Right About Now with Ryan Alford
The AI Revolution - Cryptocurrency Trends - Trading Cards: A Billion Dollar Industry - The Impact of US-China Tariff
Fri, 25 Apr 2025
SUMMARYIn this episode of Weekly Business News, hosts Ryan Alford and Chris Hansen sit in for a wide-ranging conversation on today’s most pressing business trends. From the easing of U.S.-China tariff tensions to shifts in the Miami real estate scene, they dive into hot topics with sharp insights. They also tackle the rising costs of luxury goods, the evolving role of AI in the workforce, and the latest in crypto. Plus, they break down Instagram’s new app “Edits” and its challenge to CapCut’s dominance. With a blend of real talk and expert analysis, Ryan and Chris make complex issues not just understandable—but unmissable—for anyone looking to stay ahead in a fast-moving world.TAKEAWAYSCurrent state of U.S.-China tariff discussionsTrends in the Miami real estate marketPricing strategies of luxury brands and consumer perceptionsImpact of artificial intelligence on the job market and business operationsCreation and use of AI personas in businessRecent trends in the cryptocurrency marketMarket volatility and trading strategiesIntroduction of Instagram's new app "Edits" and its implications for content creationComparison of social media platforms, specifically Threads and X (formerly Twitter)Importance of critical evaluation of news reporting and media biasSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who hosts the Weekly Business News and what is the show about?
This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years 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 episode here on Friday, April 25th. We take the BS out of business, baby. Hey, it's business meets barstool. That's what you can call it. And we're not barstool. We don't need barstool. We've got the number one show on marketing. Thanks to all of our loyal listeners. We appreciate you out there.
Wherever, whenever, however you're listening as we take all the bullshit out of what's happening out there, Chris. What's up, Chris Hansen?
What's up, Brian Alfred? How are you, bro?
I'm good, man. Just ready to take the BS out of business. Just ready to take it all out. You know, I'm looking at our show notes and... It's kind of like a slow, busy week for business news. It's like there's stuff happening, but it's not like there's 17 headlines. It's kind of the same old, same old here. We've got the U.S. and China tariff talk cooling off a little bit. The markets are up.
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Chapter 2: What is the current status of U.S.-China tariff discussions?
Crypto's up and, hey, Elon's got to get back in the saddle over at Tesla. Get that whole thing flipped around. He needs some, I don't know, CPR on that thing. What's happening in Miami this week?
It's a beautiful week out, honestly. It's nice. The weather's great. It's sunny, windy, kind of quiet after Easter weekend.
Chapter 3: Is Miami real estate cooling off in 2024?
I read a report that Miami real estate was cooling off. I don't know if that's true or not.
I don't know. I'm not in the game enough to know. Of course, if you ask any realtor, they'll tell you it's not so hard to gauge. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Hey, if we're a no BS show, can't really talk about realtors. I mean, and I love them. I got some good friends in it.
It's always good if you're a realtor.
Oh yeah.
It's always a good time to buy.
Always a good time to buy. Oh, hey, that means you got a lot of supply out there and you got your choice. And, hey, you can always refi in a couple of years. I mean, I don't even know what they say, but I can imagine that's it. So we're going to get into the headlines. I like this line that we got. It says, China says it wants peace, but there's a lot like my ex-girlfriend. Yeah.
I got a lot of battle scars that would say otherwise. I don't know who's blinking here. It doesn't really matter. We've said this from the outset, Chris. We've said we don't need terror force. Like, okay, I get if it was the art of the deal and all that, but we don't need destabilization. There's no need for it.
I think the one thing I liked, I know Trump is always going to shake things up, and I like that. I like shaking things up. But there's this fine line between shaking things up and unnecessary destabilization. And it felt like we teetered on the other side of it. I don't know what you think.
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Chapter 4: How are luxury brands marking up their products and what does that mean for consumers?
I mean, what did they think? I mean, what did you think was going on?
I know. Yeah.
Come on. You're buying the brand. And I, you know, I'll believe it when I see it. When the, you know, women stop buying the luxury brand label. Yeah. Yeah. Not say I, I don't know. I don't know enough about the young generation, but it sure seems like that gets passed on from generation to generation, the luxury appeal of certain brands.
