Business News of the Week: Policy Impacts to Business - DOGE Delivering Checks - Sports Card Market

This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month.
Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.
Hey, what's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now.

It's Friday, February 21st, 2025.

I got my good friend Chris Hansen in the studio here, buddy.

What's up?

Good.

Good to be here.

Getting close here.

I know.

In the studio, live in G Vegas.

We have, hey, welcome to the snow, brother.

I definitely didn't plan for a snow day here in South Carolina, but.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, man. Uh, you never know.
We get Greenville's, you know,

right at the foothills, right below the base in the mountains.

We get the four seasons in two weeks.

It was 80 degrees two weeks ago. We got snow coming down.

We're at the beautiful social house.

My cowork lounge here in Greenville on the Swan private trail. Come see us drop in anytime.
You never know. Mr.
Hanson might be here, you know, it's a great spot. We, uh, we appreciate everyone for listening wherever, whenever you're catching us, uh, we're bringing you today's hottest business news as always.
And you know, anything else we want to get into.

We might even have a second angle here today.

Some of the sports card business we've been talking about.

So my kids and I have been watching.

I mean, it's almost addictive of watching these YouTube videos, watching people pat open cards.

It's like watching online gambling.

Yeah.

I'll admit I wasn't a huge believer until I was at the airport in Miami on the way here. And I see a vending machine with like six teenage boys buying these exact sports cards.
And I was like, all right. Yeah, exactly.
There's something to this. There's money in this.
Yeah, there is money. I had not seen the vending machines, but nothing surprises me anymore.
So how's the week been, brother? It's great. I'm happy to be up here.
We've been hanging out, knocking out some stuff. Yeah.
It's a cold plunge last night. Yes.
That was interesting. I hadn't done that in a while.
It was my first time, but, uh, 37 degrees. I was impressed with you.
37 degrees, two minutes for a beginner type. Yeah.
Yeah, man. It's got a, I can, I'm mentally strong, you know, it's gotta shut it type.
Yeah, man. It's got to, I'm mentally strong, you know, it's got to shut it down.
Yeah. You just block out the noise.
I don't know. Anybody listening out there that's been in the cold plunge, you know, sauna and cold plunge is all the rage.
Yeah. It's good for you.
Chris and I ventured in. We've got another show called Vibe Science.
Go check that out. We talk about all the latest in health and wellness.
Hey, we practice what we preach, brother. Yeah, no one can say we're posers.
We're doing the deal for sure. That content alone might be worth the price of admission.
I shut it down, but I don't know what facial features I had going on. You're in the zone.
In the zone, man. Just got to shut it down.
Yeah, but hey, they say it's great for you. mean i know you we talk about on the show we have all these specialists on supposedly mentally physically your body like just goes into this complete you know uh you can either let it overtake you or you just gotta lock in and then the the hour after it that you're rewarming think is, is the most interesting part.
It's a buzz. Yeah.
Yeah. I was having, I'd had an energy drink right before that combined.
I'm like, woo. All right.
Ryan's sitting in the corner, kind of just staring out in the abyss for a while. I was like, but in a good way.
He needs to party drugs. He needs to go get the cold plunge.
Yeah, exactly. But I appreciate our friends at Soul Yoga, who's right here next to us on the song of Repertraille.
I'll give them a shout out. Appreciate them.
Yeah. Their owner, Krish, has been on our show actually here.
So you can go check out that episode. He's a great entrepreneur.
He's doing some amazing things, but we appreciate them. And, you know, we're going to jump right at it.
It's funny. I feel like we read these headlines, Chris, and it's like the same.
It's nuances to the same themes. Yeah.
Okay. It's interest rates.
It's tariffs. It's Doge.
And not the crypto. Not the crypto.
It could be. Yeah, it could be.
We'll have get your insights on the crypto today. I am.
The crypto has been sort of plateaued. I'm ready for it.
It's time for a jump. It's time.
You know, that's all there is. Yeah, we'll get into it.
We'll get into it. So here's what, you know, companies are saying about the impact of these policies.
So 2025 earnings session insight or season insights, companies are grappling with the impact of President Donald Trump's policies, particularly tariffs and immigrations as frequent topics on earnings calls, terms like tariff, and newer concepts like Doge.

