From Dreams to Reality: Trump and Elon Musk’s Unstoppable Victory, McDonald's Struggles Against Skyrocketing Prices

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 is our weekly business news of the week. Whatever the hell else we get into. You never know what rogue we're going down here on right about now. It's October 11th, 2024. Joined. As always. Here is Studio. We have Salt and Rice behind the board. We've got Brianna Hall. What's up Brianna? Hey, how's it going? Hey, it's going. It's going. What's up Chris? What's good brother? Oh, hey, you got your umbrella ready. I hope you got your wind farm started or something. I don't know. Can we turn any of this madness into positivity? I know not to make light of it. It's just gotten so sad with all the destruction. I know it's coming through at any moment. We record here a couple days early before this releasing on Friday. So how's Miami handling it? We're good. We should be good to go. And really be on the Gulf Coast gets slammed. Yeah. I know your fingers are on that area. You're on the text red. Yeah, my dad's sending videos right now. It's starting to roll in. So pray for the best and sending good vibes out to everybody that's being affected by this. Yes. By the time this is airing, we will have known the devastation, which it looks like is unavoidable. Unfortunately, it's just going to be. I hope. And Chris, you'd know this better than me. I feel like the other one was somewhat prepared for. I don't know that we knew in the Carolinas that it was going to come up as high as it did, as strong as it did. But I mean, I guess if you, if you're ever going to be ready for it, they're ready for this one. I don't know how much planning you can do, though. Yeah. Now, everyone I know for the last two, three days has been planning, even in Miami, where we're expecting some like Trader Joe's was Matt House last night. I heard literally heard the staff saying like, oh, we don't even get restocked on Friday. So, yeah. I mean, people are doing what they can. I read before and again, some of these stats are meaningless now that it's already hit for when this airs, but 1500 gas stations were already at a gas, I guess today. Yeah. So it's wild. Do you guys in Miami or people going crazy with gas? Or is that mainly just in that Tampa area? Definitely Tampa, Sarasota. I know my dad told me yesterday they were out of gas. We've been fine as far as I can see. I mean, maybe today, but it's looking like Miami is really just going to get some wind a little rain. So I think a lot of people were preparing last night. Yeah. Well, hopefully there's prepared as possible. And let's hope for the best. And our thoughts were with anyone that's struggling with whatever came through. And especially here in the Carolinas where they're still, you know, it's like we can't sort of get over one. And you don't want to share the stage of the attention. Like you wish you could have a little bit of gaps here so that, you know, the people in the Carolinas can sort of still get the support that they need. I think they will as Americans will take care of everybody. But, you know, I know there's a lot of struggling still happening, especially in North Carolina where the devastation's been crazy. So thoughts out with everyone. And to turn it, yeah, we all have to think about action positivity and things are going on. So we're going to try to focus on that today, at least just telling you more of what's happening around and look, if I'm going to, if I want to kick off to show a positive way. And I didn't even wear a hat today. But if I would, it would have been one of these guys. Braided bills, long time official sponsor of right about now and Ryan offered, always been a half guy. And always thought I kind of knew what, okay, my favorite hat is best hat and all that. And then it's probably five or six years ago, got introduced to brand bills. And I was like, you know, it's kind of like when I met the first one, the first girlfriend, the first real love. I was like, this is the first hat that I think I actually loved. It was like, fit perfect. I'm a flat bill guy. And I'm like, you know what? I think I found the one. Then we worked out. We got married. And you know what? Unlike some marriages, this one hasn't fallen apart because this is quality. This is made right here in the US, right here, where you can know your brand will stand out just like ours does. We've got it on our vibe science gear. We've got it right about now. Social house gear. Every brand and business that I'm involved in has branded bills merch. And let me tell you, I get compliments on it every time. And everybody goes to send me one of those. So we do. And look, at the end of the day, you want your brand to stand out. You want it to have premium stuff. I will say this, I see some 40s and 50 degree weather forecasted for the weekend here. That's hoodie time for us in South Carolina. If it's 50, I probably have a hoodie on, especially at night. So I'm going to be rocking that brand of bill hoodie. And again, get your brand standing out. Send it. It will generate business and interest in your company. Go to brand of bills.com, click that custom button. You'll thank us for it. And again, I talk about the quality of their merch. Their design team is super badass. Fashionable, they make your logo pop. They got patches, different things they could do on the hoodies and the hats. So take my word. Ryan offered endorses branded bills, brand of bills.com, official merchandise sponsor, right about now. Miss Brianna, what's on our agenda today? Hey guys, so today we're talking everything from business news, what's going on in a little bit of the political landscape. Not too much on this time, but our first news article here is talking about Trump returning to