Navigating the Economic Storm: How Political Leadership Shapes Our Financial Reality

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1:19Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's Friday, August 16th, 2024. It's our weekly business news of the week. Got the lovely, lovely looking lovely as always. Chris Hansen and the beautiful Brianna Hall. Little plot twist there. What's up, Chris? What's up, Brian? Hey, Brianna. Hey, guys. What's happening, people? All you party people? All the things. Lots and lots of things in the news. Lots of news. There's lots of news happening. Chris, how's Storm? Storm is phenomenal, as always. He's missing from the guest bathroom. I wander out for his breakfast in a bit.

2:09He's great, though. Yeah. Chocolate Lab, Chris has down in Miami in the vacay lounge. He's the vacay dog. He is. He's always on vacay. Big 100-pound big boy. He loves his CBD treats. He's got a good vibe. Yes. All the vibes all the time. Hey, it's been a busy week in the news. Lots of stuff happening. some things, you know, we're always doing, you know, full transparency. We're moving to the primary, more of a multi-day news segments here soon. I've been saying that for a few months, but it's, if I say it, it will manifest. But some of these things happen earlier in the week, you know, you're listening to this hopefully on a Friday.

2:51So it's topical on some level, but it's, it's with the election, with business news, with inflation, with rate drops, with all the stuff, it's sort of jam-packed. And so we're always trying to condense it down to what we feel like are the hot topics. And so it's sort of hard to get away from the politics as it relates to business now, that's for sure. And today's news sort of starts that whole train off with what was Donald Trump and Elon Musk's interview earlier in the week on X. And I must say, I just got to come out and just jump right back into the pulpit. It's like, you know, Donald Trump with no matter what you think.

3:36OK, what side you're on, what you think. Donald Trump's doing one hour X sessions with Elon Musk and the other side, Kamala Harris, has not been in front of a camera and a microphone in 24 days. How is this even happening? If Donald Trump hid from the news, what would everyone be saying? If he was just somewhere to be, nowhere he found it. It's not really in his blood. He's kind of a media tycoon anyway. But what are we hiding from, Chris? Why 24 days not in front of the camera, not saying anything? And I've got a good analogy I'm going to tell, But I first want to know why we think Kamala Harris is avoiding the news.

4:24It's a great question. I would like to know myself because, I mean, you even have what I would consider the more mainstream Kamala friendly news outlets asking this question. Where is she? And I find it hard to believe that you're taking this time to come up with your policies when you've been vice president for the last four years. I think you probably know your policies already. Yeah, I hope so. I mean, you're second in command of the, you know. Of the free world. Of the free world. And so if you didn't align with your president's policies, you know, you wouldn't be his vice president. And you counseled him for the last three and a half years.

5:03So if you want more of what you got, then you know who to vote for. You can say new energy all you want. But if you're happy with where we're at, vote for what we have. Because that's what you have today. whether he's old or not Biden's age and Kamala's their age difference is minuscule they have the same beliefs the same policies and hers are probably even further you know liberal if anything but at the same time I think she's trying to come up with what she's trying to say and I think I'll use this analogy and you know I have four boys all different personalities and my youngest is at least right now, he has four older brothers.

5:46He's kind of a follower. I'll just call him that. I think he'll turn out to be more of a leader as he kind of gets his confidence and he's not around his older brothers as much, but he's sort of a follower. And if I was watching them, you know, like we were there, they were voting on the name of one of their sports teams. And there's like 10 kids. And, you know, they do this in the class too, where, you know, someone asks, hey, raise your hand if you want this, you know, if you're making a choice. and you it's called bias right you look around and you you see your friends which friends raise their hand the fastest the most nash kind of waits and then he raises his hand to the most popular thing i i think that this is kamala harris she has been known for indecisive positions taking late positions at the last moment and i think it's because she doesn't really she wants to be popular.

