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Speaker 1 This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production.

Speaker 1 We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month,

Speaker 1 taking the BS out of business for over six years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.

Speaker 2 Right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now.
It's a weekly business news recap of the week. Here on February 7th, 2025.
There's so much stuff happening.

Speaker 2 It's hard to recap it all, but we're going to hit the highlights here. Myself and my hombre down in Miami.
What's up, Chris?

Speaker 3 What's good, brother? How are you?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm good, man.

Speaker 2 You haven't been deported, have you? No, I'm still hanging down on Miami Beach, baby.

Speaker 2 You got your papers? No.

Speaker 3 My dad did immigrate legally to this country, so I'm sick.

Speaker 2 Oh, wow. I didn't even know you were like second generation.

Speaker 3 Hey, yeah, man.

Speaker 2 Nice. Grateful.
Proud to be an American. We're all immigrants on some level, but hey, we got to do it the right way.
That's the whole point, right?

Speaker 2 Got to have the land of law or you have a land of anarchy.

Speaker 2 It's the news is becoming a land of seemingly anarchy.

Speaker 2 Not anarchy.

Speaker 2 It's just the volume of news.

Speaker 2 Typically, it goes to show you the difference in administrations, Chris. There'd be you know, weeks where we do our little pre-call,

Speaker 2 we get on the phone, like, all right, what are we going to talk about? What's what's what's topical? And now it's like, uh, how many things can we fit in?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's almost like we're getting all these updates every day of what's going on, almost as if like they know they work for us, you know, telling us what they're doing, right?

Speaker 2 It is amazing that happens.

Speaker 2 And look, no matter where you fall politically, you've got to to acknowledge the fact that shit's happening.

Speaker 2 You may or may not like it, depending on where you fall, but that's not the point. The point is,

Speaker 2 we have

Speaker 2 policies being enacted. We have,

Speaker 2 I don't know, progress.

Speaker 2 One would say it looks like progress to me, especially.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 we'll start right with,

Speaker 2 yeah, we'll start right with doge.

Speaker 2 I did see

Speaker 2 related, unrelated, that a singer wore a Doge dress to the Grammys the other night.

Speaker 2 It was interesting. It was a writer, actually, singer-songwriter.

Speaker 2 Not well known. I'm going to, I'll leave out names for the sake of that.
It's more to kind of tee off the reality of

Speaker 2 what Doge,

Speaker 2 the Department of Government Efficiency, is up to with Elon. A lot of backlash.
We'll get to that.

Speaker 2 We'll tell all sides of this coin.

Speaker 2 But I saw where the things they've enabled, saving the average American $490 something dollars, $468, everything they've done so far. It's quick.

Speaker 3 I'll take it.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Took two weeks. And

Speaker 2 a lot of

Speaker 2 There's a lot of layers going on with our government. A lot of people getting paychecks.
A lot of people doing jobs.

Speaker 2 this is why you need to watch the youtubes or the spotify video to see the air quotes i just held up doing jobs

Speaker 2 that uh may or may not be jobs yeah i don't know chris you and i do jobs i don't know if these guys are doing jobs well i've heard i heard uh

Speaker 3 someone reference elon's you know interview when he bought twitter right and how he cut 80

Speaker 3 or they left of twitter's workforce and they were interviewing him. And he's like, it turns out you just don't need that many people.

Speaker 3 You know, when you're running a business, you don't need that many people.

Speaker 3 If you're trying to, you know, run a social justice organization, on the other hand, which he's saying basically Twitter was pre-him acquiring it.

Speaker 3 So, and that's kind of the

Speaker 3 sentiment I felt towards our government. It's like we haven't been operating as a business, we've been operating as, you know,

Speaker 3 a social justice

Speaker 2 center. Yes, social justice, equity, and

Speaker 2 making sure all the stories match what we want them to be

Speaker 2 versus what they really are. It's called,

Speaker 2 I don't know, there's a word for that, isn't there?

Speaker 2 What, wokeness? Yeah. Yeah, that's over.

Speaker 2 I didn't get it. Sorry, folks.
Look at that. I need to break out my woke t-shirt sometime.

Speaker 2 You know, I'd be perfect. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, it was time. That ship has sailed.
Sorry, y'all. Sorry, my aunt, who I know doesn't like this, but

Speaker 3 you guys had your turn.

Speaker 3 You fucked up.

