Business News: Economic March Madness - NCAA Revenue - NASA astronauts & SpaceX Capsule - Cryptocurrency Trends

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Speaker 2 What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's our weekly business news here on Friday, March 21st, 2025.

Speaker 2 What's up, Chris Hansen?

Speaker 3 What's up, Brian Alford?

Speaker 2 Oh, you know, holding it down here in G. Vegas, the lovely social house, our current space in downtown Greenville, also the home of our studio.
Come see us anytime. Socialhouse.club's the website.

Speaker 2 And it is where everything's happening. Hey, it's spring to sprong.
You got the trail and the river right here, Chris. So excited to be in Greenville.
We can't all be in Miami.

Speaker 2 Hey, I'll give you credit.

Speaker 3 You guys got a good thing going up there. I'd like to see some spring flowers myself, but

Speaker 3 everything is gravy down here. It's beautiful.
It's 75 and sunny.

Speaker 2 Yes, there we go. We appreciate you for listening wherever you are, whenever you're listening.
Hey, it's March Madness, baby. We got to get mad today.

Speaker 2 I was like, first I was like, okay, what are we going to talk about today? And sometimes, you know,

Speaker 2 I think macro and micro, and then I'm like, okay, wait a second. It's freaking March Madness Week.
It's about to get crazy. We've got to bring the energy.

Speaker 2 We're going to talk about the economic impact of March Madness, some stats that you won't believe.

Speaker 2 Maybe a little lack of productivity that goes on with the game watching. We're going to talk some craziness that's happening with Elon Musk and Tesla Cars and specific crazy world we live in.

Speaker 2 And I'm sure if we avoid tariff talk at all, it'll be a miracle. But hey, we are talking business, so we're going to bring it to you.

Speaker 2 Chris, Chris,

Speaker 2 are you going to fill out a bracket? Are you going to fill out a bracket?

Speaker 3 Well, if you're telling me that I can use maybe some AI to help me, then yeah, then I may fill out a bracket. But

Speaker 3 I don't think I've ever filled out a bracket, ever.

Speaker 2 Oh, gosh, Chris, man.

Speaker 2 Cue the wonk, won't, won't music.

Speaker 3 I like to gamble if I know I'm going to win.

Speaker 3 It ain't my game, bro.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that shows you're an entrepreneur. Like, you haven't been in corporate America, like where, you know, everybody does the

Speaker 2 bracket fill outs.

Speaker 3 Yes, it's that's 99% of my friends, you know, that those are sports players' stats and they know the teams. And I'm just in the corner, like, you know, where's the chips and dip hack boys?

Speaker 2 Yes. Elon Hint Musk.
There's an article that says, he says, Grok AI could beat Warren Buffett's March Madness bracket challenge because Warren Buffett does.

Speaker 2 Look, no one has ever in the history of the tournament picked a perfect bracket. Never happened.

Speaker 2 All the games. It's crazy.
I would think that that would have just accidentally happened just by chance, but it just shows you how

Speaker 2 publicly has had that. Yeah, I guess that's been, you know, maybe someone.

Speaker 3 Some dude in Auburn got it right one year.

Speaker 2 Some guy

Speaker 2 frat houses. Yeah.

Speaker 2 He has that story. There's a family

Speaker 3 somewhere in the southeast part of this country that has got a bracket right.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 But here's what he said.

Speaker 2 This is kind of a fun one where Warren Buffett has a billion-dollar bet that if you exactly match the entire winning tree of March Madness, you can win a billion dollars. Warren Buffett awards that.

Speaker 2 So Musk said in a reference to the NCA basketball tournament bracket. So AI to figure out your pool.
This did give me, I think I might reference AI in filling mine out this year. So I need to,

Speaker 2 you know, we record this earlier than Friday. So by by the time you're listening to this, your bracket might already be busted because

Speaker 2 we'll already have been through all the games on Thursday and it's probably getting into, you know, hopefully you're listening on the treadmill at 5 a.m. right when it's released.

Speaker 2 We know we've got our loyal listeners that do that. But if you're not, then hopefully your bracket's not already busted when you're hearing all this news.

Speaker 2 It can happen quick.

Speaker 3 I don't want to live in a world where AI can

Speaker 3 predict that.

Speaker 2 You kind of want the randomness, right?

Speaker 3 Which hopefully we'll we'll always have because we've got the human variability. But now that you mentioned it, hey, I'm, it might, maybe I can make a little money here, throw it, but just tell Grok,

Speaker 3 give me a winning bracket.

Speaker 2 Yeah, chatbot Grok3, which is powered by artificial intelligence on Monday night.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it got released. And during the event, that's when we can also do something more fun.
How about make a prediction for Marsh Madness? So

Speaker 2 we're using AI for everything now.

Speaker 2 I will say this.