Butler, Pennsylvania, where the assassination attempt took place. And he went back with Elon. So fans of that duo were kind of, you know, enjoying seeing them together. And I did see it on if you guys saw this on X, but Elon had tweeted a picture of him kind of jumping in the air. He said something like, there's a very autistic expression that I'm making. I think he is autistic. So he's on the spectrum at some point. So I thought that was really funny. I don't care who you vote for. I mean, that's why I say we're free country. You know, I do care, but I don't. It's your decision. But comparing and contrasting Donald Trump and Elon Musk, there's some excitement. I talked about it before. I thought like the Democratic campaign or a convention might have had more emotion and interest and all that. But now I feel like comparing Kamala, you know, on trying to answer non-answer questions. And sometimes Donald Trump just saying too much like you got one candidate that's not saying anything. And then another one that's clearly not a lifelong politician that probably says too much. And you've got Elon Musk, the last person that I would have expected, dark MAGA. It's just, I don't know, hard to believe. And I try to lay back my way into thinking like, if Elon Musk is a highly, highly intelligent person. And I would think, you know, given what we talked about with his electric cars and all this, sort of like this left leaning for the longest time, what would he, his motivation if he didn't really believe? And in his intelligence that one candidate was better than the other, he hasn't really gained a lot from this. So anyway, Chris, I don't know what you think about those two on stage. I love it. I mean, we talked about it before. It's a wild duo. I mean, and kind of what you said where for someone who runs, you know, the most successful electric car company on the planet to be endorsing Trump, you, it's not necessarily pro electric energy, right? We've talked about this before. And I know Elon's talked about, you know, his son and feeling like he lost his son to, you know, the transgender movement and the hormone blocker type stuff. With all that being said, I think it's a very exciting duo that you, a year ago, you would have never expected for sure. But America's world right now, but I think it's an exciting time. And I'm glad Elon is endorsing Trump. Yeah. And ultimately, I think, I think of Elon as more like your classic independent, probably. And you know, that's where I fall and good push for our other sponsor independent center. If you really want to talk about policies instead of politics, that's where you need to go independent center.org. They're doing some polling now. I was just looking at the difference between like how Gen Z might ultimately make or break the election. How many people turn out and where they vote? They do a lot of polling. They do a lot of information that you're not going to get from the right or the left. This really, truly about policies, taxation, different things are happening that don't have the spin of right or left, but are just factual. And that's ultimately what you get. That's why I'm an independent independent. That's why I support independent center. Go sign up for their newsletter, independent center.org. I've also got the link in my bio. Go check them out, learn what independent thinking is. Look at the end of the day. It's about being about being American. Is it about being forced into two boxes? Blue, red, blue, red, right? That's two choices. No, about being free, independent, making the decision that makes the most sense for the policies you believe in. Go check them out independent center.org. Yeah, I don't know what this all means at the end of the day at the voters, you know, the office or a poll place. It sure feels to me like Trump's got the momentum here. And I'm really again, just using a lens of non bias because of where I'm voting this year. I really mean this. If I watch her on these shows, like how odd and how disconnected she feels, you only vote for Kamala if you hate Trump. Yeah. I mean, and that's why that's all you ever hear. Like I have it. There's not a single person that tells me why Kamala is just why not Trump. So being sometimes you're running from something harder than you're running to something. I don't know. Like I have been kind of delving into this this week. You know, Kamala Harris has been super busy. She has had a series of high profile media appearances this week. So she went on the call her daddy podcast. She was on CBS 60 minutes. She is kind of out and about. She shared a beer on, you know, screen with Stephen Colbert. And it's just really interesting. I feel like she is masquerading around as everyone's best friend or like the fun aunt. And it's just like, I don't know. There's not a lot of depth there. No, it's the metaverse man. It's it's not real. It's like it is AI. Artificial intelligence is. Yeah. That's what it feels like. IE made up. I'm sorry. I wish there was like six other candidates sometimes. You know, it's like we had like all this selective choice to what just so binary. So that I wish, but we don't and she ain't it. Sorry for me. I wish I do wish that there were more candidates. Chris, do you have any thoughts to share before we move on to our next tech related article? The only one thing I've heard outside of disliking Trump is she's a woman. Yeah. And look, I look that's cool. I don't know if I if I I did not want Nikki Haley ahead of Trump. But I liked Nikki Haley in a lot of ways. And I want and support a woman becoming president. I think a woman will make an amazing president one day. It just ain't her. Has to be the right woman. You know, it wasn't Hillary. I think we all can. It's the same thing like with Brock Obama. You know, I. I supported