missedthecue (u/missedthecue)

missedthecue commented on Spending too much time at airports thezvi.substack.com/p/spe... · Posted by u/nsoonhui

Google Flights search is irredeemably broken for long international business-class flights, and I've tried a few times over the years to get someone there to give a shit, and they will not.

Example: You search for a flight from YWG to BKK in business, and it wants to route you YWG-YVR-KIX-BKK, which is basically fine. The flight time from YWG-YVR is under 3 hours, so it'll show you fares where that leg is in Economy, but YVR-KIX is in business, which is also, fundamentally, fine, although it would be nice to filter that. A short hop being Economy to get you on to the long leg in Business is usually acceptable. HOWEVER, it will ALSO show you fares where KIX-BKK (a 6 hour flight) are in Economy, and it won't allow you to filter this, so this messes up any ability to sensibly filter flights by price. If I am searching for a flight in Business, please allow me to filter out ones where *9 hours* of that flight is actually in Economy.</rant>

missedthecue · a day ago

I imagine you could quickly build your own browser extension that parses all visible segments and hides cards where any individual leg exceeds your economy/business threshold. I successfully vibe coded a solution to a different Google flights problem in about 10 minutes.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

_DeadFred_ · 3 days ago

You realize minimum wage workers have to meet metrics, right? So he should be paid more for... doing the job like minimum wage workers do?

missedthecue · 3 days ago

yes I realize that, I worked a minimum wage job for a long time. The CEO has daily job requirements to meet too, and for that the Starbucks CEO receives a cash salary of about $5m a year. This publication should use that for the ratio, rather than pulling forward the next three years of RSUs that only vest if he hits extremely broad strategy dependent goals that can easily be sunk because of a pandemic or general economic recession.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

ninkendo · 4 days ago

> The fundamental purpose of a buyback is not to raise the stock price.

Make up whatever nonsense you want about the “fundamental purpose” of something, it doesn’t matter. The purpose of a system is what it does:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_w...

Stock buybacks increase share price. There’s no reason to look any farther than that. The purpose of stock buybacks is what stock buybacks do.

missedthecue · 4 days ago

They reduce sharecount. Not all buybacks increase share price. I can give you a thousand examples of massive buybacks that happened before the stock dropped considerably. But all reduce sharecount.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

conradev · 4 days ago

  Fundamentally this is the corporation saying it doesn't have a market-beating way to reinvest this capital

Isn’t that the crux of it, though? Running a company into the ground by not investing in growth or R&D? We give tax credits to corporations to incentivize R&D spending

missedthecue · 4 days ago

There aren't always infinity positive return ideas to invest in. Sometimes there really aren't any. Garrett Motion is a company that manufactures turbochargers and sells them to the big three automakers. It's a decently steady and profitable business but it's slowly on the way out. EVs don't need turbochargers. They have a small R&D division looking into EV inverters, and they'll continue to make turbochargers for non-auto applications, but for the most point, they are a melting ice cube and their CEO tells you this in plain terms on earnings calls.

But their stock is priced like it too, so they are plowing most of their free cash flow into buying back shares, and it more than offsets the melt. The result? Their shares are steady and up about 95% over the past 5 years despite overall revenue decline across this period.

Sure, you could have this sleepy turbocharger factory start investing in real estate, or get into uranium mining, or begin trying to write and sell cloud computing software. But their strategy is to keep making a good product and regularly eat up stock to overcome declining earnings per share, and it's working rather nicely.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

NoahZuniga · 4 days ago

capital gains tax (selling for a higher price) is lower than income tax (getting dividends)

missedthecue · 4 days ago

Unless you're day trading, dividends are generally taxed at capital gains rates for most publicly traded companies in America (REITs and K-1 partnerships get worse tax treatment at the point of distribution). You don't even need to hold it for a year. Could be different in other nations.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

simoncion · 4 days ago

So, I'm not sure what your claim is. Is it something like "bonus pay is totally incomparable to regular wage pay and does not enter your bank account"? That's the most charitable interpretation I can make out of

> ...awarding him a pile of [RSUs] if he hits certain metrics is not pay, is not comparable to W2 income, does not hit his bank account...

missedthecue · 4 days ago

Performance pay that requires you to hit multiple metrics over a number of years, metrics you may or may not hit, due to unpredictable factors within and outside of your control, is not comparable to guaranteed wage income in a single year.

