Slate Money — “Ironic Normcore Trifles”

Host: Felix Salmon (Axios)
Guests: Emily Peck (HuffPost), Anna Szymanski (Breaking Views), Ben Schott (Bloomberg Opinion)
Release Date: September 12, 2020

Episode Overview

In this episode, the Slate Money team dives into three main topics shaping the week in business and finance. First, they discuss the big news at Citigroup—the abrupt retirement of CEO Mike Corbat and the historic appointment of Jane Fraser as the first woman CEO of a major U.S. bank. They then debate the spike in workplace tensions between parents and non-parents at tech firms, fueled by COVID-19-related benefits. Finally, guest Ben Schott unpacks his viral Bloomberg Opinion piece on “blands”—a new generation of millennial-targeted, identikit direct-to-consumer brands—exploring their influence on culture and their symbiosis with the podcasting business model.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Citigroup’s Leadership Shakeup (00:41–19:43)

• Jane Fraser’s Historic Promotion

  • Mike Corbat, CEO of Citigroup, announces sudden retirement; Jane Fraser appointed as the first female head of a major US bank (02:41).
  • Fraser hailed for her managerial track record, especially in overhauling Banamex, Citigroup’s Mexican bank unit, and for her rise through traditional elite channels (03:00–04:01).
  • “She did show her sort of managerial chops… and now she gets to run the whole bank.” — Felix Salmon (03:43)

• Glass Cliff and Gender Parity in Banking

  • Discussion of CNBC reporting that a $900 million transfer error (the “Revlon screwup”) hastened Corbat’s exit; issue of the “glass cliff” surfaced (06:34–08:02).
  • Critique of how the press frames women’s appointments:
    • “She has gotten this role because of her merits and not merely because she is a woman, which is like… damning with faint praise.” — Emily Peck (07:55)
    • “Every man that was appointed to be a CEO of a bank was appointed because of his gender—make no mistake.” — Emily Peck (10:53)

• Why Banks Still Lag on Gender Diversity

  • The group critiques Wall Street’s slow progress: “It just shows you how backwards the thinking still is on Wall Street, I think.” — Emily Peck (08:12)
  • Comparison to recent CEO appointment at Sephora, a mostly female-staffed company, which still picked a man (11:24).

• Public Perception of Banks

  • Ben Schott: For most people, banks’ brands matter less than ATM locations and convenience (12:25).
  • Comparison drawn between the pragmatic choices of customers and the internal grandeur of boardroom politics.

• Leadership Styles and Outcomes During Crises

  • Schott draws parallels from a study indicating countries led by women had markedly fewer COVID-19 deaths, discussing how higher barriers for female leaders can affect competence at the top (13:00–15:57).

• Legacy of Mike Corbat

  • Corbat’s risk-aversion post-crisis and cost-cutting mentality critiqued as stifling necessary investment (16:37–19:43).
  • “It’s like the Argentina of banking. It has failed so many times that maybe now is the time to be hopeful again.” — Felix Salmon (18:20)

2. COVID-19 and the Parental Benefits Debate in Tech (19:43–33:57)

• Work-Life Conflict Among Tech Workers

  • Facebook and Twitter offering substantial parental leave during COVID lockdowns, sparking clashes between parents and child-free employees (19:43–21:59).
  • “There’s all this resentment, apparently, at Facebook in particular about this.” — Emily Peck (20:10)

• How Fair Are Extra Benefits for Parents?

  • The group discusses the privilege inherent in these disputes, contrasting tech employees with more precarious workers facing job loss.
    • “It is a little bit hard to feel sorry for any of these people because they are the world’s most privileged people.” — Anna Szymanski (22:43)

• Who Should Shoulder the Workload?

  • Debate around whether non-parent employees should absorb the extra labor, or if companies should simply hire more staff to fill gaps (23:45–25:39).
  • “There are two different things that companies can do…” — Felix Salmon (23:45)

• Should Companies Know or Care if You Have Children?

  • Schott raises a more radical take:
    • “It’s sort of odd that companies know whether you have children or not… It strikes me there’s a similarity between physical disease and mental illness… There are all sorts of hidden struggles.” — Ben Schott (26:13, 31:11)
  • Also predicts a ‘tsunami’ of white-collar layoffs and automation acceleration post-COVID (27:26–30:43).

• Responsibility and the US Social Safety Net

  • Acknowledgement that American companies largely function as their employees’ social safety net, rendering layoffs especially dire due to health insurance and immigration dependencies (32:32–33:57).

• Notable Quote:

  • “Companies are the social safety net in the United States. Your employer is your social safety net, and it’s so fragile.” — Emily Peck (33:51)

3. “Blands”: Direct-to-Consumer Brand Conformity and Culture (34:20–51:34)

• What Are Blands?

