Morning Brew Daily - Corporate America Done with DEI? & $20K EV That Could Ruin Tesla

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

Episode 399: Neal and Toby discuss Ford announcing its plan to step back from DEI initiatives, which is the latest in a wave of large corporations in America following suit. Then, a listeria outbreak from Boar’s Head deli meat reveals horrific conditions at one of its plants. Next, Xpeng’s budget-friendly electric vehicle is the stock of the week and Dollar General’s struggling sales makes it the dog of the week. Also, gallons of corn sweat is making the hot much hotter in the midwest. Meanwhile, a growing number of apps are trying to combat loneliness in America by connecting strangers together for dinner parties. Lastly, College football season is back with some major changes that may leave some heads spinning. Visit https://www.massmutual.com/ for all your financial planning needs Get your Morning Brew Daily T-Shirt HERE: https://shop.morningbrew.com/products/morning-brew-radio-t-shirt?_pos=1&_sid=6b0bc409d&_ss=r&variant=45353879044316  Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://link.chtbl.com/MBD Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow 00:00 - What to watch on an airplane  03:00 - Companies Scrapping DEI  07:30 - Boars Head Recall  10:40- Stock of the week  12:50 - Dog of the week  15:45 - Corn Sweat  19:10 - Friendly Apps 23:00 - College Football is back  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Good morning, Brew, Daily Show. Neil Fryman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, DEI is DOA, why so many companies are rolling back their diversity initiatives. Then, sweaty corn might be the reason you're feeling extra hot to go this summer. It's Friday, August 30th. Let's ride. Happy Friday, everyone. The long weekend is so, so, so, so close. Toby already left me in New York. He's recording the pod remotely in Michigan. Dude, I got to say, you've been on a plane pretty much every single week. weekend this summer. And the people want to know what movies do you watch on a plane? Because a plane movie is very different than a couch movie. Absolutely. And I have a couple of rules that I abide

by. First of all, it has to be bad. If it's above 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, I am out. That rule comes from the first time I watched Parasite on a small plane movie screen. Completely ruined the experience for me. The second rule, it has to be action. I'm looking to just turn my monkey brain off and just zone out to enjoy things that go boom. And then the third and final rule is that you can never leave yourself time to actually finish the movie. So I have no idea how the end of the new Planet of the Apes movie ends. Godzilla versus Kong, Pacific Rim. I don't want to know either. I need to be deborting, de-plaining as the ending is coming into part. Those are my three big rules for playing movies. Those are good rules to follow. Mine is I want to cry.

I don't normally cry when I watch sad movies here at sea level, but apparently when you're in that cabin, something about the pressure, something about the altitude makes you a little bit more emotional. You're in that new setting. So I'm watching movies to try to get a few tears out. I actually cried during crazy rich Asians, so I totally understand where you're coming from. Now a word from our sponsor, Mass Mutual. Neil, you ever feel like managing your finances is like trying to juggle too many balls at

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You win? Details at yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. The trickle of corporations backtracking on their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, or DEI, has turned into a steady downpour. On Wednesday, Ford became the latest high-profile American company to scrap some DEI initiatives joining Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Lowe's, and the pairing company of Jack Daniels, who made similar announcements in recent weeks. What initiatives are we talking about? For Ford, it said it would no longer work with the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index.

It would open employee resource groups to all groups, not just underrepresented populations, shift corporate sponsorships, and comment less frequently on polarizing issues. Ford CEO Jim Farley wrote in an internal email that we are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs and that the external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve. It is a major shift in tone from after George Floyd was murdered in 2020 when Farley pledged. to lead from the front and fully commit to creating the fair, just an inclusive culture that our employees deserve. Toby, why have we seen such a wave of DEI reversals in just the last few weeks? I mean, it started back with Google and meta kind of setting the tone for Silicon Valley when they started cutting D.I positions. Then Bill Ackman kind of picked up the baton and started using it to crusade against Harvard. And then Governor Ron DeSantis passed this so-called stop woke app.

But really, the guy who has picked up the baton and ran with it is this guy called Robbie Starbuck. He has this conservative-leaning documentarian who got to start making music videos for Snoop, Da, Gucci, Maine, A-Con. But has since shifted over to targeting corporate DIY policies. He's got about half a million followers on X. Generally, targets companies that have DEI practices in place, but a more conservative customer base. He then uncovers those DIY practices. A little bit of mob mentality tries to start.

up the internet mob and then takes credit when those companies roll back their promises. Really, what Starbuck is doing, though, is dressing up his argument as one that centers on dollars and cents, looking at the performance of these companies and saying that if these companies were really committed to these policies and if they're making them money, then they wouldn't roll them back as easily as they are. So that's kind of his slant. He's been relatively noisy in the past few weeks because so many of these companies have and actually capitulating to some of the mobs that he stirs up.

