Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Business News: Economic March Madness - NCAA Revenue - NASA astronauts & SpaceX Capsule - Cryptocurrency Trends

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

SUMMARYIn this episode of Right About Now, host Ryan Alford and co-host Chris Hansen dive into a dynamic mix of current events and business trends. They kick things off with the economic impact of March Madness, exploring productivity losses and the tournament's deep cultural influence. The conversation then shifts to Elon Musk and Tesla, examining public reactions and recent acts of vandalism. They also explore the evolving luxury car market, focusing on Ferrari’s shifting demographics and the challenges of maintaining brand integrity. Wrapping up on a lighter note, the duo discusses astronauts’ food choices in space, blending humor with sharp insights.TAKEAWAYSEconomic impact of March Madness on productivity and businesses.Cultural significance of March Madness in corporate America.Statistics related to March Madness, including financial losses and economic boosts for host cities.Discussion on the financial dynamics of NCAA athletes versus college basketball coaches.Current events surrounding Elon Musk and Tesla, including societal reactions and vandalism incidents.Exploration of the implications of Musk's actions and media portrayal.Challenges faced by astronauts during extended space missions.Insights into the luxury car market, focusing on Ferrari's changing demographics.Comparison of brand integrity and quality between Ferrari and Lamborghini.The balance luxury brands must maintain between exclusivity and profitability. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one 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 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 Friday, March 21st, 2025.

What's up, Chris Hansen. What's up, Brian Alford. Oh, you know, hold it down here in G Vegas, the lovely social house, our core workspace in downtown Greenville. Also the home of our studio. Come see us anytime. Social House dot clubs, the website. And it is where everything's happening. Hey, it's spring to sprung. You got the trail and the river right here, Chris. So excited to be in Greenville. We can't all be in Miami. Hey, I'll give you credit. You got, you guys got a good thing going up there. I'd like to see some spring flowers myself,

but everything is gravy down here. It's beautiful. It's 75 and sunny. Yes, there we go. We appreciate you for listening wherever you are, whenever you're listening. Hey, it's March Madness, baby. We gotta get mad today.

I was like, first I was like, okay, what are we gonna talk about today? And sometimes, you know, I think macro and micro, then I'm like, okay, wait a we to talk about today? And sometimes, you know, we I think macro and micro then I'm like Okay, wait a second. It's freaking March Madness Week. It's about to get crazy We got to bring the energy and talk about the economic impact of March Madness some stats that you won't believe Maybe a little lack of productivity that goes on with the game watching We're gonna talk some craziness that's happening with Elon Musk and Tesla cars

and specific crazy world we live in. And I'm sure if we avoid tariff talk at all, it'll be a miracle, but hey, we are talking business. So we're going to bring it to you. Chris, are you going to fill out a bracket? Are you going to fill out a bracket? Well, if you're telling me that I can use maybe some AI to help me, then yeah, then I may fill out a bracket.

But I don't think I've ever filled out a bracket, ever. Oh gosh, Chris, man. Cue the womp, womp, womp music. I like to gamble if I know I'm gonna win. Yeah. It ain't my game, bro. Yeah. That shows you're an entrepreneur.

Like you haven't been in corporate America, like where, you know, everybody does the, the bracket fill outs. Yes. It's that's 99% of my friends, you know, that the sports players stats and they know the teams and I'm just in the corner. Like, you know, where's the chips and dipak boys? Yes. Elon Hint Musk, there's an article that says, he says, Grok AI could beat Warren Buffett's

March Madness Bracket Challenge. Cause Warren Buffett does, look, no one has ever in the history of the tournament picked a perfect bracket. Never happened. All the games. It's crazy. I would think that that would have just accidentally happened just by chance, but it just shows you how publicly has had that. Yeah.

I guess that it's been, you know, maybe some dude in Auburn got it right. One year, some guy, he has that story. There's a, I don't know that the southeast part of this country that has got a bracket, right. Yeah, exactly. But here's what he said. This is kind of a fun one where Warren Buffett has a billion dollar bet that if you exactly match the entire winning tree of March Madness, you can win a billion dollars.

