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Speaker 1: Welcome to the weekend edition of The Fast Five Business

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Speaker 1: News by Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson and Hello

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Speaker 1: Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Hello Michael Sean.

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Speaker 1: On weekdays, it's all about the Fast five, the top

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Speaker 1: five business stories in five minutes on the weekend, though

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Speaker 1: we still keep it to five minutes, but we are

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Speaker 1: going to pick out the biggest business story of the week,

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Speaker 1: the most remarkable story, a sleeper story, and one that's

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Speaker 1: one that's our favorite story for the week. But let's

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Speaker 1: start with the biggest. What was it for you this week?

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Speaker 2: CEO behavior, I'm afraid Richard White, the head of Weis

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Speaker 2: Tech Globals, started the company more than thirty years ago,

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Speaker 2: all sorts of allegations about his personal life impacting his

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Speaker 2: professional life. As a result, Weis Tech Globals share price

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Speaker 2: ended down thirty percent this week. On Thursday night, mister

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Speaker 2: White actually stepped down as CEO of the company. Started

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Speaker 2: with the legalist viute with the Sydney Willners entrepreneur Linda Rogan.

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Speaker 2: She claims to agree to help that he would help

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Speaker 2: fund her business but expected sexual favors in return. That

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Speaker 2: suit was settled. Allegedly he approached female entrepreneurs on social

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Speaker 2: media with offers of professional support that would later shift

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Speaker 2: to crude or suggestive language. Then there was a report

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Speaker 2: from nine Media which alleged that he recruited a former

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Speaker 2: girlfriend she came worked for the company. When they break up,

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Speaker 2: he gave her a house. That's apparently three properties that

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Speaker 2: mister White purchased allegedly for women. He's had a relationship

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Speaker 2: with the nine reporter that a former director of vice

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Speaker 2: tet Global who left a few years back, accused mister

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Speaker 2: White of intimidation, bullying, and overseeing poor corporate governance. That's untested.

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Speaker 2: Of course. There's also Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison. He

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Speaker 2: failed to disclose a ten year tax evation scheme. There's

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Speaker 2: also Super Retail Group, which is investigating treatment of two

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Speaker 2: formal high profile execs turned whistleblowers. Also the behavior of

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Speaker 2: the CEO at that company. This week, it's all been

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Speaker 2: about ceo behavior.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that definitely was the biggest story of the week.

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Speaker 1: Another one worth mentioning quickly. That was just bad news

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Speaker 1: for anyone hoping for a rate cut this year. You've

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Speaker 1: got to follow the money and this kind of thing,

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Speaker 1: don't you. Sean and bond markets are pricing in a

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Speaker 1: cut next year. Not so long ago they were still

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Speaker 1: thinking it would happen this year. Not anymore. Bond yields

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Speaker 1: have risen. First cut in rates not expected now until

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Speaker 1: like May of next year. Inflation is still a big problem.

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Speaker 1: We're told that by the IMF as well this week,

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Speaker 1: and Jim Chalmers spoke to the IMF and said, war

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Speaker 1: in fact, is the biggest threat to our efforts to

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Speaker 1: reduce inflation. Boil it all down. No interest rate cut

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Speaker 1: anytime soon, unfortunately, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Not good news at all.

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Speaker 1: So I didn't mean to sound so dour, so so

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Speaker 1: down in the dumpstats. Let's lift our spirits with a

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Speaker 1: most remarkable story. Have you found a cracker for US?

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Speaker 2: Sean, This is a cracker, This is the US grown

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Speaker 2: concerns about dynamic pricing on supermarket shelves not necessarily happening yet,

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Speaker 2: but you get the idea of the potential of what

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Speaker 2: could happen. Politicians claim that Kroger, which is twenty eight

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Speaker 2: hundred supermarkets, uses digital price tags that allow for dynamic pricing.

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Speaker 2: Is that it could change the price at different times

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Speaker 2: during the day. Now, Democratic politicians asked Kroger whether it

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Speaker 2: would use these tags to raise prices when it sees

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Speaker 2: fit in order to maximize profit. The thing is, Kroger's

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Speaker 2: response didn't exactly alloy those fears. Kraiger said the new

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Speaker 2: price tags were designed to lower prices for more customers

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Speaker 2: where it matters most. So I'm saying no, we're not

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Speaker 2: going to use dynamic pricing. They confuse the issue by

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Speaker 2: suggesting they might lower prices. I just think the potential

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Speaker 2: for that is absolutely frightening. You adding the idea that

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Speaker 2: these electronic shelf labels include facial recognition technology, who knows

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Speaker 2: where that goes to?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, that is a remarkable story. A quick mention

