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

0:00This 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 next and cashing 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. It's the last day of February. I had to process that. I feel like it's like a blink here. So that was when you only have 28 days in the month. How'd February get off only get 28 days? I was going to say, how is it already the end of February?

0:43Yeah. Like we're moving into March. 2025 is like snap of the fingers. Joined by, as always, Chris Hansen 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 whenever, wherever, 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 the 70s here in South Carolina this week. And I know we'll be like back to 50 probably next week.

1:22This is what happens like late February around here. But I'm enjoying it, man. I'm ready for spring fling. I was going to say it was snowing when I left there last week. A little change of weather. We get four seasons in two weeks. Yeah, literally, man. Now everything's great in Miami. It's beautiful. It's a sunny day and, you know, not a cloud in the sky. So we're thriving. I know. And, you know, 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. Okay, what are the headlines? What's coming across? And I don't know if there's like the top of the news heap, but I thought it was great.

2:07President Donald Trump has announced a new gold card visa program aimed at attracting wealthy foreign investors. Part of me chuckled and thought this was hilarious, Chris. But then I was like, hell yeah. I mean, like, this is how it should be, right? You want to get in? You pay to get in. You know, bring your money, bring your ideas, bring your innovations. We'll let you into the greatest company, the greatest company. Freudian slipped. It might actually be becoming true. Cause I was going to say in a way, yeah. Great employees. Come to our team. Come to country slash company, greatest company and country.

2:42And maybe, Hey, if we're going to be, let's start acting like a great company. Uh, it would be a start. Yeah. If we want to be, what do I say? By 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, flaunting that thing around. I agree. And sadly, earlier I read that 60 % of Americans have under a sixth-grade reading level. That tells me maybe we need to bring in some outside talent that has some resources and can help the other 60%, you know? It's a pathway to U.S.

3:25residency 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 affluent individuals who can contribute significantly to the U.S. economy. The new initiative is set to replace the existing EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which requires a lower investment and had been criticized for inefficiencies and susceptibility to fraud. Go figure. The administration anticipates the program could generate substantial revenue, potentially aiding in reducing the national debt.

4:03President Trump suggested that selling one million gold cards could yield five 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 old arithmetic on the old calculator on your phone or however you do it. ChatGPT to do that shit. I think my eight-year-old 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 uh i applaud we have to try some shit throw some shit against the wall let's let's let's make some calculated trials here that can and benefit the old ways of just doing shit don't work that's why we're 30 trillion dollars in debt the leads are weak the leads are weak fucking leads are weak you are weak i've been in this business 15 years what's your name fuck you that's my name you know why mister because you drove a hyundai to get here tonight i drove an 80 000 bmw that's my name so when 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 five million dollar investment probably is better at making financial decisions in the government bureau yeah yeah exactly and that's where i want to encourage people really read this shit and realize it's a bunch of nothing this is just negativity for no reason you know similar programs in other countries have shown minimal impact well yeah because it's not the united states of america yeah exactly i can go get a golden visa in portugal if i go invest two hundred thousand dollars over there i don't really want to live in portugal i like america you know and there's a lot more people that want to come here than leave so exactly bingo writing those checks baby come on write those checks pay to get in hey the u.s has been flipping a lot of bills for a long time you know as leaders of the free world.

6:37And this isn't arrogance. It's just reality. Like it's time to start collecting. And let me give you an example. Dubai, they've been very open to outside investment money. They've encouraged outside investors to come build and look at what they've done in 50 years, right? It's one of the most innovative modern cities on 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. 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.

7:29That sounds like good news to me. Sounds like almost like we should have had them doing this to begin with. Yeah. Like American company, manufacturing in America, you know. Apple invests$500 billion. Yeah, exactly. $500 billion in expanding U.S. facilities over the next four years. The move comes on. The company faces new 10 % 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 investing hundreds of billions of dollars and others, too. Apple CEO Tim Cook stated, we are bullish on the future of American innovation.

8:18Yeah, you got to start. We got to start building at home, baby. Just like we talked about all these microcomputers doing AI and shit like this is 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 global economy. I'm not saying it's not. We 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. Doesn't sound coincidental to me. No, and if 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?