There has been a staggering rise and fall in DEI programs just from 2020 to 2024. I mean, in 2020, companies spent $7.5 billion on DEI-related efforts like employee resource groups, things like that, training and supporting pride marches. And then all of a sudden, in the past few years, for a variety of reasons, not just Robbie Starbuck, which we can talk about, they've rolled. them back in a big way on Glassdoor back in 2020, the vacancies for DEI rolls jumped 55%, but now the firms that had posted them are laying off staff in those roles and nearly twice the rate of non-DEI rules. But you can push back and say, is, were DEI practices even hurting

the company's bottom line at all? Because again, you can just look at Wall Street as kind of a proxy for how investors are reacting to these companies rolling back these policies. And most of the stocks have remained unchanged. I mean, you look at Forge stock. It is within 1% of where it started the week. So clearly there wasn't some big celebration or otherwise on Wall Street. Same thing for lows. It's right around up. It's up 2% over the last five days. So maybe it's too soon and maybe we'll see the long-term effects of this. But right now, it looks like Wall Street reacted to this with a shrug. So maybe it goes against what Robbie Starwick has been preaching. Yeah. And the human rights campaign did push back on this.

saying you guys are shooting yourselves in the foot. You are limiting your talent pool. This is a short-term decision that will have long-term consequences. They note that nearly 30% of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ, and they wield $1.4 trillion in spending power. So not welcoming them making employee resource groups available will only hurt you in the long run. So that's their pushback to what's been happening at these various corporations. 57 people have been hospitalized and nine people have died after a Listeria out linked to Boar's Head Deli Meats forced the company into recalling millions of pounds of its product. The issues with the contaminated meats are linked back to a plant in Jarrett, Virginia, where USDA reports paint a

harrowing picture of health violations. Inspectors found mold, mildew, and insects throughout the site. In February, one official saw, quote, ample amounts of blood in puddles on the floor and encountered a rancid smell throughout a cooler used at the plant. Another report described a green algal growth in condensation that was found to be dripping over product being held. Right now, the CDC is advising consumers to check their fridges for any recalled products. They say to look out for any meat labeled EST 12612 or P-2-2-612 on the USDA inspection mark and to remember that some of these products can have a long shelf life. But Neil, this factory was very badly mismanaged. And reading through the USDA reports over the last year, it is not for the faint of heart.

It is absolutely nightmare fuel. I have a few more quotes from the USDA inspectors who were feeling a little inspired when they were writing these. One of them said heavy discolored meat buildup was found on the pump itself, the inside covering, and built on the floor. Small flying gnat-like insects were observed crawling on the walls and flying around the rooms. And then meanwhile, the room's walls had heavy meat buildup. Do not want to hear the phrase heavy meat build up from the place that's making your deli meat. They've recalled now 71 different products. So they've halted operations wherever this heavy meat buildup is taking place at this Jarrett, Virginia facility. It started when they uncovered Listeria in Liverworth, just a single product. They recalled that. And then a few days later, they did more inspecting. This was just a few weeks ago. And they found that it was contaminated in a lot of different products that go to wholesalers, like people, you know, the bodegas that

slice your deli meat, and also to retail shelves as well. So this is a widespread outbreak. It is the biggest one since there was a Listeria outbreak for Canylope in 2011. The problem is this thing is only manifests in your body like weeks ahead of time. So we could see more illnesses due to this because it sometimes can take up to 10 weeks to show up in your body. And part of the reason why Listeria is such just a difficult bacteria to deal. deal with is that it lives in like the little cracks, the crevices, the hard to clean places in food processing plants. It can live on the slicers that slice the meats. And it's just a germ that is hard to kill. It can survive in biofilms, which are those thin, slimy collections

of bacteria that are just hard to fully get rid of. So I think Borchhead made the correct decision to just shut down all operations of that plant. It's also just a tough look for Borgeshead, too, because it's a brand traditionally associated with quality. But the size and scope with this recall, the infection reaching 18 states. It's going to be very hard for them to kind of repair their name after this. Welcome to Stock of the Week, Dog of the Week, the best segment of Morning Brew Daily, because it means the weekend is just hours away. In a few moments, Toby and I will share one stock that's Soren, Flyen, and another that is

