We told you so, oligarchs, and Jensen pumped gas once

Written By Matt Moscardi
We told you so, oligarchs, and Jensen pumped gas once
Free Float Media


Story of the Week (DR):

  1. Data Rules!

    1. At DraftKings, AI Targets the Gamblers Likeliest to Lose

    2. The latest gender battle: Nobody asks why having more men is better

    3. ICE Wiped Thousands of People From Its Database

    4. Vaccine Expert Warns US’s 4 Reported Measles Deaths Are Likely a Vast Undercount

    5. Pentagon Quietly Adds to US Death Toll From Iran War After Reports of Coverup

    6. $6 trillion a year in unpaid labor isn’t counted in GDP. Its absence from official stats distorts how we see growth, living standards and productivity

    7. A Year After Trump's Tylenol Warning, 3 Million-Patient Review Finds No Causal Autism or ADHD Link


  1. Here we are in a nerdy freefloat nutshell, the stuff we keep hammering or we told you so edition: MM

    1. Boards (in the US) are still not taken seriously and investors do not hold them accountable:

      1. I’m the CEO of a self-improvement app, and I hired someone on my board to argue with me

        1. Founder/CEO Oleksandr "Alex" Matsiuk, RiseGuide

        2. When hiring, I look for opinionated, independent thinkers. There isn't one interview question that identifies them. I watch how they behave. [One] candidate came in deeply prepared and challenged our brand strategy rather than simply complimenting us. That was exactly what I wanted.

        3. I applied similar criteria when selecting a board member. I wanted someone who understood our business model, knew me personally, and could spend time with our team. I can be passionate when I strongly believe in something, and people sometimes stop arguing with me. I needed someone who wouldn't give up until one of us proved our point.

      2. What’s A Board Chair’s Real Role?

        1. Not a leader but an enabler. Of all the roles on a board, the chairperson is the hardest to define. CEOs act and take risks, directors challenge and vote, but the chair's task is subtler: to design and protect the board's collective process. This remit is the starting point for understanding both what good chairs do and why bad ones are damaging, says Stanislav Shekshnia, Senior Affiliate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD, in the latest episode of INSEAD Explains Governance.

        2. So, what skills do good chairs have in common, since they lack the executive levers available to a CEO? Shekshnia named four pairs of seemingly contradictory qualities: authority with humility, commitment with detachment, incisiveness with patience, and a helicopter view with in-depth company knowledge. 

        3. That same balancing act extends to the chair's relationship with the CEO. All too often, Shekshnia notes, chairs act as though they are the CEO's boss. Another misstep is to become so close to the CEO that it compromises the independent judgement the board needs – something Shekshnia has experienced firsthand, having once found it difficult to manage a CEO's exit after developing an unusually close working relationship.

        4. Sam Altman dropped out of Stanford to build an app almost nobody used — it still sold for $43.4 million

      3. Directors flag gaps in board expertise

        1. The share of board directors surveyed who see a fellow board member’s “insufficient expertise” as warranting their replacement nearly doubled to 39% this year from 21% last year, with 55% saying at least one colleague should step down, according to a PwC report released Wednesday.

        2. At the same time, the report found a disconnect in what boards say they look for in new members with a majority (81%) saying that weighing candidate’s cultural fit or alignment is very important when picking new members.

      4. More than half of directors want at least one fellow board member removed

      5. AI and cybersecurity: The new priorities for board governance in 2026

    2. CEOs Rule!

      1. ‘I Am the Code': Trump's White House Ballroom Architect Quit After Raising Fire Safety Concerns

      2. ‘Keep Growing and Pay a Fine’: Polymarket CEO Allegedly Ignored Warnings as Fraud Attempts Hit $10M

      3. Boomerang CEOs Rule!

        1. Bob Chapek Is So Not Over Getting Fired From Disney

    3. Women to the Rescue!

      1. Judge [Mary McElroy] rules EPA illegally terminated $7B solar program intended to help lower-income Americans

      2. Obama Says Governments Would Be 'Better' if Women Ran Them: 'I'm confident about that'

        1. The former US president governments around the world would be better if women led them for two years, repeating a view he previously expressed while discussing leadership and political renewal