9:05A lot of this was done in China, from my understanding, 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 kind of in locks around the corner. Right. Yeah. We've also got to deal with Ukraine, I think, building. We're bringing them to the table by not just throwing money at them. putting a little pressure on them and for 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.

9:41Exactly. As simple, simply said, what's our ROI? Well, it's our ROI on creating peace and, and liberty, you know, and not perfectly by, by the way, it's messy as hell, but, uh, 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 tell you what's moving fast. It's the impact of AI on business.

10:23Worldwide. So a major agent bank is cutting 4 ,000 roles as AI is replacing human activities. DBS Bank cuts due to AI implementation. Singapore's largest bank will cut approximately 4 ,000 temporary slash contract roles over the next three years. It says permanent staff will not be affected right now. The bank plans to also create 1 ,000 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.

11:10The 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 in 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.

12:10Look out. I'd be looking for new ways with which to apply your skills. Or integrate it, integrate the AI into 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 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 spend more money on these things. or more energy back yeah energy to the human potential in my mind right yes you're offloading these meaningless thoughtless things to focus on creativity ideas innovation yeah that that spring new and interesting industries and ideas and things and not the same same old same old And so they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

13:26There's a lot of old dogs that are going to have to, like, I mean, and this is where, like, I love, I say this because I practice what I preach. 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. I 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 common 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.

14:07When 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 got your eyes, you got your head in the sand if you don't think it's coming for the status quo. That's all. AI is 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.

14:39Starbucks is laying off over 1 ,000 corporate workers. AI is not in this headline, but I'll let you kind of judge. Eliminating a thousand corporate jobs and closing several hundred open positions. It says its 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.

15:26And you look around and you figure, I've done it with my business the last six months. Then like, all right, why are we still doing this? Why are we doing 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, 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.

16:02It's interesting, but it does seem to have a trickle-down effect, doesn't it? Yeah. I mean, I'm, 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? Where I'm looking at this, you know, Starbucks cutting 30 % of its menu, it's more complex drinks. It's like, you know, as a business guy, these are very simple things that I would, I like, if we ran this business, we're like, okay, we want to reduce weight time. Let's reduce the amount of drinks.

16:36Let's do 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 we all have to there's times you have to pause reflect and 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 yeah and some people Some people view change and improvement as contrary or different. And I'm not saying they're always the same thing as you can improve, but it's highly correlated.

17:31As human beings, we're kind of built for that. And I think the reason there's depression and there's reason there are these things is like there's this, we've had this natural bottling up of it. And we figure out, well, why are we so depressed and unhappy? because we're not changing and evolving and we're, you know, Boston. Trying to clean the comfort. Yeah. Clinging to comfort and the TikTok vortex, you know, like, it's like, that's okay a little bit, but 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.

18:11I 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, if you had to see a few of those plugged into 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 new show, but we also want to be a beacon of change, innovation, and positivity. Uh, but I'm going to do it kicking in the ass a little bit. And believe me, I got the biggest boot right on my rear end, too. So that's what we're here for.

18:55Other news, Doge. All about efficiency, baby. Doge claims$65 billion in total estimated savings as agency efficiency leaderboard is launched. This is what it did run like a sales call. The Wolf of Wall Street board up on. We just cut$4 billion. Yeah. Yeah. I can see them in there. Yeah. Meanwhile, they're giving bonuses for how many million you cut this week. They're like, there's your SPF. $1 ,000 bonus on your check this week. A new leaderboard ranking government agencies by cost-cutting efforts. The leaderboard tracks savings from fraud detection, contract cancellation, renegotiations, asset sales, workforce reductions, and regulatory changes.

19:45look, 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, that, and the other, and we can nitpick that all we want. But I think we can 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 card, whatever 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 buck status quo. Yeehaw! Like a cowboy.

20:33Buckaroo Bob. Riding that crypto market's kind of like riding that buck and bronco right now. I know. What the hell is going on with crypto, Chris? what crypto chris man it's like i barely it's like what is happening crazy chris yeah i great question i'd love to know i mean obviously we've got some of the the big events we know happen i mean as of right now when i checked bitcoin was at like 86 000 which is definitely way lower than it's been in a few months um the biggest thing there was a hack one of the large exchanges is kind of like Robin Hood for stock people was hacked for, let's see, what was it?