Brock. I voted for Brock Obama once. And I don't mind saying that. Like then once I sort of certain things came. And I was I think maturing as an adult business person and seeing some of the true impacts of some of the voting. Like I don't I didn't support necessarily everything after the fact. But I thought it was time. You like what it didn't matter if it was an African American. It doesn't matter if it's a woman. It seems to be the right one. The right person period. And I just I don't. She just there's there's something amiss here. Or a lot. I just can't vote for someone because I hate someone else. Yeah, 100% agreed and I think at the end of the day. I mean, everybody has to dig into like the policies that they believe in and the things that they believe in. But voting one way or talking about somebody one way just because you hate something so much. It's just not healthy. I mean, there's a little bit of open mindedness that needs to happen. Yep. Moving on. DOJ's Google breakup remedy puts tech world on notice. So the Department of Justice is considering breaking up Google because Google has quite. I mean, I'm monopoly on the search engine market. So the DOJ has outlined several remedies, including breaking up parts of Google's business, limiting its contracts that favor Google search and potentially forcing Google to share its search data with competitors. So here's a quote says breakups are hard to do. It's an unusual remedy and doesn't current very often from the former FTC commissioner, Mr. Thompson. So what do you guys think about that? I mean, we use Google day in and day out. I don't know. It's like I understand I'm knowledgeable enough to understand why they would consider something like this. But I don't necessarily agree with it. It's like, now do I think they should wield the power that they do at times? No, but it's complicated. And you know, the company is invested and done things and built this competitive advantage. And so is the government's job to break that part because they've been too successful? It's a really good question. But I don't sit here. I think anyone that sits here and like fell on a sword of like what the exact right answer to this is because I understand both sides of it. It's just my personal opinion is you just don't mess with the success you just need to be having not control. It does need to be an understanding of what they do and don't wield power ever. And they can't be meddling in elections and you know, helping hold back information and things that we've heard. Like that's when you start doing that and it's proven, then maybe you deserve to be broken up. But if you're not doing that, I don't think by the fact of your success alone is the government's place to divide your company up. But I don't know Chris, what's your thoughts? I've got mixed feelings as well. I mean, I don't like the idea of a monopoly, right? And I do think Google has been super powerful. They've had a lot of people's data. I don't know if they've been honest with that. You know, they can kind of drive information, right? So I would like to see more competition so you could see maybe different access information. But let's be real. I mean, it's kind of like a little too late to break up this party. And that says that in that quote, like, you know, radical and sweeping, it says in a car often. I mean, I would have to imagine Google is probably so ingrained in every part of our country's tech systems, government, everything. That it's like kind of like, yeah, this sounds ideal, right? But I'm sure Google is very tied in with our military, our financial systems. There's no way it's not. So it's kind of like my question is how much of the government is run by Google in a way, probably with the technology being used. Yeah. For some subsect of Google, right? Yeah, it's definitely interesting. And you brought up the data, you know, and the consumer impact. And, you know, how a breakup would also alter like, you know, how all of that consumer data is handled. And, you know, if there were more players in the marketplace, would that mean that data was potentially more compromised? Or, you know, would it be more secure? Definitely a lot of questions that are above my pay grade. I just think there have been competitors, but they just haven't been as good as Google. So we're going to penalize Google because they developed a superior product. And it's remained superior over the competition. Oh, it's the same thing. And so it's like, forced me to switch from Yahoo, our next tape. I was naturally. Yeah. It was easier to use the results seemed more accurate. Like, I'm thinking back to when I first, you know, 10, 15, whenever it was years ago switched. It's because, like, I'm a Mac guy. But the Safari browser sucks. Maybe it sucks now because I'm just used to Google in the familiarity. But I can tell you when I made the switch, it was because it was just light years better. Faster, more easy to navigate. And just a better overall experience. And so, so we're going to penalize a company that continued to make a dominant product. That then became a quasi binopoly because the competition sucked and couldn't develop a feature that beat them out. Yeah. That doesn't seem right either. Now I get, you know, like, sometimes we start talking about things that become so powerful. It deserves a bigger discussion than just the nuance that I just described, which is why I do think, unfortunately, though, I don't love Google regulation, but sometimes you get too big. You're going to have to have some third party non biased people making sure you're playing by the rules and doing the right things and not using your platform and your data for nefarious reasons. But I just think about, like, if I develop being a business owner and I come out with a product