Speaker 2 We did this exact article. I started, you know, we're doing the research looking at what we're going to talk about today.
This exact article, I feel like it's almost verbatim, Chris.

Speaker 2 We're going to go back and the team, you know, hopefully compare

Speaker 2 what it was.

Speaker 2 But the U.S. economy loses up to $20 billion to lost productivity over those few, those four days from Thursday to Sunday.

Speaker 3 It's a lot of cash.

Speaker 2 20 Bs.

Speaker 2 millions of americans gear up to watch college basketball this week for the 2025 edition of one of the biggest sporting events of the year so i don't know like i think we joked about this last year but like do you just shut it down like if you've got one of those companies where let's just say it skews for sports fans

Speaker 2 yeah federal holidays thursday like

Speaker 2 especially if like you have a a workforce that skews i mean i'm not being sexist but it probably probably skews male.

Speaker 2 And I know everyone does broadcast now, but if you have a workforce that you just know they're going to be hitting their head in this, just say, all right,

Speaker 2 we're shutting down. Or

Speaker 2 you can take a vacation day.

Speaker 2 I bet you a lot of how many vacation days get taken tomorrow?

Speaker 3 I was just wondering that. You know, some dudes like live for this.

Speaker 2 Oh, absolutely. It is fun.
I mean,

Speaker 2 at no other point do I care when Iona and Alabama State are playing, you know, or whoever.

Speaker 2 It's like the drama of the

Speaker 2 one and done, you know, the losing, you go home. I think that's what, you know, it's excitement because you're like, oh, you can feel for the kids the energy and the passion to stick around.

Speaker 2 They want to get that extra trip in, you know, to the next weekend.

Speaker 3 I'm down with it.

Speaker 2 The 10 interesting stats here that I don't think anyone wants to miss. Top 10 March Madness stats and facts.
These are mainly business things. Go to wallethub.com.
You can look at this. Number 10.

Speaker 2 We'll start from the 10 and go backwards, Chris.

Speaker 2 There are 12 plus college basketball games are involved in a corruption case involving payments to players. Okay.
We started at number 10.

Speaker 2 I guess that was related to a tournament in the past. Number nine, 64,000.

Speaker 2 Alamodome, that's the Alamo Dome Stadium's capacity for the final four this year.

Speaker 2 It can be extended to 72,000. So I don't know if you've been to how many basketball games you've been to.
That's a,

Speaker 2 get your binoculars out

Speaker 2 to try to see the court. I mean, basketball is like, I mean, a third of the size or half at best of a football field.

Speaker 2 And so you're trying to see the whole court from, and you're in a 64,000-person stadium. I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 No thanks. I think I'd rather watch it on the TV, Chris.

Speaker 3 I'm just thinking of walking in and out of that stadium before and after. That's a lot of rubbing shoulders I don't want to do.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 A lot of this for like 30 minutes.

Speaker 2 Yes, a lot of it. Number eight, zero, the amount of money the NCAA pays the players participating in the tournament.
I think that's a little misleading. Zero on the books.

Speaker 2 Zero on the books for the tournament, but they're getting deals with their

Speaker 2 Yeah, it is a little interesting of how much money the NCAA does make on the tournament that none does go to the players.

Speaker 2 I mean, we know the players are getting paid now with name, image, and likeness and the deals with the colleges. So I don't, I mean, don't have the sympathy that I would have you know five years ago,

Speaker 2 but

Speaker 2 still interesting. Yeah, but I mean, how many billions of dollars are made on this tournament? 15 million, number seven,

Speaker 2 NCAA women's basketball funds 2025 distribution to D1 schools.

Speaker 2 First in NCAA histories.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 15 mil. So that's what they got paid.
Then what they're distributing to the women players is $15 million this year.

Speaker 2 So the schools are getting paid by the NCAA and then the schools themselves are distributing, you know, what they determined, the salaries of the players.

Speaker 2 Number six, $251.6 million, the estimated value of the University of Ohio basketball program, highest among all schools, generating a revenue of $24 million.

Speaker 2 Is that Ohio State? It's got to be, right? University of Ohio State.

Speaker 3 What I was just thinking was like, who the hell is University of Ohio?

Speaker 2 There's no Ohio University. This has got to mean, they needed to get their vernacular right on this.

Speaker 2 Because immediately I'm going to say Ohio State. We're going to go out a limb and just say that's got to be Ohio State.
Got to be the Buckeyes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's interesting, though. That's a lot of money.
They're not even like the Buckeyes aren't even normally like a top 10 team in basketball.

Speaker 3 Hey, but they bring the cash flow in, apparently.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they do.

Speaker 3 Hey, they got the alumni.

Speaker 2 They get a big alumni base. All right.
Number five, 400 million projected economic impact on San Antonio from March Madness 2025.

Speaker 2 Just the city posting final four.

Speaker 2 Dude. A lot of brands.
I mean, that's an impact. 400 million that filled this room with cash, buddy.
Got a big studio here that we could fill this entire thing with cash from what that impact.