That's my point. Their CEO has a W-2 salary and cash bonus. It is about $5m a year. They should use that. We all know the reason they pull forward the next 3 years of maybe money and compare it against a part-time barista's single year pay. Because it juices the ratio and makes for a more outrageous headline. But it's dishonest. Starbucks CEO is not paid $98m per annum.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

mullingitover · 4 days ago

> buybacks raise the stock price and those gains aren't taxable until you sell

They temporarily raise the stock price for the people who are the counterparties to the stock purchase, but isn't that also creating a taxable event for them?

Once the buyback is done, what's keeping that share price from sliding right back down to earth? The shareholders who support the company and hold watch a group who bet against the company by selling shares reap a profit, in a tax advantaged way, while their own dividends are effectively stolen. The buybacks are actually a crap deal for anyone who is a responsible buy and hold investor.

missedthecue · 4 days ago

The dividends aren't stolen. A company with 1m shares outstanding buys back 100k of them. Now there are 900k shares outstanding. All long term shareholders who support the company own an extra 10% of the firm with nothing out of pocket. Imagine steady buybacks at reasonable prices over a long period of time... this has an incredible effect.

Warren Buffett bought a couple percent of American Express, and now owns 22% of the company despite not buying a share in decades. It really becomes apparent over time. American Express just carefully repurchased shares over the years and Buffett's stake became greater and greater.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

necubi · 4 days ago

Buybacks are just a more tax-efficient way to issue dividends to shareholders (dividend issuance is a taxable event and at short-term rates, buybacks raise the stock price and those gains aren't taxable until you sell, at which point it may be long-term cap gains).

It's reasonable to be upset about the fact that this is arguably a tax dodge! But all of the other criticism of buybacks apply equally to dividends which no one seems to get upset about. Fundamentally this is the corporation saying it doesn't have a market-beating way to reinvest this capital, and it's giving the money back to its owners to more productively invest.

missedthecue · 4 days ago

But the buyback involves buying from sellers. Why don't the sellers of the shares owe tax? Don't see how that's a tax-dodge.

The fundamental purpose of a buyback is not to raise the stock price. The purpose of a buyback is to reduce the amount of outstanding shares, which makes every existing owner own an increased percentage. If a company buys back 10% of its stock, each long term shareholder now owns 10% more of the company. Over the long term, steady buybacks increase shareholder value this way, but the purpose of it isn't to slam the order book and juice the price. That's counterproductive, because you'll buy fewer shares at higher prices, and within a trading day, the market will push the price back to normal anyway.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

simoncion · 4 days ago

> ...awarding him a pile of stock options if he hits certain metrics is not pay, is not comparable to W2 income, does not hit his bank account...

Are you certain that they are options, and not RSUs? The bonus plan described in the SEC filing [0] seems to indicate that the stock offered is not options.

My RSUs absolutely counted as wages once they vested, and I was absolutely able to turn them into cash in my bank account (as would have been the case with stock options that were worth something).

[0] <https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/829224/0001193125242...>

missedthecue · 4 days ago

Good question. Options was casual nomenclature. He received PSRUs, which are Performance-based Restricted Stock Units. For him they vest through 2027 depending on if his hits the metrics or not. Failure to hit means no vesting at all.

Some of his metrics are about store renovations, revamping the rewards program, and hitting some internal financial operating ratios, and a couple other things.

missedthecue commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs

nielsbot · 4 days ago

> Sure, bids hitting the orderbook theoretically keeps a stock price higher

QED: manipulation

> failing companies can keep their stock price high over the long term with buybacks

This assumes they care about the long term.

missedthecue · 4 days ago

Am I manipulating a stock when I place a limit buy order? I don't even publicly announce it months beforehand like corporations do.