No BS Weekly Business News: Interest Rates, Mega Merger, Bezos Playing Monopoly, Elon Musk Touting Robo Taxi While Tesla Burns

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On right about now, we're always taking the BS out of business to thank your daddy's business show. Everything you're about to hear cuts straight to it. The Federal Reserve just decided your mortgage rates are going to stay right where they're at. Eh, it's trending nicely in place and so they speak. Why don't they fix the problem they created? Hey, they keep borrowing like it's crazy. What's good for the goods should be good for the gander. We need more money in the market. Those rates need to come down. Meanwhile, two British oil titans, Shell and BP talking about a merger. That'd be the biggest thing since X-on-8 mobile for lunch. They elected you about net zero, saving polar bears. Hey, all they want to do is save the shareholders and Silicon Valley, open AI, got another brain in a box. Oh, three pro just rolls right off the tongue. Predictably, every consultant is now an AI strategist right before those pink slips across the cup across the desk and they get fired. Everybody knows AI now, suddenly, right? Nothing screens progress like paying more to store the same data twice. That's why through Brick, they just bought an entire startup to sprinkle machine learning on your backups. They want your data people. It's not about the tools, it's about that data they need to digest to make them work. Speaking of orbiting reality, Tesla is hyping Robo Taxis, bought European sales nose-dive by 50%. It's like bragging about a yacht while the repo man toes your sedan in the front yard. Finally, Hollywood just rebranded another streaming bundle, Paramount Plus Premium, the latest attempt to tax your boredom. Get the real subscriber surges in India, where Gehost Hotstar is stealing eyeballs at 300 million strong. We entangle every one of these stories, give you the number of the suits, hope you'll ignore. And, as always, leave you with a stat so sharp you could slice through tomorrow's boardroom buzzwords, because this show is about soothing your feelings, it's about arming you with the truth. Now, let's get to work, right, epping, now. 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, in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and caching checks? Well, it starts right about now. All right, guys, we're all wearing fitness trackers, everything else today. I've got this fancy bracelet on today, it's just one of the mini accessories with my plaid note pen, hey, it's become my favorite accessory. You know, we got the Fitbit, this is like the Bizbit. It keeps up with every recording, one button, starts recording, transcribes, gives me all the AI takeaways again, gives me action items, I can set it up for anything because you can train it with your AI engine behind it. It ultimately is recording those meetings that I always forget. I walk into a meeting, all of a sudden I'm like, damn, which we've recorded that. So now, instead of taking notes, this guy, the plaid note pen is doing it all for me. You can wear it here, you can pin it on you again, minimalistic, it's pretty trendy if you ask me to, you got this, you know, double, double bracelet going on, but I love the white man, classy, and again, keeping up as an entrepreneur, man, it's so important to catch those ideas, those things that are happening in real time and meetings. I love it. Get yourself one plaid note pen. It's one of the greatest inventions and little tech gadgets of this year. It is in my tech stack because it helps me get ahead right now. All right, guys, let's get right to it. Quick freeze, reality check. The feds are holding the rate between 4.25 and 4.5% for the fourth straight meeting. Core PCE is still above 3%, election year, optics, Trump the math. Hey, here's a deal. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. We're borrowing like crazy, we're pounded trillion dollars in debt, whatever the hell it is. We got more interest to know to do with, but worried about the inflation that was caused by our own government. And now we got to keep the rates for their steady and money's tight. Hey, those corporate, that corporate money, we're about to find out who the real winners are. There's a lot of unicorns out there that borrowed money to get going. When this not, when there is as much liquid cash out there, we're going to find out what's real and what's not with a lot of these unicorns, SaaS companies, a lot of things have been held up by a lot of cheap money. Well, it's not going to be cheap so much any longer. 1.4 trillion corporate debt matures in 2026, you better start refinancing this summer. Two cuts penciled for Q4 2025. I don't know if I'm buying it, you better lock in that liquidity before the window slams and look, we need more money in the market. That's why Trump's been saying he's going to get rid of the Fed chair. I think we got to start moving, but ultimately we need to be what's good for the goose to be good for the gander. All right. Shell BP are coming together. Hey, they're all worried about all the green stuff. Suddenly, yeah, the only green thing they're worried about is this shareholder value is what they're worried about. Come on now. I'm all for mergers and capitalism, but man, is this just mean higher prices for gas? Those convenience stores going to get a little better. I have my doubts. We'll see what happens. In other monopoly talk, you know, Bezos might be preparing that rocket to go to the moon. There's no any trust laws up there. One of these audiobook authors aren't happy because they're not getting the profits they should and the judges are starting to agree. There it's not so rosy for Bezos right now in that category. We'll see what happens. It's hard to know what the right thing is, a lot of convenience prices, a lot of things that are super friendly have come out of Amazon, but I do believe in creativity and holding it together for authors time, creativity, everything that they put in, Amazon shouldn't be the only one profit to get the highest level and being so like it is a monopoly. Let's just call what it is. But ultimately, there needs to be room for everyone and for the authors to get the credit and those royalties they deserve. Let's see where it goes. Okay, AI, man, it's so funny how we have AI making everything easier. I still feel like some things in my life are a lot harder than they need to be. I digress. I think our AI price wars are detonating. Chad's EPT just came out with O3 Pro Mini Delta, whatever the hell. I don't know where they come up with these names. All I know is it thinks a lot longer and smarter, but it's gotten a lot cheaper. 