Speaker 2 17

Speaker 2 billion is the corporate losses due to unproductive workers. Okay, this one has the same.
So the other one was estimating 20 billion. Ah, what's 3 billion?

Speaker 2 We're somewhere in that 17 to 20 billion range of.

Speaker 2 unproductive workers lost. Just shut it down, people.

Speaker 2 Number three, 52x, the difference between the average NBA's rookie salary and a D1 men's athletes basketball scholarship for a year.

Speaker 2 Again, these stats made a lot of sense before the players got paid, but now that they're getting paid, we need to layer that in.

Speaker 2 Number two, $9.6 million, the salary for college basketball's highest paid coach, Kansas's Bill Self.

Speaker 2 $9.6 million. That's not a bad little salary there.
It's a lot of money. I take 9.6 million a year.
You know, let's get these sponsors in, man. Come on.

Speaker 2 I got to feed some kids and keep my boat with some gas in it. Let's go.

Speaker 2 Number one, $1.3

Speaker 2 billion is the annual estimated revenue for the NCAA last year.

Speaker 2 So that's how much money they made.

Speaker 2 It's big business, man. That's the bottom line here.
You know, we're a business show. We talk business.
Sports and college sports is big business. Lots of money being transacted.

Speaker 3 A lot of money and nostalgia.

Speaker 2 Yeah, a lot of money and nostalgia. Look, man, we talked about sports car.
We're going to open pack in a little while.

Speaker 2 I said earlier it should have been basketball. It's football.
But

Speaker 2 still, those are your top 10 March Madness stats and facts as it relates to business. And look, the bottom line is we've nailed that the unproductivity impact is high.

Speaker 2 So hopefully, you know, businesses know what's happening. They plan accordingly.
And hopefully your bracket's not already busted. We'll see how that goes.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 this article is

Speaker 2 not to turn to sort of a... immediate you know kind of a fun thing to a negative thing chris but have you seen all these people like bashing like throwing Molotov cocktails at freaking Tesla cars?

Speaker 3 Yeah, people like firebombing Tesla dealerships and lighting charging stations on fire.

Speaker 2 This is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 It's crazy.

Speaker 2 And I'm going to let you speak to what you said.

Speaker 2 I don't think it's as conspiracy theory as it is it kind of sort of sounds. It

Speaker 2 feels like instigation.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 3 if if you really look at a lot of these movements, there's someone financing them. And I've, you know, I made reference to the BLM movement, and I think it's pretty well known to the public now.

Speaker 3 There was a lot of money moved through these type of movements, but there's a lot of paid agitators on both sides, right?

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 3 like we said before the straggler, how many people in their free time are just out like, you know, building pipe bombs and going to go risk it all because they want to piss off at Elon?

Speaker 3 You know, so I think

Speaker 3 some of it's agitation or did you just piss off your base so much?

Speaker 3 You know, but

Speaker 3 I like to think a lot of this is theater and paid agitation to create headlines and drama and controversy.

Speaker 2 It does feel like it's just another way, like instigation from the other, you know, side, like they don't like. what Elon's doing with the doge and trying to save money.
And like,

Speaker 2 what, I mean,

Speaker 3 and they're trying to scare people yeah

Speaker 2 but what has happened so bad yet that makes someone want to take this kind of action like that that's not just pure speculation uh or

Speaker 2 i don't know waving the fan you know

Speaker 2 of trying to spark fires you know like trying to get oxygen to a fire that may or may not even exist with things he might be enacting and trying to save the government.

Speaker 2 I mean, the guy's trying to help save the government money. I don't even know that he's getting paid.

Speaker 3 Like, he's being smeared in the same way that the media kind of tried to smear Trump, you know, for all those years, 2016.

Speaker 3 It's kind of the same playbook, it feels like on Elon, where, all right, yeah, they're auditing the government, but outside of that,

Speaker 3 it besides drama in Twitter talk, right?

Speaker 3 Because he is kind of an instigator on Twitter. Elon does like to trash talk a little bit.

Speaker 2 He said, most of this is due,

Speaker 2 you know leftists hitting out at must for his efforts to slash government spending

Speaker 3 just really like it seems like trying to blow up a tesla dealership seems like kind of a not an equal reaction to that

Speaker 2 yeah the website literally let

Speaker 2 you know put out names addresses phone numbers and emails of all tesla owners that they had pulled right and i look at that that's a way to scare people from purchasing more teslas trying to drive his stock price down.

Speaker 3 Like, that's the tactic I see behind it.

Speaker 2 It even lists FBI Director Cash Patel's home and uses a symbol of a Molotov cocktail as its cursor.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 isn't this domestic terrorism?