ahead of anyone else, I keep it better than anyone else. And as long as I'm doing that on the up and up, then someone's going to come in and take, go, nah. You've been too good for too long, baby. Get out of the way. We got to spread this pie around. I don't know. I don't know if I'm not okay with that. But I also get that this is a lot of sensitive information and a broader thing than just like a pizza shop. You know, it just happens to have better tasty pizza than someone else. It's more complicated than that, but you got to be careful. This is a slippery slope. I'll just say that. It's very interesting in this article is said here that some of the other major entities include like MADA, social media, and if they're going to start breaking up and regulating Google, what's to stop? Where does it end? Yeah. Definitely interesting. Our next article is coming to us from ABC News. And is the main reason why I have to read the news articles today to tell you that McDonald sues the top meat packers for allegedly allegedly colluding to inflate the price of bees. So McDonald's is suing four of the largest U.S. meat packers. Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and a national beef packing company, accusing them of colluding to inflate beef prices through anti-competitive measures. So this kind of goes back to the monopoly thing, right? You know, monopoly of Google, monopoly of meat packers. The government has to regulate, and this article is talking about McDonald's suing four regulation purposes. But breaking up monopolies is a tool to ensure that markets remain competitive, consumer friendly, and free from domination of any one single entity. I think that it's interesting from a business standpoint. What do you guys think on? Is it fair? What do you guys think about McDonald's and the meat packers, right? There's inflation questions here with the price of beef. I'll say this on a lighter note. Not going where you think. But there was like a 1980s campaign by Wendy's, I believe. Where's the beef? We might get back to that, because they have to use less beef. You know, that burger that has, like, used a little old ladies of it there, is like, where's the beef? And because the patties were so small. So maybe we'll get another campaign like that from this. But with that said, nothing like I like talking more about the meat packing deficiencies. And Chris is better informed on that topic than me. But I'll give you my opinion. So I don't know enough about the meat packing business to know, to know, like, truthfully, to know like, okay, if they're really, if they really have been controlling that much power to control the meat costs. But I also have a hard, damn time feeling sorry for McDonald's. Yeah, you know, like any of it was somebody else. Like they're, I thought Brian, I thought you were our resident meat, you know, expert, because every time that we're in studio or in office, he's always eating like steak. That's what I had before a game, actually. I had some top round that had been seasoned and it was just sure me nothing else. I eat like 16 ounces. Yeah, you see each like three. I'm a carnivore. Three steaks a week. Like 20. Oh my god, 20, probably 10. I never eat steak. Oh, yeah. I mean, I ate the equivalent of three steaks this morning. No, it's not all fancy steak either. So like the top round, I was not that expensive. It was like the same price like ground beef. But like, yeah. You mean one of those to be seen as bumper stickers are like beef. So that's for dinner. Oh, yeah. That's what I was saying back to the goat. If you're listening, go go on YouTube and look up where's the beef, the campaign. I can't remember if it was funny now that it was funny. The whole day, where's the beef? Anyway, because the patties are so small, the buns overtook the entire thing. Chris, how many steaks are you eating every week? Probably like five. See? I bought seven last night and two dozen eggs for my hurricane prep. Seven rebuts. 74 of them this morning. Storm might have gotten into one. That's you. And I'll eat like two steaks a day sometime. I'm like, yeah. I mean, good, good. Yeah. Maybe I need to get on like a steak kick. I don't, I never eat steak. I don't seem girls doing carnivore diet that are telling me good things about it. I'm not on carnivore, but I am a carnivore, but I'm not on carnivore. Not only. Not only. Okay. Okay. Move me on. I, you know, I just don't know that I have an opinion unnecessary or know the meat market will enough to know. I just think ultimately, I have a hard time feeling sorry for McDonald's, but I don't know enough about the economics of this particular situation to like speak for an educated standpoint on it. Yeah. I don't know, Chris, you know, without your meatpacking history, you, uh, I just see some big number of settlements. So that to me tells me like there's probably some, some questionable activities going on if they're settling for $221 million. Yeah. That doesn't happen by mistake. I mean, lawyers are good, but not that good. So like you said, Ben, they're well, they're one bigger profits and it's not just pissed because they're losing business because they're raising prices and they're losing business, right? Yeah. They're margins are going down. Meatpackers probably are affected, but it says it's coming back to 2015 and they're talking about the COVID supply chain. It's like, dude, 2015 was way before that. It's funny. You say that, Chris. I was thinking to say things. I was like, how long are we going to have to hear about the COVID impact? Is it going to be like 2031 and we're going to be like, you know, we're still doing with it. And I know, look, it was, it was a major event. I'm not putting light on it. I know that it still has impact, but it's just come on, man, like I wish