PBD Podcast
DeSantis Fights Trump On AI, Ford's $19B EV DISASTER + Musk's Net Worth SKYROCKETS | PBD Podcast | Ep. 701
17 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What motivational insights are shared at the beginning?
Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm supposed to take sweet victory. I know this life meant for me. Adam, what's your point?
The future looks bright.
My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here.
You are a one-on-one? My son's right there.
I don't think I've ever said this before.
All right, Business Wednesday it is, and today we have Pompliano back here with us to make everybody smarter. Like I say every single time, I am surrounded by three brilliant genius minds, and I simply ask questions. I'm just a regular guy trying to get smarter, guys.
You and I, us regular people, our goal by the time it's done to get slightly smarter than we were a minute before getting on the show. Pom, great to have you back on the show. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, but I'm here to try to learn from you. Stop with the nonsense already. All right, so let's get into the stories. Let's get into the stories. We've got a lot of stuff that's going on.
There's this guy named, I have a hard time pronouncing his name. I think it's Elon or Elon that is about to be the first trillionaire, if you're not following the story.
Who's that?
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of Trump's AI executive order?
At the same time, Tesla stock closes at 2025 high after Musk confirms driverless robo-taxi test underway in Austin. Can U.S. automakers compete with Chinese EVs while focused on gas guzzlers? And then we have a couple other things here about Palm Beach. This place will win when it comes down to business. JP Morgan debuts first money market token fund on Ethereum.
Pop, I'm sure you got some thoughts on that. MicroStrategy decides to buy some more Bitcoin, another billion dollars for that guy for a second week. Bitcoin is dropping to $86,000 due to a lack of conviction. You know that, Ryan. People have a lack of conviction. Keeps a lid on crypto prices. Yahoo Finance.
Pomp is about to call this journalist from Columbia University out in a second here when we get to it. U.S. declares energy emergency as cold snap hits Northeast. Oil settles at lowest 2021. Arizona City unanimously rejects AI data center after resident outcry. We got a couple of the stories to get into here. We definitely have to talk about AI and jobs.
I know you got a lot of stuff to say about that. So we'll get to that as well with the job market. People are worried. Is it going to affect me? Is it not going to affect me? I have my whole thoughts on that as well. But prior to getting into that, here's what's going on. Last year, every time I'm at this campus,
And I'm in my conference room, and I look to my left, and I see 15 people walking to the other building. They're getting a tour. That means we've hired 15 new people, okay? And last week, we had 10 new hires that were here. We had 45 job openings. Right now, we have 35 job openings. We are hiring. If you're somebody highly qualified, You're educated. You're hungry.
You want to be part of something that you want to go on a run for 20 years. A lot of people, if you just watch us, you think it's a podcast. And by the way, you may have a son, a daughter, a friend, somebody that's fully, fully qualified that wants to be part of something and bring their talent to us. Not an easy place to work. We work very, very hard at a place like this.
But if you think this is just a podcast, I want you to watch this clip to give you a little bit of a glimpse, and then I'll give you a link to go apply for the 35 job openings that we have right now. Go ahead, Rob. Many times when people think about Valuetainment, all they think about is a podcast, but it's a lot more than that. It's nine companies working together on an 11-acre campus.
If I was to give you a virtual tour here, you'll see the HR department hiring, talent acquisition. We have full-stack developers that are working on Manect and Hiremetrics. We have a full-fledged events team that puts together events with thousands of people. We have a merch department designing the latest product. We just launched EFLB shoes made in Italy. We have a marketing department
And if you go to the complete opposite side of the building, 50, 60 people making calls, working for Bed David Consulting, sales, setters. And then on the complete opposite side of the campus, there's a full-on production company with editors, shooters, creating content, doing podcasts. Then you can drive down a couple miles and go to our private boardroom cigar lounge with members only.
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Chapter 3: How is Ford responding to the electric vehicle market challenges?
Now, Elon has a history of doing this because if you notice, he also made it cool to go work in the government. So his whole thing is can you make something high status? And so by making the Tesla high status, people said, I want that car.