Speaker 3 Right. So, what we have a militia now of pipe bombing, Tesla-hunting

Speaker 3 vigilantes that

Speaker 2 yeah,

Speaker 3 this is ridiculous. And I hate to say this, but

Speaker 3 most Tesla owners are more left-leaning people. The people pissed off at Elon are left-leaning people.

Speaker 3 So you're attacking the people that probably are kind of more in your camp than not, which seems rather foolish.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 100% foolish.

Speaker 3 Right? Like, if you were bombing Ford F-150s, it would make sense to me, right? But it's no logic.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't think it's just like we said last year, somebody needs to be unhappy at somebody and they need a reason to protest. And then you always have this sort of

Speaker 2 extremist group. And I'll admit, maybe on both sides, like waiting in the background to be activated, right? All right, what do we need? All right, we need some, we got to attack all these Teslas.

Speaker 2 All right, get them going. Get the guys going.

Speaker 2 Get the money in. Start circling the wagons.

Speaker 3 To be fair, there was a group called Patriot Front.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Laray group.

Speaker 3 And basically people started following and found out there were a bunch of FBI agents getting hauled around in U-Hauls, dressing up to look like civilian protesters.

Speaker 3 I mean, you're people need to understand that. You know, there's a form of control that goes along with the people in power.
And like they say, the world is a stage.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And they use news and this stuff to sort of move sentiment overall.

Speaker 2 The,

Speaker 2 I will say this, Chris. you know, the good thing

Speaker 2 that I mean, I like to transition, you know,

Speaker 2 sort of nagging negative news to like the positive news, which is, hey, I am getting to get every word today

Speaker 2 recorded in real time

Speaker 2 and transcoded. I'm getting the notes automatic because of my good friends, if I aim rect.

Speaker 2 Look, I got the headphone piece in, Chris. Literally real time

Speaker 2 happening here on my phone. That's our notes.
That's our word spoken. It's getting the show notes right as we speak, transcoding it, summarizing it right there on my phone.
It's immediate.

Speaker 2 It's incredibly accurate. I've been testing it this week.
So literally go into meetings. I can have both headphones on.
I can be. And I'll tell people, hey, I'm recording this.
So

Speaker 2 to get my notes for later, to take bullet points, it summarizes everything. You can run it through a GPT or anything, taking those notes to get what you need from it.

Speaker 2 But it's that real-time action that's happening while you're sitting there. And so if you go to check out ViAmerec.

Speaker 2 on their website, you can record calls, any audios and meetings. It's got, I'll say this, Chris, I couldn't believe it.
I was working out this morning.

Speaker 2 So I wanted to try it to, you know, got to get the full experience here. Listening to the music, I mean, I got to be honest, there was a couple of songs that sounded better than my AirPods.

Speaker 2 So I was expecting, okay, it's got this voice recording and all that, all the good stuff for business. You know, the sound quality is probably just going to be so-so.
No.

Speaker 2 Great sound quality, seamless video and audio transcription. We can record on site otherwise.
Go check them out. Just do a search.
We'll have them in the show notes. Viamrecdot.

Speaker 2 It will change the game for business. It's already doing it for me.
Yes, Chris. So in better, in good news, NASA finally got these guys out of space nine months.
It's supposed to be like a

Speaker 2 two-day or one-week thing. Imagine that, Chris.
You go up into space, you think it's going to be two days or a week, and you get stuck for nine months. Oh, freak out, man.

Speaker 2 Lost in space.

Speaker 3 That sounds like an absolute nightmare to me. And I'm sure they'll make a movie about it.
I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 we're going to bomb Tesla cars and SpaceX founded and owned or CEO of Elon Musk.

Speaker 2 He's rescuing astronauts from NASA because NASA can no longer, you know, put their own rockets together that can hold it, I guess.

Speaker 2 And so, now doing this commercial space exploration, but goes up there and saves them, splash landing, gets them back. But yeah, we're going to go bomb their cars.
That makes sense.

Speaker 2 It's like,

Speaker 2 but still,

Speaker 2 NASA astronauts Barry, Butch Wilmore, and Sonny Williams returned to Earth after spending over nine months stranded in space. This is going to be a movie, right? It's got to be.

Speaker 2 Their planned one-week mission in June of 2024 on Boeing's Starliner capsule turned into a prolonged stay due to spacecraft issues.

Speaker 2 SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the relief crew enabled their return, Landing in the Gulf of America off Tallahassee. It says Gulf of America.
Have we officially changed the name?

Speaker 3 I mean, I had to do a double take when I saw that for a second, too. Also, like, Tallahassee is not coastal at all.

Speaker 2 Not the Gulf of Mexico anymore. I know I saw that happening.
I didn't know if we ever officially moved to there. The article.

Speaker 2 All right. No longer the Gulf of Mexico.
It's the Gulf of America.

Speaker 3 I mean, obviously, according to Fox Business, it's Gulf of America.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. I love it.
I love it.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 this is the stuff that with Trump that just, you know,

Speaker 2 God love him.