Speaker 2 Luckily, it was a really quick one. You know,

Speaker 2 it was a quick turn. But Doge is uncovering all kinds of costs, cutting out

Speaker 2 jobs and people that and departments. I mean, we're essentially paying people to quit now.
Because of how much inefficiency there is.

Speaker 2 We're going, hey, if you'll go quietly,

Speaker 3 you know, we'll give you a nice severance.

Speaker 2 Nice severance.

Speaker 2 And it's not like quietly, like, oh, because the far is necessarily, but something tells me these people that don't take the check are going to end up out on the cold anyway when these departments fold.

Speaker 3 Well, and also, it's like, don't take the check. All right.

Speaker 3 Well, then, when they start exposing what it was you're actually doing, which was probably not much at all, it's really going to piss people off. And you're going to become a target.

Speaker 3 You're going to be a target of the pissed off American people if you had one of these useless jobs.

Speaker 2 Chris, let me say this.

Speaker 2 I've run

Speaker 2 companies, departments for other, you know, run business for other people and for myself.

Speaker 2 I've had 100 people underneath me, direct report, not, you know, direct reports and stuff, like five or six with 100, almost 100 people. I've had 30, 20,

Speaker 2 and now we run a really lean team,

Speaker 2 20 or less.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 there's waste in what we do. I know there is.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 and not because my people aren't good or they're like lazy or not doing their job. There's just downtime and like, you know, inefficiencies.
I know there are.

Speaker 2 We, we try, I think we're better than most and we try to get them out. So

Speaker 2 you're not, you're telling me,

Speaker 2 we know there's a lot of inefficiency going on and a lot of jobs that aren't really jobs.

Speaker 3 And we knew that AI was going to come also and take a lot of jobs. And no one's really talking about that part of this.

Speaker 3 Not only are they not efficient, but are these jobs even needed anymore?

Speaker 2 Yeah. What jobs have been replaced by in government from AI? I don't see that article.
Right.

Speaker 3 You know, I'm sure we'll hear about it soon.

Speaker 2 And look, I understand the human impact of this.

Speaker 2 I am not

Speaker 2 vouching for, oh, let's fire everyone and hire robots or train robots.

Speaker 2 I'm not saying that, but I'm saying you either adapt to the market and you tune your skills and what you do to today's market to meet the demands of companies, people, things,

Speaker 2 to warrant the money you're paid,

Speaker 2 or you don't. You have that choice.
And if you don't,

Speaker 2 And you're given ample time to prepare and make those choices, you don't just keep getting the check.

Speaker 2 Sorry. sorry

Speaker 2 and that's just reality there's things that my marketing agency used to do that ai has replaced do you think we've just sat around and not picked up new skill sets new things and filled the gap no

Speaker 2 we've had to adjust because

Speaker 2 daddy needs to eat so that he can feed his kids

Speaker 2 you know like you gotta you want you gotta take care of the rest of the ship yeah you know you gotta to take care of it. When I say daddy,

Speaker 2 I'm not saying take care of me. I'm saying, like, I got to have

Speaker 2 we got the company being daddy has to make money to pay and to support everything else. And I also have some kids to feed.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 you know, like, you got to adjust. You have to adapt.
That's the real, the real market.

Speaker 2 The government's tried to become, okay, act like the real market and do all these things and hire all these people and do all these things, but they've never had to really do it because they can hide behind all this bureaucracy and have all these jobs that don't really do much of anything.

Speaker 2 When, if you're going to be and collect all this money and do all these things and act like a company, then you get to act and get the pressures that all of us feel every day, right?

Speaker 2 Hello, welcome to 2025.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 again,

Speaker 2 we can argue, or we can agree, or we can

Speaker 2 talk about the way it happens. I think right now, I think the sentiment is, okay, it's the way it's happening.

Speaker 2 We're choosing to point to that,

Speaker 2 the way that it's going down. But look,

Speaker 2 radical change, which is needed. We have deficits.
We got a lot of people's money. We're printing money.
Like, there's issues. Radical change

Speaker 2 takes radical decisions.

Speaker 2 And so it's not going to be, it's going to be messy a little bit.

Speaker 3 Can't make everybody happy.

Speaker 2 Can't make everybody happy. You know, so right now I think everybody's battling over the way it's going down

Speaker 2 for the most part. They don't like it's happening too, but they know that they can't go, oh, I'm actually, they're not going to argue that they're actually doing something worth value.

Speaker 2 They're just going to argue about the way that it's going down.

Speaker 3 Exactly.

Speaker 2 Right?

Speaker 2 It's like so.

Speaker 3 It's just foolishness. It's a fight to fight.
You know?

