Kara Swisher · 21:35
Happy returns and any other company that is disrupting this archaic industry. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Renzo. Alright. I'm going on here, Scott. You know, I had a FedEx issue this
Scott Galloway · 21:46
week. Here we go. Here we go. I saw this. I saw this on Twitter.
Kara Swisher · 21:50
Oh my god.
Scott Galloway · 21:51
Go ahead.
Kara Swisher · 21:51
They suck.
Scott Galloway · 21:52
What happened, Brad?
Kara Swisher · 21:52
Let me just say, Fred Smith. I... You know, I'm glad you're getting no taxes, but whatever. But let me just tell you, it was such a a lesson. I had something delivered from Amazon and something delivered from FedEx, and I had made a change of it. I'm not gonna go into it in detail, but I paid to have the address moved to where I was at Thanksgiving. I paid a lot of money to do that, and they didn't deliver it on time when they were supposed to. You know, when it absolutely positively has to be there overnight, well, they didn't do that. Right. And they promised it would be there a certain time. And then on the app, they said it was gonna be there, and then it wasn't there. And then they suddenly changed the time without telling me or contacting me or anything else. This was very important papers. And and then trying to get through to them. I was on the phone for hours with FedEx arguing. I tweeted at them. You know, I had Bill Garley tweet me saying I was trying to be famous. Help me. I wasn't trying to help me. I paid money. I would like to know what happened to it. I think I think Twitter has become a comment system. It was an astonishing display of of, like, total disaster. Meanwhile, Amazon delivered something perfectly. And then I had to return that thing because it wasn't the right thing. And I already sent it off today. I did it all online, all on the app. It was so easy, and it was no questions. It was easy to understand. FedEx, they were literally like, if you want a refund, you have to go to our refund department. We can't stop it because it's in a container, and we can't turn it around. You can't... It was like, literally, they're gonna get killed by by Amazon if Amazon decides just to go into the logistics business. Thank you very much. That is my rant. Scott?
Scott Galloway · 23:19
Okay. You're about to have your revenge because Amazon... Well, Amazon's going into this business. And all you need to do is look at S1s under the investment section for about ten years, they talked about how much money they spent on fulfillment. And then a few years ago, they moved their verbiage and investment disclosures from the investment section and the CapEx section to competition section. And that is they're now saying that FedEx and UPS are competitors.
Kara Swisher · 23:45
Yeah, and DHL.
Scott Galloway · 23:45
The same way they did with AWS. So they're about to go into this business in a big way. FedEx made the mistake of becoming a profitable company and returning profits to the company. The other big mistake that FedEx made, what I would argue is it's similar to General Electric rather than focusing the CEO's attention on operations and innovation, he's been totally focused on tax avoidance. And if you look at, I mean, it looks as if the Trump Tax Act reduced corporate taxes from 35 to 21% was largely orchestrated by Fred Smith and FedEx under the auspices that if you let companies hold on to more of their money, even despite the fact that it's gonna increase the deficit by a trillion dollars a year, that you will unleash this massive amount of investment in plant, property, equipment, new jobs that will literally result in a nuclear like explosion
Kara Swisher · 24:38
of
Scott Galloway · 24:38
pent up demand and investment from corporations. And this is what happened. Every company took that money and bought back stock.
Kara Swisher · 24:48
Or paid their stock to the market or whatever.
Scott Galloway · 24:51
But took the stocks up, which has a ripple effect. It's good. They can do things with that stock, but 80% of the stock is owned by the top 10%. All this was a chaser on income inequality. Even FedEx did exactly that. They went out, they didn't increase their CapEx. So this, and what have we done here at the end of the day with this Fred Smith backed tax plan is we've said, all right, let's pull prosperity forward from our kids and grandkids in the form of exploiting our national debt, so we can take stocks up, which largely benefit the wealthy. I mean, like every policy in America, like every corporate lobbyist, it does one thing. It takes money from every cohort in America and transfers it to the wealthiest cohort in history, old people in America who own shares
Kara Swisher · 25:39
of houses. People in America. Do about
Scott Galloway · 25:42
trying to make those people richer.
Kara Swisher · 25:43
Speaking of of someone who is an older entrepreneur, Fred Smith, who really did pioneer this area, is literally the app is terrible. Their customer service is terrible. Like, literally, I felt like I was... I I I I... The the contrast between them and Amazon... And by the way, UPS actually works pretty well comparatively. But the comp... This is such a wide open space to grab back from FedEx. Like, I wouldn't... I would never use FedEx again. Like, astonishingly. Like, I really... Like, the the experience I had was so bad, and it was so noninnovative. Like, you could... They literally was back in ten years ago. I could... I felt like I was with ten years ago with them. So let me just say, I know there's controversy about Amazon and delivery vans, and I I saw them all over, by the way, this week... Weekend everywhere. Amazon vans, Amazon branded vans. They do... They they need to work out their issues around all kinds of too speedy everything else. But, boy, their technology part of their equation is is flawless, like, flawless. And one last thing I'll say is, Amanda, who hates Amazon, who I... My girlfriend, is like, I can't stand that it works so well, but it's astonishing. Like, it is... It's an astonishing because she's just for years tried to work... Use local retailers, etcetera, etcetera. So it's in... But in the logistics space, someone's gotta dominate, and it's certainly not gonna be FedEx. Anyway, wins and fa... Fails. Well, that... That's failed to me. But wins and fails, sir. What what are your wins and fails?