Oh, by the way, I will deal with the fact that it's electric because I think a lot of people also, to Tom's point, it's easier just to go get gas at the gas station. It's easier on a long trip. It's easier if I don't have to go and charge this because I don't have a charger at my house and sit there for 25 minutes for it to charge up. So Tesla being a superior car is what drove those sales.
Well, what did Ford and GM and all these guys do? They basically said, we're going to take our exact same car, which is inferior to the Tesla, and we're simply going to try to rip out the gas engine and put it in an electric vehicle. Most consumers buying a Ford F-150, they don't care about an electric vehicle. And actually, that may be a negative.
Why would I want to buy a big truck that's electric if it's harder for me to go do the things I need to do? So I think that's probably the biggest thing is when you do these mandates, again, let's just say they have good intentions. You can question whether they do or not. But it doesn't address the actual driver of the consumer behavior. You have to make the car cool.
And these car companies and the government, they weren't doing that, and that's why Tesla continues to dominate. Very basic. Go back to marketing. Make a good product. People will come in and buy it. And by the way, it's also a – like I remember one time I'm talking to your friend, Tom, Jim Scott Bell, and I'm writing this fiction book, and it had such a massive messaging in the fiction book.
He says, remember, if the message you want to put in the fiction book is more – is bigger than the entertainment aspect of the book – You won't sell. He said if the entertainment is 95% and messaging is 5%, then you'll sell. These guys tried to do EV is 95%. The design is 5%. It looks ugly. Guess what? You're going to go buy it because you're a responsible person. Rob, can you pull up a poll?
I'm actually curious with the audience. What percentage of the audience... has an EV versus a gas and input both, because some people have both, right? My wife's got gas, I drive an EV. Just write a poll on that if you could, just to see what they're saying. Brandon, what are your thoughts on this story?
Yeah, I really hate waste of potential more than anything. And the amount of money that's been poured into the EV initiative, it's so sad because, like, we talk about all the time about the things that actually would benefit from government subsidies, like, you know, like a home builders initiative or initiative to build nuclear reactors to give us more power for the country.
but we've spent probably hundreds of billions of dollars over the last 10 years into trying to pressure or incentivize companies into building EVs. And I sent Rob a chart that shows the amount of material that is required to build an EV versus a gas-powered car. And does this look like a good return on investment, especially when the output of energy is not higher?
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Chapter 4: What are the consequences of AI in the job market?
So this makes us reliant on other people. But if we want to make gas, that's it, gas cars, can we make that not relying on anybody else?
More so than the EVs because it's just a matter of sheer volume of precious metals and natural resources. And a quick side note, I do have a tough time taking the whole EV thing seriously when something like the Invention Secrecy Act is in place. We have no idea what the hell is in there, but there are 6,000 patents of things that could possibly be better than electric and gas.
So that's another angle to take with us.
By the way, you look like you want to say something. I'll come to you in a second. So watch this here. What type of vehicle do you own? Gas, EV, both? Gas, 89%. EV, 4%. Both, 7%. So let's just say 89% to 11%, meaning you own at least an EV in your car. That's a big ratio still in America where cars are at. And that's a 3,400-volt sample.
Do you have any final thoughts on this story before we get to the next one, Pomp? I just think that the legacy car makers, they're getting their butts kicked by Elon Musk. And what it really highlights is you have companies that are being managed by corporate executives, not by entrepreneurs.
And so one area where we do see immense amount of innovation, which people in America don't like to acknowledge, is China. I don't know if you've seen any of these videos of these Chinese electric vehicles. I mean, these things are parallel parking by themselves. They've got all kinds of cool gadgets, et cetera, in there.
And so it begs the question, I think, is it an incentive thing as to American companies don't want to innovate? Is there some sort of we don't have the skilled, you know, engineers, et cetera, to go do this? Is there a capital component?
There's something going on as to why majority of the American car companies are not innovating at the same rate that the startup of Tesla or these Chinese car companies are doing. And so I think that if we could answer that question, that then could help change this market. And maybe you would actually have people want to go buy these, not because they're EVs, but because they're just better cars.