free falling. I won the pre-show, name 100 of the most random baseball players as fast as possible competition, so I get to go first. and my stock is one of the leading Chinese electric vehicle makers, X-Peng. Yeah, probably wasn't expecting that. We're full of surprises, but it is a worthy honor. Ex-Peng's depository shares in the U.S. shot up more than 12% this week after it launched a shot across the bow of Tesla,

a low-priced, mass market electric vehicle with self-driving features. The entry-level Mona M-03 hatchback costs $17,000, just over half of the Model 3's cost in China. China is the largest EV market in the world and key to Tesla's success. It, along with pretty much every other automaker, has had to cut prices in the country over the past year to stay competitive in this cutthroat dog-e-dog world. That X-Pang, which had been known for its pricier cars, is launching a super cheap vehicle, only adds pressure to Tesla to counter with theirs. As far as the Chinese auto market is concerned, Warren Buffett back to B.YD is still number one by a long shot. Remember, it briefly passed Tesla as the top EV seller in the world last year.

But X-Bang is looking to grab more market share and infusing self-driving features like automatic parking to a lower-priced car is a recipe for success. Its stock was also pushed up this week when its CEO bought 2 million shares indicating he was bullish on the future. I mean, if I am Tesla, I am shaking in my boots a little bit here because Tesla's cheapest car in China retails for around $31,000. Mona is coming in at that 17,000. China just, or Tesla simply can't compete with that price.

They've been trying to lower prices. And then just to make matters just to rub salt in the wound, X-Pang has also revealed its second-generation humanoid robot that they think is coming by October. So they're literally going after every piece of Tesla's business in saying like, hey, we can do it better, we can do it cheaper. So just a tough and very competitive landscape for Tesla over in China, right now. My dog of the week is Dollar General. Dollar stores typically do well when customers are looking for a refuge from higher prices, but yesterday Dollar General reported earnings and said it

is failing to appeal to, quote, financially constrained consumers. So people are feeling financially pinched. They just aren't going to Dollar General. Same store sales rose only 0.5% well short of its own expectations. And then Dollar General cited a number of reasons for the tepid performance, higher discounts, more inventory damage, too many sales of low margin food and drink products and theft among them. But really, it's big box retailers like Target and Walmart who have cut prices in recent months and are eating Dollar General's lunch as a result. Neal's shares were down as much as 32% yesterday. $8 billion was a raise from its market cap. Not pretty. Not pretty. And you're right. This is just Walmart crushing them. I mean, CEO Todd Vassos

of Dollar General said, I would tell you that, what we saw is the guys down in Bentonville, that's Walmart in Arkansas, are doing a pretty nice job in gardening the available on traffic that's out there from other retailers. And by other retailers, he means my retailer. So this is a horrible day for Dollar General. It's worst stock performance ever in a single day. And it's just further evidence that lower incomes, lower income consumers are being pinched and switching to those necessary need to have items and not buying as much as those discretionary want to have items. The consumables category for Dollar General was the only category that was up in sales last

quarter. Seasonal home products, apparel sales were all down 2%, 7%, and 1.3% respectively. So it's further fuel to the fire to show that the lower income consumer is being pinched in this era of high interest rates. And Dollar General probably can't wait for Jerome Powell to start lowering interest rates. Up next, you got to. get to learn about corn sweat. It's time to refresh your yard

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One, hard nose football, two, Culver's Butterburgers and three, corn sweat. Yes, corn sweat is a phenomenon that meteorologists and climatologists from Nebraska to Iowa are well aware of. It's the colloquial term for the big spike in humidity that corn plants cause from cooling themselves in the late summer months. Corn plants move water from the soil throughout its leaves that eventually releases it as water vapor through the leaves stomata, haven't heard that since eighth grade biology, in a process known as evaportranspiration. This release of moisture leads to elevated humidity

levels in the surrounding air, and the effect has only grown more dramatic as of late, partly because farmers are planting a lot more corn these days to meet growing demand for ethanol, but also because increasingly hotter summers make the corn work even harder to stay cool, leading to greater corn sweat. So if you are in the Midwest right now and feel like you are swimming through the air, blame the corn. What's the matter with you, Toby? You haven't heard that term in a long time? Geez.