Speaker 2 Well, a fight. And hey,

Speaker 2 who wouldn't want to hold on to their job and their titles and everything they do that serves no purpose but keeps a paycheck in their pocket, right? I guess a lot of people would.

Speaker 2 I thought this is

Speaker 2 next on the hit list.

Speaker 2 This is too interesting not to bring up next, Chris. Trump says American Sovereign Wealth Fund could acquire TikTok.

Speaker 2 I was an American.

Speaker 2 I was not aware of the American Sovereign Wealth Fund personally.

Speaker 2 I don't know if that's new. It's new.

Speaker 3 They announced it this week of creating one. And

Speaker 3 wild if they do in TikTok is our first American sovereign fund investment.

Speaker 2 It's a pretty good first investment. Hey,

Speaker 3 we we all use it. We all like it.
We might as well all be shareholders of it, you know?

Speaker 2 And look,

Speaker 2 if the Chinese government, which controls all of their companies, we know this happens, has essentially had control of TikTok, one of the most powerful social media platforms on the planet, why shouldn't the U.S.

Speaker 2 government?

Speaker 2 Why wouldn't we want, you know,

Speaker 2 why would you rather the Chinese national government or communist government

Speaker 2 have power versus the U.S.?

Speaker 3 Exaggerated here. TikTok is the Chinese Communist Party, right? Yeah.
Would you rather them own it

Speaker 3 all day?

Speaker 2 I'd love to fight over that. Come on the show and let's have that argument.
Who would you rather? Because

Speaker 2 you ain't going to win the argument over if the Chinese communist government controls their business.

Speaker 2 They do.

Speaker 2 So we'll start there. So the premise can't be, well, they don't really own it.
It's owned by Bike Dance. Nah, nah.
We'll start this battle royale

Speaker 2 with the acceptance that

Speaker 2 the Chinese communist government owns

Speaker 2 and controls their, you know, controls, owns

Speaker 2 the businesses that are running their company, in their country. And so we'll start there.
So you, if you want to have the argument that this is a crazy idea,

Speaker 3 you're probably 16 and live at home, if that's your argument, and you love TikTok.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I'm going to give you the L, depending on which way I need to turn that, depending on the camera, we'll say it's that one.

Speaker 2 That's a loss for you, bud.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 President Donald Trump suggested that a newly created U.S. sovereign wealth fund could acquire TikTok to prevent it from being banned in the U.S.

Speaker 2 TikTok has until April to find a new non-Chinese owner

Speaker 2 or face a U.S. ban.

Speaker 2 Trump floated the idea of the U.S. taking a 50% ownership position, possibly with private investors.

Speaker 2 Establishing a sovereign wealth fund would take time and may not be viable before the deadline. The purchase costs could be in the tens of billions.
The U.S. government owns TikTok.

Speaker 2 It could face First Amendment issues regarding free speech.

Speaker 2 I mean, again,

Speaker 2 it's comical

Speaker 2 to make that com you know, versus the Chinese communist government that now owns it. Okay, well, it's not beholden to any of these laws.

Speaker 3 They don't understand it. That's where you just have a general lack of education of these users complaining about it.

Speaker 3 They don't understand the app you're currently using is government-owned, but not your government.

Speaker 2 Congrats.

Speaker 2 Here's some quotes

Speaker 2 from users expressing concern. I don't think too many people want to be on a platform that is owned and monitored by the government.

Speaker 2 But you're okay that it's the Chinese communist government.

Speaker 3 Like, if you're on the internet,

Speaker 3 depending on what country it's owned by the government.

Speaker 2 Someone else said it is absolutely effing. dystopian.
Why is the government owning social media?

Speaker 3 Are they aware that China's China's censorship?

Speaker 2 What is the grade? What is the GPA? What is the IQ of the average TikTok user? Like, what is it? Because this is the stupidest fucking quotes I've ever heard. Like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 2 Are you that blind? Do you know who owns this? Like, this is how stupid the users are. Not all of them.
I'm not bad mouthing every single person. There's billions of people on the platform.

Speaker 2 But just, are you kidding? Really?

Speaker 2 This is what we're talking about? Like, do you understand

Speaker 2 Byte Dance, a Chinese company, and Chinese companies are controlled, controlled by the Chinese communist government? And you're saying

Speaker 2 dystopian? And you're saying, I don't want a platform that's owned and monitored by the government.