I don't know if it's newer anymore. Department of Government Efficiency and Gulf of America are surfacing more often in corporate discussions.
So all the talk. And I think the jury's still out about what the impact's going to be.
And I think that's why you're seeing people talk about it. It's raising eyebrows.
They're like, okay, how much of this is dialogue? Yeah. That's not necessarily going to, the policy is not going to change.
It's not going to affect every business, you know, back to, like we said, that negotiating tactics versus how many things are actually going to be, you know, put in place. I think that's where sort of the trepidation, depending on where you fall.
I think we're in this weird in between kind of where, you know, the plays have been made, the decisions have been made. And now we're kind of in that waiting period to see the, the impact.
And I think obviously the press needs something to write about. It's almost like, let's just write and talk theories.
What could, what couldn't. And think that relates to everything i think we're at kind of a observation point right now of this administration where all right decisions have been made moves have been made now let's kind of just sit and see what happens yeah it says uncertainty remains across many of our core markets in the global economy we've game planned out several scenarios and steps we could take depending on what actually goes into effect.
That's from Scott Heron, CFO of Cisco. So, exactly.
There's a bunch of things we could do, but we won't know until we know. Great.
Thanks for the update, Scott. Yep.
And this was a quote from one of the CEOs. I think Doge is going to bring meritocracy and transparency to government.
I think that's exactly what our commercial business is. So, since the government continues to drive to be more efficient, we see this as a continued opportunity for the company.
That was Bill Maney, CEO of Iron Mountain. I'm not familiar with Iron Mountain, but clearly he made the article.
I think it's a hedge fund or something. I think we're in this wait and see period.
And all I can say is for people, most people listen to the show. Keep your head down, man.
Keep your head down and keep moving forward. The headlines are so, I've found this a bit for myself, but we have this show.
We want to talk about news and bring value and make it actionable. But some of this stuff is like, we got to like remove ourselves from a bit.
It's not because we're not interested, but like the daily impact is just, it can distraction yeah versus knowledge yes that's what it feels like right now right i think there's other information you could be absorbing on a daily basis that would serve you better than kind of it's filler news right like i don't there's no big movement happening no they're just reporting on previous stuff that's happened and kind of speculating on the future, you know? So like you said, keep your head down and keep moving forward, whatever it is you're doing and just there's a light coming. Yeah, exactly.
I did. I did like this jumping straight to some of our, uh, you know, lighter news Coke launching simply pop.
You know, this plays across both of our shows so i thought it was interesting it's a prebiotic soda i want to taste this just because it looks tasty it looks good strawberry pop i mean who doesn't want like a strawberry soda i'm thinking like you know a cross between what like crush not orange like strawberry crush yeah it tastes anything like, I'm in. I mean, I'm a fan of these.
I've had some of the other brands of the prebiotic sodas, and they're definitely... I can't speak on the actual nutrition and health.
I feel like I'm being healthier when I drink them. And they taste good enough to where I'm like, oh, this is a healthy soda.
But honestly, I think it's about time Coke got there. Like they're losing revenue on traditional soda.
So this is a marketing. We're looking at our screen here of marketing.
Yeah. This is the new term.
Juice squeezed. It's like, it's like a benefit.
It's not fresh squeezed. It's juice squeezed.
That's good marketing if I've ever heard it. Where else would it have come? Of course.
Hey, how can we say it's sort of like fresh squeeze, but not fresh squeeze? It's juice squeeze. What the hell does, what does juice squeeze mean? How do you squeeze the juice? You don't squeeze the juice.
You squeeze the fruit. So, sorry, Coke.
You got a marketer here reading business news. I know all the tricks.
That's one of them right there. They went to legal and said, how can we say this? Made with real fruit juice.
So it's juice squeezed. That looks like a little bit of a misleading marketing label, if you ask me.
It's from concentrate. Yeah.
Then concentrated. So it's juice squeezed, not fruit squeezed, and then concentrated.
Hmm. Hmm.
We'll hear about it in six months on our other show. Someone will tell us.
Lots of prebiotics. I've always thought prebiotics sounded bad.
Like I don't know why, but like when I first heard it and I was very ill informed like five or six years ago, like when it was starting to like bubble up, I was like, and it wasn't necessarily in the context that it is now. Oh, that doesn't sound good.
I think I was like antibiotics. Like, is this the opposite of an antibiotic? Yeah, a prebiotic.
Oh no, don't put that in my drink. Do not put that in my drink.
I want no prebiotics. I need antibiotics.
Yeah. And now it's an everything.
Anyway, has nothing to do with that. And I was an idiot.
It's something to do with your gut health. It helps your gut health.
It's good for your digestive health. Yes.
But I'm liking these flavors. I like the cans.
I got the simply. I just hope it tastes good, man.
I got to have good taste. That's what it comes down to.
Can you make it healthy and taste good? A lot of times there's things fight with one another. Send us a few boxes.
Let us taste it. Yeah.
But I will say this as it relates to the business market. All these alternative drinks are the rage.
Yeah. So you have declining alcohol drinkers.
You have people really watching the sugar content. Yeah.
Uh, you have people wanting alternative ways to

