Business News & Trends: Trump's Gold Card Visa Program - DOGE $65B SAVINGS - The Great Sports Card Boom

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 six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and caching checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now, it's our weekly business news here on... February 28th. The last day of February, I had to process that. I feel like it's like a blink here. So I was only going to have 28 days in the month. I have February get off, only get 28 days. I'm going to say, how is it already done in February? Yeah, we're moving into March 2025 is like snap of the fingers. Join by as always, Chris Hanson down in Miami. What's up, Chris? What's up, man? How are you? Hey, I'm good, man. Just working through the business news here on a Friday for everyone that's listening. So we appreciate you. We never wear ever, however you're listening. Catching us, we know you have choices. Thank you for making us number one. We appreciate you. Chris, what's cooking in Miami? We got the weather. Hey, I got spring fever already. It's 70s here in South Carolina this week. And I know we'll be like back to 50 probably next week. This is what happens like late February around here. But I'm enjoying a man ready for spring, fling. It's going to say it was snowing when I left there last week. It was all change of weather. We get four seasons in two weeks. Yeah, literally, man. Now everything's great. Miami, it's beautiful. It's sunny day and you know, not a cloud in the sky. So we're thriving. I know. And yeah, we're going to get right to the headlines here. I was going through my normal feed of socials doing my research for the day. What's with the headlines? What's coming across? And I know there's like the top of the news. He thought it was great. President Donald Trump has announced a new gold card visa program aimed at attracting wealthy foreign investors. Part of me chuckled and thought this is hilarious, Chris. But then I was like, hell yeah, I ain't like this. How should be? Right? You want to get in? You're paying to get in. You know, bring, bring your money, bring your ideas, bring your innovations. We'll let you into the greatest company on the greatest company. Forty and slipped. It might actually be becoming true. Yeah. I'd say in a way. Yeah. Great employees. Come to our team. Come to country slash company, greatest company and country. And maybe hey, if we're going to be a, let's start acting like a great company. It would be a start. Yeah. If we want to be, what do you always say buy of and for the people, we need to be a little, we need to be better all the way around. So yeah, if you want to get in here, pony up that gold card, baby. I want to see card carrying members, you know, floating that thing around. I agree. I, and I sadly earlier, I read that 60% of Americans have under a sixth grade reading level. Oh, that tells me maybe we need to bring in some outside talent that has some resources and can help, help, help the other 60% you know. It's a pathway to US residency and citizenship for individuals willing to invest $5 million. The gold card provides green card privileges and a route to citizenship for that $5 million investment. It is designed to attract a fluid individuals who can contribute significantly to the US economy, new initiative is set to replace the existing EB5 immigrant investor program which requires a lower investment and have been criticized for inefficiencies and susceptibility to fraud. Go figure. The administration anticipates the program could generate substantial revenue potentially aiding in the reducing the national debt. President Trump suggested that selling 1 million gold cards could yield $5 trillion. Yeah, that would, that would be, he suggested I think that's just math. I don't know, he suggested, it's just, he didn't create math, that's just math. That's doing the, the old arithmetic on the old calculator on your phone or however you do it. Chad CBT to do that shit, I think my eight year old can, can do that math. So I applaud this personally and I have no idea the impact that it will have, but, you know, let's pay to play, baby, you want to get in, I mean, you can't help where you were born, but you know, if you're doing well, you want to come take advantage of the greatest country on earth, that's what you got to do. And come bring your ideas and investments and let's go at it. Let's create some more jobs for U.S. people and, you know, if nothing else, I applaud. We have to try some shit, throw some shit against the wall, let's, let's make some calculated trials here that can benefit. The old ways of just doing shit don't work, it's why we're 30 trillion dollars in debt. The leads are weak. The leads are weak. Fucking leads are weak. You are weak. But in this business, 15 years, fuck you, that's my name. You know why, Mr? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an $80,000 BMW, that's my name. So you read their criticism, right? They doubt its attractiveness, concerns over high costs and potential implications for participants. Well, I'm pretty sure the guy that can afford a $5 million investment probably is better at making financial decisions in the government purer. Yeah, exactly. And that's where I want to encourage people to really read this shit and realize it's a bunch of nothing. This is just negativity for no reason. You know, similar programs, other countries have shown minimal impact. Well, yeah, because it's not the United States of America. Yeah, exactly. I'm looking at Golden Visa and Portugal if I go invest $200,000 over there. I don't really want to live in Portugal. I like America. America. You know, and there's a lot more people that want to come here than leave. So. Exactly. So right in this checks, baby, come on with this checks, pay to get in. Hey, the US has been flipping a lot of bills for a long time. You know, as leaders of the free world, and this is an arrogance, it's just the reality. Like it's time to start collecting. And let me give you an example, you buy, they've been very open to outside investment money. They've encouraged outside investors to come build and look at what they done in 50 years. Right. It's one of the most innovative modern cities in the planet. So it's like, okay, if we can place some incentives like that, people will come and people will do awesome things. Entrepreneurs like to build and create. You know, 100%. So bring it, baby. And speaking of other impacts, so these tariffs on China, Apple facing tariffs on Chinese imports says it will invest 500 billion in US facilities. That sounds like good news to me. Sounds like almost like we should have had them doing this to begin with. Yeah. American company, manufacturing in America, you know, Apple's, I invest five hundred thousand billions. Yeah. Exactly. Five hundred billion in expanding US facilities are the next four years to move, comes on the company, faces new, temper set tariffs on Chinese imports. Apple says the investment will create 20,000 new jobs. He created his tariffs, Trump created his tariffs for Apple's decision saying he's invited investing hundreds of billions of dollars and others too. Apple CEO Tim Cook stated we are bullish on the future of American innovation. Yeah. You got to start, we got to start building it home, baby. Just like we talked about all these micro computers doing AI and shit, like this is, it needs to be on our turf, on our terms, even if it costs more on the front end a little bit, this is part of the game. And yeah, it's a global, global economy, I'm not saying this not. You want it to be global economy, but it can't be at the expense of American people and opportunity and jobs. So there you have it. I mean, it's funny how all this stuff works. It doesn't sound coincidental to me. No, and I have you dig a little deeper on this, I would almost say this is a good signal for the mining industry too, because I would assume and I've heard we're getting deregulating some mining efforts, right? A lot of this was done in China from I understand because of the raw materials, right? Yep. The batteries, the lithium, we have those same things in our ground too, we just haven't been able to drill. Yeah. So I'm wondering if this is an indicator that that is the kind of in the market, right? Yeah. Just have also got to deal with Ukraine, I think, build and we're bringing them to the table, by not just throwing money at them, putting a little pressure on them and some of their minerals, the same thing. Like it's time for us to get return on investment we've made in the free world. Exactly. It's simply simply said, what's our ROI? Well, it's our ROI on creating peace and liberty, you know, and not perfectly by the way. It's messy as hell, but it's time for that shit to come back around the other direction. And so that's what's happening here. It's not going to be messy. It's not going to be perfect. There's no perfect path to this. But I like seeing the sentiment and the overall direction and how quickly some of this is moving. Yeah. Well, I'll take what's moving fast, it's the impact of AI on business, worldwide. So a major Asia bank is cutting 4,000 rolls as AI is replacing human activities. DBS bank cuts due to AI implementation. Singapore's largest bank will cut approximately 4,000 temporary-sized contract rolls over the next three years. Since permanent staff will not be affected right now, the bank plans to also create a thousand AI-related jobs. Look, I'll see this. Here it is. AI is not going to replace your job. What's going to replace your job is someone that knows how to use AI. So you need to be informed and know how to use it and how to leverage it because knowledge has gotten real damn cheap. The applying knowledge of the last like 30 years that you've gathered is real cheap now. That knowledge is out there. The application of knowledge is cheap. Fresh ideas using AI to work faster, smarter, more efficient, research to create net new knowledge, to create fresh ideas, to create fresh processes. That's where the future lies in business and anything that you're doing. So don't worry about AI taking your job. Just don't think it's going to be status quo. If you ain't learning, you ain't growing. You ain't going to be getting a paycheck log either. I'm talking to you, insurance guy, lawyers, some of you guys applying knowledge that's getting easier and freer, a lot more free or available. Look out. I'd be looking