80% cheaper, isn't it funny? I look on LinkedIn, everyone's now and AI strategist, like that's going to save their job. I'll tell you what, AI is coming for those entry level and mid-manager jobs, no matter what your resume says. If you don't know how to put them to use, a genetic AI is a middlemanage, a killer ultimately, if you ask me, I would be thinking about how you're going to turn your career into being a leader in the AI space, leveraging a genetic AI. You could literally have a staff of 10 people reporting to you all agents. That'll get your boss's attention and keep you from getting those pink slips. Look, things are changing. We've talked about on this store, but with costs coming down on these tools, what does that mean? It means data is imported. I'd be focused less on the tools and more on the data. You need to lock it up because these tools need data, information, creativity, all the stuff that's on the internet or the stuff that we think and write every day with our brains and thinking. That's what they need. You need to lock that down, get your agreements in place for using it. I think about all the data we've created with interviews on every podcast on our network. We need to lock that down because I know that data is getting pulled from with which these models get strained. Why aren't we getting royalties for that? You know what's happening behind the scenes. So we'll see price wars, it's more like data war. I love my man Elon Musk. The hype train continues EU sales down 50%. But Robo Taxi taking off like wildfire, he's always innovating. I love it. If only the data does matter eventually. Hey, look at this beautiful yacht while the repo man's in the front yard taking years to Dan. I don't know if it works. We'll see. If anyone can make it work, it's Elon Musk. Hey, I do want a good taxi without a cent that comes from that guy in New York. Sorry guy, it just stinks in that Uber. So I'm all about the Robo Taxis being safe. But ultimately, I don't know, those Tesla sales are hurting. I look at, get on Facebook Marketplace, I'm seeing a lot of Teslas for sale and I don't know if it's just sentiment and people that are just tired of him or if it's really because of the issues of the car, I tend to think it's just the sentiment. I'd be worried about turning that around and less about that robot taxi. We'll see. In video, back on the throne, market cap is at 3.77 trillion, the head of Microsoft and Apple, most valuable company in the world, 8 billion, but, but, but, billion revenue hit expected from US export band to China, huh? That could hurt. It might not be the world's most valued company for long. I will say this, the problem here for Nvidia is again, same thing, monopoly is single supplier AI risk, the next single point failure. One company holds a lot of the cards with for what it takes to keep these computers and all this stuff running, owning the shovels in a gold rush is great, until the government shuts down the mind. We don't always like to sound the alarm just for any reason, but I do think this is a stat that you can't dismiss. This is the right about now, stat of the week, 12.3. That's the 90 day card delinquency rate right now on credit cards in America. That's big. That's the largest it's been since 2011, 2011, that's 14 years ago. Hey, you cannot ignore this. The consumer crack has arrived, it just hasn't been priced in. I'm not calling for a recession, but when consumer debt rates and these kind of smoke signals are here, it signals the recession. You start hearing and seeing these stats before you hear people talking about it. I hope not, but that's why we need more money in the market when there's interest rates to come down and we need action to happen. Hey guys, we appreciate you for listening. This is the real American business show and we got the 4th of July where we celebrate our independence next week. I hope everyone has a fantastic 4th, be safe people, be responsible, everything in moderation, including moderation. That's all for the show today. If you want all the raw data, if you want more takeaways, hit the newsletter. If you're hitting up on Instagram, hit the link in the bio or you can subscribe at Ryan Offer.com or Ryan is right dot com. That's where we have all the back episodes from all of the 600 episodes, that's where we're approaching 600 episodes, that's some data folks, a lot of it, a lot of the greatest minds in business, and all of our back episodes, highlight clips, tons of content, and signing up for the newsletter where you get more in-depth coverage of what we do here on the pod. Can't wait to see you next time, I'll write about now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit RyanisRate.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening. And right now, you can try Zippercrooter 4 free at zippercrooter.com slash zip. With Zippercrooter, you can forget your frustrations, because we find the right people for your roles fast, which is our absolute favorite effort. In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercrooter get a quality candidate within the first day. Fantastic. So, whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent. Just go to zippercrooter.com slash zip to try Zippercrooter 4 free. Don't forget that's zippercrooter.com slash zip. Finally, that zippercrooter.com slash zip. DC politicians want to enact harmful credit card mandates that could take away your cashback and rewards points, perks that stretch your budget and make life a little easier. Losing these benefits means less money for your families every day essentials, like gas and groceries. The perks you rely on could disappear, leaving you with higher costs and fewer options. Tell Congress to guard your card and oppose the Durban Marshall credit card mandates.