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Speaker 1: of another one shown as the nature of our Australia's

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Speaker 1: relationship with China, which is our biggest trading partner, but

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Speaker 1: it's also one of our biggest kind of political adversaries,

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Speaker 1: because this week we heard that exports wine exports to

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Speaker 1: China went from eight million dollars a year ago to

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Speaker 1: six hundred and twelve million dollars. Because the relationship it

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Speaker 1: was being normalized essentially after Anthony up and Easy came

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Speaker 1: to power. But all that's happening at the same time

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Speaker 1: is this week a diplomatic spat emerged where we had

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Speaker 1: an Australian diplomat raising concerns about human rights abuses, and

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Speaker 1: then China's Foreign ministry spokesperson accused US of systemic racism,

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Speaker 1: hate crimes and hypocrisy on human rights. It just feels

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Speaker 1: like it's kind of one step forward, two steps back,

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Speaker 1: half a step forward again. Who knows where it's at,

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Speaker 1: But it's just an ongoing debarkle I would say.

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Speaker 2: Have you found a sleeper story for us this week, Michael.

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Speaker 1: I actually have. I'm quite excited by this one. It's

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Speaker 1: about black market tobacco. Sean who knew it was so big?

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Speaker 1: So big actually that it was worthy of a mention

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Speaker 1: by Viva Energy this week.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Viva Energy they own the Geelong oil refinery, they license

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Speaker 1: the Shell brand. They own and sell petrol and other

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Speaker 1: things through the Coles Express brand, and so a lot

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Speaker 1: of what they sell is also kind of tobacco in

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Speaker 1: those shops. And what they said this week was that

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Speaker 1: they actually had to downgrade their outlook on the back

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Speaker 1: of a number of things. One of the those things

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Speaker 1: was lowered tobacco sales because of the growing illicit tobacco trade,

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Speaker 1: which I think is just fascinating. I did a bit

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Speaker 1: of research into this. The black market is absolutely booming.

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Speaker 1: The X size on a single cigarette is about a

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Speaker 1: dollar thirty. A pack of twenty five cigarettes is more

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Speaker 1: than fifty dollars. It is half price if you buy

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Speaker 1: it kind of under the counter on the black market.

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Speaker 1: Treasury originally forecast right that the federal government would raise

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Speaker 1: fifteen billion dollars in tobacco taxes last financial year. That

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Speaker 1: has been revised down to just ten billion dollars. This

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Speaker 1: is that's a five billion dollar hit to the Australian

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Speaker 1: people because of the black market tobacco, and that was

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Speaker 1: really highlighted this week by Viva Energy. I think that

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Speaker 1: is remarkable. And I know we're talking sleeper stories, but

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Speaker 1: really it's something that people don't really talk about that much.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, totally agree.

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Speaker 1: Favorite story. I think we are probably united on this one.

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Speaker 1: What was it for you, Sean?

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Speaker 2: Any one? Big story at the Moment's the US election

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Speaker 2: seriously interesting? Poles put the race neck and neck in

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Speaker 2: the swing states. A campaign much more about well, not

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Speaker 2: much about policy, plenty about the individuals. Joe Biden hasn't

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Speaker 2: been seeing much that's interesting. He's seen as a negative

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Speaker 2: for the KRMLA Harris campaign. Now it's right to blame

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump for the name calling and trivialization of what's

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Speaker 2: at stated. Democrats haven't done much better ever since Carmla

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Speaker 2: Harris got the call up. They've been in a full

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Speaker 2: attack mode, very much playing the man, Donald Trump, rather

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Speaker 2: than the game.

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Speaker 1: I e.

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Speaker 2: What's best for the USA. I suppose that's what it's

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Speaker 2: like in a social media world. Seems to be coming

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Speaker 2: down to white males, anti Trump, Republicans and independence. They'll

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Speaker 2: make the call and how they vote will probably mean

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Speaker 2: who wins the election. Record number of postal votes already.

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Speaker 2: People are interested. We've seen Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama, Beyonce,

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Speaker 2: Taylor Swift's campaigning out there. It's got me, Oh, it's

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Speaker 2: got me.

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Speaker 1: And don't forget Trump's serving macas friars and a drive

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Speaker 1: through window one of the images of the wasn't it

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Speaker 1: all right? There we go five minutes and pretty much

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Speaker 1: everything you need to know in the world of business.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Sean, thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday morning with the top five

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Speaker 1: business stories in five minutes. Don't forget to hit follow

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Speaker 1: and join us online on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and

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Speaker 1: x Michael Thompson. And this was the Fast five Business

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Speaker 1: news by Fear and Greed