for new ways with which to apply your skills or integrate it, integrate the AI and do your practices to make you more efficient. Exactly. I think being the economy that we are, the consumerism, I think of this on the plus side, AI and all this stuff isn't, is not coming to net cut everyone's job. It's just going to make certain things more efficient, which creates more wealth, which creates a redistribution into different industries, like things become more accessible, so we've been more money on these things, or energy back, or energy to the human potential in my mind, right? Yes. You're offloading these meaningless, thoughtless things to focus on creativity, ideas, innovation, that spring new and interesting industries and ideas and things, and not the same old same old, and so they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. There's a lot of old dogs that are going to have to, I mean, and this is where I love, I say this because I practice what I've preached, like, you know, I've been in business for 20 plus years, and I love change, I love innovation, not all my friends do, and I feel bad for them because it's coming. It's very frequently get the question, what's going to change in the next 10 years? And that is an interesting question, it's a very calling one, I almost never get the question, what's not going to change in the next 10 years? We know the energy we put into it today will still be paying dividends for our customers 10 years from now. When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it. I don't have a crystal ball for exactly how it's going to impact everything, but it's moving quick. And you've got your eyes, you've got your head in the sand, if you don't think it's coming for the status quo, that's all, hey, I was just coming for the status quo, it's not coming for everything, it's coming for the status quo, it's a status quo killer. That's the soapbox for today, my friend. Starbucks is laying off over 1,000 corporate workers, we did AI is not in this headline, but I'll let you kind of judge, eliminating 1,000 corporate jobs and closing several hundred open positions, it says it's goal is to simplify operations, remove layers and increase efficiency. That sounds like AI to me, somewhere in there, but nonetheless, I do think everything comes in seasons and it's like, you know, you've got Trump and you've got the doge government efficiency, you're going to see this sort of trickle down, everybody's sort of getting with the program a little bit that there's a lot of fluff, a lot of waste, a lot of inefficiency that's going on and you look around and you figure, I've done it with my business the last six months. Been like, all right, why are we still doing this? Why are we doing this? Like this doesn't make any sense. And even at the highest levels for hundreds of thousands of jobs, these major corporations are looking around going, wait a second, why are we still doing that? And I think some of that's fueled by it was coming anyway and then a lot of it, I think there is the sort of flow that happens when, you know, you're seeing Trump and Elon in the news every day talking about these types of things and the opportunity to cut waste. It's interesting, but it does seem to have a trickle down effect, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, I'm interested in this because obviously it's like, I'm just thinking, my mind changes inevitable, no matter what, no matter what business you're in, you're always going to have to kind of bob and weave, try new things, right? I'm looking at this Starbucks, cutting 30% of its menu, these more complex drinks. It's like, you know, as a business guy, these are very simple things that I would, if we ran this business, we're like, okay, we want to reduce wait time, let's reduce the amount of drinks such as this. And I can tell you down here, there's a lot more competition with coffee houses than there used to be. So I think this is a good thing for Starbucks, but I agree as a whole, I think spring cleaning is in the air, right? Like you said it, I mean, same with me, like we all have to, there's times you have to pause reflect and make changes, right? And like you said, I usually like those because, you know, you got a new mountain to climb. Exactly. And continual improvement. And some people, some people have you changed, and improvement is contrary or different. And I'm not saying they're always the same thing as you can improve, but it's highly correlated as human beings were kind of built for that. And I think the reason there's depression and there's reason that these things is like there's this, we've had this natural bottling up of it, you know? And we figure out, well, why are we so depressed and unhappy? Because we're not changing and evolving. And we're, you know, lost in trying to come to comfort, yeah, claiming to come to comfort and the TikTok vortex, you know, like, uh, it's like, that's okay, you're a little bit, like that's just, it's not getting you. And I'm actually going to have the team, you're going to hear a few of these throughout today's episode. I pulled some videos and things that I really like that are related to kind of this show how we're pushing now today action and how