Latest news with #GoodRanchers
Indianapolis Star
14-06-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Scott McLaughlin and Tony Kanaan have 'cleared the air' after social media back-and-forth
MADISON, Ill. – During IndyCar's first weekend off since late-April, Scott McLaughlin says he used a chunk of that downtime to call Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan and 'clear the air,' following the pair's seemingly contentious back-and-forth on social media following the Detroit Grand Prix. According to McLaughlin, the pair are 'completely fine' after sparring over the Team Penske driver's early-race spin of young Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel, for which McLaughlin was given a stop-and-go penalty, and Kanaan's choice to post about the incident while the race was still going on. As McLaughlin characterized it on a media call this week ahead of IndyCar's race at World Wide Technology Raceway, he harbors no ill-will toward Kanaan, though the pair also famously went back-and-forth on X last summer in the wake of Arrow McLaren releasing Theo Pourchaire and Team Penske's push-to-pass scandal. 'Me and (Tony Kanaan) are completely fine,' McLaughlin said. 'We cleared the air. There was nothing to really clear. It's like, he clapped back and I clapped back. It's just how it is. I thought it was funny that he posted during the race, and I responded. 'I didn't think he was going to respond the next time but he did. Me and TK have always sort of talked on social media and have been completely fine. It's not like a year-long feud or things like that that I've seen around. It's just one of those deals where, like, if someone's going to call me out, I'll clap back as well. It's just who I am. I'm not going to change.' 'Hunt for beef': Scott McLaughlin, Tony Kanaan spar on social media after Detroit Grand Prix After Kanaan's decision to note the incident initially during the race on social media, McLaughlin also quote-tweeted Fox's video and said that he 'misjudged' the move, but pointed a finger, too at Siegel for braking earlier than McLaughlin expected. And as he did in the pair's previous social media dust-up last summer, he creatively wove his occasional sponsor Good Ranchers into his clap-back, saying it looked as if Kanaan was still 'on the hunt for beef.' Kanaan took his response a bit personal, first making light of McLaughlin's parade lap crash out of the Indy 500 and before noting he'd tried to come find Team Penske's team principal to discuss the incident 'but I couldn't find him. Oh wait…' – an obvious jab at Team Penske's trio of leadership personnel fired in the wake of the team's illegal attenuator modifications discovered in qualifying for the 500. 'I was surprised that he (said that),' McLaughlin said of Kanaan's pointed response on social media. 'It is what it is. That was his decision. 'It won't affect anything moving forward, at least from my end. We talked, and it was all good.'
Mint
14-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Why the MAGA economy is thriving
Imagine the perfect morning. After sleeping between sheets from MyPillow—a company established by Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist—you drink some Black Rifle Coffee, which 'serves coffee and culture to people who love America". You shave with Jeremy's Razors ('built for rugged feelings"). Then you eat some bacon from Good Ranchers, which pledges to 'make the American farm strong again", before going for a spin on your Harley-Davidson. The broader MAGA universe extends beyond goods with over-the-top marketing to products and employers merely favoured by Republicans. And each economic choice adds up to something bigger. According to our analysis, America is splitting into two different economies and markets: one conservative, the other liberal. People on each side think about the economy differently, they buy different things and work in increasingly different industries. Not only that: the MAGA economy is doing surprisingly well. American liberals tend to look down on companies that market themselves to conservatives. Although this is in part because they do not like the opposing side, some MAGA products look like scams. President Donald Trump's crypto coin soared following its launch, only to crash quickly and leave many supporters holding the bag. His branded watches, including the 'Fight Fight Fight" model, cost up to $100,000 and have received mixed reviews. Such snobbery also reflects a belief that the conservative economy is backward. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, noted she had 'won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward". Kamala Harris, the nominee in 2024, won a similar share of GDP. Of course, some solidly Republican districts have long been rich. In Jupiter, a town in Florida, local activities include playing golf and wearing white chinos. Yet Yuba City, in northern California, where lots of locals are farmers and people voted strongly for Mr Trump, may be more illustrative of MAGA-land. Incomes are low; shops sell hardware, guns and fast food. There are no chinos in sight. Despite this, the association of Republicanism with backwardness has run ahead of the data. Even places like Yuba City are doing better than before and together MAga-land is enormously powerful. If Democrats have two-thirds of American GDP, that still leaves Republicans with around $10trn—making them the world's third-largest economy (see chart 1). And as anyone who has watched 'Friday Night Lights" will know, all parts of America have big spenders. Buddy Garrity, a car dealer, is the archetypal MAGA rich guy. He is not wealthy enough to own a private jet or plugged-in enough to attend the Met Gala; still, he has plenty in the bank. The growing gap between the MAGA and Democratic economies can be seen in both 'soft" and 'hard" data. Surveys suggest that Democrats and Republicans now live in two different realities. Before the presidential election 50% of Democrats believed that the economy was getting better, against just 6% of Republicans. Today 8% of Democrats and 49% of Republicans respond in the same way. Such partisanship has become more pronounced. Look, for instance, at the gap in inflation expectations by party, as in chart 2. 