6:37She wants to say the right things. She wants to do the right things, but doesn't have an opinion and doesn't want to get criticized for it. And so she's kind of waiting to play it, to announce whatever she's going to believe in at the last possible second, trying to take in as much information to get the best possible answer out. And like what people want her to say combined with, you know, because she's flip-flopping on every policy. And then she's waiting to the last second to even make these announcements because she doesn't want to take a stand. If you go ask people in California, like the things that she did, she always sort of threw in her votes at the last second because she was, she was always kind of like in this flip floppy kind of, uh, you know, because you don't want the accountability of it.

7:20And I think that's what it is. To be fair also, because your example is perfect about, you know, the voting on the name and the image that came to my mind, I think was at, um, one of the Republican debates actually. And that's where, you know, I want to be fair. I think it was one of the questions about, you know, do you support, you know, war, foreign wars. And it's almost like you could see everyone on the stage kind of look around. You get one or two yes or no immediately. And the rest of the crowd's kind of, the candidates were just looking kind of like, oh, are they going to raise it? Should I raise it?

7:52Trying to read the crowd where it's like, even that, if you're that easily swayed, it tells me you don't even know what you believe in. That's right. And that's not doesn't give me confidence as a voter of I want to know who I'm picking is standing on what they say they're going to do and can't. They're not easily suede to one side or the other. If you can switch teams that easy or switch beliefs, how do I know what I'm voting for is going to be the same a year, two years from now. What's that used, Brianna? Well, I think that Elon Musk had a really good point. he brought up all of the other leaders in the world, you know, Kim Jong-un and Putin.

8:32And how are they going to feel sitting across, you know, the desk from Kamala? Are they going to take her seriously? Are they going to believe in her policies and what she says? Are they going to be intimidated by her as the leader of the United States? And what security are we risking by having a non-intimidating leader, a leader that sits on top of coconuts and laughs like a hyena. You know, are we going to be taken seriously as a nation? And what is our nuclear security going to look like? I thought that was a very valuable part of that conversation and something that everybody should be asking themselves as you vote in November.

9:11The strength of the wolf is the pack. The strength of the pack is supposed to be the wolf. In this case, Kamala's strength is she would be president of the free world in the United States backing her up. But the U.S. is not stronger because of her. Yes. That's the point. It's like she would only be in a position of strength because she has the best country on the planet, the strongest country on the planet backing her up. It wouldn't be because of her own backbone. Yeah, I think it would be, it should be in the forefront of everyone's mind, their own security and the security of America, who our leader is, who leads us in the example that they set on the world stage.

10:03Well, you're getting an example right now, 24 days, no leadership. Every opportunity, because look, no one's at home at the White House. President Biden, nowhere to be seen. Clearly, nobody's at home. She could be showing her leadership right now. And she's not. She's doing nothing. She's campaigning and doing weird hands up in the air with Joe Balls or Walls or whatever that guy's name is, who looks like creepy Tom from like the guy that you don't want to meet. You're like, you're you walk into Walmart and there's kind of that old man over in the corner. you're like, you kind of, you kind of shuttle your kids away from them.

10:39It's like, he's trying to be nice. Like that's him. That's that guy. I mean, it's like, okay, just, Hey, he's trying to be nice. Like he's kind of doing like a weird joke with his finger out and it's like shuttling the kids wrong. I'm like, okay, don't touch my kids. Don't even look at them. I'll hit you in the face. Like anyway, very descriptive example. You guys know who that guy is. You know who he is. You know who that guy in Walmart is. You know him. You're like, oh, he's trying to be nice, but he looks a little creepy. A little creepy. And I'm just saying, look, she has every opportunity to be showing that leadership right now.

11:18Because nobody's there. Biden's not going. She didn't have to compete with the president. Biden's not going in front of the camera. He's done one interview. It was done by one of his advisors on CBS. What are you, one of the CBS interviewers? there's one of his advisors that did a bunch of layup questions for him he talked about this loud you know it's like nobody's home she could be look if the if what they're saying and the energy that is put behind her is true i have my doubts with mainstream media but let's just say it is she could run away with this race if she would be out front and center taking all these like making her position known and just running away with it because nobody's at home at the White House, she doesn't have to compete with Biden.