Warren Buffett awards that. So Musk said in a reference to the NCA basketball tournament bracket. So AI to figure out your pull. This did give me, I think I might reference AI and filling mine out this year. So I need to, you know, we record this earlier than Friday. So by the time you're listening to this, your bracket might already be busted because we'll already have been through all the games on Thursday and it's probably getting into, hopefully you're listening on treadmill at 5 a.m. Right when this release, we know we've got our loyal listeners to do that.

But if you're not, then hopefully your brackets are already busted when you're hearing all this news. They can have a quick. I don't want to live in a world where AI can predict that. You know? You kind of want the randomness, right? Which hopefully we'll always have because we've got the human variability. But now that you mentioned, hey, maybe I can make a little money here, throw it, but just tell Grok,

give me a winning bracket. Yeah. Chatbot Grok 3, which is powered by artificial intelligence on Monday night. Yeah. It got released and during the event, that's when, uh, we can also do something more fun. How about make a prediction for March madness? So, uh, we're using AI for everything now. Uh, I will say this. We did this exact article.

I started, you know, we're doing the research, looking at what we're gonna talk about today. This exact article, I feel like it's almost verbatim, Chris. We're gonna go back and the team, you know, hopefully compare what it was. But the U.S. economy loses up to $20 billion to lost productivity over those four, those four days from Thursday to Sunday. It's a lot of cash. 20 B's. Millions of Americans gear up to watch college basketball this week for the 2025 edition of one of the biggest sporting events of the year. So I don't know. Like, I think we joked about this last year, but like, do you just shut it down? Like if you've got one of those companies where let's just say skews.

Yeah. Federal holidays Thursday. Especially if like you have a workforce that skews. I mean, I'm not being sexist, but it probably probably skews mail. And yeah. And I know everyone does brackets now now but if you have a workforce that you just know they're gonna be they're heading this just say all right we're shutting down or you can take a vacation day if I bet you a lot of how many vacation days get taken tomorrow I was

just wondering that you know some dudes like live for this. Oh, absolutely. It is fun. I mean, it, it, it no other point do I care who when Iona and Alabama state are playing, you know, it's like the drama of the, the one and done, you know, the losing you go home. I think that's what you know, it's excitement because you're like, oh, you can feel for the kids, the energy and the passion to stick around. They want to get that extra trip in, you know, for the next weekend. I'm done with it. The 10 interesting stats here that I don't think anyone wants to miss.

Top 10 March madness stats Stats and Facts. These are mainly business things. Go to wallethub.com, you can look at this. Number 10. We'll start from the 10 and go backwards, Chris. There are 12 plus college basketball games are involved in a corruption case involving payments to players.

Okay, we started at number 10. I guess that was related to a tournament in the past. Number nine, 64,000 Alamodome. That's the Alamodome stadium's capacity for the final four this year. It can be extended to 72,000. So I don't know if you've been, how many basketball games you've been to. That's a, get your binoculars out to try to see the court. I mean, basketball was like, I mean, a third of the size or half at best of a football field. And so you're trying to see the whole court from, and you're in a 64,000 person stadium. I don't know about that.

No, I think I'd rather watch it on the TV, Chris. I'm just thinking of walking in and out of that stadium before and after. That's a lot of rubbing shoulders. I don't want to do a lot of this for like 30 minutes. Yes. A lot of it. Number eight, zero. The amount of money the NCA pays the players participating in the tournament.

I think that's a little misleading on the books. Zero on the books for the tournament, but we they're getting deals with their schools. Yeah. It is a little interesting of how much money the NCA does make on the tournament that none does go to the player. I mean, we know the players are getting paid now with name, image, and likeness and the deals with colleges.

So I don't, I mean, don't have the sympathy that I would have, you know, five years ago, but still interesting. Yep. with the colleges. So I don't, I mean, don't have the sympathy that I would have, you know, five years ago, but still interesting. I mean, how many billions of dollars are made on this tournament? 15 million, number seven, NCAA women's basketball funds, 20, 25 distribution to D1 schools. First in NCAA histories. So 15 mil. That's what they got paid. Then what they're distributing to the women players is 15 million this year. The schools are getting paid by the NCAA and then the schools themselves are distributing