Scott Galloway · 27:10
So my win is... Speaking of movies, there's a wonderful new movie called Knives Out starring Daniel Craig of James Bond fame.
Kara Swisher · 27:17
Oh, yes, I heard that
Scott Galloway · 27:19
was And it's nice. The thing that struck me about it was kids can watch it. It's not for young kids, but I took my nine and my 12 year old boys. It's kind of a throwback to the Agatha Christie genre. It's cute, there's not a lot of violence, it's got some wonderful actors. I think Daniel Craig is an underappreciated actor. I think he's been... He's a solid actor.
Kara Swisher · 27:40
He really is.
Scott Galloway · 27:41
He's really... He puts on a southern accent here and he does it flawlessly. Ana de Armas, I think I got her name right, is just wonderful in it. Tony Collette who's the star of my favorite movie in history, The Sixth Sense is in it. Just
Kara Swisher · 27:57
a wonderful movie. A great interview
Scott Galloway · 27:59
in the She New was great.
Kara Swisher · 28:00
She's great.
Scott Galloway · 28:02
She's fantastic.
Kara Swisher · 28:03
So you're doing a movie
Scott Galloway · 28:04
review. Winner is Knives Out.
Kara Swisher · 28:06
Okay. I don't
Scott Galloway · 28:07
know. What's your win?
Kara Swisher · 28:08
I don't have any wins this week. I don't have any wins. I'm mad. I'm also mad about
Scott Galloway · 28:11
What's your fail?
Kara Swisher · 28:12
My fail this week. It's not exactly a fail, but Apple, change... Got a lot of heat for changing map lines to include Crimea in Russia. Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory in 2014 under a lot of controversy. Now Apple is reviewing how it deals with international borders on its maps. And so I think that everyone's gotta think about this mapping thing because it's it's been controversial forever, the idea about maps, but these companies change them when they're operating in those areas. Now to be fair, they're only showing them to Russian viewers, these maps. So they're letting they're letting the lie perpetrate in Russia. So that's... I don't know what to say. They are following the laws of those areas, but at the same time, it's somewhat ridiculous. And then using other maps for other people. So I don't know what I would do. Again, this is another area where these big tech companies, which have taken over mapping, that would essentially be Apple and Google and some others, are really caught in these these bigger social issues. But I I I don't know what I would do. I don't know if it's a fail, but it's certainly a, god, another big giant issue for for Apple and others and Facebook and others. So I would say that was my fail.
Scott Galloway · 29:23
Yeah. But it's like if they... If if Apple's identified Senator, I think it's John Kennedy, the senator from as being a useful idiot and an agent of the KGB, that would be disappointing but accurate. And the way I see this is that was a bit of a dig and a joke. The way I would see, just in case anyone hasn't seen, Senator Kennedy has now decided to basically propagate a lie that has been fueled by the Russian government that the Ukrainians meddled in our, election such that to conflate it and somehow create this false comparison between Ukrainian and Russian interference to to lessen the pressure on on the president's criminality.
Kara Swisher · 30:04
Agreed. Agreed. But speaking of senator Kennedy, that guy that guy is a Russian plant or an asset. I don't know what he is or a useful idiot. He's not an idiot, by the way. I've heard from lots of people. He's quite clever. I... More of a fail in that regard is is is to meet the press for letting him... Bringing him on the show when they... And not being prepared for that lie to cut him off. Like, that was the worst... Everyone's like, oh, he tried.
Scott Galloway · 30:29
I thought Chuck... I thought I thought Chuck talked... Did go after him. I thought
Kara Swisher · 30:32
Chuck talked No. Because this guy had done it before. You do not let him repeat lies over and over again. And it doesn't matter how much you challenge him. You just don't... You cut off the mic in that case. I cut him off.
Scott Galloway · 30:43
I'm sorry. A US senator. I don't know you wanna see
Kara Swisher · 30:46
I don't care.
Scott Galloway · 30:46
You're lying. If you wanna see
Kara Swisher · 30:47
You're a Russian plant. Sorry. No.
Scott Galloway · 30:49
Come on. If you wanna see interviews for dummies, did you see she had the garage and she has five kids.
Kara Swisher · 31:08
Yeah. They just got kids.
Scott Galloway · 31:08
I thought at some point, Leslie Stahl was gonna say, can you show me how to use this microwave to heat up my soup? It was literally like
Kara Swisher · 31:16
It wasn't. Okay. You know, Susan did her job. Susan did her job. That's all.