get energy or different buzzes electrolytes that aren't as seemingly unhealthy as alcohol and other

things. So there's a lot of damn money in this.
It's just, it seems like it's hard to get traction. Like we've seen a lot of companies, you know, direct to retail, all that stuff.
It's just, you know, one thing when Coke launches it, they've already got a billion places of distribution. Yeah.
But it's big business in the liquid. Because look, people always want something fresh to drink.

Water's great, but I think there's always room for this stuff.

But I think there's like this new, I don't know, the health drink business is supposed to just like 10X for the next few years.

What's your favorite drink, Chris, that's in this space of kind of wellness?

I mean, outside of like a natural cold press juice. Yeah.
Like anything that's like, I mean, you've had it, you've had like CBD drinks or neither. Have you had any of those or like the mushroom ones? Have you had any of the ones that you're not tripping or anything? Yeah.
There's one, I think it's called Odyssey. Yeah.
It's a. Those hit my Facebook feed.
Like, yeah, they're like a mushroom elixir. It's like Lion's mane.
It's an energy drink with mushrooms. Mushrooms are really good for, you know, a lot of, a lot of things, but for your brain and your physical health.
But I really did like those. I tried those, those I thought were pretty awesome.
And then non-, there's one called Mellow, that's just watermelon juice. But they have some with like watermelon juice and ginger or watermelon passion fruit, because watermelon juice has a lot of natural electrolytes.
So it's very hydrating. So also good for your blood pressure, good for your libido too.
FYI. So that's another one that if you ask me like what I've, I used to love soda, like one, two sodas a day.
That's been my now substitute at night is, you know, a sparkling watermelon drinker. And we've talked about some of the CBD drinks, you know, there's a lot of these new THC CBD sparkling beverages that are getting a lot of popularity.

I've seen a lot of my friends that are moving away from alcohol, like you mentioned, right?

Yep.

These low, kind of low dose THC CBD drinks that are more social and chill.

So, and that's, you don't get the hangover.

I think you're going to start seeing more of that at the bars.

Yeah.

It becomes more mainstream and obviously legal.

I'm not suggesting like, you know.

And bars and tribes, right? But yeah. I mean I know in New York there was bars trying to do CBD elixirs and whatnot and then just regulation kind of got in the way of it.
So I think that will start to get out of the way as you see the growth and then it's just. But I do think sometimes there's like contrary.
It's like if you're getting buzzed up drunk versus the mellow, those are opposing parties. It is.
I mean, I got friends. They like beer and you're one of those guys.
Yeah. I like beer too.
You're a beer guy. I'm not like a raging, like, I don't know.
I can drink 10 beers and be kind of the same guy yeah you know some of those personalities change yeah people pick their poison but i think having an alternative like like say the cbd drinks where before we had nothing right it was alcohol or nothing and even now you have some of these drinks um i forget the name of the company katy perry is a partner in, but they make these like champagne drinks that have mushrooms and L-theanine. And I, it was a friend of mine was pregnant and she introduced me to it actually.
So there's, you're right. It's going to 10X, all these alternatives, all these alcohol alternatives.
And some of them give you a buzz and they're good for you. So.
I think you're going to see a lot in that. I would just caution people listening.