Speaker 2 Like, people, we're at war with China. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It hasn't been made clear. We've been in a war.
Like, we're just not in a war of bullets.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 That shows how stupid

Speaker 3 our own citizens are that they would fight for something that essentially is against your own survival.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. Blows my mind.
It's just

Speaker 3 can't fix stupid.

Speaker 2 You can't fix stupid. And I don't know, like,

Speaker 2 I don't know, like, all the, there's not enough detail here on the ins and outs of the sovereign wealth fund and who manages all that. There's questions to be answered 100%.

Speaker 2 I'm not saying there's not

Speaker 2 a lot of stuff that would need to happen with this to be done the right way, But to argue for one minute that it's better off in Chinese communist hands government is asinine.

Speaker 2 So let's just end that there.

Speaker 2 This is the Royal Rumble. You just got thrown out into the 10th stand, like, like 10 rows.

Speaker 3 You're getting me fired up today.

Speaker 2 I wasn't even really prepared. I had, I, you know, look,

Speaker 2 busy team. Yeah, we go through the articles.
We know what what we're going to talk about. But I hadn't read every quote.
I didn't really get fired up until I read every quote from that.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 2 What are we talking about here?

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 this is some of the arguments that you have.

Speaker 2 This is some of the stuff that

Speaker 2 you deal with, like in reading the news and seeing the interpretations. That's all we say.
We take the bullshit out of the, this isn't partisan, this is a partisan.

Speaker 2 I'm just saying it's asinine to have this conversation about government control of the social media when we know what's going on here so

Speaker 2 yeah

Speaker 2 taking the bullshit out of

Speaker 2 business no bs just straight facts here i mean there's some we

Speaker 2 get paid for our opinions however some of this is just factual let's uh Let's do our homework, people.

Speaker 3 Yeah, there's no opinion here. This is straight facts.

Speaker 3 Now talk to me about tariffs.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 talks. Tariff talk.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 as the way the world turns here, as the world turns, you know, the tariffs come, tariffs go. Like we started, we were talking yesterday, news articles,

Speaker 2 tariffs in place. And everything with USBS, no packages, no more packages, you know, from China with the $200 limit or whatever.
But as of this releasing,

Speaker 2 tariffs,

Speaker 2 suddenly, you know, Canada and Mexico coming to the table, which is what this is meant to do. It's called a tactic, people.

Speaker 3 Yeah. It's called negotiating.

Speaker 2 Negotiation.

Speaker 3 Little thing done in business daily, if you're not familiar. I think our last administration wasn't too familiar with how business functioned.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so they both come to the table. We paused the tariffs to get to the negotiation table.

Speaker 2 We've got a 10% tariff on Chinese imports is still moving forward,

Speaker 2 prompting retaliation from China. I mean, yeah.
And look, I'll say this.

Speaker 2 There's, and, and, and Donald Trump said this, and I don't say this from a position of like arrogance or anything. It's just like reality.

Speaker 2 There probably will be some pain from this, from, for some people.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 3 I'll tell you where the pain is.

Speaker 3 It's the metals. It's the key metals.
It's they control a lot of resources that are used in our defense and our weapons. And I had a conversation yesterday, and I can't say a lot about it, but

Speaker 3 essentially our natural resources, what's going to happen, these terrorists will impose until we can deregulate and start mining again.

Speaker 3 We need to be mining our own metals because right now China owns us when it comes to defense metals, and we've gave a lot of our supply to Ukraine.

Speaker 3 So we're not sitting on a whole natural pile of these natural resources that that's where China is going to hit us.

Speaker 3 And I could see there's going to be delay in the time of we can get our our own infrastructure pumping again, get our own mining and stuff going on, get our own source going.

Speaker 3 But that's not a quick process. You know, I think that's something a lot of us don't think about as a normal American, right? Even these tariffs, I have a friend.
He's, uh, he makes leather gloves.

Speaker 3 Some of them he makes in China. And he goes, well, you know, your friends in America are going to have to pay 10% more now.

Speaker 3 And I'm like,

Speaker 3 I hate to break it to you, bro, but no one gives a shit. Like people are more concerned with paying $12 for eggs, right?

Speaker 3 Yeah, we need to get our fuel costs, our energy costs down, all of our natural resources, the things that make us rich, right?

Speaker 3 So, that's my opinion on the matter. I think it is going to be kind of

Speaker 2 going to be rocky. And look, but we got to get a talk.
Look, the trade deficits with all these countries is ridiculous how much more we're bringing in than what we're sending out. So,

Speaker 2 there's got to be some balance.

