FEAR & GREED | Business NewsMore tariff battles, the soaring price of gold, unemployment numbers, WiseTech's slap on the wrist for Richard White, and so much more. Sean Aylmer and Michael Thompson go head to head on the top business stories of the week, with Adam Lang picking a winner in a fierce debate.
This is the weekend edition of Fear and Greed, daily business news for people who make their own decisions. Are Michael Thompson and good morning, Sean Aylmer.
Ah, Good morning, Michael.
Sean. You sound like you're fatigued already.
I am fatigued already.
But you won't be when the competition starts, because our weekend show is in fact a competition. It is about the two of us, each nominating what we think is the biggest business story of the week, the most remarkable business story, the mystery category, the changes every single week to keep our judge on his toes, and our favorite business story. We are joined, as I said, by a judge, and that judge is our Fear and Greed colleague, Adam Lange.
Adam, good morning, Hello Michael, and hello Sean.
Hello. I'd just like to say one of my stories today will just prove that you're not much of a judge. But we'll get back.
Have you decided already which one it'll be? Or is that open?
No? No, no no. This story is a little bit about a real judge, Okay, going to compare in a contrast.
Oh wow, shots fired early.
Grumpy today, we did to go fight up.
Remember this, Adam, when you are ruthlessly applying your criteria to Sean. What are you looking for in today's hopefully a better attitude.
Topicality, always, timeliness. We want economic impact, Michael, a little bit to my subjective bias, please, And of course one of your strong suits melodrama.
Are you saying I don't do the economic impact side of thing?
No, you do. It's not a bull's eye every time.
Usually it's an afterthought.
It's got a better script.
And I'll link this back. This matters to the economy, you know, yes, yeah. By the way, anyways, shall we jump on to the biggest story. Let's just get straight into it.
Sure, are you right?
If I go first? Sean? You gave for it, Michael'll go for it because you do sound a little bit a.
Bit myfed today, bit miffed.
I don't know why. It's maybe it's because you have seen the future and have seen the crushing defeat that it is coming for bigger Story of the week, one contender only this week, Adam. The sharp, very sharp collision between Australian politics, our upcoming election, US politics, big farmer, big tech, tariffs, trade wars and something that we hold very dear. Every story I've had this week, Come on, I'm narrowing it down to the collision, the actual moment of which it all came together. Yes, both go on all maybe none, I don't know. It's something also that really kind of headlines this story, something that we hold very dear as Australians, the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. The PBS so backstories this US drug giants for a little while now, it seems have been lobbying Donald Trump, US President, to put a tariff on Australian medical experts, claiming that our PBS, this thing that we love, is an quote egregious and discriminatory program.
What would sorry say that again? Egregious and please don't make me say it.
I was practicing on the way in here going I found a word I can't say, discriminatory, discriminatory, discriminatory. Which one is it? Tory or tree?
True?
Well, either one works.
But just not what I'm time yeah or forehead you know anyway, it is an egregious and program that discriminates against American companies. It is because our government, the Australian government, subsidizes medications that have been approved by a committee. We all know how this works, right, taking the cost of why are you looking at me like that?
I'd like to hear you explain how the PBS work.
It takes the cost of potentially life saving medications down from the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars even to an affordable figure thirty one dollars and sixty cents. And that's going to get even cheaper, even cheaper to the federal election, with the Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi announcing a plan to cut the cost the out of pocket cost to Australians to just twenty five dollars. Peter Dutton, the Opposition leader, came out in support of it immediately. So it is one of those policies that really it's going to happen, right, it's going to happen.
I reckon. This story is about as boring as the PBS policy. You know what, Sean, come on, pick it up, let's go, let's go, let's go.
Okay, that was all context, that was background, But that matters to people. It matters, it really really does.
I agree with that.