what they determine, the salaries of the players. Number six, 251.6 million. The estimated value of the University of Ohio basketball program, highest among all schools, generating revenue of 24 million. Is that Ohio State? It's got to be, right? University of Ohio. That's literally what I was just thinking was like, who the hell is University of Ohio? There's, there's no Ohio university. They, this has got to mean, they needed to get their like vernacular right on this, on this, uh, that's Ohio state. We're going to go out on a limb and just say that's gotta be Ohio state. It's gotta be the Buckeyes. Yeah. It's interesting though. That's a

lot of money. And they're, they're not even like, the Buckeyes aren't even normally like a top 10 team in basketball. Hey, but they bring the cashflow and apparently, yeah, they do. Hey, they have the alumni. They get big alumni base. All right. Number five, 400 million projected economic impact on San Antonio from March madness, 2025, just the city. Just the city. Hosted in Final Four. Dude. I mean, that's an impact. 400 million.

That filled this room with cash, buddy. Got a big studio here that we can fill this entire thing with cash from what that impact. 17 buh-buh-buh-buh-buh billion is the corporate losses due to unproductive workers. Okay. This one has the same. So the other one was estimated 20 billion. Ah, what's three billion? We're somewhere in that 17 to 20 billion range of unproductive workers lost.

Just shut it down, people. Number three, 52X, the difference between the average MBA's rookie salary and a D1 men's athletes basketball scholarship for a year. Again, these stats made a lot of sense before the players got paid. But now they're getting paid. We need to layer that in. Number two, nine point six million, the salary for college basketball's highest paid coach. Kansas's bill self.

Hmm. 9.6 million. That's not a bad little salary there. It's a lot of money. I take 9.6 million a year. You know, let's get these sponsors in man. Come on. You gotta, you gotta feed some kids and keep my boat with some gas in it.

Let's go. I'm going to feed some kids and keep my boat with some gas in it. Let's go. Number one, 1.3 billion is the annual estimated revenue for the NCAA last year. So that's how much money they made. Hmm. It's big business, man. That's the bottom line here. You know, we're a business show.

We talk business. Sports and college sports is big business, man. That's the bottom line here. You know, we're a business show, talk business, sports and college sports is big business. Lots of money being transacted. Not a money in nostalgia. Yeah. A lot of money in this. Look, we talked about sports car, you know, open pack and a little, you know, I said earlier, it should have been basketball. It's football, but still those are your top 10 March of madness stats and facts as it relates to business. And look, the bottom line is we've, we've nailed that, uh, the un unproductivity impact is is high.

So hopefully, you know, businesses know what's happening. They plan accordingly and hopefully your bat, your brackets and already busted. We'll see how that goes. Um, you know, this, this article is not to turn to sort of a immediate, you know, kind of a fun thing to a negative thing, Chris, but have you seen all these people like fashion, like throwing Molotov cocktails at freaking Tesla cars? Yeah.

People like fire bombing Tesla dealerships and lighting charging stations on fire. This is ridiculous. It's crazy. And I'm going to let you speak to what you said. I don't think it's as conspiracy theory is it kind of sort of sounds it. It feels like instigation. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you really look at a lot of these movements, there's someone financing them. And I've, you know, I made reference to the BLM movement and I think it's pretty well known to the public. Now there was a lot of money moved through these types of movements, but there's a lot of paid agitators on both sides, right?

So like we said before, how many people in their free time are just out like, you know, building pipe bombs and going to go risk it all because they want to piss off at Elon? You know, so I think someone with agitation or did you just piss off your base so much? You know, but I like to think a lot of this is, is theater and paid agitation to create headlines and drama and controversy. It does feel like it's just another way, like instigation from the other side.

Like they don't like what Elon's doing with the Doge and trying to save money and like what, I mean. And they're trying to scare people. Yeah. But what has happened so bad yet that makes someone want to take this kind of action. Like that's not just pure speculation or I don't know, waving the fan, you know, of trying to spark fires, you know, like trying to get oxygen to a fire that may or may not even exist with things

he might be enacting and trying to save the government. I mean, the guy's trying to help save the government money. I don't even know that he's getting paid. Like he's being smeared in the same way that the media kind of tried to smear Trump, you know, for all those years, 2016 kind of, it's kind of the same playbook, it feels like on Elon where, all right, yeah, they're auditing the government, but outside of that, I, it says drama in Twitter talk, right? Cause he is kind of an instigator on Twitter.

