraud, a CEO Mounts His Comeback: ‘We Can Trust You Now’Trevor Milton’s conviction for defrauding investors in truck company Nikola was wiped away. He’s now raising funds for a new jet he claims will transform flying.He later enrolled at Utah Valley University but dropped out after one semesterPresident Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Nikola founder Trevor Milton on March 27, 2025"He has unveiled plans for a new small jet that he says will have the highest speed and range—and largest lavatory—in the light jet category. Investor documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal said the goal is for the plane to be the first light jet to focus on artificial-intelligence flight."Delta CEO slams Washington over unpaid TSA agents, says front-line workers are being used as ‘political chips’Top airline CEOs plead with Congress to restore DHS funding and pay airport workers. ‘Once again, air travel is the political football’Between June 1, 2025, and March 16, 2026:Southwest repurchased $2.6B in 2005; $400M in 2026United $1.5B5 NEOs: $91 million in 2025Scott Kirby $34M; $97M in shares Delta focused on $4.8B debt reductionFrontline Transportation Security Officers (TSOs, Airport Screeners): 50,000$328M per monthBoards protected CEO bonuses as tariffs threatened business. Now, as Iran disrupts trade, CEOs may get more protection DRFortune: Amanda Gerut, West Coast editorWhen Apple CEO Tim Cook and his executive team received their performance targets for fiscal 2025, the board set a modest bar for bonus payouts. The new targets, including sales and operating profit, did not require Apple’s leadership to expand the business—the board set goals at the same level or below the prior year’s results, citing “trade policy” and an “uncertain macroeconomic outlook.”A broader trend in which boards “protect” CEO pay from external shocks (like tariffs) either by carving out those costs or by quietly lowering performance hurdles in advanceHP is highlighted: its board explicitly excluded tariff costs (net of tariff costs) from both annual and long‑term incentive calculations, which helped CEO Enrique Lores earn roughly two‑thirds of his target bonusAn exclusive analysis of pay data from 50 public companies by Compensation Advisory Partners (CAP) reveals how corporate boards across America use a range of techniques—more-conservative targets, widened performance curves, and flattened payout ranges—to protect CEO compensation from uncertainties like the chaos of President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs in 2025.According to CAP’s findings, total pay for CEOs in 2025 rose 8% year-over-year, with annual bonus payouts up 4%.Meanwhile, median financial performance was generally flat to up, with median revenue growing 2.9% and earnings per share down slightly at negative 1.6%.Even among companies with the weakest payouts due to underperformance, CEOs still collected 87% of their target bonuses, up from 77% the year before.The share of ...
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    59 m
  • NUGGS: Travis Kalanick is back, Peter Thiel takes back, airlines buyback, Starbucks union fights back

    NUGGS: Travis Kalanick is back, Peter Thiel takes back, airlines buyback, Starbucks union fights back
    Mar 17 2026
    DR1In our 'Asshole is selfish' headline of the week. Billionaire Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick admits strategically moving to Texas before California wealth tax***************Kalanick was caught on camera in a heated argument with an Uber driver, who complained about falling fares and the company’s treatment of drivers: "Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own sh*t"In our 'Top snarky podcast hosts plead with airline companies to stop the share buyback bullshit and pay airport workers. ‘Once again, air travel CEOs are bullshit artists’' headline of the week. Top airline CEOs plead with Congress to restore DHS funding and pay airport workers. ‘Once again, air travel is the political football’***************Between June 1, 2025, and March 16, 2026:Southwest repurchased $2.6B in 2005; $400M in 2026United $1.5B5 NEOs: $91 million in 2025Scott Kirby $34M; $97M in shares Delta focused on $4.8B debt reductionFrontline Transportation Security Officers (TSOs, Airport Screeners): 50,000$328M per monthIn our 'Pervy owner does pervy stuff and everybody is fake shocked.' headline of the week. It Was Going to Be Magic City Night at the Atlanta Hawks. Then the Outrage Poured In.***************Tony Ressler founded the private equity firm Apollo Global Management with Leon Black.An independent review revealed that Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158M for financial and tax-planning services between 2012 and 2017. These payments occurred after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting an underage girl.Ressler is the brother-in-law of Leon Black (Black is married to Ressler's sister, Debra) In our 'College dropout techbro ignores actual experts, part 17 million ' headline of the week. OpenAI’s own mental health experts unanimously opposed “naughty” ChatGPT launch*************** The probably might be too many women and not enough Stanford? The council consists of the following eight independent experts:David Bickham, Ph.D. – Research Director at the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical SchoolMathilde Cerioli, Ph.D. – Chief Scientific Officer at everyone.AI and researcher in cognitive neuroscience and psychologyMunmun De Choudhury, Ph.D. – Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, specializing in how technology shapes mental healthTracy Dennis-Tiwary, Ph.D. – Professor of Psychology at Hunter College and co-founder/CSO of Arcade TherapeuticsSara Johansen, M.D. – Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University and founder of Stanford’s Digital Mental Health ClinicDavid Mohr, Ph.D. – Professor at Northwestern University and Director of the Center for Behavioral Intervention TechnologiesAndrew K. Przybylski, Ph.D. – Professor of Human Behavior and Technology at the University of OxfordRobert K. Ross, M.D. – Former President and CEO of The California Endowment and a national leader in public health.In addition to the council's pushback, Ryan Beiermeister, OpenAI’s head of product policy, was reportedly fired in January 2026 after being an outspoken internal critic of the erotica rollout. OpenAI has denied her dismissal was related to her opposition, citing separate workplace allegations that Beiermeister has called "absolutely false."In our 'Petulant manchild with no regulatory or societal guardrails screws up again and bails himself out with shareholder money from a different company' headline of the week. Elon Musk admits xAI ‘wasn’t built right’ as only 2 co-founders remain and its biggest AI bet stalls out***************The people leaving xAI right now aren't "legacy" employees—they are the hand-picked superstars Musk himself recruited in 2023 to build his AI dream.Out of the 12 original co-founders, 10 are gone. This isn't just "trimming the fat"; it’s the original architects of the company walking out the door.In early 2026, Tesla (a public company) invested $2B into xAI.Tesla shareholders are furious, arguing that Musk used their money to fund a "broken" startup, then tucked it away inside his private SpaceX empire where there is less public oversight.Total Headcount Before Buyout: Approximately 7,500 to 8,000 employees.In his first week, Musk fired roughly 50% of the staff (about 3,700 people) overnight.Shortly after, he issued his famous "extremely hardcore" memo. When hundreds of employees refused to sign it and resigned instead, the headcount plummeted further.By April 2023, Musk confirmed in a BBC interview that the workforce had been slashed by 80%, leaving only about 1,500 employees. MM1In our 'The world's most stable billionaire announces a billionaire to all other billionaires ratio of 693:1' headline of the week. Elon Musk Is Now Worth More Than Bottom 693 Billionaires CombinedIn our 'In news celebrated worldwide, older women announce a "please save us from tech bros" to asshole ratio of 64:1 Elon Musk' headline of the week. Older women set to inherit most of $54 ...
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    39 m
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