Speaker 2 The

Speaker 2 SpaceX Mission Control in California, welcome them back. On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.

Speaker 2 Hey, what a ride, the astronaut said. Grinning ear to ear.

Speaker 2 SpaceX has now completed 10 operational human space flight missions under NASA's commercial crew program.

Speaker 2 The Dragon capsule went through orbit lowering maneuvers, jettisoning its trunk and re-entering Earth's atmosphere for a smooth splashdown. I've always wanted to use that combination of words.

Speaker 2 That was very well written.

Speaker 3 Like, they made it sound super suave.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Orbit lowering.
If you'd have told me at any time in my life, I would use orbit lowering and jettisoning its trunk.

Speaker 3 Splashdown.

Speaker 2 All in this one sentence. I would not believe you.

Speaker 2 Hey.

Speaker 3 We thought it was physically impossible 20 years ago, but here we are with reusable rockets.

Speaker 2 Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 But again, they're home safe and it's good news. Thank you.
I appreciate SpaceX for getting them back after that one week. I mean, nine months.
I mean, yeah,

Speaker 2 space exhibition.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 think about what they're, what's the first thing they want to eat? Like, because I don't tell me, they've got the space food up there, they've had all the dry eggs.

Speaker 2 You know, they must have been at least getting them food, obviously. So, they because I mean, one week in nine months, they were either rationing really good or

Speaker 2 you know, I think they had to, I think they were sending them supplies. It's like, can we please get that steak sandwich? Like, you know, how long does it take to get there?

Speaker 2 Like, you know, I need a grilled steak or hamburger or something, not that dried, you know, what is it, eggs in a box? Yeah, yeah, dehydrated,

Speaker 2 dehydrated. It's so funny.
My dad,

Speaker 2 Steve Alford, I love him,

Speaker 2 but he's got like these prep kits.

Speaker 2 And my dad's not, he's kind of that guy, but not really that guy. He's got these prep kits just in case things go wrong.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I helped him move a couple weekends ago, and

Speaker 2 we're moving.

Speaker 2 And in his his pod, moving the pod, I meant the name of this pod. He's got like 50 of these containers that are probably like 25 pounds each and like a foot, you know, two feet tall, one feet wide.

Speaker 2 I got hands.

Speaker 2 And I'm moving them and one of them is significantly lighter than the others.

Speaker 2 His buddy Bob, who's my dad's 73, is over there. They're both kind of like sort of pretending to move.
I'm actually doing all the moving. Look, I'm a young buck.
I can do it. But the

Speaker 2 they go, he goes, oh, yeah, that was probably pretty light.

Speaker 2 He's like, Bob and I got into that.

Speaker 2 We decided to cook dinner to see what we would be in for if we ever needed to use it. We wanted to know.
He said, it's pretty good. You ought to take one home.

Speaker 2 Eggs.

Speaker 2 It was, oh no, I'm losing my YouTube button.

Speaker 2 It was

Speaker 2 everything

Speaker 2 that you would imagine dried up like in packets.

Speaker 3 I have some of those.

Speaker 2 It had like roast beef even. It said roast beef.

Speaker 3 I got those during hurricane season. So I got them in my closet here.
So I'm

Speaker 2 Chris. You and my dad.

Speaker 2 Yeah, brother.

Speaker 2 Hey,

Speaker 2 I'm 30 floors up.

Speaker 3 If the power goes out during a hurricane, I'm just going to be up here with my little heating pot and some dehydrated eggs and

Speaker 2 oatmeal. But I just got to kick out, you know, thinking about those poor astronauts, what they're eating up there and dried stuff.

Speaker 2 Maybe I'm sure it's come a long way, they're probably getting better things than we're even eating. But I just

Speaker 2 thought of my dad, like, and my buddy deciding they were going to have dried food one night. You know, they do drink tequila on Tuesday night, they must have been a tequila Tuesday.

Speaker 3 That's a total guy thing to do, you know.

Speaker 3 Hey, you want to go try that survival food?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, Ferrari car buyers are getting younger.

Speaker 2 CEO says 40% of new clients are now under 40. You've been a Ferrari buyer yourself, though, Chris.

Speaker 2 You were under 40.

Speaker 3 I definitely was.

Speaker 2 Still are.

Speaker 2 Yes. 40% of Ferrari's new clients are under 40, up from 30% just 18 months ago.
Their CEO credited the shift to the company's team efforts.

Speaker 2 The brand maintains exclusivity with nearly 75% of sales going to existing customers. I mean, which sort of makes sense.

Speaker 2 A lot of rich people that own them, buy another one, get in line.

Speaker 3 They're very strict on it. You can't buy a brand new one unless you've owned one previously.
Yep.

Speaker 2 Ferrari maintains strict production, ensuring demand always exceeds supply.