It's D to C is tough. Yeah.
You got to get the distribution. Oh, I, I, we got approached.
Some guys wanted to launch a drink last year and it was a great idea. Great.
Yeah. Great branding, great formula, but it's a lot of time and energy.
Yeah. Pun intended.
You have to drink a lot of those shrinks to make it happen.

I saw this.

So Elon Musk related to Do it happen. I saw this.

Elon Musk, related to Doge, is weighing a

Doge dividend

to send Americans checks

using

saved funds.

It sounds like IRS

repayments to me in a

roundabout way. He later said that

Doge's party should be on closing the federal

budget deficit. So I guess he's like,

I guess before we should send

And repayments to me. Yeah.
In a roundabout way. He later said that Doge's priority should be on closing the federal budget deficit.
So I guess he's like, I guess before we should, you know, send checks, we need to close the deficit. But nonetheless, you know, everybody not like that, like the way he's getting there, but I like what he's trying to do.
I mean, I'm enjoying watching the process, just seeing all the fraud and abuse get exposed because we've all known it's there. But seeing it, you know, in these updates with the receipts, they're showing of what was spent on what is really just like enraging to a degree.
Right. As a taxpayer.
So I like this quote right here. This is very important for people to understand.

A country is no different from an individual.

And then if an individual overspends, an individual can go bankrupt.

And so can a country.

And the massive waste, fraud, and abuse that has been going on and leading to $2 trillion a year in a deficit. That's it, right? At the end of the day.
That's what I mean when I talk about having business guys back in the building. Yeah, exactly.
It's like just looking at basic costs. We need to balance the budget as the first priority.
Agreed. We've talked about this a lot.
If we ran our companies the way the government runs, you know, and the only way they get away with it is because then they can just say, well, they're protecting the people. It's different, you know, but it's not different.
So we'll see how it gets there. Nonetheless, it's fun.
I thought this was fun. So,

the Golden State Warriors

have launched

a record label.

The Golden State Warriors

are making ways

beyond the court

by launching

their own record label.

This move reflects

the growing synergy

between sports

and the music industry,

allowing athletes

and franchises

to tap into the cultural influence

of hip-hop

and other genres. Kind of cool.
You know, I see the crossover, right? Especially forward thinking if you got guys with NIL licensing and stuff. Yep.
It's like, hey, we have a studio now as part of your package. So we need 20% of whatever revenue.
Exactly right. Expect to see exclusive tracks, collaboration with big name artists and crossover content that deepens fan engagement.
It's interesting. So...
And the NBA, and I'll say it's NBA and hip hop has always been very intertwined. Very.
It strikes me as the right marriage. Yeah.
For sure. Especially if you were...
When you think about like,, you know, warming up. I play basketball a lot.
If you're warming up, you got. Pumping up.
Pumping up. You got music playing.
It's part of the experience of the games. Yeah.
It's interesting, though, how the Golden State, you know, not that they can't get over this, but it's one team. So you got those players.
I'm sure they'll integrate, but, like, if LeBron James plays for the Lakers and he wants to you know if they get a record label that they start and they've got a rapper working with LeBron James do you get in those conflicts or are they going to you would think they're going to separate church and state between the team and individual players and stuff otherwise it becomes limited because what is it just going to be Steph Curry? Yeah. Cause Golden Steph.
This is going to become a bunch of players, like having beef with other players with their own, like teams. It's going to be another Tupac and big incident with NBA team.
The record labels clashing on the court, off the court in the bars. This is good marketing behind the scenes.
Yeah. It makes sense though..
It's on par, too. Like, Melo, didn't he just release that song and went viral? He did.
You had a lot of athletes that try to be artists. Antonio Brown, for example, is one.
But nostalgia is proving to be a major driver in fashion trends as retro football jerseys take over fashion hey what's old is new again and this is not a this is a new trim but an old trim right this is this is a trend that's went on from the beginning of time yeah like every 20 years this becomes a thing you're rocking it because there's new vintage every 20 years i gotta find my old lar Bird jersey. I don't know where that thing is.
I think it got sold and brought itself. But that thing would be right.
I like the old vintage like Buccaneers and Dolphins stuff. Once confined to game days, these vintage pieces are now becoming staple streetwear worn by celebrities, influencers, and everyday fashion forward consumers.
High-end brands and sportswear giants alike are capitalizing on the trend by reissuing classic jerseys. I'm going to start seeing these around a lot of it.
Yeah. I just...
Does that devalue? Do you feel like you can rock an NBA jersey, though? Going to a game, but walking around? No, and I will say this. I will never wear, I don't wear jerseys.