However, these discussions and these policies and all of this talk about how good our PBS is that is a red rag to a bull for the US pharmaceutical giants, the drug giants. The prime minister, the Australian Prime minister that is, has said that the PBS will not be part of any future tariff negotiations. But Donald Trump is being lobbied, and he is not just being lobbied. He is being lobbied big time, big time by big Farmer to introduce tariffs on Australia and at the same time, at the same time, right, we've got Elon Musk and we've got the bosses of the big tech companies lobbying Donald Trump to punish Australia. So I can't deal with this when the two of you are staring at me like that, it's the pressure because you know what it is. It is Sean looking at me and I'm just waiting for him to just pick up something that I said.
No, I think this is a big story, right, so you know, if I don't win, I don't win. That's fair enough.
The issue with Adam staring at me is whenever he's staring at you, he's not writing anything down, which means he's zoning out. Yeah, he's gone somewhere else altogether singing Ryanstone Cowboy in his head. Anyway, So we've got we've got the pharmaceutical giants lobbying Donald Trump. We have got now the tech giants Elon Musk as well. So the bosses have kind of X obviously got Mark Zuckerberg. You've probably got the boss of Google and Alphabet the parent company, all kind of lobbying for the same thing, basically to punish Australia for schemes like a news bargaining news media bargaining incentive.
Yes, can I ask a question, and this is not downplaying the story very important. Do you think that what Donald Trump has done in the US has made every country like the EU must be going berserk? So there's the anti trust, well so called anti trust stuff against the big tech companies. Every single big tech company will be in Donald trumpsy you're saying, you know, that's Europeans. It's quite phenomenal what's going on.
And I reckon Australia is at real risk here because everyone's at real risk, especially with Australia in terms of this of the what was originally the news media bargaining code and now the new incentive system that's being talked about here. It is everything that Donald Trump hates, right. It is a foreign government interfering with business and interfering with American business. And it's just like it feels as though it has kind of warning all over it. So we've got the pharmaceutical giants lobbying, we've got the big tech giants lobbying. It feels as though Australia is heading for a massive, massive tariff showdown with the US. Getting the PBS involved is something that is going to get a heck of a lot of Australians off side this story. Has it all gone on for too long? No, it's just because it is such a comprehensive, big in punch of stories. It's not a bunch of stories. It's one story, maybe two stories, possibly a third, but really it is the biggest story of the week, Adam. And can you please write down more next time?
Yes?
Can you just hold up just for the camera and we might have to make a video out of it, just to see, Oh you actually have written stuff? Yeah, okay, illegibly. Yeah, that's just I can decide, Adams shorthand.
Let's get off that story, like I'm just going to have a short story everything. Michael said, great story really is interesting. You know, for months we've been talking about it. It's really been interesting it months and months happened this week this week, it's really what. We got an unemployment figure out this week four point one percent, fifty three thousand job losses, very unusual. We didn't expect that. It actually focused us all back on what's happening in the real economy to real people in terms of mortgage rates. And we have been watching Donald Trump from Afar and it's getting closer and not downplaying that story. But this week, this week, we actually got a sense that interest rates probably won't fall until July. Now why do we get that Because we had an unemployment figure which was actually or a labor force figure which is actually pretty weak. The unemployment figure is still pretty good, but the labor force. And no one came out and said, oh, the reserve exit of cut interest rates. In fact, they don't. And markets have got cutting interest rates by July a out of seventy five percent in May. But market economists are not at all sure of that, and so the market is reacting to that. So the mark's reacting to two things at the moment Trump broadly but interest rates and we've sort of taken our eye off the ball on that, and this week we're able to refocus on the biggest story of the week, short, concise, relevant other to you are jump Ski.
Today is the first day that I feel that I may have done myself a disservice by being too verbose.
Talking on today.
Yeah, the first time. Alan, We've been doing the show for five years.
There we go, but Michael went, he does, So this one tears at me. It's not far apart that the numbers on unemployment four point one, right, but people withdrawing from the workforce, that's significant, and obviously there's retirees, new people coming in, but just how much people want to participate, I think that's really interesting. Our productivity levels are shot, so it's a massive story the unemployment figures. But I think this week just how much Donald Trump is affecting Australian politics was made really pertinent again and alban easy and unilaterally across both sides of the House. They're saying, we're not going to accept this all right, so stay out of our pharmaceutical benefits schame. So I think that's actually a massive story it will galvanized Australia.