Elon does like to trash talk a little bit. But said most of this is due, you know, leftist hitting out at must for his efforts to slash government spending. It seems like trying to blow up a Tesla dealership seems like kind of a not an equal reaction to that. Yeah, the website literally let, you know, put out names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails of all Tesla owners they had pulled. Right. And I look at that, that's a way to scare people from purchasing more Teslas, trying to drive his stock price down.

Like that's the tactic I see behind that. It even lists FBI director director Cash Patel's home and uses a symbol of a Molotov cocktail as its cursor. I mean, isn't this domestic terrorism? Right, so what we have a militia now of pipe bombing, Tesla hunting vigilantes that. Yeah, this is ridiculous. And I hate to say this,

but most Tesla owners are more left-leaning people. The people pissed off at Elon are left-leaning people. So you're attacking like the people that probably are kind of more in your camp than not, which seems rather foolish. Yeah, a seems rather foolish. Yeah, Brad, 100% foolish. Right, like if you were bombing Ford F-150s, it would make sense to me, right?

But it's no logic. Yeah, I don't think it's just, like we said last year, somebody needs to be unhappy at somebody and they need a reason to protest. And then you always have this sort of extremist group. And I'll admit maybe on both sides, like waiting in the background to be activated. Right. All right. What do we need? All right. We need some, we got to attack all these Teslas. All right. Get them going. Get the guys going. Right. Get the money in. Start circling the

wagons. To be fair, there was a group called Patriot Front, a red group. And basically people started following and found out there were a bunch of FBI agents getting hauled around in U-Hauls dressing up to look like civilian protesters. I mean, people need to understand that. There's a form of control that goes along with the people in power. And like they say, the world is a stage. Yeah. Yeah. And they use news and this stuff to sort of move sentiment overall. The, I will say this, Chris, you know, the good thing that, I mean,

I like to transition, you know, sort of a nag, nag news, like the positive news, which is, Hey, I am getting to get every word today recorded in real time and transcoded. I'm getting the notes automatic because of my good friends, if I am wrecked out. Look, I got the headphone piece in Chris, literally real time happening here on my phone. That's our notes. That's our word spoken. It's getting the show notes right as we speak, transcoding it, summarizing it right there on my phone. It's immediate. It's incredibly accurate. I've been testing

it this week. So literally go into meetings, you can have both headphones on. I can be, and I'll tell people, Hey, we're recording. I'm recording this. So to get shown, to get my notes for later, to take bullet points, it summarizes everything. You can run it through a GPT or anything, taking those notes to get what you need from it. But it's that real time action that's happening while you're sitting there. And so if you go to check out ViAIM Rec. On their website, you can record calls,

any audios and meetings. It's got, I'll say this Chris, I couldn't believe I was working out this morning. So I wanted to try it to, you know, get the full experience here, listening to the music, I mean, I gotta be honest. There was a couple of songs that sounded better than my AirPods. So, uh, I was expecting, okay, it's got this voice recording and all that, all

the good stuff for business, you know, the sound quality is probably just going to be so, so no great sound quality, seamless just going to be so-so. No. Great sound quality, seamless video and audio transcription. We can record on site or otherwise go check them out. Just do a search. We'll have them in the show notes. Vi Amerec. It will change the game for business. It's already doing it for me. Yes, Chris. So in better, in good news, NASA finally got these guys out of space. Nine months. It's supposed to be like a two day or one week thing. Imagine that Chris, you go up into space, you think it's going to be two days or a week and you get stuck for nine months.