No, this week, if you've been in Chicago, Iowa, Illinois, it's been so hot, so humid. There were records broken at O'Hare and other places. And who knew that it had to do, I mean, they know, but we don't on the East Coast here, that it had to do with corn sweat. Iowa's corn crops alone release up to 56 billion gallons. of water into the atmosphere each day, which can add five to 10 degrees to the dew point. In general, studies have shown that 10% of all of the moisture found in the atmosphere is released by pants, plants through transpiration, not to be confused with perspiration, which happens

in humans. So this is a big deal. It is contributing to humidity levels and this record heat we've been seeing in the Midwest this week. And it's very much an education to all of us who don't live around a lot of corn plants every day that they do, not just corn, but soybeans. Every single type of plant gives off humidity, gives off this moisture through evapot transpiration. I think I said that right. And so it's just been an interesting phenomenon to observe. It's only getting more so as ethanol demand increases,

and we plant more corn in this Midwest. It does seem like the concentration of the plants and the monoculture around that is contributing to the spike in humidity levels, because if you have a more varied vegetation base, it doesn't impact it as much as just having acres and acres and acres of corn, all evaportransperating all at once like they did in the late summer this week. Yeah, definitely the push for ethanol and the demand for corn is causing this effect to be even greater because over 40% of corn growing in the U.S. is turned into biofuels. I mean, you might be thinking that a lot of people are just chowling down on corn in the Midwest. No, a lot of it is going to fuels, the global production of

ethanol has just been steadily rising over the last few decades. And when you factor in the fact that one acre of mature corn can reach 3,000 gallons a day, that is why you're seeing this mugginess. That is why you're seeing this increased corn sweat. And I'm just so glad that we and now the listeners of Morning Bree Daily know what corn sweat is now. Final corn stat of the day. There are 90 million acres of corn grown in the U.S. each year. And that is roughly the same size as the state of Montana. So there's a lot of corn in the United States. In 2024, dating apps are so out and friend apps are in. A handful of apps that want to put you in the friend zone and keep you there are spreading across the country to help people combat what

experts have called a loneliness epidemic. One of the most popular of these is called time left. When you sign up to this app, you complete a short questionnaire and its algorithm will match you with a group of six strangers for a dinner. You don't receive any information about them except for their industry they work in and their zodiac sign right before the meal. And then during the meal, time left offers an after-dinner bar spot if you want to keep the awkwardness going. Apps that help you make friends isn't entirely a new concept. Bumble's BFF mode for finding friends has existed for years. But there's definitely been a surge in the market recently as people turn away from using apps for dating.

For Bumble, CEO Liddyane Jones said fostering platonic bonds is core to the company's future business. Toby, people are lonely, it's hard to make friends in your 20s and 30s. Are these apps the answer? I don't know if they're the answer, but clearly the market is crying out for something like this because a 2023 from Pew Research found that urban Americans in particular are less likely to feel like they have local connections compared to the suburbs or rural areas. It's because cities are transient places. People come and go a lot.

Remote work is still a thing. It's harder to make friends. It's easy to feel isolated. So, of course, there's an app for that. And you can debate whether this is the correct way of going about it, that monetizing through friend dinners and selling subscriptions to people who are feeling lonely is the best way to go about it. But people have responded positively. If you get a good group, then it can really feel like it is just a natural dinner out

with friends. The big thing that people said is helpful is just the scheduling aspect of it. It is hard to get a new group of people together. But if you go through this app that facilitates that aspect for you, then people are loving it. So I'm, I like it. Like people are, people need to make friends. Sometimes you don't want to go join a kickball team. Sometimes you just want to have dinner with people that from are different parts of walks of life. So I think people are enjoying these, these friend apps. It does seem like in general, people respond well. Of course, you could get a clunker, but there's

certain types of groups of people who may, you know, may flock to these apps more than others. There's those who are single in their 30s and all their friends have children. It seems like that is a large population who would be, you know, amenable to these apps. There are people living in new cities, like you said. These cities are transient. So people who come in and out, you just move to Seattle. You just move to Dallas. You don't really know anyone.