I'd like to complain, but I probably complain if I won.
Yeah, the mood that you're in at the moment, I feel like it was a universal complaint, just discriminatory, just forget. I was like, I'm just going to nail at this time ago. We can edit that out. It's definitely going to make it in one nil.
One nil surprise. That's the most remarkable story.
Would you like to go first on this one?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Wise Teak Global. Oh, Richard White.
I know that this is a fantastic story, and I'm like, that's gonna be hard to be, hard to be I will do it though.
So what we got this week that's different. We actually got the internal inquiry done by a couple of law firms into Richard White's behavior at wis Tech Global. Now, last year we spent many, many minutes, probably oursscussing Richard Weisse Tech's potential or alleged behavior and these relationships with people in the business and outside the board itself, asked for an independent inquiry into it. What they found out, We really got the partial findings of the board basically said White had made incomplete disclosures concerning the nature and duration of his relationship with an employee. It said White was not fully transparent and candid with investigation. He was misleading about personal matters. Concerning the ending of the relationship, went und to say, mister White entered into a commercial relationship where there were underscores conflicts between the interests of Global and the personal interests of mister White.
Assuming off the back of that he's gone right, you.
Would think so, you would think so. But money talks, and at the end of the day, he has built Richard White has built an incredible company. Had thirty six percent of weisstek started in the nineteen ninety four, up six hundred percent over five years. That wins. But what is remarkable is that that is accepted. Now. Later in the week some of the super funds came out and said, oh, we're going to have that look at this. Assic is going to have a look at that. Really, the guys lie to the board, I mean three directors, the independent directors stepped down as a result, and the best we can do is, look, yeah, shouldn't have done it, but yeah, that's how it guys. I mean, pretty appalling and remarkably appalling for such a large listed ASEX company.
Michael, that's a great story. Why are you being nice to me because we need to talk about gold, Sean, That's why it's being nice to me, because I feel bad for you. Your story was fantastic and on any other week would have won. But the gold, gold, gold, gold, the humble gold. No one ever talks about it. It's finally getting a bit of attention, make its way through history, escaping attention. This week was a It was a remarkable week in the history of gold. It really was. It passed three thousand US dollars an ounce and in doing say.
That right with a bit of sparkle. We need the metodrama, Michael, you haven't brought it today.
No, but what you'd see what I'm doing right now is I started and then I dropped back, and then I was going to build and build and build to a big.
The problem with Michael slow build is it's a very slow build and takes forever.
It doesn't it's actually going to be really short. Okay, you have made it so much longer.
Just that's the case that it was going to be really short.
It done, passing three thousand US dollars an ounce, are you timing me?
Adam?
In doing so? It reflects just how volatile international markets are, and just how nervous investors are rushing to the safe hay and of gold. I just want to put into like I could just leave it there, right and on its own, that story would win. We all accept that, am I? Right?
Oh? Yeah, no, good, excellent, giving up, Adams going, you have to work hard, am I?
All?
Right?
Consider then, when gold has passed other milestones in the past, right, and all of a sudden, you realize how significant the financial situation that we are in at the moment is. Right when it hit the one thousand dollar mark for the first time, it was in March two thousand and eight, right in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Right, investors wanted stability. We know that, right, GFC one thousand dollars. August of twenty twenty, chaos, confusion, pandemic, it hit two thousand US dollars and now in the midst of tariffs from the White House.
Peter Allen today, trade war.
Trade war was a bit of barrinal ongoing conflict in Ukraine, renewed hostilities in the Middle East, we have now hit the three thousand US dollar mark. Three milestones consider those one, two, three, GFC pandemic Trump era, right, and suddenly you don't look at it in isolation. This is not a three thousand US dollar mark milestone in isolation. You look at it in the context of the two previous milestones, and you realize just how significant and remarkable this is. And and it may not be stopping there. The relentless upwards momentum of gold, that poor, understated metal is the most remarkable story of the week by far.
Right.