  • Ben Schott introduces the concept of “blands”—venture capital–backed, Instagram-ready, direct-to-consumer brands (Casper, Warby Parker, etc.) with interchangeable aesthetic and recycled, non-confrontational messaging (35:05–37:02).
  • “Supposedly disruptive direct-to-consumer startups… all follow this absolutely rigid formula of look and feel and tone of voice.” — Ben Schott (35:15)

• The Branding Paradox

  • Bl**ands adopt a uniform style, promising uniqueness while being anything but. Adherence to “neutral, pastel, post-consumer-recycled-brown-box companies” aesthetic (35:25).
  • Podcasts have developed similar formulaic traits—“You could write a very similar article about podcasts.” — Ben Schott (36:00)

• The Business Model, Bubble, and “Premium Mediocre”

  • Discussion of bl**ands' reliance on massive VC backing and expensive, unsustainable customer acquisition (37:27–41:53).
  • Schott’s key line:
    • “For the rich, blands are an ironic normcore trifle. For the aspiring middle, blands offer a feeding facsimile of prosperity. And for the poor, blands are either the products they make or the services they provide.” — Ben Schott (42:47)
  • Emily Peck: Today’s “affordable luxury” is mostly illusion—avocado toast and Everlane jeans stand in for what used to be mass-market staples (43:00).

• Trust and Proliferation

  • As “dropshipper” bl**ands proliferate online, consumers face a credibility crisis—there’s no way to distinguish between authentic brands and those simply selling Chinese imports (40:35–41:53).

• Blands’ Social Activism and Root Issues

  • Brands must project universal values (pro-environment, pro-community) while their business models depend on gig work and ultra-cheap labor (41:53).
  • “Many of them are based on essentially slave labor… The convenience for the consumers is based on massive inconvenience for those who actually supply and make these products.” — Ben Schott (41:53)

• COVID’s Impact on Blands**

  • Pandemic boosts e-commerce; bl**ands’ online presence becomes an asset. Physical stores for these brands function as elaborate Instagram ads (46:36–47:48).
  • Felix Salmon: “The point of the stores is to basically be physical Instagram ads, and the reason they open up these stores is because the stores are actually cheaper than Instagram ads.” (47:55)

• Exit-Driven Capitalism

  • Most bl**ands are “in it to exit”—to IPO or sell to legacy firms they've supposedly disrupted (48:36).
  • Customer acquisition costs spiral out of control as competition increases; surviving “unicorn exits” are rare and clustered in razors (49:48).

• Memorable Quotes:

  • “Each bland implies the next, so it would almost be hypocritical to use your cool Quip toothbrush with FMCG Colgate toothpaste.” — Ben Schott (44:22)
  • “You become this homo blandis, this Swiss Army knife of blands.” — Ben Schott (44:22)

4. Numbers Round (51:34–59:13)

• Ben Schott: $140 — The price he paid for a rack of lamb at New York’s Beatrice Inn (2017), which he cites as evidence of an unsustainable economic bubble and a warning sign for NYC’s post-pandemic future (51:44).
  • “That struck me as just being a moment of madness. And everything that I think is going to happen to New York was summed up by that single menu item for me.” — Ben Schott (52:37)
• Felix Salmon: Counters with optimism—lower rents may renew NYC dynamism (53:39).
• Emily Peck: $13,494 — Total OSHA fine levied on Smithfield Foods after a massive COVID outbreak at a meatpacking plant; used to illustrate systemic disregard for worker welfare (54:54).
  • “It's just kind of… a good indication of how most workers were treated as expendable in this crisis.” — Emily Peck (55:19)
• Anna Szymanski: 314+7 — The number of Pemex (Mexican oil co.) employees and contractors who died from COVID, highlighting vastly worse outcomes abroad compared to the US (57:52).
• Felix Salmon: 37% — Drop in Nikola's stock price within a week, teasing a deeper discussion in the Slate Plus segment (59:13).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s like the Argentina of banking.” — Felix Salmon, on Citigroup’s string of crises (18:20)
• “It is a little bit hard to feel sorry for any of these people because they are the world’s most privileged people.” — Anna Szymanski, on tech workers’ intra-office conflict (22:43)
• “For the rich, blands are an ironic normcore trifle. For the aspiring middle, blands offer a feeding facsimile of prosperity. And for the poor, blands are either the products they make or the services they provide.” — Ben Schott (42:47)
• “You become this homo blandis, this Swiss Army knife of blands.” — Ben Schott (44:22)
• “Companies are the social safety net in the United States. Your employer is your social safety net, and it’s so fragile.” — Emily Peck (33:51)

Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:41–19:43 — Citigroup leadership change, gender in finance
• 19:43–33:57 — COVID workplace benefits, the parent–nonparent divide, future of white-collar work, corporate responsibility
• 34:20–51:34 — “Blands” and modern direct-to-consumer branding; podcast industry overlap
• 51:34–59:13 — Numbers Round: economic indicators and pandemic insights

Overall Tone

The episode is insightful, analytical, and often wry—mixing sharp business reportage with cultural criticism and dry humor. Ben Schott’s guest segment is especially witty and densely packed with literary references and conceptual zingers, while the hosts maintain their trademark blend of skepticism and curiosity about the business news of the week.

This summary is crafted to provide a rich, standalone orientation to the episode for listeners and non-listeners alike, highlighting both the factual arc and the style that defines Slate Money.