Freak out, man. Lost in space. That sounds like an absolute nightmare to me. And I'm sure they'll make a movie about it. I'm looking forward to it. So we're going to, we're going to bomb Tesla cars and SpaceX founded and owned or CEO of Elon Musk. He's rescuing astronauts from NASA because NASA can no longer, you know, put their own rockets together. They can hold it, I guess. And so now doing this commercial space exploration, but goes up there and saves them, splash landing, gets them back. But yeah, we're going to go bomb their cars. That makes sense. It's like, but still NASA astronauts, Barry Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams returned to Earth after

spending over nine months stranded in space. This is going to be a movie, right? Got to be. Their planned one week mission in June of 2024 on Boeing's Starliner capsule turned into a prolonged stay due to spacecraft issues. SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the relief crew enabled their return. Landing in the Gulf of America, of Tallahassee. It says Gulf of America. Have we officially changed the name? I mean, I had to do a double take when I saw that for a second too. Also like

Tallahassee is not coastal at all. Not the Gulf of Mexico anymore. I take when I saw that for a second too. And also like Tallahassee is not coastal at all. Not the Gulf of Mexico anymore. I know that I saw that happening. I didn't know if we've officially moved to there. The article, all right, no longer the Gulf of Mexico. It's the Gulf of America. I mean, obviously according to Fox business, it's Gulf of America.

Yeah, exactly. I love it. I love it. Yes. Oh, I mean, this is the stuff that with Trump that just, you know, God love the, uh, space X mission control in California. Welcome them back on behalf of space X. Welcome home.

Hey, what a ride. The astronaut said grinning ear to ear. SpaceX has now completed 10 operational human space flight missions under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The Dragon capsule went through orbit lowering maneuvers, jettisoning its trunk and reentering Earth's atmosphere for a smooth splashdown. I've always wanted to use that combination of words. That was very well written.

Like they made it sound super suave. Yeah. Orbit lowering. If you'd have told me at any time in my life, I would use orbit lowering and jettisoning its trunk. Smooth splashdown. All in this one sentence. I would not believe you. Hey, we thought it was physically impossible 20 years ago, but here we are with reusable

rockets. Yes, exactly. But again, they're home safe and it's good news. We appreciate SpaceX for getting them back after that one week, I mean, nine months. I mean, yeah. Space exhibition. I mean, think about what they're, what's the first thing they want to eat?

Like, cause I don't tell me they've, they've got the space food up there. They've had all the dry eggs, you know, they must've been at least getting them food, obviously. So they, because I mean, one week and nine months, they were either rationing really good or, uh, you know, I think they had, I think they were sending them supplies. It's like, can we please get that steak sandwich?

Like, how long, you know, how long does it take to get there? Like, you know, I need a grilled steak or hamburger or something, not that dried, you know, what is it? Eggs in a box. Yeah. Yeah. Dehydrated. Dehydrated.

It's so funny. My dad, Steve Alfred. Yeah. Yeah. Dehydrated. Dehydrated. It's so funny. My dad, Steve offered. I love them, but he's got like these prep kits. And my dad's not, he's kind of that guy, but not really that guy. He's got all the kids just in case things go wrong. And I helped him move a couple of weekends ago and we're moving and in his, his pod, moving the pod, I'm in this pod, he's got like 50 of these containers. They're probably like 25 pounds each and like a foot, you know, two feet tall, one feet wide. And I'm moving them. And one of them is significantly lighter than the others.

His buddy Bob, who's his, I'd had 73 is over there. They're both kind of like sort of pretending to move. I'm actually doing all the moving. Look, I'm a young buck. I can do it. But the, uh, they go, he goes, Oh, yeah, that was probably pretty light. He's like, Bob and I got into that. We decided to cook dinner to see what we would be

in for if we ever needed to use it. We want to know. He said, it's pretty good. You got to take one home. Eggs. It was Oh, no, I'm losing my YouTube button. It was everything that you would imagine dried up, like in packets. I have some of those. It has like roast beef even. It said roast beef, but.

I got those during hurricane season. So I got them in my closet here. So I've never tried them. Oh Chris, you and my dad. Yeah, brother. Hey, I'm 30 floors up. If the power goes out during a hurricane, I'm just gonna be up here with my little heating pot

and some dehydrated eggs and oatmeal. But I just gotta kick out, thinking about those poor astronauts what they're eating up there and dried stuff. Maybe, I'm sure it's come a long way. They're probably getting better things than we're even eating. But I just thought of my dad, like in

my his buddy deciding they're gonna have dried food one night. You know, they do drink tequila on Tuesday. That's tequila Tuesday. That's a total guy thing to do. You know, hey, you want to go try that survival food? Yeah, yeah. Ferrari car buyers are getting younger. CEO says 40% of new clients are now under 40. You've been a Ferrari buyer yourself there, Chris. You were under 40. I definitely was.