Scott Galloway · 31:20
Oh, they got played. Sixty minutes, den the nation, as always got played by the 1,100 person corporate communications department and a very likable Susan would just say.
Kara Swisher · 31:29
She is very likable. She is very likable, and she did her job. I'm not gonna fault her for doing... To doing that interview. I think she did a good
Scott Galloway · 31:36
job. Alright.
Kara Swisher · 31:36
My fail. Tessie. Your fail quick because we gotta get to predictions and get out of here.
Scott Galloway · 31:41
Yeah. I know. You're going to get a pedicure with Nancy Pelosi or something. So my fear is is, and there was a great article in the New York Times about this, but I think we're studying to the wrong test. I think we're talking about the wrong numbers, the Dow, unemployment. And the New York Times had this incredible article called Deaths of Despair. And this plays into my favorite thing, MacArthur Brooks. But for the first time in our history, our life expectancy is down three years in a row.
Kara Swisher · 32:08
Yes, I saw that.
Scott Galloway · 32:09
And no one ever talks about that. Our life expectancy is now kind of rivals Cuba and that's not a good thing. And people blame or immediately think, people are dying sooner. And it's not that, people are living longer, it's as if there's more deaths, unnatural deaths between the ages of 25 and 60 than ever before. And they're largely alcohol, opioids and also suicide, which has skyrocketed. And I wonder how much of it we're gonna find as a combination of income inequality, incredible frustration and anxiety because of for the first time in our nation's history, a 30 year old is not doing as well as his parents. And what I've discovered because I coach a lot of young men is that it's as hard on the parents as it is on the kids when the kids aren't doing well. And I think the shame people are feeling, I think the embarrassment and also not only the income inequality, but this kind of this gestalt we have in our society now where everyone's convinced that because we're a meritocracy, because you're constantly having success thrown in your face, that if you aren't successful, if you aren't part of the Google, Instagram economy, it's your fault, you fucked up. So I think there's just so much shame, there's so much frustration, there's so much inequality that leads to these deaths of despair. And the question I would ask at the next presidential debate is what are you gonna do to stop, to reverse the life expectancy decline? Hope. What's the point of all of this?
Kara Swisher · 33:40
A town called Hope. We don't have hope.
Scott Galloway · 33:42
Anyway, so my losses again, I think we continue to study to the wrong test. I think these deaths of despair and the amount of anxiety and pain from loneliness, from shame, from economic anxiety is such a failure of our society. It means that we as a society, it means whatever this is, this experiment is no longer working as well as it used to.
— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 34:03
Well, we should use those statistics, be aware of them. A friend of mine was an artist and she did, she put a heat, camera on the Golden Gate Bridge to show how many more suicides were happening than people thought there at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an art installation. And she thought we should have a a national suicide number so that people... Rather than, you know, any of the other numbers we use to decide what success is. I thought that was a really interesting, it was many, many years ago. Was interesting, but I think you're a 100% right. I'm gonna have to cut you off unfortunately, and make you feel despairing, But, what is your prediction? Your very quick prediction of maybe spending this time of year to make us feel better about our despairing lives. Where... What is your prediction this week, Scott Galloway?
Scott Galloway · 34:45
My prediction is Twitter goes below $25 a share and an activist steps in.
Kara Swisher · 34:49
Okay. All right. What activist is that? That's right. They don't have dual stock as I wrote about.
Scott Galloway · 34:54
That's right.
Kara Swisher · 34:54
They do not have dual stock. So that is that is a ripe. They've been around. They've been around the basket before. I've I've heard from lots of these people a couple of years You've
Scott Galloway · 35:03
got a media platform that's trading at a old media like multiple. You've got a CEO who's the CEO of another company who's deciding to go hang out in Africa for three months. And you have a platform that has become a national iconic means of communication and governing because we have a very strange president. This is just incredibly ripe for an activist. So 2020 look for a Dan Loeb, a Jana Partners, look for an activist to come in.
Kara Swisher · 35:30
Loeb is perfect. Loeb was very
Scott Galloway · 35:32
attuned to run at Twitter.
Kara Swisher · 35:34
Interesting. Alright, Scott. That's a really good prediction. Oh my. You veer from being crazy to being so wise. It's really... You're like the wise men. You know what I mean? Like
Scott Galloway · 35:43
Thanks. Thanks for saying that.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 35:44
But in any case, it's time for us to go. We'll be back later this week to talk more about this for another episode. Also tweet at us at pivot podcast and email us at pivot@Voxmedia.com. Scott, this has been an exciting time.
Scott Galloway · 35:59
Times a week. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes. Come on. Twice a week.
Kara Swisher · 36:05
Alright. Read read the credits. Get us out of here.
Scott Galloway · 36:07
Stop it. The credits in front of me. I'm totally at home in my studio. You mean
Kara Swisher · 36:11
was produced by Rebecca Sinanis. Eric Anderson is Pivot's executive producer. Thanks also to Rebecca and Drew Burrows. Make sure you're subscribed to the show on Apple Podcasts. If you liked our show, please recommend it to a friend. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