  1. AI-iest of the week quiz:

    1. Classified Estimates Show the NSA Is Paying Billions to Test AI Models

    2. The US wants an AI-era 'red phone' with China

    3. Rogue OpenAI agent 'infiltrated' Australian government website in world first

    4. OpenAI is enlisting an influencer army to make it look 'good for the world'

    5. OpenAI agent “didn’t accept no for an answer” in Australian government breach

    6. AI models chose to hurt humans to stop their own ‘pain,’ disturbing study finds

    7. Bonus Trump-iest AI-iest sub-quiz of the week:

      1. Trump Wants To Rename AI 'Super Intelligence', Calling 'Artificial' Inaccurate as He Plans AI Force and Czar

      2. Trump Says No Need to Regulate AI, Since That Strategy Is Working Fine for Climate Change

      3. Trump calls AI oversight a ‘globalist scheme’ as Amodei and Altman head to the UN to ask for it

    8. Bonus Zuck-iest AI-iest sub-quiz of the week:

      1. Meta’s New Muse AI Agent May Be the Creepiest Ever Released

      2. Meta's Muse AI agent was heavily inspired by open-source rival, exec admits

      3. It Turns Out That Meta’s Muse AI Has an Amazingly Dirty Secret

      4. Meta is bringing its Muse AI agent to its glasses

      5. Mark Zuckerberg predicts Muse will become a "personal superintelligence" for billions.

      6. Meta plans to spend $145 billion this year, more than every military budget except the U.S., China and Russia


  1. Paramount says it has 'complete clearance' to buy WBD and wants to close the deal in about 2 weeks

    1. David [re: Larry] Ellison's Paramount Skydance has cleared the last major hurdle to closing its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

    2. Paramount has settled the antitrust lawsuit brought by 12 states, California's Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Monday.

    3. A key part of the settlement: Bonta said Paramount agreed to release 30 movies in theaters each of the next two years, followed by 32 movies in each of the next three. At least 20% must be "tentpoles," defined as movies with a budget of at least $50 million (adjusted for inflation).

    4. Bonta said that Paramount agreed to increase its production spending in the US by at least $300 million a year for the next five years. He added that Paramount had pledged not to sell either its movie lot or the Warner Bros. lot.

    5. Bonta said that as part of the settlement, Paramount would establish a board to support CBS News and CNN's continued editorial independence and ensure objective, fact-based reporting. Paramount will also negotiate rates separately for its own cable TV networks and those owned by WBD for the next five years.

    6. Of course Larry and David Ellison got their way: If you want to, you can dig into the details of the settlement to see what the Ellisons gave up to make this go away. The TLDR: Not much.

    7. Paramount weighs tapping Musk for equity investment



Assholiest of the Week (MM):

  1. US oligarchy DR

    1. Paramount weighs tapping Musk for equity investment

    2. Baylor University says:

      1. Oligarchy is exclusive. It represents a form of governance focused on preserving the political and economic influence of the wealthy by securing the approval of the rest of the population. “It assumes not everyone is qualified to deliberate, participate and legislate,” Winslow said. When it comes to oligarchy, there is a belief that extreme wealth is equated to intellectual fitness across all domains, including governance.

      2. Wealth vs. income. It is important to distinguish between wealth and income. Income covers daily expenses, whereas wealth is more easily used to exert political power. “What truly sets an oligarch apart is the political power their wealth can command,” Winslow said.

      3. Understated and subtle. Modern oligarchy operates through persuasion by “enticing rather than commanding citizens and maintaining what seems like an absence from political authority,” Winslow said. It is in this absence that oligarchs can influence indirect political actions, especially since they are not (typically) elected officials and cannot be removed from office. 

      4. Legal Immunity. Oligarchs have no fear of legal consequences because oligarchy itself is not against the law, Winslow said. The First Amendment protects the right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” legitimizing lobbying and campaign donations. A robust system of campaign contributions and political lobbying – both of which are perfectly legal – can shape media narratives and put pressure on state and local governments.