Yes, 40% of Ferrari's new clients are under 40, up from 30% just 18 months ago. Their CEO credited the shift to the company's team efforts. The brand maintains exclusivity with nearly 75% of sales going to existing customers. I mean, which sort of makes sense. You know, a lot of rich people that own them, buy another one, get in line.

They're very strict on it. You can't buy a brand new one unless you've owned one previously. Yep. Ferrari maintains strict production, ensuring demand always exceeds supply. In Zofari's philosophy, we always deliver one less car than the market demands. Smart. I mean, it's smart. And I mean, I don't, I don't just didn't

have their financials. But I assume they're making money. But I get it. Hey, that's the brand. It's luxury, but it's, you're always sort of capped at some level. But you know what? I mean, that's not a bad thing. It's like, you know, you're, if you're always profitable and you'd rather make steady income than chasing. Cause then you're in the roads.

Yeah. Quality goes down. You sacrifice quality. Like Lamborghini's quality is crap now. Yeah. If you disassemble a Lamborghini, it's Audi parts. Like if you open the center console, like a Lamborghini truck, the Urus, it's got the Audi logos in it.

Yep. That's crazy. Yeah. It's all the same, man it. Yep. That's crazy. Yeah, totally the same, man. That's why they're one of the few that's still kinda isn't mass produced. Yeah. Do you think Ferraris looked at as a better car? Yeah, for sure.

Like in the car world, Ferrari's definitely above like Lamborghini. I mean, and price wise, I mean, you can get a Lamborghini much less expensive for sure. And it's not as strict on the, I mean, Ferrari literally, if I wanted to put a wrap on the car, corporate could literally have sent me a letter saying like, hey, you need to remove that or the blackless, which happened to, it's happened to celebrities like Justin Bieber. They put like a pink color on it

and Farai will literally blacklist them. Which, so you have to have, you know, a string buyer going and get it. Guys like that obviously have people doing that for them, but yeah, they're very big on maintaining the brand, integrity in the image. Yeah. They don't want to look, I think,

like look at all the YouTube guys. It's all Lamborghinis and purple cars and stuff. And I think they're really not trying to get into that world. Jason, are you a Ferrari or Lamborghini guy? You like Ferraris? We have a special guest in the studio today. And Jason, we're not recording lives and you can, are you, do you like Ferraris? Yeah.

I think you take one ready if Chris wanted to buy you one. The yeah, I liked your Ferrari. So good ride. I'll let you keep getting them. I'll get to live vicariously through years. It's better to have friends with them than own one. Like a boat, right? Well, you can come stay on my houseboat. You let me drive your Ferrari. It's a fair trade. And, you know, I knew we'd get to terrorists at some point. Yeah, I can't avoid it because it's still there. The elephant in

the room. Splurge or save. American struggle as terrorists hit economy. I think it's maybe the first part of that I would agree with. I don't know if the terrorists have defendively hit the economy. I think the perception and the sentiment has hit. Rising uncertainty, households are saving more and spending less amid concerns over tariffs and a possible economic shutdown. Retail sales declined last month and companies like Walmart and Delta are reporting weakened demand. The Fed is set to hold interest rates steady,

but the path forward is uncertain as tariffs could raise prices and slow growth. I mean, we talked about this last week and I, it holds true for me. I think the administration needs to paint the picture of where we're headed with the tariff stuff. The tariff wars are not good for us. And I do, I don't look, we share articles and opinion on articles here. You know, we can't go fact check every single thing I go. We go kind of by our own opinion and sentiment of what we feel in our circles.

And I think that this feels accurate to what I see and sense as far as the overall sentiment. That's why I think the interest rates gotta go down. It's like lower the rates. We gotta get, you know, people refinancing, get some more money, get the sentiment higher. And this is where I think the administration really needs to paint the picture of, okay, what next?

You know? And- We need a roadmap. Cause we need cash moving. Cash is not moving. That's a problem for everybody. Yeah. The people that have it are keeping it in savings, pushing it into gold or whatever. I mean, so I mean, as it relates to this, Chris, what are we seeing on the crypto front?