12:05He's out of the way. She could be enacting everything right now if she had the answers. But we know the answer that she doesn't. That's the point. It's never been more clear. And that's the problem. And that's why, you know, like, love him or hate him, Donald Trump's on X for an hour talking about the real issues and how to solve them, you know, with someone that actually runs businesses. So I do not love everything Donald Trump says at every single moment, but I respect the hell out of him for having an opinion and having the chutzpah to put it out there and actually having solutions. These will understand behind.

12:46And look, no president is going to be perfect and right all the time. That's the problem. She's going to be worried about whether, OK, let me get some counsel. You know how many staff members she would have if she ends up as president? She's going to have more councilmen than, you know, the Knights of the Roundtable. It's going to be 57 Knights of the Roundtable in her council because she's going to go, all right, what should we do? All right. She's got a 92 % turnover rate in her office. Like, Chris, you said it before the episode. Would you say it's a litmus test already for, like, how smart or dumb we are as a nation?

13:20Yeah, it's like a national IQ test, I feel like. which I almost like kind of COVID I feel like was in a way. This is like round two of another. Let's, let's test them again. See what they're old. They'll bite on. I'd love to be talking about the policies that she's putting out there. I think that's fine. Especially in relation to business as a business show, but you know, inflation and it's just so funny. The media, God, I mean, it's, they don't even hide it anymore. Right. It's like, I mean, prime examples, like the border. Right. It's been her job from day one. She's been there like one time.

13:57It's still not a great situation at the border. So it's like, all right, if you were any normal business and you were my manager in charge of managing the border and you failed at that, I would fire you. You would not, I wouldn't give you a promotion to a job with more responsibility in charge of more things when you didn't even handle one of the main things that was your job to handle when you came in. that's one example there's probably hundreds of others i mean the irony with musk and trump is i mean clearly they don't lie on everything i mean electric cars and they we know the differences they have there and you know climate change and all that and so they can put to side those disagreements and a lot of these policies are crazy nothing about trump's pro gas policy is good for for tesla so it's like when you have a guy whose business is predominantly ran from electricity and anti-gasoline who's pushing for trump it's like there's something deeper to it why you know if you're going to jeopardize the profitability of your own business i mean so president biden's in a bunker somewhere at home it i don't know can't kick away i don't know where wherever he's at, doing whatever he's doing, retired, semi-retired.

15:19And she's out on the campaign trail. So are taxpayers just paying for her to get elected? Like, is that how that works? Like, what's her job as vice president while she's campaigning for herself? Now, I recognize there have been other vice presidents that have campaigned before. So, like, it's less, like, necessarily. But in this case, it's her. So where the president is not sort of capable, this is back to her. She could be, she's presumptive, she's the candidate. Like she could sort of be running the country. I mean, I'm not saying I want that. I'm kind of glad she's not. I'd rather keep campaigning.

15:54We don't need you running the country. But, you know, who is running it and who's paying for that? I guess we are. It's tax dollars. Right? Like when she campaigns for five days and she gets paid by us, our tax dollars, to be the VP. Are we indirectly funding her campaign? Hey, these are deep thoughts here by Jack Handy.

16:30Anyway, I will say this. the one thing that will pay the bills if you really want it is our good partners, Brandon Bills. Because look, you want an inflation buster? It's called new business. We don't sit around waiting for checks. We get new business. You know how you get new business? You brand yourself. You get top of mind awareness. You know how you get top of mind awareness? It's called branding. You got to feed the top of the funnel to get to the bottom. You feed the top of the funnels by more people knowing who you are, knowing your name, brand recognition and at a high level. And that's exactly what Brandon bills does.