I could use that as an excuse. Well, you know, I didn't pay my employees as we still deal with COVID impact and I mean, what? That, that'd be cool. No, I wouldn't be cool. It's like, all right. I mean, it is kind of fascinating when you look at where the economy and where the world is in this, what are we? Five years, almost five years post COVID right next year is 2025. So it's a long, we were quite a ways removed from COVID at this point. And I feel like things are still a little bit wonky, but like mostly back to normal. Yeah. It's a routine of normal, of an article here from USA Today that says, dream on the American dream now costs $4.4 million over a lifetime. I thought this was really interesting to include just as we kind of, you know, have listeners from all different walks of life, whether they're an entrepreneur or they're just starting out or they're a business owner or they own a multi-million dollar company. It's always good to kind of get a handle on where the economy is and what does it cost your employees to have that American dream? What does it cost you and your family members and the people that you left? So pretty expensive these days, Ryan, we've got to double the raising two kids budget for you. Yeah. Four kids. So that'd be 1.6 bill on the raising the kids. And wedding, I don't know, is that like your own wedding or is it like for your kids? The wedding budget seems low to me. Yeah, exactly. I'll say this, the biggest number I saw here, those like, whoa, inflation of costs, a report done in 2023 estimated that the American dream was $3.4 million, a one mill increase. In a year? In a year. That's the different way to think about that. Like, hey, you're dreaming your mind, just got a million dollars more expensive. In a year. Yeah. Because like of what inflation, I mean, it's inflation, but like, where does that inflation come from? Yeah. And how do we fix it with your vote? Yeah. Hey, vote the same, stay the same. Vote the same and it'll be $2 million next year. Exactly. You can get more. If you like that, he liked the way that tastes. You can get more. It's all you can eat, baby. Eat some more. You want some more of that? A financial planning extra trusted board is the same in the investment. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I get it, but 4.4 mil, I mean, that American dream is getting expensive. American dream. I mean, I think I like that American dream, that baby, they're a doll, they're American doll. American girl doll. American girl doll. Oh, yeah. In pricey to be that American dream, you know, I don't know why tying those two things together. But it's like the first thing I think I was like, think about that gift, like when your baby's born, the new gift you're giving them, like their first gift, day one, here you go. 4.4 mil just for you. Yeah. That's how I know you. You might want to hold on to that one. Go triple down on the 529 or something. Yeah. Well, Chris, it's a good day to be a dog, dad. I'm telling me, man, 1.6 mil, the pets will be cost 37,000. That's fine with me. I want another dog, you can tack me double on that pet expense, it's all the other stuff. I'm good on like, I'm good right now. Yeah. I mean, 37, I don't know if this reflects the true inflation of dog costs. How much I see people that they spend on their dog. Most people spend like two grand on the dogs now. Yeah. Like if they're, you know, any kind of one of these hyper allergenic breeds, hyper allergenic, you know what I'm saying? They're right. Yeah. Two grand for that. They got the dog food. I've seen the dog food look, it's the real food commercials, you see that delivered stuff on TV. It's like, how much do you need more than what you pay for your own food? Farmer's dog or something. Yeah. I bet if you pulled like the 20 people closest to me that have dogs, they spend half that 37 a year. They've been 18 a year on their dogs. That seems low for like lifetime on pets. I'm sure it's just averaged out because not everyone has a pet, but more people have pets that don't know. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I definitely think like it just depends like, right? My dogs were, I think we spent 10 to 15,000 on my dogs in the first year we had them. It's between like, how much they cost to buy them. And then my one dog ate like a puppy peepad when he was like, six weeks old at a good, like, all the things, you know? All right. Let's see. Ryan, do you want to finish out with anything? Oh. I don't think so. I think we're good today. We're going to keep it light today, guys. Give it light. We got to hurricane in. Know a lot of people out there thinking about that. Oh my god, I got to be on my leg. Oh. Where did that come from? Get it! Those even sting. It looks like a bird. Yeah. The big, the big ones that get the birdle holes. Oh. Thanks. I hate bees and yellow jackets. You too, bro. I've been stung so many times, like. I sat on them before I stung my ass. That was happening. The world's crumbling. What? Okay. Would you like to close aside? Sure. You need a way where your drops. All right. I think that's all for today. Chris, any final words there from Miami? Have a great weekend and sending good vibes to all the hurricane warriors. For sure. Brianna. Buzz. Be all you can be. Very good. We appreciate everyone. Ryan is right.com. Find all the highlight clips the full episode and a link to our YouTube. You got to watch these episodes to really get the full impact. You know what I'm saying? We appreciate you. Take care out there. Take care of one another. We'll see you next time. I'll write about now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit RyanisRite.com for full audio and video versions of the show. Order one choir about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening. You