Daily Archives

It’s not even a hint… Papa John’s wants John Schnatter to just go away – far away. The pizza giant has removed its former founder from their pizza boxes and even kicked him out of his office. Oh, and they basically asked him to stop talking about Papa John’s entirely…or to the media, at least.

It’s over… for Schnatter and the company terminated his “Founder Agreement” which officially puts an end to literally the only guy you picture when you think ‘Papa Johns.’ However, Schnatter still owns a near 30% stake in the company and remains on the board.

Back to the drawing board… for Papa John’s as they try to regain customer trust. The fact is, consumers are becoming more aware of social issues and are more willing to shun their favorite brands over PR disasters such as this one. To fix this, the company is having execs visit local shops to hold “listening sessions” with employees and are also making efforts to gauge the company’s diversity efforts.

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You have probably heard… that Elon Musk dubbed British diver, Spelunker Vernon Unsworth, “pedo guy.” This coming after Unsworth suggested where Musk should put his miniature submarine (I’ll let you guess where). And when asked if Unsworth would take legal action after being called a pedophile in front of Musk’s army of Twitter followers he stated: “Yes, it’s not finished.”

More bad publicity… and Musk has previously said it may be better not to respond to criticism on social media. From cars simultaneously bursting into flames to skipped safety testing, Tesla has been making the news for all of the wrong reasons lately. Tesla shares fell by more than 3% on Monday possibly as a result of the latest round of bad publicity for the company.

But lighten up… we know that Musk has no clue if Unsworth is indeed a pedophile. Still, it will be interesting to see just how much trouble one carless insult can get Tesla’s CEO in. But you are better than that, Elon – and you are a billionaire, surely you can find something more entertaining to do than throwing shade on Twitter.

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You haven’t fallen victim to tariffs… or haven’t yet, I should say. Very few Americans have been impacted by tariffs imposed by the United States. However, that could certainly change this fall if the trade war continues to escalate. The US plans to sanction another $200 billion in imported goods from China before the end of September putting the grand total to $450 billion.

When summer comes to a close… you will be back in school (or still working) and the price of consumer goods will begin to rise – not much to look forward to, huh? The US exports everything from China – clothing, computers, refrigerators, etc. So unless another country [that can get along with Donald Trump] can produce all of these goods, prices are bound to rise.

Higher prices and raising inflation… are the two not-so-great side effects that come from this trade spat. Prices in the US are already at their highest level since 2012 and are bound to go even higher. And it doesn’t take a genius to realize that rising wages are worthless when prices are rising at an even faster rate. Better get your back-to-school shopping done ASAP – and as a matter of fact, get your Christmas shopping out of the way, too, because things are getting out of control.

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Netflix gained 5 million subscribers… which is not bad considering just about everyone has a Netflix account – or at least 130 million people have an account. However, Wall Street did not share my ‘glass half-full’ perspective on the situation (but rarely are they very optimistic people). What Wall Street sees is a company that gained 1 million subscribers less than expected.

When Wall Street isn’t happy… share prices will pay and Netflix was no exception – dropping 13% in after-hours trading on Monday. Netflix claimed that they had “a strong but not stellar” quarter, but for almost any other company, $3.9 billion in sales and $384 million profit would be very stellar.

But Netflix is expensive… not the subscription service, but the stock itself, which is part of the reason it came crashing down after the slightest of stumbles. Netflix doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about this news or the competition that is nipping at their heels. The company believes you will binge-watch their content and somehow find time for Amazon, Disney, AT&T, and Apple content, as well – and [sadly] they are probably right.

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