21:13$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, 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 in this, but it did shake the market. And it's definitely not doing so hot. I mean, you've got about a 30 % pullback this month. So. This is from the Binance CEO, Richard Tang. He said, it's important to view this as a tactical retreat, not a reversal.

22:01Yes. Crypto has been here before and bounced back even stronger. He said they tend to bounce back stronger after volatility caused by events in the broader economy. History has shown that crypto markets react to macroeconomic 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. Don't sell. Ride the dip. The tide came out, and it's about to come in like a tsunami, me, but I'm not a financial analyst, so no promises, but what goes down must come up. I, uh, Tang said the strong demand for crypto ETS and ongoing applications for new launches in the U.S.

22:47is a positive sign. You know, I'm kind of, I think I'm going to go buy, like, 5K in XRP. Yes, you should. I'm going to put my money where I'm out because I'm riding the dip, baby. I'm going to go ride it. time to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Exactly. That's what my best is telling me here. Cause it might, 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, I can ride the wave back the other direction. You know, man, this is a sale. Buy it on sale right now. Everyone clearance time for Bitcoin. Exactly. That's right.

23:27We've got a sale on crypto here on right about now available to anyone. on your local wallet. Bitcoin was$104 ,000. Now it's$86 ,000. Get it while it's hot. Yeah. Come on. Well, the same things happen in the sports car world. You know, we started right in the middle of the NFL season, which it was hot. Oh, man. Did the cards get less volatile throughout the season? No, but they kind of ride the wave of the Super Bowl by the sport. So I'm talking mainly NFL right now. So NFL climbing, climbing, climbing. The good players climbing like Jaden Daniels. Then that Super Bowl dip offseason. Prices just dropped like 50 % on certain cards.

24:09Just to go back up again, usually at the start of the next season. So it's a little bit of a dip. So I'm holding them. And I'm selling a few, but holding most. And then I'm buying. I'm letting that dip get down low, baby. And I'm buying. Heavy. Heavy. That's the game. Buy low, sell high. Yep. If you're seeing camera two, officially have it. We've got our Prism. What do we got today? 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. Hey, it's not cheap. It's about$25 retail box. There's 20 cards in here.

24:55And this is – you know what I've determined? I think I talked about this last week, Chris. This is legal gambling for children. 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. I thought you were blowing 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've got breaks happening here on right about now with the only benefactor being Numero Uno and my four boys. Eventually, we'll get to fight over all this.

25:44But, no, we've got a collection going, man. Cataloging this stuff. Rad rips. We'll have the Instagram page, everything else up soon. Had to find a way to get the YouTube stars out of the kids. I think it's going to be through sports cards. Playing cards. That's smart. Like unboxing. Yeah. And it's fun. Unboxing. And then you sell. You sell. So doing breaks, you buy a box. So it's got like, okay, 20, 30 packs in it. You sell individual teams. They get bid on. So that you, 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 edition.

26:25Yeah. So, you're seeing and watching here on the camera. The going through. And look, this is how it is in these packs. Even if you've 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 Carbaugh. Not bad. 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.

27:11$25 box, that's a$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 nine that's a grading scale nine out of ten which would make this easily two 250 right now if it got graded out as a nine so that's a hit no matter what else we get And then these green waves, Jameer Gibbs, Ricky Williams, Keith Byers. So, so up Xavier Worthy, another big hit. That is the wide receiver from Texas. He ran a four to 40 at the combine and had over a hundred yards receiving in the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles.

28:05We 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 worth of cards. Another Caleb in the same pack. This is a$15 card, this fireworks card.

28:26Okay. Bo Nix. 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. We opened a lot of packs, probably two weeks, which is saying something. I'm glad I could do that live for everyone. Me too. Find me on eBay at RadRibs. they'll be for sale later today we'll give you 10 off if you're listening i'll autograph one for you not one of these but maybe uh nate wiggins who played at clemson that's a good guys 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 diamond not ours 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.

29:39Like that's... 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 pack hit 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 out of fear, but out of opportunity.

30:37That's what it's about. It's a great day to be American. Hey, guys, you find us at RyanIsRight.com. Highlight clips, full episode, links to Christianized social media, and you never know what other surprises. Shout out to Panini and Bo Nix, baby. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. visit RyanIsRight.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities thanks for listening