Chris Bounds Crypto still, I mean, it's falling to everything else. It's down, it's sticking down even with the announcement of the strategic reserve, which then actually I then saw the IMF, you know, international monetary fund was essentially telling the administration they needed to get rid of that, to get rid of the strategic Bitcoin reserve. So, yeah, I mean, kind of like you said, the general sentiment is just very low right now. And that's the market tells us that, but also in my circles and my big crypto buddies, everything is real quiet. And even I can say that on the job market front, you know, I have a lot of friends actually

that are switching careers, changing careers. It's pretty quiet on that front too. XRP is up 12% today. We record on Wednesday. So there you go. But it's a bitcoins up 3% today. We're in a little pump today, but down, but I'm down 700 on the month. 700% on the month. 700%. It won, no, $700 in this one account. I got multiple accounts with crypto. This one account where I keep the XRP, it's down 700. As a percentage, it's not really that much.

It's like 3% or something. No, I mean, honestly, I'm not even looking at my stuff because I just know the market's down. So I'm just... I still want to buy. I think XRP is going to go to like $5. Oh, I totally just. I still want to buy. I think XRP is going to go like $5. Oh, I totally agree. Like I think now is the time to definitely a time to buy.

Yeah. If you got capital, I would put it in. Exactly. I mean, where do you, where do you think we're headed with all the decentralization overall? You think where, I mean that. It's a great question. Where do I want to go? Are we going to go? I mean, that's, that's really, let's be real. I mean, that's what runs the world money, right? The federal reserve and the control of money. So when you're introducing, you know,

decentralized cryptocurrency, that doesn't appeal to the people that want to control. So that doesn't appeal to the people I want to control. So I hope it continues and I hope people can, what we really need as a society is to adopt and to educate people. Yes. You know, when you and me realize we can do a real estate transaction and not involve a bunch of banks and paperwork

and all this stuff and everything's tracked on the blockchain, right? It's like, it's actually much more transparency for everybody. Yeah. Yeah, because the so-called transparency that happens now only helps one person. Right.

Or one side, the banks or the realtors or, you know, title company, I mean, like the system, right? Right. It's not transparency for you and I. It's put a bunch of hands in the middle of you and I doing a negotiating or barter. If you want to really get down to it, right? And, and just as far as ease of use, you know, when it comes to sending money, especially international money, you know, you can do it in two minutes. Just, and obviously that's not something everyone deals with, but I know you with the business, even wiring money, paying vendors, stuff like that, you know, you

don't have to wait three to five days for something to clear, clear in three minutes. You don't need to worry about the bank and the wire fees and they're holding this and that it's just, which I mean, we all are pretty much are using digital money as it is right now, right? You're using Apple pay and stuff. And that's where I think when people realize that sending crypto is as simple as using Apple pay, that's where we get some real movement. And look, this is what they fall on.

And there's probably some truth when it's as easy and is sort of unregulated to a degree. The concerned is, you know, fraud or Hey, if, if your grandmother could transfer something in two seconds without the checks and balances and no recourse, is that the right thing? I think that's where the, that's where the sort of old guard stands. However, I got scammed two years ago. The bank didn't refund me. Yeah. You know, like they don't... Even if you have your cash in there, they'll insure it up to 250k.

Right? Yeah. So it's like, even that, when they talk about, oh, money laundering, that's what they usually go to with crypto, right? The cartels and money laundering. And it's like, you are the cartels. Like, you're not doing me any favors. Exactly. Like, each one was the bank helped me out. You know what I mean?

No. So that whole argument, when people start defending the banks, it's like people defending their insurance companies. That's right. They just make money off you. They're not fulfilling their part of the agreement for the most part.

Yeah. I'm posting a lot about that. I'm actually getting back on the old X. I guess it's hard not to say Twitter, Chris. I don't even know. But Digital Innovation for America, I'm partnering with them. The voice for Americans who seek to harness the promise of blockchain and digital assets

for a more empowered future. I am reposting a lot of their articles. Go check them out. It's interesting. It's it's education. And I mean, that's the end of the day, Chris, you know, we, Chris, I do a couple of shows together, we do this and vibe science, we're trying to educate. Like we've got opinions.