Speaker 2 Enzo Ferrari's philosophy: we always deliver one less car than the market demands.

Speaker 2 Smart. I mean,

Speaker 2 it's smart. And I mean, I don't, I don't, this doesn't have their financials, but I assume they're making money.
But

Speaker 2 I get it. Hey, that's the brand.
It's luxury, but it's, you're always sort of capped at some level. But you know what? I mean, that's not a bad thing.

Speaker 2 It's like, you know, if you're always profitable, then you'd rather make

Speaker 2 steady income than chasing because you're all the roads. Yeah.
Quality goes down.

Speaker 3 You sacrifice quality. Like Lamborghini's quality is crap now.
Yeah. If you disassemble a Lamborghini, it's Audi parts.
Like if you open the center console of like a Lamborghini truck, the Urus,

Speaker 3 it's got the Audi logos in it.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 2 That's crazy.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's all the same, man. That's why I, they're one of the few that still kind of

Speaker 3 isn't, you know, mass produced.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Do you think

Speaker 2 Ferraris looked at as a better car?

Speaker 3 Yeah, for sure. Like in the car world, Ferrari is definitely above like Lamborghini.
I mean,

Speaker 3 and price-wise, I mean, you can get a Lamborghini much less expensive for sure. And it's not as strict on the, I mean, Ferrari literally, if I wanted to put a wrap on the car,

Speaker 3 corporate could literally have sent me a letter saying, like, hey, you need to remove that. Or they'll blacklist you, which happened to, it's happened to celebrities like Justin Bieber.

Speaker 3 They put like a pink color on it, and Ferrari will literally blacklist them.

Speaker 3 So you have to have, you know,

Speaker 3 a string buyer going and get it. Guys like that obviously have people doing that for them.
But yeah, they're they're very big on maintaining the brand integrity and the image. Yep.

Speaker 3 They don't want to look, I think,

Speaker 3 like, look at all the YouTube guys. It's all Lamborghinis and purple cars and stuff.
And I think they're really not trying to get into that

Speaker 3 world.

Speaker 2 Jason, are you a Ferrari or Lamborghini guy? You like Ferraris?

Speaker 2 We have a special guest in the studio today.

Speaker 2 And Jason, we're not recording live, so you can,

Speaker 2 are you, do you like Ferraris?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think you take one, Ready, if Chris wanted to buy you one.

Speaker 2 The

Speaker 2 yeah,

Speaker 2 I liked your Ferrari. So

Speaker 2 good ride. Sometimes to like.

Speaker 2 I'll let you keep getting them. I'll get to live vicariously through you.

Speaker 3 It's better to have friends with them than own one.

Speaker 2 Like a boat, right? Or you can come stay on my houseboat.

Speaker 2 You let me drive your Ferrari.

Speaker 3 That's a good, that's a fair trade.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I knew we'd get to tariffs at some point.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I can't avoid it because it's still there. The elephant in the room.

Speaker 2 Splurge or save. Americans struggle as tariffs hit economy.

Speaker 2 I think it's maybe the first part of that I would agree with. I don't know if the tariffs have definitively hit the economy.
I think the perception and the sentiment has hit.

Speaker 2 Rising uncertainty. Households are saving more and spending less amid concerns over tariffs and a possible economic shutdown.

Speaker 2 Retail sales declined last month, and companies like Walmart and Delta are reporting weakened demand.

Speaker 2 The Fed is set to hold interest rates steady, but the path forward is uncertain as tariffs could raise prices and slow growth. I mean, we talked about this last week, and it holds true for me.
I think

Speaker 2 the administration needs to paint the picture of where we're headed with the tariff stuff. The tariff wars are not good for us.
And I do, I don't, look,

Speaker 2 we share articles and opinion on articles here.

Speaker 2 You know, we can't go fact check every single thing. I go, we go kind of by our own opinion and sentiment of what we feel in our circles.
And

Speaker 2 I think that this feels

Speaker 2 accurate to what I see and sense

Speaker 2 as far as the overall sentiment. That's why I think the interest rates got to go down.
It's like lower the rates.

Speaker 2 We got to get, you know, people refinance and get some more money, get the sentiment higher. And this is where I think the administration really needs to paint the picture of, okay, what next?

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 3 we need a roadmap because we need cash moving. Cash is not moving.
That's a problem for everybody.

Speaker 2 Yeah. The people that have it are keeping it in savings, pushing it into gold or whatever.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 yeah. So, I mean,

Speaker 2 as it relates to this, Chris, what are we seeing on the crypto front?

Speaker 3 Crypto is still, I mean, it's fallen to with everything else. It's down, it's sticking down, even with the announcement of the strategic reserve, which then

Speaker 3 actually I then saw the IMF, you know, International Monetary Fund was

Speaker 3 essentially telling the administration they needed to get rid of that, to

Speaker 3 get rid of the strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Speaker 2 So, um,

Speaker 3 yeah, man, I mean, kind of like you said, the general sentiment is just very low right now. And, and that's the market tells us that, but also in my circles and my big crypto buddies,

Speaker 3 everything is real quiet.