Speaker 2 You know, like we'll find it.

Speaker 2 We'll we'll find it it's gonna be rocky getting there but you got to find some balance and status quo isn't good enough it's not if you're fooling yourselves if you think well i don't you know let's not rock the boat too much you know no benjamin swing you got to start having some of these discussions because it gets real interesting we can

Speaker 2 We can get comfortable in business with what's comfortable today

Speaker 2 with the assumption that it's going to stay that way. And that's a false belief.

Speaker 2 Everything changes. And if you aren't preparing for that change, if you aren't confronting it,

Speaker 2 then

Speaker 2 you're fooling yourself. That's in business, it's in politics and everything.
And so it doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the moment, but like

Speaker 2 this is these are just realities that need to be faced. So

Speaker 2 we'll see what happens. But Terrace in, Terrace out,

Speaker 2 started it. USPS delivering, not delivering, now delivering.
Okay.

Speaker 2 But we're getting conversations started. I think Donald's, I think,

Speaker 2 look,

Speaker 2 like,

Speaker 2 love, dislike, whatever with the administration,

Speaker 2 he's kind of getting the, you know, like when you, if you shake someone's hand with one of those zappers,

Speaker 2 the jolt, we're getting a little jolt here. Like, it's, we got to get some jolt happening.
Like, jolt cola. Remember that, Chris? You ever have a little jolt cola? That was before energy drinks.

Speaker 2 That shit tasted terrible. But I drank it, man.
I'd get a little, I was like 14 or something. Who knows what's going on? That was before, like,

Speaker 2 we knew everything. It's kind of like, you know, you smoke on planes too, I guess.
You know, jolt cola, like, you know, 400 milligrams of caffeine for a teenager. Or like a

Speaker 2 good idea. Not a good idea.
But that shit was terrible, but anyway, we need a jolt to some of these things to get the conversations happening because sleepy Joe,

Speaker 2 it wasn't happening, and status quo wasn't good for anyone.

Speaker 2 So, we'll see. Big trade in the NBA, thought this was interesting.
I mean, I wouldn't normally talk about it, but with two of the best players in the league, there is a business impact. And hey,

Speaker 2 I'm into sports. My kids are into it.
I got my sports cards here. I'm going to talk to that.
Brought another pack, folks. I sent out a couple packs this week.
A couple more. Hey, DM me.

Speaker 2 Send you a pack. Hey, but look, Luca

Speaker 2 Donchik. I always have a hard time sounding his last name.

Speaker 2 Donchic, Donchik. He's got that interesting accent, but I like Luca.
My kids like him too. Luca traded for Anthony Davis, Dallas to LA.

Speaker 2 This said, shockwave. I did not see this coming.
You know, watch just enough basketball to kid to keep up with it.

Speaker 2 He's a lot older, like six years older. Luca's in his prime.
And a lot of people saying saying no one would ever trade like a prime Jordan, prime bird, magic.

Speaker 2 None of those would have, they would have never been traded. So why is Luca getting traded? Well,

Speaker 2 I don't know. It seems

Speaker 2 bizarre at best. I don't think they got along.
I saw a video, Chris. This is interesting.
They showed a video. I'd never seen this video.

Speaker 2 It's funny where these videos pop up to sort of prove the point. Luca's is probably top five, top three players in the league.
Some to say the best right now, plays for Dallas.

Speaker 2 And last year, they won like a playoff series, and he was having a beer in the hallway after the victory. They won the series.
And I think they still had another series to go,

Speaker 2 but there was going to be like a two-week layoff or something. So like he was celebrating with a beer.
And they, sometimes they pop champagne and stuff.

Speaker 2 And like the president of operations grabbed the beer, like walked by him.

Speaker 2 and like kind of put his arm around whatever there took the beer out of his hand and walked away it was just interesting it was non-confrontational It was just like, and Luca just kind of looked at, I was like, and people were saying that there was a little bit of odds that Luca doesn't work hard enough or is not in shape enough or whatever.

Speaker 2 And might, I don't, you know, I don't see his personal workout regimes, I don't know, but interesting trade nonetheless and big shock waves.

Speaker 2 I know you're not like a gigantic NBA fan. Did you know this had gone down?

Speaker 3 I did see this come across one of the social media things. I just saw like shocking trade, but I have no idea what the details or who it involved.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's short term, it might be good for Dallas because they have Kyrie Irving.
And so they've got offense. They've got some other players.
It might make them better

Speaker 2 for about this long, but long term, it's a better win for the Lakers. It'll be interesting how Luca and LeBron James play together.
Haven't seen comments from LeBron.