Adam, I've made an inappropriate amount of eye contact with Sean there at the end of the staring. It's because you weren't looking at me.
Stare at Sean.
Wonderful flourish, Yeah, wonderful flourish. Sean wins.
And the reason for this, right is, gold is a story of incrementalism, and all the points you made, like yes, it's been creeping up, up a minute and up. I think it's amazing that it is, because, as John you pointed out, you don't know anything anything from gold. It doesn't pay dividends, it's just something to hold, and so people's value of it is intriguing to me, but not just the internal inquiry at Wistead Global. For all of the worth of an internal inquiry, I think they're so limited typically in scope and value. But when you've got what it's found and it still says nothing to see here, there's probably two points. One is the report answer. The second is what are you going to do about it in terms of succession planning? Like does this company actually have a future without Richard White? Is it separable from that? And are they going to build a future into it. I think that's a really interesting question. Remarkable, excellent.
What I don't like about today's show m or a few things, First and foremost Michael not bringing it like he's just there's no drama. The second thing, which I like probably less less or whatever it is. We're all in agreement so far, like all three of us have agreed the best of friction remarkable story. No, No, I do.
Not agree here we gold No. No, I just I feel like I just need to make that final point right the historical context. But don't you think that is staggering that we've had these three enormous milestones in the past just.
Because you've done a little bit of research in some numbers and you didn't get an awarded reward.
The fact is, but doesn't that doesn't that say something to you that we've got the two of the most chaotic periods ever in terms of the GFC and the pandemic, two milestones and when then we've hit the third equivalent milestone this week, elevating what is currently happening in financial markets to that same level as the pandemic and the GFC. I think that is staggering, and that, you know what, I don't accept the judgment.
Excellent, Let's go, Lee, Let's go to a break. We'll be back in a moment. Welcome back to the weekend edition. If you're ingreed, I have been the judge. Dare I say Adam and Michael John for it on the last judgment about the most remarkable story.
I think this is the first time that the debate has continued into the break. And I had a few more points that I wanted to make before you cut me off and took us to the break, and I made those to Adam, and I'm happy to report to everybody listening that he in factory verse his.
Judgment, it's a it's a dummy spit for Michael. If I do a dummy spit, it's a feeding dummy spit. Michael's blake.
He just told me I didn't bring it up, and I'm like, you know what, then, I'm not holding anything back. I'm going to tell you what. I'm disappointed. No, guess what we are doing this week, Adam? Well, this week is it? It's quite a unique week that we had two stories that really stood out from all the others.
As apart from not being the biggest stories.
Yeah indeed, but as being game changes the game, they are instances of where the game has changed.
Thank you for that explanation.
Game we have both selected a game changer story from this week where a change has come about and the game will never be the same.
Insights just keep coming to go firstly, years, Noah, I've got this.
I get accused all the time on this program of overstating things.
Not this morning.
You haven't this one fair point this one though, I can say with absolute confidence and conviction that this week we saw the biggest game changer in transportation since the model T forward Chinese. Ev Why are you so surprised by this, Adam?
You look shocked down one high per believe.
Let's go on, it's not hyperbole at all. It is just an honest assessment. Chinese EV maker byd Build Your Dreams announced a five minute car charger, the battery and charging technology that will give four hundred kilometers of range in just five minutes of charging.
Wow. Game changer.
Game changer. They will start selling the technology next month. But but you know what we could have called this. We could have called this the Holy Grail segment because this is the holy grail for electric vehicles, to have a car that can charge in the same time that it takes a normal internal combustion engine to be refueled at a petrol station. You're pull in, you do them at the same time, and they're going to leave at the same time, and the EV has four hundred kilometers of range. That is the holy grail. That is something else that is a game changer. Sorry, I kind.
Of worked over there.
The fact is right that this is a massive and there's a lot of Sean went into this in the Fear and Greed newsletter through the week, So if you haven't subscribed to that already, head along to Fearangreed dot com dot au popular email addressing I won't rehash everything that Sean said when he pointed out how much of a game changer this was.