to get ahead and plugging in a few of those with beginning to middle end, you know, see a few of those plugged in today's episode and it relates to all this stuff. And, you know, on this show, we want to be, it's an opinion show, it's a news show, but we also want to be a beacon of change, innovation and positivity. But I'm going to do it kicking in to ask a little bit, you know, and believe me, I got the biggest boot right on my rear end too. So that's what we're here for. Other news, doge, all about efficiency, baby. There's climb 65 billion, but, but, but, billion in total estimated savings as agency efficiency leaderboard has launched, this is a little bit run like a sales call over the wall street board. Up on, we just cut four billion. Yeah. See him in there. Yeah. I mean, while they're giving like bonuses for like how many million you cut this week, they're like, there's your spiff, thousand dollar bonus on your check this week. New leaderboard ranking government agencies by cost-cutting efforts, the leaderboard track savings from fraud detection, contract cancellation, renegotiations, asset sales, workforce reductions and regulatory changes. Look, the government needs innovating, it needs juice, it needs, I know there's arguments on every side about how it's getting done and this and the other, and we can nitpick that all we want. But we, I think we also agree the same old, same old of doing it is what ain't working. So let's get a leaderboard, let's get it. Let's get gold stars on our report compared to the hell it is. Yeah. Yeah, you know, like, let's incentivize what should be incentivized. Let's not get incentivized to keep things status quo. And there's a title to this episode, it's book, status quo, like a cowboy, book a rhubarb. Right in that crypto market, it's kind of like riding that buck and bronca right now. What the hell is going on with crypto, Chris? Crypto, Chris, man, it's like, I barely, it's like, what is happening? Crazy Chris. Yeah. Great question. I'd love to know. And obviously we've got some of the big events we know happen. I mean, as right now, when I checked Bitcoin was at like 86,000, which is definitely way lower than it's been in a few months. The biggest thing there was a hack, one of the large exchanges, kind of like Robinhood for stock people was hacked for, let's see what was it, $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency Ethereum. So that was hacked. That obviously creates a big level of fear in the market. However, they, and they had massive withdrawals after that and they covered all of them. They didn't, they weren't insolvent. I mean, they actually, that company that had the hack actually made $420 million off of withdrawal exchange fees. So it goes to show you the amount of money that's, that's in this, but it did shake the market. And it's definitely not doing so hot. I mean, you got about a 30% pullback this month. So this is from the Binance, see Richard Tang. He said, it's important to view this as a tactical retreat, not a reversal. Yes. crypto has been here before and bounce back even stronger. He said they tend to back, bounce back stronger after volatility caused by events in the broader economy. There he is showing that crypto markets react to macro economic shifts, much like traditional assets, but they also bounce back with remarkable resilience. Yes. So don't sell people, don't let the fear get you right, ride the dip time came out and it's about to come in like a tsunami, but I'm not a financial analyst. So no promises, but what goes down must come up. I, I, Tang said the strong demand for crypto ETS and ongoing applications for new launches in the U.S. The positive sign. You know, I'm going to, I think I'm going to go by like five to five K, and X, I'm going to go put my money where I'm out because I'm riding the dip, baby. I'm going to ride it. It's the time to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Exactly. And I can ride it a little longer. I can, I can buy the dip now and even if it kind of goes for another few months, boom. I can ride the way you back the other direction, you know, man, this is a sale, buy it on sale right now. Everyone clearance time for Bitcoin and it's exactly that's right. We've got a sale on crypto here, all right about now available to anyone on your local wallet. Bitcoin was 104,000. Now it's 86. Get it well. All right. Yeah. Come on. Well, the same things happen in the sports car world, you know, we, we started right in the middle of the NFL season, which it was hot. Oh, man. The cars that less volatile throughout the season, no, but they, they, they kind of ride the wave of the Super Bowl like by the sport. So like I'm talking mainly NFL right now, so NFL climbing, climbing, climbing, the good players climbing, like Jayden Daniels, then that Super Bowl dip off season, probably to just drop like 50% on certain cards. Just to go back up again, usually at the start of the next season. So although, but it's a good start, boys, so I'm holding them. And I'm so on a few, but holding up most and then I'm buying, I'm letting that dip get down low, baby, and I'm buying heavy heavy heavy. If I got games, I love so high. Yep. If you're seeing camera, too, officially have