Chairman Trump’s capitalist takeover, Walmart feeds employees, revised climate reports, fake jobs data

What this episode covers

Story of the Week (DR): Is MAGA going Marxist and Maoist? Trump’s assault on free-market capitalism MM Trump’s risky role as the would-be CEO of America Trump blasts Goldman over tariff forecasts, tells David Solomon to 'focus on being a DJ' Trump Calls on Goldman to Replace Economist Over Tariff Stance Intel stock climbs 7% on report Trump administration is considering stake in chipmaker Trump says Intel CEO has an 'amazing story' days after calling for his resignation ‘We negotiated a little deal’: Trump says Nvidia and AMD will kick back 15% of China chip sales in potentially unconstitutional arrangement How CEOs deal with Trump: Praise, face time, remorse, and gifts made of gold all go a long way, experience shows Trump is tightening the screws on corporate America — and CEOs are staying mum Trump’s Beef with Bank of America’s Corporate Governance Goes Beyond His Personal Accounts Walmart's 10% employee discount now includes most groceries amid tariff pressures Walmart, once ordered to ‘eat the tariffs,’ is giving employees a year-round 10% discount to help them eat Trump Crypto Firm Announces $1.5 Billion Digital Coin Deal A publicly traded tech firm, ALT5 Sigma, plans to sell $1.5 billion of shares to fund the purchase of a cryptocurrency created by World Liberty Financial, which the As part of the deal, World Liberty will receive shares in ALT5, according to securities filings, in return for $750 million worth of $WLFI coins. Eric Trump, the president’s middle son, will join ALT5’s board, and Zach Witkoff, a World Liberty founder and the son of President Trump’s Middle East adviser, will serve as chairman of the board. 4execs/4directors: dudes The BroIPO market is bubbling again StubHub IPO is back on for September after ticketing company delayed plans on tariff concerns StubHub 5/1;7/1: CEO/Chair Eric Baker controls 90% of voting power because of his magical 100x Class B shares Bullish Stock Roars in Latest Crypto IPO, Tripling Offering Price Bullish: 2/0;6/1: 2 cryptobro founder/directors control 53% 61 IPO-related filings since August 1: 11% Female executives: 44 have zero; 13 have one 12% female directors: 30 have zero; 24 have one Half have more than one stock class The average major shareholder controls 47% voting power The “winner”: Classover Holdings: educational technology, specializing in live online courses for K-12 students worldwide. 2 execs/5 directors: all women Stephanie Luo controls 91% of voting power thanks to her magical 25:1 Class B shares Debuted at 11.26, down to 1.27 Example numbers 18,000,027 and 18,000,028 why we need more women in leadership: Major companies reframing, not abandoning, DEI: report While firms scaled back DEI language and commitments, 79% percent of S&P 500 firms disclosed board committee oversight of DEI, up from 72%, according to the report. For Russell 3000 companies, this figure jumped from 48.4% to 86.8%. Rather than simply abandoning DEI, this suggests that companies are being more cautious about external messaging while integrating DEI into governance to make it more legally defensible, according to the report. ‘Godfather of AI’ says tech companies should imbue AI models with ‘maternal instincts’ to counter the technology’s goal to ‘get more control’ Nobel laureate Geoffery Hinton: AI “will very quickly develop two subgoals, if they’re smart: One is to stay alive…[and] the other subgoal is to get more control.” To prevent these outcomes, Hinton said developers should make AI more sympathetic toward people to decrease its desire to overpower them. According to Hinton, the best way to do this is to imbue AI with the qualities of traditional femininity. Under his framework, just as a mother cares for her baby at all costs, AI with these maternal qualities will similarly want to protect or care for human users, not control them. ESG Data Hell Trump’s BLS appointee suggests suspending jobs report entirely until methods of data collection are ‘corrected’ Trump Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee was a 'bystander' outside Capitol on Jan. 6, White House says DOJ fires sandwich thrower after he’s charged with assaulting officer in Washington, DC The man facing a federal assault charge for throwing a Subway sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C., was an employee at the Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ …“You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.” E.J. Antoni, an economist from the Heritage Foundation I guess he’s not proud of Northern Illinois because his bio says: “Antoni holds master’s and doctoral degrees in Economics.” Speaking of undereducation: Think tank president urges Gen Z to consider trades over college in tough job market Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project APP is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025,[28] a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power Here’s one of his tweets: In 2021, I pulled my [7] kids out of public schools because of the woke garbage being taught in their classrooms. Today, my whole family is going to see President Trump put an end to the Department of Education.” Energy Secretary Says Past Climate Reports Will Be ‘Updated.’ Why Researchers Are Alarmed. The Trump administration plans to release “updated” versions of government climate reports from the past, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said he wants the reports toned down. Wright said he disagrees with the conclusions in past National Climate Assessments, a benchmark review of climate change that the government puts out about every four years. The assessments are compiled by hundreds of scientists and researchers both within and outside government; the latest one was 1,834 pages. The Trump administration has pulled past reports down from the government website where they were previously hosted. Before his appointment, he was the CEO of Liberty Energy, North America's second largest hydraulic fracturing company. Also was on the board of EMX Royalty Corp., a Canadian royalty payment company for mineral rights and mining rights. In January 2023, he said, "There is no climate crisis and we're not in the midst of an energy transition either" He has degrees in mechanical engineering (the study of physical machines and mechanisms that may involve force and movement) and electrical engineering (an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism) In 2019 Wright drank fracking fluid to demonstrate that it was not dangerous Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Mark Cuban says companies should be taxed more for buying back their own shares DR: Danske Bank Cuts Fossil-Fuel Exposure From Its Investments Danske Bank A/S is removing over 1,700 fossil fuel-related companies from its investment universe, citing their failure to prepare for climate change. MM: Elon Musk's America Party is nowhere to be seen 1 month later MM: Netflix (NFLX) Secures Broadcasting Rights for FIFA Women’s World Cup MM Assholiest of the Week (MM): Takers MM Musk says he’s suing Apple for not featuring X and Grok in ‘Must Have’ section of app store Trump Has Made Himself Commander in Chief of the Chip Industry Is Trump’s Plan to Take 15% of AI Chip Sales to China Legal? Trump Calls on Goldman to Replace Economist Over Tariff Stance US national debt hits record $37 trillion U.S. Steel Plant Where Two Died Will Continue Operating, CEO Says In the last 3 days, US insiders sold $463m worth of stock, including… Herald Chen, 3% influence director at AppLovin - was CFO of company until December 2023, still on board, sold $182m worth of stock In our database as an overall .477 hitter - slightly below average earnings, but high TSR The stakeholder value returned by Chen: they sell ads in apps 46% of firm assets are goodwill and intangibles - stakeholder value so ephemeral it’s intangible Pretending to give back Walmart, once ordered to ‘eat the tariffs,’ is giving employees a year-round 10% discount to help them eat No tax on tips? Bad news for restaurant workers: Tipping in America is on the decline Sam Altman says Gen Z are the ‘luckiest’ kids in history thanks to AI, despite mounting job displacement dread Layoffs 2025: Companies have announced over 800,000 jobs cuts so far. There are 3 big reasons why More employers are giving workers money to buy their own health insurance Larry Ellison Wants to Do Good, Do Research and Make a Profit Dual class dictator with biggest individual investments in Tesla, Theranos, and X Anxiety about the economy is forcing two-thirds of U.S. employers to yank budgets for raises And distracting you so you won’t notice Wendy's says it realized it had 'too many' promotions this summer, confusing customers White House Will ‘Definitely’ Host a U.F.C. Fight on July 4, U.F.C. Head Says Dana White, on the Meta board of directors The U.S. military is looking to buy Tesla Cybertrucks to use as missile targets TikTok claims there’s a hack to get bigger portions at Chipotle: Put men’s names on your orders Headliniest of the Week DR: Hand soap recalled due to potentially life-threatening bacteria DR: Don’t drink this recalled instant coffee from Dollar General. It might contain something dangerous MM: Werner recalls more than 100,000 ladders over potential fall hazard MM: Public company CEO resigns amid another leadership shake up Who Won the Week? DR: the anti-fascist Subway sandwich MM: Delaware. Elon Musk called on corporations to leave Delaware. Delaware says it's doing just fine. Predictions DR: Subway rebrands with a “we know our sandwiches are gross so throw them at your least favorite fascists” campaign, featuring: Hitler, Stalin, Trump, and Zuck MM: Paramount, now bought by nepo baby Daniel Ellison, goes full Trad Man and rebrands itself as “Man Media” - UFC rights, UFC on White House lawn, Yellowstone and its spinoffs, South Park manboy comedy. As part of it, they launch a streaming service for men by men called “Cable”