Speaker 2 It actually goes to show you, you know, in this world where you feel like the players kind of control everything now.

Speaker 2 I mean, the players had no idea, you know, like, oh, so maybe the owners do still control this. And when they want to make a move, they make a move.

Speaker 2 We'll see.

Speaker 2 Home affordability crisis taking a toll on America's young adults. Interesting.
I've been doing some man on the street stuff for one of our official sponsors, Independent Center.

Speaker 2 Go to independentcenter.org, sign up for their newsletter. Non-partisan stories and advice and data straight to your inbox, independentcenter.org.

Speaker 2 Been doing some stuff like Man on the Street, going to ask people, hey, what do you think of the American dream? Still alive and well, yes or no, those kind of things.

Speaker 2 And the sentiment, you know, we're trying to go around and get diverse answers. You know, you got a few of the absolutelies, which I tend to agree with myself.

Speaker 2 But then there's a few that, you know, just point out the fact that what I've noticed, which is

Speaker 2 a lot of salaries haven't changed while all these prices have gone up, you know, like, and I'll even say, like, and the services that I offer, like for the eighth city, I mean, I haven't been able to raise my prices 30%.

Speaker 2 Got to pay people a little bit more, but their salaries haven't doubled. But I'll be damned if you're, if the grocery bill isn't doubling for all of us.
So much less home affordability.

Speaker 2 Prices, you know, Greenville, South Carolina, home of our studio and my home and I love it and it's nothing really reflective of Greenville but I've talked about this before houses that I owned 10 years ago that have doubled in pricing when salaries haven't doubled you know that's how I mean no other income streams doubled but that and look can't hide can't can't fight progress not fighting it but it doesn't change reality you know whether we're fighting it or believing it or not does it change the reality So it says, home ownership is increasingly difficult due to rising interest rates, inflated home prices, and stagnant wages.

Speaker 2 There we go, what we just said. Many young adults are forced into lifelong renting, unable to build equity.

Speaker 2 Without strategic shifts, we're watching an entire generation get priced out of the American dream. It's from Foxbusiness.com.

Speaker 2 What do you think about this, Chris?

Speaker 3 Amen. I'm glad Fox is talking about it because this means that

Speaker 3 the boomers will understand this. Because I mean, I've seen this with people I know, my family, friends of mine.
You know, I hear it just here in Florida, especially growing up.

Speaker 3 I hear from whatever hometown people are from,

Speaker 3 all of them say, I couldn't go back and buy a house there. Everyone's priced out, right?

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 3 I mean, it's,

Speaker 3 I don't know how you fix this.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't, you know, I, it seems like a genie that's hard to put back in the bottle, right?

Speaker 2 I think it would help with interest.

Speaker 3 I think you're gonna have to have a correction, right, with the real estate market. And I think it's unfortunate.
Everyone feels like they're getting screwed, right?

Speaker 3 You got private equity coming in, buying whole neighborhoods. And we saw this during COVID, right? Where BlackRock was buying full neighborhoods to raise the prices and price manipulate.

Speaker 3 And now I think you're going to essentially have a bunch of empty neighborhoods that, you know, full of, or you're going to have just neighborhoods full of renters.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And here's what it says. This is from Tom Spaith Easel Properties.

Speaker 2 10 years ago, 50% of homes were affordable for young families. Today, only 15%.

Speaker 2 Institutional investors are buying up homes, forcing young families into renting in lower quality neighborhoods, increasing financial stress. and housing instability

Speaker 2 there's more to this article that i'm going to bring up but it does bring bring up an interesting thing.

Speaker 2 If I was starting a neighborhood, like you'd almost, if I'm going to, and I know there's both sides of the spectrum, developers sell the houses, but just say you have to live here, right?

Speaker 2 If you buy a home in this neighborhood, you have to live here.

Speaker 3 I could see that coming.

Speaker 2 I could see that coming.

Speaker 2 And that would change some of this, wouldn't it?

Speaker 3 Because if I'm a homeowner too in my neighborhood and some group buys 10 of the houses and then they're not occupied, my property value is getting fucked up. Yeah, you know,

Speaker 2 so

Speaker 3 something's got to change, and this is where I think

Speaker 3 people have been saying this, but I think when you have the data and the numbers to really support it, where it shows, hey, we need a major shift in what we're doing in our economy because the numbers just don't add up, right?