it, we got our prism hanger box, 20 card hanger box prism, universally known as kind of the best football card right now made by Panini. They have the license for NFL, it's, hey, it's, it's not cheap. It's about $25 retail box, 20 cards in here. And it's, this is, I've, you know what I've determined, and I think I talked about this last Christmas week, Chris, this is a legal gambling for children as I, and you've said that, and I said it, right? I saw it in the airport. I saw like six, 12 year old boys huddled around a vending card machine, you know, for playing cards. Yes. Sports cards on smoke, but I was pleasantly surprised. Yes. So there you have it. That's why you got to watch the YouTube or our Spotify. You can see live pack opening. We got breaks happening here on right about now with the only benefactor being numero uno and my four boys, you know, we'll get to fight over all this, but no, we got to collect someone man, you know, cataloging this stuff, rad rips, we'll have the Instagram page or anything else up soon, you know, it was, it was, had to find a way to get the YouTube stars out of the kids, I think it's going to be through a bunch of cards playing cards that's smart. Unboxing. Yeah. It's fun. Unboxing. And then you sell, you sell to doing breaks, you buy a box, so it's got like, okay, 20, 30 packs in it. You sell individual teams that get bid on so that you, when while we're opening, you get every player for that team. So obviously you're kind of going for the teams that have the hottest player in that, in that addition. Yeah. So it's a game thing from watching here on the camera, the going through. And look, it's how it is in these packs, you got, even if you got good players in the first top, these are like base cards, everything's about the add in cards now. So it's all about getting, no matter who these say, you want those add in cards, okay, even Jim Carboth, I'm at up, and then our silver, oh, so ladies and gentlemen, I just want to make an announcement here. This is what's known, and you can see this on the screen. You see that hollow? This is Caleb Williams hollow. One month ago, this is a $300 card. Today it's about $180, still. $25 a box, that's $180 card right there. That's what you call a hit. And if we're looking at grading, you're looking at corners, pretty sharp. We've got, you're looking to see if there's balance in the printing, no major things that corner looks good, probably a PSA 9, that's a grading skill, 9 out of 10, which would make this easily 2, 250 right now, if it got graded out as a 9. So that's a hit, no matter what else we get. Then these green waves, Jameer Gibbs, Ricky Williams, Keith Byers, so so up, Xavier Worthy, another big hit. That is the Ryder Sieger from Texas, he ran a 4, 240 at the combine and had over 100 yards receiving in the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles. We have two Caleb's. Okay, so that's, that is probably, you know, a month ago, that's a $30 card. It's probably 15 today, but still, you're looking at $200 with the cards. Another Caleb in the same pack, this is a $15 card, just fireworks card. Bonics, second, most valuable card in the entire set is his cards after Jaden Daniels. This is a $30 card a month ago, probably 15 to 20. We have easily $300 worth of cards value today in that $25 pack. Let's just say Chris, that was a massive hit of a pack. These results are not always typical people. If we're talking about crypto, that's the best pack I've probably opened in a, and we opened a lot of packs, probably two weeks, which is saying something. I'm glad I could do that live for everyone, and find me on eBay at Rad Ribs. They'll be for sale later today. Maybe 10% off if you listen to that. I'll grab one for you, not one of these, but maybe Nate Wiggins, he played at Clemson. That's a good guy's in here, but that's a good pack there. I'm glad I could, Hey, Panini, shout out to you. You have to start sponsoring us so that we can open these on your dominant hours and get you some sponsorship. We probably at least created, because that is not bullshit, folks. That is $250 to $300 on eBay tonight if I want it. Like that's, that's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, so that's gambling, my friend, and we just hit the jackpot. So, there you go. Sports cards. It's a business people, and it's fun. That's the headlines today, Chris. Highlighted by my packet on the prism NFL football 24. Winner winner. Any final words? Hey, everyone just have a solid start of your March, entering springtime. Time to blossom. Time to get after it. One step before the other. The status quo is in trouble. You want to get off that ship. You want to get on the action, learning, understanding what's happening in every industry with AI, but not being, but not out of fear, but out of opportunity. That's what it's about. It's a great day to be American. Hey guys, you find us at Ryan is right.com. Highlight clips, full episode, links to Christianized social media, and you never know what other surprises. Shout out to Beniti, and BoNics, baby. We'll see you next time. What are we right about now? This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. 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