This guy, this divorced Steve Easterbrook guy, was the Chief Executive Officer of McDonalds, by all accounts a good one.

So, he admits to having a “consensual romantic relationship” with an employee who is below him in the food chain at McDonalds. [Get it. The food chain. At McDonalds.]

Everybody is below the CEO in the food chain at McDonalds — well, except for Mickey. Mickey is above the CEO. Maybe the Hamburglar?

Easterbrook was a good CEO at McDonalds and is credited with having introduced a number of initiatives (all day breakfast, delivery, tech innovations) that had the stock solidly in the win column, but he exercised poor judgment and managed to get himself fired from a job that paid him $21.8MM in 2017. Ouch.

In the process, he has done several other things.

He has created a ripple of  management discontinuity at the C-suite level and at the Board of Directors level.

He has cost shareholders a big hit on the news — down 3-5%. Temporary in my view.

He has held the company up to ridicule.

All in all, he has really crapped in the McDonald’s mess kit.

Big dramatic are you, Big Red Car?

Guilty as charged, dear reader.

The replacement for Steven Easterbrook is a wildly capable chap. Deep bench at Hamburger University.

The BOD did their job. BOD’s don’t get a medal for doing their damn jobs.

The stock price will recover — this is not a financial issue or an operational issue. Nobody has purloined the Big Mac secret sauce. Granted. [Buying opportunity.]

Still, it is an unforced error, a lapse of judgment that is not supposed to happen in the C-suite.

Riddle me this — why does a guy with otherwise good judgment, a great track record, and a nice job with high pay do this?

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Have a great week. Go eat at McDonalds. Keep it zipped, boys.