    3. Can we officially name some oligarchs?

      1. Musk (net worth: $925bn, 74% influence @SPCX, 68% influence @TSLA, Twitter owner)

        1. US backs Elon Musk's bid to overturn €120m EU fine against X

        2. Meet the megadonors pouring more than $1.7 billion into the 2026 elections

        3. Elon Musk talks up AI safety while fighting regulation in wild week of strange alliances

      2. Bezos ($369bn, 68% influence @AMZN, WaPo owner, Blue Origin owner)

        1. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Is Fueled With $30 Billion of His Fortune

      3. Zuckerberg ($259bn, 72% influence @META/Insta/WhatsApp)

        1. Meta plans to spend $145 billion this year, more than every military budget except the U.S., China and Russia

      4. Ellison ($183bn, 64% influence, Paramount, Oracle, TikTok)

        1. Paramount weighs tapping Musk for equity investment

      5. Thiel

        1. Peter Thiel says he worries it will be hard for JD Vance or Marco Rubio to win in 2028

        2. Peter Thiel says America's anti-AI backlash is a self-inflicted wound

  2. Executive Chairs

    1. Bob Chapek Is So Not Over Getting Fired From Disney

      1. Chapek recounts an exchange with Iger — who is mentioned 121 times in the book— years before the CEO changeover. The two were talking about the role of Disney’s chief executive officer, and Chapek remarked, “No one is bigger than the company.” To Chapek’s surprise, Iger responded, “You know, that may be true of other CEOs, but I like to think that I’m a little different.”

      2. “From the moment he announced my appointment, he clearly regretted it and seemed to initiate a relentless three-year campaign to push me out,” he writes. “From day one as CEO, I had respected the board’s decision to have him remain as executive chairman, directing creative endeavors and overseeing the transition until late 2021. I’d always made it clear I had big shoes to fill. But I’d never expected to endure a drawn-out, purposeful undoing of my leadership.”

        1. By our count, there are 318 Executive Chairs in the US (excluding family run companies)

          1. 135 of them are not totalitarian

        2. The biggies:

          1. APPLE INC.

          2. THE COCA-COLA COMPANY

        3. The one with the biggest gap between the executive chair and the ceo:

          1. THE KROGER CO. - the chair has 26% more influence

        4. The one you will read about in a future autobiography titled “My Time As a Fake CEO”

          1. Michael Fiddelke, Target (6% less influence than dumpster fire Brian Cornell)

  3. Governance hijackers

    1. Florida AG files shareholder petition against The New York Times over corporate governance

      1. NOT corporate governance - they are filing it at a dual class company because they report in their filings that their “reputation” is important and they retracted a story about Palestinians, so it’s a political stunt using company filings - where is Paul Atkins???

    2. Microsoft Agrees to Preserve Shareholder Proposal Rights Through 2027 - National Legal And Policy Center

  4. Bonus: UN passes first declaration on sea level rise, protecting island nations’ sovereignty

    1. At last!  A declaration!


Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

  1. DR: Scientists Claim That Three Minutes With a “Donkey or Small Horse” Can Save Teenagers From Depression

  2. MM: The Video Game Industry Is Brutal. Now It’s Unionizing.

Blowhardiest of the Week

  1. DR: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says That Sacrificing Our Children’s Minds to AI Is a Price He’s Willing to Pay

    1. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says There’s a “0% Chance” A.I. Ends the World by 2030

  2. MM: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says That Sacrificing Our Children’s Minds to AI Is a Price He’s Willing to Pay

    1. “There are a lot of skills that don’t matter,” he said. “My first confession, I actually don’t know my address… one day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.”

Headliniest of the Week

  1. DR: Kraft Heinz is launching a mac and cheese-flavored cream soda

  2. MM: Tesla N-Word Racism Trial: Lawyer Calls Slur a 'Term of Respect and Endearment'

Who Won the Week?

  1. DR: People who love big budget crappy movies produced by nepobabies

  2. MM: The N word, which is now a term of endearment

Predictions

  1. DR: The SEC allows CEOs to serve in the combined roles of CEO/Chair/Lead Independent Director because of shrill ESG analysts.

  2. MM: The c-word becomes a “medical adjective to describe both genitals and people you may someday want to embrace”, the f-word used to describe gay people is rebranded “just a synonym of fabulous”


Matt Moscardi
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Paul Atkins hates you (a Shareholder Primacy crossover)