I just am like a big weird thing of like,

why am I rocking another dude's last name on my body?

Now I'll wear a team shirt or something like that.

But let's be real.

I've never been a big enough fan to like follow players and even like go

purchase a Jersey.

Like that's part of it.

I get right.

But no, I'll get one of those vintage with no name.

Get my own name on the back maybe.

Yeah, I can't pull that off.

And I didn't really care about it.

Would you rock it with the T under or just tank style?

I just wouldn't rock it.

You're like, this is dope, but I just can't pull it off.

Hey, I respect that. Even like.
You're just, you're like, this is dope. And I just can't pull it off.
You know, like, Hey, there's a, I respect NFL Jersey. Maybe, maybe, but not that you could get it.
You could get NFL. Yeah.
I can get away with that. But going to a game or going to a party, I just don't know about rocking it.
Like, like right now, it'd be a little fun. It was a sports show maybe, but I don't still know.
Pull that off. I don't know if I want to pull it off, but I like them.
I see other people and I'm like, maybe for Halloween. Yeah.
Like you could be like, yeah, I'm actually Larry Bird. Yeah, exactly.
Tall white guy. Yeah.
I love it. The XRP news.
Bitwise XRP ETF clears first hurdle towards 8 billion jackpot. Bitwise just cleared a huge hurdle towards launching a spot.
XRP ETF clears first hurdle towards $8 billion jackpot. Bitwise has cleared a huge hurdle towards launching a spot XRP exchange traded fund.
Part of a bigger big $8 billion inflows, the Security Exchange Commission has acknowledged the asset manager's application to launch, making it the third applicant to pass this important milestone. The likelihood of an XRP ETF approval is high.
Would that send XRP itself up? Yeah, absolutely. Of course, because now you have it.
I mean, it's a true security. Like that's where your parents are going to their stockbroker down the road and they're saying, okay, Mr.
and Mrs. Alford, we're going to put 10% in this XRP ETF.
And they'll say, okay, that sounds safe and good. That's what I see happening.
What's going on with the market in general? It got slammed this week. And from what I'm reading, again, I'm no freaking crypto expert or no financial advice.
Crypto Chris. Yeah.
I'm getting educated on crypto Twitter, which you've been on that, it's like the trenches. If you don't even open it, it's like Reddit.
But the big news this past week was involving Argentina in a project called Libra. And essentially, this project was, you know, the president of Argentina tweeted out about it and kind of under the assumption people thought this was like Argentina's new cryptocurrency, their cryptocurrency, their stable coin.
So obviously valuation shot up, a ton of people invested and then guys basically just drained it, sucked out. I think it was close to a billion maybe.
I can't remember the exact number, but did not look good for Argentina. It was a big, bad thing reputation-wise for the industry.
It makes it, because you have genuine people really trying to change their currencies, right? You have countries like El Salvador, where they have a Bitcoin reserve. And Argentina, I think for the first time in many years, had just gotten out of a deficit, I believe too.
This new president was doing a good job economically, but this now drained a ton of liquidity. A lot of normal retail investors, normal Argentinian people lost a lot of money.
But it does look like the guys behind it are addressing it or there'll be some consequences. But as a whole, that shook everything up, scared scared a lot of people that was the biggest thing that i was kind of aware of going on that shook a lot of people because really when you have news like xrp possibly getting an etf approval like that should you know signal the market to move up um and that's kind of what everyone anticipated with this administration with all these pro- crypto policies like this happening.
But that doesn't mean it's still kind of the wild west and you got bad players and anywhere there's big money, you're going to have bad people try to get their hand in, unfortunately. So.
I just need my balance to go up. Hey, you're looking good.
I know you're an XRP guy. That's good news for you.
Yeah, I know. It's up 5% today, or $2.67.
Money rewards the patient. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, I just keep eating refresh. Oh, 4.4.
This is what you can do to yourself. Refresh, refresh, refresh.
What are we up to? 268. Went up a cent while we were talking.
So, I don't know. Hey, it's in the green.
It's in the green. Last six months, it's up 372%.
That's what I'm saying. You know, if you zoom out, be a little patient and that can apply to even the general news, right? We're just, you don't need to necessarily be in it every day.
There's not always stuff that you need to know. Go read a book, take a walk.
Yep. See, I bought it about right here.
I'm pretty sure 90% of the general population is not going to have an influence on tariff. So we might as well stop reading about it every six hours.
Yeah, exactly. But you can go buy XRP and watch it.
Yeah. Go up 300% hopefully.
Yeah, exactly. We've been talking about sports cards, sports cards trading.