I can't agree. It's a totally sorry, I don't disagree. It is a very very big, big story, the second game changing story of so on.
It Also it is another big win for BYD as well, like you look at the impact overall on the industry and EVAs and the future of transportation, but even just at a company level, it is a massive win for BYD. Puts even more pressure on Tesla, elon Musks Tesla because Tesla can charge two hundred and seventy five kilometers in fifteen minutes, and we're talking here about four hundred kilometers in five minutes. By D is already the best selling event well and truly beating Tesla. It is hard to see that changing anytime soon. With this kind of game changing, staggering technology coming out of China this week, it is un believable and believable, unable to be believed. Sean or Beaten?
That is that?
Yes, or Beaten sounds like an early judgment?
Do I sound like an early judgment? Doesn't it? Shame you haven't heard me?
Spit spit.
My story earlier on I suggested that we would be talking about what a real judge is like.
This is perfect.
I'm going to be taking a lot of notes. Then perfect timing.
Adam delivers an early accidental judgment, now segue straight into Sean's story about what a real judge looks like. This could not have been scripted any better.
The game changer this week is the Chief Justice of the US John Roberts, issuing a very very very very rare public review to Donald Trump, the President, over the president's threat to impeach federal judges. Now that followed Donald Trump specifically attacking one judge on his truth social platform in a response to a ruling that had attempted to block deportations of alleged to Venezuelan gang members. Now what that ruling In brief, the Trump administration had used a wartime law only even been used three times in the eighteen hundreds during some war then or won World War two, arguing that the US was either at war with Venezuelan gangs or being invaded by Venezuelan gangs, so therefore we are allowed to get rid of deport Venezuelan gang members. Went to the judge the judge said, well, hold on, do we know that they're Venezuelan gang members? And they said, well, they've got tatoos that look like members more or less broadly, they look like this is an opinion show, they.
Look like criminal.
Yeah, but it's kind of that gist. And so the jar you said, no, no, no, no, turn those planes around. You can't deport them, right, We actually need proof here before we do that. Donald Trump did not like it. He wrote, the judge, like many of the crooked judges I'm forced to appear before, should be impeached. Impeached in caps, of course. He went on to call the judge a radical left lunatic, a troublemaker, and an agitator. Now I think we've heard this before, but ba bye bye by the game changer. But have we ever heard the Chief Justice of the US John Roberts saying, mate, pull your head in. Not quite like that. The most Australian judgment ever, right, he said, And I quit John Roberts. For more than two centuries, it's been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose measured sensible, Donald Trump, pull your head in a very big moment. What's going on? I mean, the separation of powers authority in three branches Legislative basically, Congress makes the laws. Executive, which is a president enforces the law's judicial which interprets the laws. What the fear is is that Donald Trump is trampling on the judicial part of it and not allowing it to do its job. The fact that he intervened this week, and there's lots of in so many cases at the moment in terms of the executive rulings that just seemed to be well allegedly are breaking the law. The fact that he has told Donald Trump, hold on, mate, you're just back off. Hold on mate, I don't think you said that, I said, mister president. Yeah. The fact that he said the president is being not correctly going about the way if he doesn't agree with the judge's ruling, I think is extremely significant because it is the number one legal person in the US standing up for the judicial system. Game changer and a conservative leaning and a conservative leading totally judge.
Yeah, thinking good shouldn't have added that, But I mean it's a good point, isn't it. It's I mean, this is a conservative Supreme Court and he's been there since two thousand and five.
Yeah, it was going to say decades. I don't quite remember.
But he is a conservative Chief Justice, so it has even more weight. It is a game changer, one of both of them.
We love each other.
It's sick enough.
I just I think it's a marvel that b yd can charge in five minutes. So it's incredible.
They said in the press conference, it said what about the batteries, will they survive it? And the other one was a danger like fire and stuff like that. No, no, no, that's I thought about that.
Just charge it outside.
I mean, I don't think it matters, because the point is that will improve anyway.
I was in Regional Victoria this week and going to you know, the stall Gift the race in Stare and there was a yard with ten Tesla chargers and not not one car on them.