You know, maybe this app is for you to start meeting people outside of work. There are people who are going through breakups and don't really want to talk to anyone in that particular social circle as well. But this company is kind of huge. Time left that's organizing the dinner. They are now in, they started in, Portugal just last year, and now they're in 49 countries and 185 cities. So this is not just a United States phenomenon. This is happening all over the world for people who are struggling

to make friends. You know, you could debate whether adding more tech to the problem, which may have caused it in the first place, is the answer to that. So, you know, we had such a very heated debate in the morning brew office yesterday about whether this was good or bad these apps. I mean, people were at each other's throats. Some saying it's just a band-aid to the loneliness epidemic, others countering that anything that pushes people to hang out with each other in real life is a positive. But for apps like Bumble and Time Left, this is a big business. I am curious, listeners, if you go on one of these Time Left dates, please write us in and tell us about it. We are curious what your experience is, because I want to know if people are on this

bandwagon. It's Friday, which means 30 racks are being purchased, group texts are being sent, and jerseys are being laid out because the next few days are chock full of college football. And what a season it's going to be. Name, image, and likeness deals have taken over the sport. The era of super conferences is coming with the SEC and Big Ten, hoovering up teams left and right. And an expanded 12-team playoff is waiting at the end of the year. These changes mean you are probably getting the most transparently money-driven version of college football we have ever seen. There is no more phony pretense of amateurism.

The money is here and it is everywhere, Neil. You are so right. I couldn't have said it better. I mean, the most prevalent example of this is that Oklahoma State is now putting QR codes on their helmets linking to a donation page for the school's name, image, and likeness fund. People are calling it essentially a tip jar for athletes. And you can scan this on when you're watching on TV. You can't really do anything when you're at the stadium.

But say you're at a bar and some Oklahoma State running back just pulls off a 95-yard touchdown run. You're like, hell yeah, I love Oklahoma State. Now you can scan the QR code on the back of his helmet and donate to the NIL fund. This is just the most blatant example of schools ditching this amateurism model and focusing on how can we make as much money as possible for our athletic program, for our football program, so we can lure more. more athletes, more football players to our program in the future. That is just kind of egregious. It is crazy. I actually love the virtual tip chart because, like, say that player wins you the bet.

Send them a little extra love. But yes, college football is definitely descending into the haves versus have-nots category. It's going to feel really weird this season because remember, Texas and Oklahoma are in the SEC now. Somehow Stanford, California, SMU are in the ACC. The Big Ten added. Atlantic Coast Conference. Yeah, it is geography be damned at this point. Travel be damned. Really, they're just going where the money takes them. I'm also interested in some of these NIL deals that are coming out.

One of my favorite ones that I've seen is that Chipotle and Ohio State struck an NIL deal together where they're giving every single OSU athlete, not just football players, every athlete at the school walk-ons, all sports teams, get one free entree a week at Chipotle. I went to college at such the wrong time because you're telling me I could have gotten the scraps of what college football players were bringing in. They say Ohio State's one of the biggest Deppoly eating campuses in the country. I'd love to see that rankings list. But yes, we're seeing these NIL deals pour in. There's so much money coming in the sport. And it's just going to be the start of a new era of college football. Yeah. And a 12-team playoff that's going to run from December 20th to January 20th.

So you're going to see so much TV, so much college football on TV going against the. NFL, and it's going to make a ton of money for the NCAA and these schools. One final note, Toby is a free agent when it comes to college football. He doesn't have a team. So, listeners, if you have an idea for a team for Toby, maybe it's your school, maybe it's the one you grew up with, definitely send a tweet to him, DM him, or send an email, letting them know and making your pitch to get him on your team's bandwagon. The more impassioned and dramatic it is, the more likely I am.

to choose your school. So let's hear it. All right. Let's wrap it up there. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful Friday and a great long weekend. You know, Labor Day doesn't get a lot of love as a three-day weekend. Maybe it means the summer's over, but I think it's a pretty good one. If you're just twiddling your thumbs over the weekend, open up your laptop and send an email with any feedback or comments or schools that Toby should

root for for college football on the show to Morningbrewdaily at morningbrew.com. and you might find yourself around a bunch of new people this weekend. What better way to break the ice than by telling them about Morning Brew Daily. Toby, do you have a script for them to follow? Oh, the script is easy. First things first say, good Morning Brew Daily show. And if they look at you like you're crazy, you're on the right track. But seriously, the best way to get people to listen to the pod is just drop little nuggets of wisdom all weekend.

A Neal's number here, Toby's trend there. Be that guy or gal who is always in the know. Then toss in a little recommendation for the pod, if it's a little. it feels natural. Great advice. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Lou is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Yuchinawa Ogu is our technical director. Billy Minino is on audio. Hair and makeup is drenched in corn sweat. Devin Emery is our chief content officer and our show is a production of Bourning Brew. Great show today, Neil. I wish you all well. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill? Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile

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