The sports card market size is worth $20.48 billion.

It will be by 2030.

It's only five years.

Yeah, I know.

Exactly.

I mean, dude, there's some real damn money in this shit.

Those vending machines, man. I know.
That's why we're going to open some packs here. Open some packs.
So we got any money to roll them in today? Yes. What we got? Hey, our good friends at Panini, Donruss.
You never know what you're going to get. It's like lottery in a pack, man.
You know what it is? It's scratch-offs for children. Are you calling me a kid? No, I'm just saying they got you.
They're getting the same dopamine hit. Yeah, exactly.
We got our camera view even on this one, so you get a little closer up. Oh, yeah, look at that, Chris.
Isn't that tight? Look at that. They're giving me nostalgia.
They obviously agreed to who would be on the cover of these way before they came out. I mean, Aaron Rodgers kind of fizzled like the wind.
Who's on the front of the cover? But you never know. If you're not watching the YouTube video, you're not getting the full effect here.
You're on YouTube, Spotify, or at RyanIsRight.com. You get links to this stuff.
So we'll get in. It's kind of hard to do it in reverse.
look all right who we got here who we got who we got who we got uh uh no these first four oh jimmy smith nobody i don't see any holographs uh tank dell tank dell no autographs and then this who's this tank dell two tank dells in one he's hey Dells in one. Roma Dante.
Going to be pretty good as it comes up. Not bad.
This would be the three hits of the card. Oh, this is my boy, though, T.
Higgins. Clemson guy.
Got to get that out. Check those out, man.
Hey, look at the detail on these cards, though. I mean, they got the foil on that thing.

I think we need, like, official cards of us.

With the foil on it.

You know?

Panini.

You get it in there.

Sports cards.

Hopefully, Tank Dell's going to be bigger. I feel like they're smaller than they used to be.

It's because your hands are bigger.

You're not 12 years old anymore. You know, you were a midget as a kid.
I was a big MLB card guy. Exactly.
You never know. You never know.
Tank Dell, I hope you have a great season. We got two of you.
So you never know what's going to happen. Shout out to our friends, Don Russ and Panini.
You never know what you're going to get. It's a lotto in a pack.
Hey, should be a DM. I might send you one of these.
Aaron Rodgers. Lovely packs.
You never know. You can pull a downtown.
I may have, you numero uno. I didn't even tell you about this, Chris.
Was in Asheville last week. They make these cards that are essentially, you know, like this, but it's like a downtown logo.
And it shows the backdrop of almost like an artwork.

I pulled a gold Josh Allen 1 of 10.

It's a $5,000 card.

I hope you put it in plastic.

I put it in hard sleep, dude.

Dude, a $20 pack, $5,000.

Crazy.

That's crazy.

I know.

It's crazy what some of these things were.

One of these packs right here. You never know.
Lotto in the pack. Oh, that's all we got today.
That's major, but giving you the latest, the greatest, the things to do. Any final words, my friend? Hey, everybody.
We're getting to the end of February. Lock it in if you haven't already.
Hey, lock it in. Make the best.
Follow the trends, but don't let them get in your way. Yeah.
Ryanisright.com. You'll find all the highlight clips.
Hey, you got to look at these highlight clips. You got Chris in studio looking nice and dapper here at 4K.
Doing my best, bro. We appreciate wherever you're, whenever, however you're listening, always love you for loving us.

We'll see you next time.

Right about now.

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