Speaker 3 And even I can say that on the job market front. You know, I have a lot of friends actually that are switching careers, changing careers.
It's pretty quiet on that front too.

Speaker 2 XRP's up 12% today. We record on Wednesday.

Speaker 2 There you go.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 it's

Speaker 2 Bitcoin's up 3% today.

Speaker 2 Meaning a little pump today, but down, but I'm down 700 on the month.

Speaker 2 700%? In one, no, $700 in this one account. I got multiple accounts with crypto.
This one account where I keep the XRP. It's down 700, which as a percentage is not really that much.

Speaker 2 It's like 3% or something.

Speaker 3 No, I mean, honestly, I'm not even looking at my stuff because I just know the market's down. So I'm just

Speaker 2 not still want to buy. I think XRP is going to go to like $5.
Oh, I totally agree.

Speaker 3 Like, I think now is

Speaker 3 definitely a a time to buy.

Speaker 2 Yeah. If you got capital, I would put it in.

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 where do you think we're headed with all the decentralization overall?

Speaker 2 You think we're, I mean, that.

Speaker 3 That's a great question. Where do I want to go or are we going to go? I mean, that's

Speaker 3 really, let's be real. I mean, that's what runs the world, money, right? The Federal Reserve and the control of money.

Speaker 3 So when you're introducing, you know, this decentralized cryptocurrency,

Speaker 3 that doesn't appeal to the people that want to control.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 3 I hope it continues and I hope people can,

Speaker 3 what we really need as a society is to adopt and to educate people.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 You know, when you and me realize we can do a real estate transaction and not involve a bunch of banks and paperwork and all this stuff and everything's tracked on the blockchain,

Speaker 3 right? It's like, it's actually much more transparency for everybody.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
Cause

Speaker 2 the so-called transparency that happens now only helps one person. Right.
Or one side, the banks or the realtors or, you know, title company, I mean, like the system, right? Right.

Speaker 2 It's not transparency for you and I.

Speaker 3 It's put a bunch of hands in the middle of you and I doing a negotiating or barter. If you want to really get down to it, right?

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 just as far as ease of use,

Speaker 3 you know, when it comes to sending money, especially international money,

Speaker 3 you know, you can do it in two minutes.

Speaker 3 Just, and obviously that's not something everyone deals with, but I know you with the business, even wiring money, paying vendors, stuff like that, you know, you don't have to wait three to five days for something to clear.

Speaker 3 It'll clear in three minutes.

Speaker 3 You don't need to worry about the bank and the wire fees and they're holding this and that. It's just,

Speaker 3 which, I mean, we all pretty much are using digital money as it is right now, right? You're using Apple Pay and stuff.

Speaker 3 And that's where I think when people realize that sending crypto is as simple as using Apple Pay,

Speaker 2 that's where we get some real movement.

Speaker 2 And look, this is what they fall on. And there's probably some truth.
When it's as easy and it's sort of unregulated to a degree, the concern is, you know, fraud or, hey, if

Speaker 2 your grandmother could transfer something in two seconds without the checks and balances and no recourse, is that the right thing?

Speaker 2 I think that's where the, that's where the sort of old guard stands. However,

Speaker 3 I got scammed two years ago. The bank didn't refund me.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, like they don't,

Speaker 3 even if you have your cash in there, they'll, they'll insure it up to 250K, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So it's like,

Speaker 3 even that, when they talk about, oh, money laundering, that's what they usually go to with crypto, right? The cartels and money laundering.

Speaker 2 And it's like, you are the cartels.

Speaker 3 like you're not doing me any favors exactly the bank helped me out you know what I mean like

Speaker 3 so that whole argument when people start defending the banks it's like people defending their insurance companies like that's right they just make money off you they're not fulfilling their part of the agreement for the most part yeah i'm posting a lot about that i'm actually getting back on the old x i guess hard not to say twitter chris i don't even say

Speaker 2 but digital innovation for america i'm partnering with them the voice for americans who seek to harness the promise of blockchain and digital assets for a more empowered future.

Speaker 2 I do am reposting a lot of their articles. Go check them out.
It's interesting. It's education.
And I mean, that's at the end of the day, Chris, you know, Chris and I do a couple shows together.

Speaker 2 We do this in Vibe Science. We're trying to educate.
We've got opinions. You can like, love, hate, dismiss our opinion, but we're trying to educate and bring all sides here.

Speaker 2 You know, we take the BS out of business and like

Speaker 2 we we call it like we see it. And regulation and

Speaker 2 having

Speaker 2 someone's hand and supposed protection on every transaction you do and every, it's just, it's about as un-American as it gets. Iron Sea.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 At what point do we do we take responsibility as individuals?