But I thought, it's great that you know they're there, but we just don't have the adoption yet. Is that tension between how many cars are there, how many charging stations are there, their infrastructure. It is a game changer, you know, having a five minute charge. I think that's awesome. Sean has to wear out there. Yeah, Sean has to win this category. The Chief Justice John Roberts. It's elegant, concise, whack like stay in your lane, mister president. And I thought highly appropriate and what a what a sort of strong mind it is to take on Donald Trump.
He's not an easy customer. He's aggressive, he's.
Very you know that could be the understatement.
Yeah, and he's.
Certainly got a very very loud microphone. So you know the fact that he's done this and stood his ground said, actually, impeachment isn't a process here, only impeach judges. You have an appeal. I thought it was great and hopefully we'll see more people standing up to what is rational responses.
Checks and balances. Yeah, that's how democracy works.
Two one, Shall we go from there?
Sure?
Would you like to go from talking about the Supreme Court of the US and checks and balances and everything? Give us your favorite story?
What I actually thought? There were so many favorites this week that I thought I'm going to give it Adam a choice of favorites, so you can pick the one up that you like. Okay, So now back off, back back back, back back back back. We all know what yours is going to be? Right, Jacks and balances, Checks and balances?
Do you like?
Do you like the fact that we found out this week that Robin Denholme, the Australian chair of TESLA, ostensibly a musk's boss billionaire one point one billion dollars over the last teams.
Pretty good?
That was pretty good. What about the new five dollar note breaking from tradition dropping a portrait of the Queen or Charles as it may be. You're not going to keep that one? How about? How about how about the one where the US government released tens of thousands of pages about the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy and Julian just to find out Julian. Julian agreed, did it? Don't? Don't give you the punchline after the story. I mean we did the story. He sent me a jake, a JFK conspiracy theorist, dies and arrives in heaven where God is there to receive him. Welcome. God said, you're allowed to ask me one question and I will answer you honestly without hesitating. The conspiracy theorist asks who really shot Kennedy? God replies, Leehavey Oswald shut him from the sixth floor of the Texas school Book Depository. There were no accomplices, He acted alone. I won't actually write the last little bit, but the point being like, however, that's an option. However, my favorite story, which is sort of Michael because it makes Michael giggle. And I don't know why it makes Michael giggle this story, but I do like the story about the Los Angeles County jury who awarded fifty million dollars in damages to a poor feller as in male, oh, you're cringing. The story a gentleman's name Michael Garcia. He was scalded by hot tea from Starbucks, caused severe burns. In fact, it actually caused disfigurement. Now he's essentially an urban driver, third degree burns when the tea the top of the tee, the lid wasn't on properly and was passed through to him through a drive through and it splashed on him. Third degree burns. He's got fifty million dollars. Now, I suppose a point where your cringing and Michael is giggling, is, in fact where the tea landed. I don't know specifically, apart from the say his gentle regions, thank you, which is what the judgment said. Yes, fifty million dollars.
I'm still wincing in gold out of empathy.
Fifty million dollars for a scolded Johnson.
Can you imagine giving evidence on that in court?
Just please stop.
That's my story and we shan't be able to recover for some time.
So you can do whichever of those you'd like.
You or you could just do the sensible logical thing aside.
We can we have we have just like a three second break for the listener to think of the stories this week. I wonder which one Michael will do. Just give them as the moment please, Yes, they all got it.
Right on the best story, not of the week, not of the month, but easily of the year and an early contender for the decade, The safe return of the astronauts Sonny Williams. This surprise, surprise, I'm doing a space story, Sean, Not just a space story, the space story, the feel good story of the year. They went to the International Space Station on an eight day mission last June, testing out a new Boeing spacecraft, and stayed for a hopping nine months. Nine months on board the International Space Station.
What I love most about this here we go now, let me let us, let us answer that. What does Michael love most about this? Space? Space, air travel? Butcher and Sonny just their names are cooled.