'Hard" data tell a similar story. According to a recent paper by Verena Schoenmueller of Esade University and colleagues, residents of each economy consume in increasingly different ways. After Mr Trump's election victory in 2016, 'liberals faced a threat to their political identity…which they possibly compensated for by stronger support for liberal-oriented brands"—buying more Patagonia fleeces, perhaps. Tesla, a carmaker, demonstrates the power of partisanship better than any other company. TD Cowen, an investment bank, has forecast that Elon Musk's alliance with Mr Trump will reduce sales by over 100,000 vehicles a year in Democratic-leaning counties, while boosting sales by twice as much in Republican ones. Official data also suggest that consumer tastes are splitting along partisan lines. Compare New York, a blue state, with Wyoming, a red one. Since the 1990s blue people have spent more on stereotypical blue goods and services, and red people more on red. New Yorkers have splurged on dining out. They have also jacked up spending on public transport. People in the Equality State, by contrast, spend more than they did on things you might associate with an older, more conservative population, such as vehicle parts and nursing homes. It is not just consumption. MAGA and blue economies are behaving increasingly differently, too. They reacted in different ways to the first wave of covid-19. Economic activity in red states, where locals were not so afraid of the virus, fell by half as much as in blue ones. This divergence was the culmination of a long-term trend. The variance in GDP-growth rates, between Democratic and Republican counties, widened sharply around 2008. It has remained about twice as high ever since. In the olden days, when a red place was doing well, you could be pretty sure that a blue place would also be thriving. No longer. The two economies are behaving differently since their industrial compositions are changing. We have analysed data on employment and pay across counties. Over time, places that voted Democratic in 2024 have taken a greater share of knowledge-intensive forms of economic activity. In 1993 roughly the same share of employee compensation came from the 'information" sector, comprising software and the like, in Republican counties as elsewhere. Now the share is 30% lower than average, while dependence on manufacturing has risen. All told, employment patterns in the Democratic and Republican economies have diverged by 20%, according to difference between 'location quotients", a measure of job dispersion by industry. Buddy up There are more Buddy Garritys today, too. In 2024, 47% of Americans reporting annual incomes above $1m lived in Trump-voting states, up from 43% in 2014. The MAGA economy has lots of big businesses that liberals rarely encounter. Yuba City is home to WinCo, which feels like a knock-off Costco; Boot Barn, which sells cowboy boots; and Hobby Lobby, an arts-and-crafts retailer. All seem to be doing well. Fox News's viewers may be on the poorer side, yet over the past year the company's share price has been on a tear. Olive Garden, an Italian restaurant chain, is another example found in Yuba City. According to a YouGov poll in 2023-24, it is the dining option most favoured by Republicans, relative to Democrats, behind Cracker Barrel, which offers wooden rocking chairs and Southern cuisine. At Olive Garden the pasta may not be fatta in casa, but it is popular. The share price of Darden, which runs the chain, has nearly tripled in the past five years. These trends play out across America. Along with Kai Wu of Sparkline Capital, a fund manager, we assembled 30 listed firms that are seen favourably by Republicans or Democrats, based on surveys. The process was inevitably arbitrary: there is no single poll that covers all companies. In the end, the Republican basket included firms such as John Deere, Fox and Harley-Davidson, whereas the Democratic one featured Etsy, Lululemon, Lyft and more. The recent market turmoil hit the Republican basket hard. But in the past decade its shareholder returns, including dividends, have thrashed the blue basket (see chart 3). Why do MAGA companies seem to outperform? Maybe they eschew virtue-signalling. Point Bridge America First, an exchange-traded fund that uses the stock ticker MAGA, only includes firms that support Republicans. The Democratic Large-Cap Core Fund, with the stock ticker DEMZ, invests in companies that make big donations to the Democrats. Since the end of 2020 MAGA's price has easily outperformed DEMZ. Goldman Sachs, a bank, has built a stock index containing firms 'that could benefit from key Republican policies", such as those in oil. In the past decade the share prices of these companies have comfortably beaten the market. The future for the MAGA economy is uncertain. By raising the cost of imported components, tariffs will hurt manufacturing. Harley-Davidson is a soft target for foreign politicians looking to retaliate. On the flip side, however, Republican states including Florida and Texas are still enticing internal migrants. And with local consumer confidence strong, expect spending in MAGA-land to hold up better than in Democratic-leaning areas. It does not just rely on MyPillow.
Economist
13-05-2025
- Business
- Economist
Why the MAGA economy is thriving
Imagine the perfect morning. After sleeping between sheets from MyPillow—a company established by Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist—you drink some Black Rifle Coffee, which 'serves coffee and culture to people who love America'. You shave with Jeremy's Razors ('built for rugged feelings'). Then you eat some bacon from Good Ranchers, which pledges to 'make the American farm strong again', before going for a spin on your Harley-Davidson.