You can like love, hate, dismiss our opinion, but we're trying to educate and bring all sides here. You know, we take the BS out of business and like, we call it like we see it and regulation and having someone's hand and supposed protection on every transaction you do and every act, it's just, it's about as un-American as it gets. The irony is. Yeah, at what point do we take responsibility as individuals?

You know? Yeah. Because when it comes out, they're not protecting you. No, they're not protecting you. They want your money. Digital innovation for America. Check them out. Difa, D-I-F-A, USA on X.

But interesting articles, a lot of insight. I mean, I've kind of, you and I have been in this camp and we talk about crypto and we do this, but I don't, I want to make sure we're doing a good job explaining why we talk about it and why we think there's power in it. And yeah, it's about the speculation of stock slash, you know, crypto coins and memes and all that sort of stuff. But at the end of the day, it's really about. Counter currency and other ways to get people out of these transactions and the time and the money involved. That's the shit that's just got me fired up. I just could I do transfer like if something I've got to pay somebody and it's just anything

remotely, like where they're trying not to get deal with the bank or something. It's just a pain in the rear. You know? Yeah. Anyway, I think that's all we've got today, Chris, other than, you know, our our normal my good friends at Panini, they're going to start sending me some cards. Cause I mean, the sports cards business that's where, Hey, the index on sports cards trading, uh, Jason, you wouldn't believe how popular they are. And our audience is getting to learn firsthand.

Yeah. I should have brought my March madness cards, but I't. All I've got today is the football cards. So going to be opening our football card pack here. Hey, this is a hanger box. So here's, here's some good insight guys. I opened one of these boxes on the show. I think it was the first one that I actually opened. And it was that pack that I was like, dude, there's like $300

for the cards in here. I sold the most valuable card that was in the box for 150 bucks on eBay this week. So that's real money. So real money, Chris, 150 from a card on this show. That's, I mean, you can get down with that, right? You splitting profits with your boys? Maybe.

Or you're like, Oh, daddy, you find it. Here's your little commission. Daddy keeps the split. Yeah. And then we're doing, I'm paying them by the hour while they're training, learning. So you got to go, Hey, look, we got to pay for the college fund here. So go check it out at breakingrad.com breaking rad. You like that play on words, Chris, don't you? You're good at that. I'm a good words. There's a sound. Here we go. Holding it down. This is the hangar box from Prism footballs. It's a big retail. It's one of the most popular retail packages and cards you got the pink prisms and whatever you can see the color coming outside chris already feeling

the excitement up up okay these are what these are your base cards old deba who's got traded collar murray her cousins, Eric Dickerson. Hey, Travis ETN, Clemson player. My boys love him. Always pull out the Clemson guys. Justin Jefferson, one of the best. Andy Reed. Okay.

This would be the, there's always these cards that you think are one thing and they're not. You're hoping for a Brock Bowers who plays for the Raiders. This is the other receiver rookie that's not Brock Bowers. This would be what they call a full, like you think that's what you are because you're sliding it.

You see the rookie card and you see the Raiders. You're thinking it's Brock Bowers and it's not, but we still, we don't hate you Dylan. These are those special pink cards. Anthony Richardson, he needs to get it together. Leslie Welker, Ray Davis, good running back, play to Kentucky, Marshawn Lloyd. Hey, Marvin Harrison Jr.

That's a wave, that's a good card there. One of the best receivers to come out of the draft, the rookie card. There you have it, Chris. You know, lots of excitement. You need to be watching the YouTube channel to see the players that we're getting from our prism NFL don't that's, that's the best card in the bag.

See the look at, look at the hollow, look at the foil, you know, like the shiny. Oh, yes. All right. Let's send these home with Jason today as another part of his birthday gift. We'll see. All right. Oh, Chris, home with Jason today as another part of his birthday gift. We'll see. All right. Oh, Chris, any final words, my friend? Everyone has always have a great weekend.

Enjoy springtime. Get some sun. Yes. Drink water. Yes. Get your brackets. Enjoy it. Add to that unproductive.

Hydrate between your tasks. Yeah, exactly. All those things. We appreciate everyone for listening. Check us out. Ryanisright.com. Find all the highlight clips, the full episodes linked to our sponsors and where to find us on social media. Chris Burby Hansen on Instagram. I'm Ryan Alford. 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.