Speaker 3 I mean, you say on this train,

Speaker 3 you're gonna have a full collapse of the real estate market.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah,

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 I don't think that this follows like

Speaker 2 what we want to be seeing happening. And look, I have, I own a rental property,

Speaker 2 a few of them.

Speaker 2 And so

Speaker 2 I can understand both sides of this. The

Speaker 2 it's tricky,

Speaker 2 but

Speaker 2 I think you need to have a percentage that's at least owned by the people that are there for new neighborhoods and things like that.

Speaker 2 There's also the reality that there are people, and I'm going to fight for go on both sides here, take the BS out.

Speaker 2 Like for myself as an investor, the people that are renting from other properties that I own would not ever, they would not have been in 10 years ago, 20. These people need to rent.

Speaker 2 That's their only option based on the lifestyle and the

Speaker 2 jobs and the realities of their credit. And it's just the reality.
So we're getting,

Speaker 2 I'm not giving myself like some altruistic. Oh, I'm giving people opportunity.
But in a way, they would not be able to afford to live in this house any other way but to rent it.

Speaker 2 So there's that balance of it, but you do, it's a slippery slope, and

Speaker 2 it can't artificially inflate the price of the houses

Speaker 2 based on

Speaker 2 institutional investors

Speaker 2 versus homeowners and the reality of what people can afford and what they should cost.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, we're just going to decide that no one's going to own homes. But I will say, and a lot of people do, that genie's probably not going to the bottle.

Speaker 2 And if you want, and part of your American dream is to have ownership of land, parcel,

Speaker 2 home,

Speaker 2 do it in the next five years. Make it happen

Speaker 2 because

Speaker 2 it probably isn't getting better.

Speaker 2 And we might move to this world where,

Speaker 2 you know, it's just a renter's world.

Speaker 2 I don't know. And part of me

Speaker 2 can understand that world where you don't necessarily have to own it to live there.

Speaker 2 But I think it also just depends on what you want your goals and your life to be.

Speaker 2 Like, if you want to own it and retire there and be in the middle of nowhere and be bothered by no one, then you better start buying it now.

Speaker 2 We'll see. I don't know, Chris.
I mean, well, I mean, is your what's your American dream? Is your American dream to have 10 acres in the middle of nowhere?

Speaker 3 Changes every day.

Speaker 2 Depends on my mood.

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but I don't know if I want it in America. Might be in fucking Spain.

Speaker 3 It's all going to depend on kind of what goes on here, but you get to a point where you got to go where your money gets you the most. You know what I mean? And you see that.

Speaker 3 You see, that's why you have,

Speaker 3 and this isn't just even America, even in Europe, they're going through the very similar thing where,

Speaker 3 you know, people are moving to Bali and Thailand and over here, Colombia and Mexico, because your dollar goes farther. It's like, why slave away

Speaker 3 here

Speaker 3 if you can work remote and live somewhere your money goes farther?

Speaker 3 You know, I mean, I'm strongly considering doing some time in Colombia. Like

Speaker 3 the cost of living down there is way more affordable.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So we'll see. Cause, I mean, at least where I'm at, you're right, I'm trying to build my wealth.
I'm, we're building companies. And so no part of me has ever.

Speaker 3 One point I was under contract for a house.

Speaker 3 I'm glad it didn't work out, but I've always more kind of taken the Gran Cardone philosophy of like, you don't want to purchase a house because it like anchors you somewhere and you're not as quick to be able to jump into opportunities.

Speaker 3 And I've seen that in my life, right? I've moved a lot, lived in a lot of different cities. So

Speaker 2 I think it's the stage of life. I do think, like, if you start with a wife and kids, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 And, and I think if you can afford it, and even whether that's going to be Columbia when you're 60 or you know, South Carolina woods, you know, like to start saving for that or to have that to go to winter if you want to, um, to not have,

Speaker 2 but I will say it's interesting because when even when you own the property, unless you still have income, you've got property taxes, you have cost that comes with that home ownership.

Speaker 2 It's never outright owned with no cost other than, you know, putting food in it.

Speaker 2 And so it's, it's interesting. It raises a whole lot of other questions.
It could be an episode alone, but

Speaker 2 we'll table that. I will say I did talk last week.
I want to give a shout out to Sarah Saunders at resumebuilder.com. They put out the article this week: 44% of Americans lying in the hiring process.