What I love most about it is the way that they just fully embraced their circumstances. They just fully just said, yep, this is what we're doing. They actually went from being essentially guests there were guests for supposed to be guests on the space station for just a few days, to actually just becoming crew members of the space station for that entire period, to the point that Sonny Williams actually became the commander of the International Space Station for a number of months while she was up there. And so they were doing experiments while they were in space, they did space walks while they were there, were even talking. They did an interview where they were saying that, yes, it's harder on our families than it is on us, because hey, we're in space.
How do you have a shower in space?
Well, it's not so much a shower as it's a washing process, a cleansing, a space sponge bath, essentially a space sponge bath. Yeah, and that would be entertaining.
Are you guessing or do you know?
No, Well, it's just a it's a space cleaning process.
Nine months without a shower.
Well yeah, but I mean everyone's pretty clean and they're not kind of running around, they're not kind of playing with dirty things. They just clean this up. You know what, Sewan, you are You are derailing me. The fact is that this story has everything. Worts Willmore sixty two years old, Sonny Williams fifty nine years old. They have acknowledged that it is likely going to be their last spaceflight, and hope they had that, like enough months on their passport to actually see them out so they can get back into the US when it's done. If that is their last one. What a way to go out though, right. They have written themselves into the history books, rescued in the end by a SpaceX flight, giving Elon Musk a much needed win. At the moment, splashing down safely in the Ocean of Florida, there were even dolphins there to greet them. This story has everything.
It's got Earth, it's got space, space, it's got dolphins. Yeah, yep, you have got a whole.
Lot earth, wind and fire.
That's a better way putting it.
Yeah, definitely not too much fire on the space station the rocket part. Yes, yes, indeed, it is the feel good story of the year. It is a movie waiting to be made. It is just extraordinary, my story.
It's a feel bad story of the year.
Yeah, Adam, your judgment, please, Michael has to win.
I think so, Yeah, I think so. I just this, the scolding and the deep discomfort of that story had to become a favorite. I mean, fifty million dollars would go some way to making him feel batter. But you I.
Figured the Johnson Adam. I like saying that because Adam responds to it.
Fifty million dollars from Starbucks.
I reckon.
Those astronauts would have made a few Starbucks.
Oh dear.
Too, I think, Oh God.
Better the points.
Okay, yeah, it's too too, very very close. Sewan eighty eight points, Michael ninety points.
Here we go.
We three winners this week, Sonny Williams, Botch Wilmore, Michael Thompson. I've elevated myself to the status of astronaut. Good results, good game, thank you, Wing stories, good ones, huh great, great Native four stories, and you picked up why No.
I did love the multiple choice.
Cool.
Yeah, so it's just a sneaky way of getting an omnibus story in there, isn't it.
I do like the JFK stuff that is pretty cool that they have finally all these conspiracy theories. Funny found out that actually what happened was that Lee Harvey Oswald.
If you were have you been there?
Yeah, I've been there too. It's so evocative.
You know, the Grassy Knoll and Yah book repository, but you know, you can imagine all these documents redacted and then unredacted.
Go, no, it was him.
Have you read Dumb by Stephen King eleven twenty two sixty three, No, great book, probably one of his best. He's written something like seventy five or eighty books, so it is one of his best. It's kind of part historical fiction, part kind of Stephen King. It is fantastic, kind of like what would happen if the assassination of JFK was averted?
Like, it's just it is awesome.
It is very good. Highly recommend it. There we go, good result, good results. If you're a cospiracy theorist, does your life have any meaning after the after these documents were released?
Oh?
You find another one.
What do you do?
Moon landing didn't happen?
So was Lee Harvey Oswald from Earth? I'm not so sure.
Great point?
Was he a mob AGENTI agent?
This is what the whole thing about these things actually said. He acted alone? Who nothing like that? But they don't say.
Have you seen the list of people theories online?
Yes?
They are something else all together. Okay, anyway, good stuff. Thank you very much, Sean, Thanks Michael, and thank you Adam.
Thank you both.
Make sure you're following the podcast and join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and x anywhere anywhere. Were pretty much everywhere. I'm Michael Thompson, and that was fear and greed. Have a great weekend.