17:05I am. It's 90 degrees here in South Carolina, but I almost put this hoodie on because it's like a warm blanket around my heart and around my neck. And look, I'm telling you, these are our vibe science. Chris and I do another show. It's all about health and wellness. It's all about good vibes. Be the spark. We need a spark, baby. That's what I'm saying. I'm going to, I'm going to run for president. Maybe president of the branded bills club. That's what I'm talking about. Yes. So look, this is like, I'm telling you, I don't even want to take this off now. I'm going to leave it on my shoulder the whole episode now because it's so soft and makes me feel gone.

17:40I start thinking about comma and I get all upset and I just need a warm blanket. I got my brand new bills. It is the best. I'm telling you, you want new business, you got to get your logo on nice quality merch. They're known for their hats. Stay for the hoodies. Run for the t-shirts. Telling you, they're awesome. We love them. They're the official sponsor of Ryan Offered and right about now. Go to brandonbills.com. Click that custom button up in the top right button. You're going to thank me for it. You're going to love me for it because all your customers and everyone that's wearing that stuff, they're actually going to do it.

18:15Here's the thing. A lot of people, you get merch and nobody wears it. It goes over in the corner. You know what this is? This is the not throwing the corner merch. This is the I get worn all the time merch. because their design team makes it look right, and they'll set you up because they take care of all of our customers. They'll take care of you. Brandabills.com, official merchandise sponsor of Right About Now. You know you love them, Chris. I know you do. You got the vacay hat on. Don't let me be the only one loving on them. Oh, amazing hats, washable, great athletic hats, great if you're out in the sun.

18:55I mean, we've got them. we've used Brandon Bills for all of our businesses. And I'm wearing a Brandon Bills hat every day. It might be a different name on it, but it's always Brandon Bills. Exactly. That's the only brand that matters when you're getting custom merch. So I'm telling you, everybody who sent them to goes, hey, man, where'd you get that stuff? Well, hey, you know where I did. You can listen to the show. Brandon Bills, baby. That's where it's at. That's the inflation buster right there. The inflation buster is getting new business. Hey, we ain't waiting around for no handouts. we don't need prices to go down we need new business and it starts with bringing bills all right what's next here kamala harris's campaign website has no economic plans uh i mean i think my team is setting me up for this you know i've already been on the soapbox here uh uh vice president more gasoline on the fire you know yeah it's business economic plans Vice President Harris on Tuesday.

19:58This is when she selected Tim Walls, but her campaign website lacks information about her economic plans for the country. Hey, it's energy, baby. It's excitement. Vote Kamala. It's just all about the energy. It's all about the... You know what? Has there ever been a bigger campaign that was all sizzle and no steak? Talk about marketing. Yeah, marketing. It is. Yes, congratulations. They know what they're doing. Yeah. When in reality, there's articles like this. U.S. credit card holders in crisis as they have faced an addiction to spending, financial experts warn. 50 % of U.S. credit card holders carrying higher debt balance today on a month-to-month basis can serve as a powerful tool, but they also represent risk to achieving financial freedom.

20:51says that's what a new bank rate survey unpacks as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a Q2 report on household debt and credit showing that credit card debt is growing. Prices are higher, making less money, less money to take home, gas costs more, bread costs more, and credit card debt's up. Chris, can you believe it? I can't believe it, Chris. Unbelievable. It sounds like something Kamala would say. Yeah. How are you going to fix inflation? Well, you know, credit card debt's up. I'm like, how are you going to fix inflation? You know, you know, Chris, inflation's bad and we got to fix it.

21:33We're going to fix it better. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Fix it back better. Yeah. It's important. It's important to prioritize credit card debt payoff because this is probably your highest cost debt by a wide margin. At least 50 % of Americans are carrying a higher balance today on a month-to-month basis than they were in March of 2020. This is up from just the 44 % recorded this past January.

22:05That's a big freaking jump, I'm telling you.

22:14All this runs together, Chris. We talk about some of these themes that's related to business, but all this stuff runs together. Credit card debt's higher. Costs are higher. Employment's slowing, decreasing. Interest rates are too high. If you want the same, you got it, baby. It's already in the office. Just stick with what you got. Stick with what you got. I'm just telling you. It's so obvious. and we're going to keep talking about it because, hey, we're going to use our voice to share what we're going to come to you with the facts of the truth. There used to be no spin zone on Fox. You know, I don't get into the Fox scene and I don't, I'm not just like a Fox junkie all my life.