Speaker 2 You know? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because when it comes down to they're not protecting you.

Speaker 2 No, they're not protecting you. They want your money.
Digital innovation for America. Check them out.
DIFA, D-I-F-A, USA on X, but interesting articles, a lot of insight.

Speaker 2 I mean, I've kind of, you and I have been in this camp and we talk about crypto and we do this, but I don't, I want to make sure we're doing a good job of explaining why we talk about it and why we think there's power in it.

Speaker 2 And yeah, it's about the speculation of stock slash, you know, crypto coins and memes and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 But at the end of the day, it's really about

Speaker 2 counter currency and

Speaker 2 other ways to get people out of these transactions and the time and the money involved. That's the shit that's just got me fired up.

Speaker 2 Because I do transferring, like, if I got to pay somebody and it's just anything remotely

Speaker 2 like where they're trying not to get a deal with a bank or something, it's just a pain in the rear, you know?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Anyway,

Speaker 2 I think that's all we've got today, Chris. Other than, you know, our normal, my good friends at Panini, they're going to start sending me some cards because, I mean, the sports cards business.

Speaker 2 That's where, hey, the index on sports cards trading, Jason, you wouldn't believe how popular they are. And our audience is getting to learn firsthand.

Speaker 2 I should have brought my March Madness cards, but I didn't. All I've got today is the football cards.
So I'm going to be opening our football card pack here. Hey, this is that hanger box.

Speaker 2 So, here's some good insight, guys.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 2 I opened one of these boxes on the show. I think it was the first one that I actually opened,

Speaker 2 and it was that pack that I was like, dude, there's like $300 for the cards in here. I sold the most valuable card that was in the box for $150 on eBay this week.
So, that's real money.

Speaker 2 So, real money, Chris. $150 from a card on this show.

Speaker 2 That's, I mean, you can get down with that, right?

Speaker 3 You splitting profits with your boys,

Speaker 3 maybe, or you're like, oh, daddy, you find you find it. Here's your little commission.
Daddy keeps the split.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And then we're doing, I'm paying them by the hour while they're training, learning.
That's why you got to go, hey, look, we got to pay for the college fund here.

Speaker 2 So go check it out at breakingrad.com. Breaking Rad.

Speaker 2 You like that play on words, Chris, don't you? You're good at that.

Speaker 2 I'm a good words.

Speaker 2 Here we go. Holding it down.
This is the hanger box from Prism Football. It's a big retail.
It's one of the most popular retail packages

Speaker 2 and cards. You got the pink prisms and whatever.
You can see the color coming out the side, Chris. Already feeling the excitement.
Up, up.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 These are your base cards. Old Debo, who's got traded.

Speaker 2 Kyler Murray,

Speaker 2 Kirk Cousins,

Speaker 2 Eric Dickerson. Hey, Travis Etienne, Clemson player.
My boys love him. Always pull out the Clemson guys.
Justin Jefferson, one best. Andy Reid.
Okay.

Speaker 2 This would be the.

Speaker 2 There's always these cards that you think are one thing and they're not. You're hoping for a Brock Bowers who plays for the Raiders.
This is the other receiver rookie that's not Brock Bowers.

Speaker 2 This would be what they call a fool. Like, you think that's Bladard because you're sliding it.
You see the rookie card and and you see the Raiders. You're thinking it's Brock Bowers and it's not.
But

Speaker 2 we still, we don't hate you, Dylan.

Speaker 2 These are those special pink cards. Anthony Richardson.
He needs to get it together. Wesley Wilker.

Speaker 2 Ray Davis. Good running back.
Play to Kentucky. Marshawn Lloyd.
Hey, Marvin Harrison Jr.

Speaker 2 That's a wave. That's a good card there.

Speaker 2 One of the best receivers to come out of the draft. The other rookie card.
There you have it, Chris. You know, lots of excitement.

Speaker 2 You need to be watching the YouTube channel to see the players that we're getting from our Prism NFL.

Speaker 2 That's the best card in the back. See, look at look at the hot look.
Look at the foil. You know, like the shiny.
Oh,

Speaker 2 yes.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 I'm going to have to send these home with Jason today as another part of his birthday gift. We'll see.
All right.

Speaker 2 Hello, Chris. Any final words, my friend?

Speaker 3 Everyone, as always, have a great weekend. Enjoy springtime.
Get some sun.

Speaker 2 Drink water. Yes.
Get your brackets. Enjoy it.
Add to that unproductive.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. All those things.
We appreciate everyone for listening. Check us out, ryanisright.com.

Speaker 2 Find out all the highlight clips, the full episodes, link to our sponsors, and where to find us on social media, Chris Broby Hansen on Instagram. I'm Ryan Alford.

Speaker 2 We'll see you next time on Right About Now.

Speaker 1 This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities.

Speaker 1 Thanks for listening.