Speaker 2 They've got a press release out. You can go to resumebuilder.com to see it.
It's pretty interesting. So 24%

Speaker 2 have lied on their resume, 19% in an interview and 6% 6% on the cover letter. We hit on some of these stats last week, but pretty amazing.
This says nearly half of Americans. So

Speaker 2 I'm a good marketer. So sometimes I find myself like my wife will catch me sometimes, like not lying, but like I like, I'm not an exaggerator, but I like to talk things up.

Speaker 2 And like, so it makes me like cognizant of this. And I'm not on my resume, by the way.
I've been an entrepreneur for eight years now, but more like, okay, all right. What are you going to find?

Speaker 2 You know, there's a difference between

Speaker 2 marketing and lying.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 be a good marketer. Don't be a good liar.

Speaker 2 That's the key. Also say don't let a, don't, don't let the truth get in the way of a good lie

Speaker 2 or a good story. So,

Speaker 2 yeah, anyway. I digress.
Don't lie on your resume. It doesn't help.
Play the long game. I've been there.
We've all done like stupid shit in our lives. And, you know, we've all told lies at some point.

Speaker 2 I just,

Speaker 2 they compound, man. So it's never good.

Speaker 2 You agree, Chris?

Speaker 3 Never. Never lie.

Speaker 3 Karma will get you.

Speaker 2 Karma will get you.

Speaker 2 Just one way or another.

Speaker 2 We appreciate Resume Builder for sending in those stats. ResumeBuilder.com.

Speaker 2 Finally, today, as i finish off this episode you know we're always fueled you see the x's x always marks the spot you know i keep the energy throughout the episode high because of exponent drinkexponent.com and drink exponent on instagram plant-based zero sugar zero bad stuff all the good stuff keeps me powered up no crash none of that sugar buzz none of those calories hey i it's hey it's 70 something degrees out here i got the one pack showing.

Speaker 2 I got to get at least three going. You know, like the only way to do that is I can't be drinking my calories, Chris.
No drinking calories. Can't.
No Cokes, none of the sugar stuff.

Speaker 2 Plant-based fusion energy drink exponent. The official energy drink of right about now.

Speaker 2 We appreciate them.

Speaker 2 Got the packs, baby. Sports card central is going on.
Rad rips.

Speaker 2 And hey possible new show name

Speaker 2 you know when you they call now like when you open a box or something you share it's called like breaking like breaking is like opening packs like shared maybe something else so i had a name idea

Speaker 2 so break instead of you know breaking bad breaking rad

Speaker 2 for a card shop or a or a sports card podcast breaking rad because hey you want a radio copy the breaking bad logo exactly Yes. That'd be a good.
That might be. That might be.

Speaker 2 If I decide to do a third show and I clone myself, Chris, it might be that. So, one pack open.
Hey, this could be a good sign.

Speaker 2 We didn't even talk about it. That's how much stuff is going on, Chris.
Could be a sign.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 a game, the big game, is Sunday. Super Bowls, Sunday.

Speaker 2 We have Philly and we have KC.

Speaker 2 And I opened one pack on today's episode. And guess who's on the front, baby? Who's on the front? Saquon Barkley.
That is the running back that led the NFL this year and is the Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 2 That might be a sign, Chris. I mean, there's 32 teams, man.
I opened the pack, unopened, and it's Saquon, the best running back. That could be a sign for you, Philly fans.

Speaker 2 You might want to put some money down. on Philly winning.
That's who I like anyway, who I'm rooting for. My kids are all rooting for Pat and Homes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 2 The academic impact of the Super Bowl is like billions of dollars, but hey, you can't deny that Saquon's here. We got Saquon

Speaker 2 and then, hey, Brian Thomas Jr. rookie.
That's a nice $10 card right there.

Speaker 2 Best wide receiver for Jacksonville. Anyway,

Speaker 2 we appreciate Panini,

Speaker 2 makers of the best sports cards, NFL Prism sports cards. Cards.
Go check them out. They just had a new release today.
Saquon on the front. It's got to be a sign.
Chris, any final words?

Speaker 3 Have a good weekend, everyone.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we appreciate everyone for making us number one. Chris Broby Hansen on Instagram.
Go follow him. He's just as good looking on Instagram as he is on the show.

Speaker 2 And you know where I am at Ryan Alford. RyanisRight.com.
All the highlight clips, the full episodes. And you never know what's going to happen in those stories, baby.
You never know. Rad rips, cars,

Speaker 2 all the fun stuff, none of the bad stuff.

Speaker 2 It's Instagram, baby. You don't show any of the bad stuff, show all the good stuff.
We love you. We appreciate you.
We'll see you next time 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.