Right. And by the way, it's funny you're saying that. Wall Street Journal just did a story on that a couple days ago. Can U.S. automakers compete with Chinese EVs while focused on gas guzzlers? And this goes back to Tom talking about the $2,500, $7,500 tax credit that they had in the past. Tom, where are you at with this, with what Pomp said? Can U.S. automakers compete with Chinese EVs?
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Chapter 5: Who is Kelly Piquet and what is her connection to Nelson Piquet?
Scroll down a little bit and look who his wife is.
Who's his wife?
Kelly Piquet. Oh, wow. Daughter of three-time world champion Nelson Piquet.
Good for him. By the way, Bolsonaro likes Nelson Piquet more than he likes Senna. And I was not happy about that. I was not happy about that one.
Let's throw his ass in prison.
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Chapter 6: What AI products are being discussed and how do they impact job efficiency?
So funny. Sorry. Too soon? You guys want to talk about the AI product you built? I'm trying to find a story to go to, but take the lead. Tell us about what's going on with that. No, no, no. The product that you guys built. Let's talk about yours first, and then we'll talk about the one we built. Just go to it.
Chapter 7: What is the significance of McKinsey's job cuts in relation to AI?
Just talk about what's going on, because I think what's important is, well, let me go with this, and then let's go into what you're talking about, because it has to do with the same thing. McKinsey plots... Thousands of job cuts and slowdown for consulting industry, okay? And we know McKinsey. Then when it comes down to consulting, they're the cream of the crop.
Founder James McKinsey and then the guy, the godfather that helped build the company, a man named Marvin Bauer. Go to any McKinsey office and drop the name Marvin Bauer, look what they'll say about him. Marvin Bauer is the man that's respected by anybody and everybody who's ever worked at McKinsey. But let me tell the story. So McKinsey & Company is...
Chapter 8: How is the Florida AI Bill of Rights impacting state versus federal regulation?
Gathered in a consulting giant's birthplace in late October, Bob Sternfeld delivered a rally cry, we will kick some ass as we start our second century, the firm's top executive told the thousands of attendees. But away from the hundred-year festivities in Chicago, McKinsey's bosses have been conveying a more pragmatic message, pragmatic message, it's time to get leaner.
The firm's leadership has discussed with managers in non-client-facing departments they need to cut about 10% of headcount across their business according to people with knowledge of the matter that could amount to a few thousand job cuts that McKinsey would stagger over the next 18 to 24 months.
The people said asking not to be identified because the details are private for McKinsey, the go-to advisor for companies. and countries. It's the type of cost-cutting approach that its consultants often prescribe to clients. The firm's revenue growth has flattened in the past five years.
As our firm marks 100 years, we're operating in a moment shaped by rapid advances in AI that are transforming businesses and society. A McKinsey spokesman said, just as we're partnering with clients to strengthen the organization, we're on our own journey to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our own support functions. Do you think this is consulting industry? Do you think this is AI?
What do you think is going on here? This is going to be the story of business for the next decade. I mean, this is the single most important thing that people got to pay attention to is if you look across public markets, there's a couple of things that I find very interesting. Companies that are talking about using AI are outperforming the companies that are not talking about using AI.
Why is that? What does AI do? Artificial intelligence. You take superhuman intelligence and you apply it to a problem. There was this great interview that I heard, and they said if you can verify something, you can automate it. So what is McKinsey doing? McKinsey creates reports, and it creates presentations, and it creates outcomes that they then suggest to people.
So as you look across all these public companies and also these consulting firms, et cetera, is all of the leaders are saying the same thing. We are going to produce more revenue, but we are going to do it with less people. What that means is that they are going to become more efficient companies.
If they become more efficient, they're more productive, lower cost, then that should mean that they are more profitable. More profitable means they should be more valuable. So everything in the capitalistic structure says go and use this AI to be more productive, do it with less employees.
Now, when you see that happening from an investor's seat, you say, well, I want to invest in companies where they're becoming more efficient, more profitable, more productive. What I think is more interesting is what is happening for the average person. So I'll give you a couple of examples. The first is there are these new coding tools. So you can go and there's Cursor, Windsurf, et cetera.
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