23:00Like call me, call me Captain Obvious. I'm going to start wearing a shirt that says Captain Obvious. Like I'm not spouting anything off from some radical point of view. This is just Captain Obvious, right? Isn't it? Is there some of this obvious? Yeah. And inflation itself is just another form of taxation. It's like, you know, we are taxed to the point where there is no return and inflation is just another form of that. Yep. There's a strong figure here. Americans owe 45 % more now than they did early 2021. And the delinquency rate is the highest since 2011. That's massive. just just hey this awkward kisses on stages and hugging babies whatever you got to do energy no specifics no plan stay the same i mean what what about the economy right this second do you like what's going good for you that's my question is like it's as simple as like do you have more financial freedom now than you feel like you had the previous administration.

24:13And I think, I don't know about you, brother, but everyone I talk to, no matter what business they're in, it's definitely tighter. Yeah. Every industry. Totally. Every cost is higher. And every going out is higher. Every coming in is at least a little lower, if not a lot lower. That's the problem. And newsflash people, most of our goods are moved with trucks fueled by gasoline and oil. So when gasoline and oil goes up, because this administration is anti-gasoline and oil, it costs more to get your goods to your grocery store, to the stores near you. It's very simple. Like you're paying more for goods now.

25:00It's so simple when you get to the root of these things. Yes, it is. and you know that's how we're gonna keep talking about it and i think it's gonna be interesting to see how the slowdown goes and there's an article on your 12 economic slowdown will kind of determine the election it's like you know if it gets a little bit worse trump wins stays the same combo i just we talked about this pre-episode it's like everyone i ask to is like not happy with where the economy is. And they sort of like, whether it's in the open or behind closed doors says they're going to vote for Trump. But yet, and look, we're all in our own bubbles.

25:45We all do this. I'm not stupid. It's not a focus group of one. I, you know, the data says what the data says, but who are these people voting for Kamala and why? Why? Like what, what about what's the direction that you like. Enlighten me. Come on the show. We'll have Kamala Harris on. Right about now, number one show in marketing business on Apple. We're nothing. Here's your invite. Come tell us what it is. You aren't going to do it because you won't go on anything else. You know? Come enlighten us. I'd love to. No one would roll out the red carpet more than this show would. Give you every opportunity.

26:31I won't even talk. I'll just listen. I'll talk enough. That's not an easy thing to do, but I will. Just solutions. That's all we want. Hey, it isn't about publicity. It's about policy. So let's talk policy. But we can't talk it because we don't know what hers is. We have to just assume it's whatever's going on today with the White House. So I don't know. Chris, I mean, you know, you feel inflation? I feel it. Yeah, man. Of course. Every business, costs has went up in every single one of my businesses. And of course, it sucks when you have employees and their costs are going up, but revenues aren't going up enough to counter that, right?

27:25I mean, that's what I think a lot of businesses are in this. smaller businesses right around this pinch of like people need need need the money more than ever but we're getting clipped on our side too so that's right um the only winners seem to be the major corporations that have the leverage in the buying back uh i feel like like going i go to the grocery store it's kind of like where i feel the most of you know like i'll go to the grocery store and it used to be like, you remember when you go to the grocery store and you roll the card around and you knew like, kind of, oh, this is a hundred dollar card.

28:01I've ever had one, you know, it thinks jammed up, man. You got, you got groceries falling over the side. You're like, you're trying to keep a box up. You're like, oh, I spent a hundred dollars today. That's a$350 card now. I mean, if you got it filled that much, I could put 10 things in my buggy and it's$104. You know, I got Cheez-Its in there. It's$100 every time you go to the grocery store, you run in for eggs, milk, bread, and cheese. That's$100. Oh, literally. I mean, I feel like, you know, that little guy in the, that's like greeting you and you go into the store, starting handing you a cart.