And the exclusivity, scarcity, you know, if you didn't know it was getting marked up like hell, then I don't know what to tell you. But I'm sure there's a subsegment of people that will. I do see, I mean, is Trump blinking or was this part of the plan?
Come on, man. This is Trump. It's all part of the plan.
Yeah. Well, I mean, there's some theory that, you know, if you muck it up enough, then you can always say it was part of the plan or not.
I mean, as long as you're getting the outcomes that we want, I guess you can say it was all part of the plan, right?
I don't really care, like, ultimately. I mean, I do. I mean, I care, but I don't, you know. That's why I just, at the end of the day, I just didn't think we needed destabilization. I don't know that, maybe we're getting, you know, more negotiation than we would have without it. That's to be seen. But I don't think it does us any good. I don't think we need.
And I don't think Trump, like I told you, like Trump likes the good headlines. He wants, you know, I do think he wants what's best for himself. Yes, I can see that. But for America, you know, and I think he likes the good news. So and to own it. And I don't think he wants to own 5000 point drops on the stock market in a day. You know, I don't think he wants that.
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Chapter 5: How is artificial intelligence transforming the workforce and business operations?
Yeah. Trust will.
Yeah. All of that. You know, you don't, you don't need a lawyer.
Yeah. And you know, I guess those divorce court lawyers will still be in business, but that's about it. Well, as long as people are going to need those guys. But when it gets down to just knowledge of the law and contract writing, oh, see ya. I mean, that's already here. Go give the chat GPT some prompts and maybe get it run by. You're going to get...
like a lesser version, like someone that can glance over it versus writing the whole thing. It's like all those hours they could charge for, you know, their time just goes down to like one, instead of like 12 hours to do something, it's one hour.
Yeah.
Just proofread it and sign off on it. Sign off on it. Well, I mean, will it become a day? I saw this was really interesting. Like I think AI is, you know, this is a relevant topic, but like, Will there come a day where there's an AI that's like a law, holding a law degree? Like when you think about it, like, you know, Ralph, your AI companion, he's a certified lawyer.
Yeah. You're going to have your personalized like robot. That's like your personalized chef slash lawyer slash accountant slash bodyguard.
And he, yeah. And he's, Certified. I mean, he's got all the knowledge in the world. He's just, because he knows everything the internet knows and that all the information that's out there, he can, from any state. So he's certified in every state. So he can, his digital handwriting on, you know, like e-sign, e-doc signing by Ralph the Robot.
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Chapter 6: What are AI personas and how can they be used in business workflows?
I mean. I mean, look at dieticians and personal trainers. Like, I don't need that now.
Yeah, because you could literally program an AI device like talking person with the knowledge of, of like anything that you get from chat CBT, it could become the human, you know, human like version for distilling that to you. I mean that, that, those pieces of salt, that's already kind of there. I'm not saying it's perfect yet, but like you could totally create an AI avatar.
That's a human looking person on screen and make it say anything. So if you feed that knowledge base of what the prompts you're asking, chat GPT or whatever it might be, it can then restate that so that it's, you know, again, in that human form on screen. It's fascinating, man. And I'll say this. I saw this was happening, and it didn't surprise me, but I guess I hadn't really gone there.
You know, like if I had enough hours in a day, I'd sit down and think about all these applications. Someone had – you know how you – Within ChatGPT, you can create projects. It has memory, it can remember, and you start asking it certain prompts that are all about a certain subject. So you're kind of creating a project there about that one topic that lives within ChatGPT and a line item.
Well, and it's almost like each one of those is its own potential persona in a way, depending on what you direct it. And what this person was doing was creating an org chart, an organization chart. of the AI avatars of each one and giving them duties essentially. So like, you know, let's use an ad agency, for example, since that's my industry that I came up in.
It had, you know, Ralph AI, the creative director, and it gave it very specific prompts of what its persona is, what its job was. And then it had Timmy, the accountant, Ralph in strategy and, you know, Gene in account management. And so it was creating an org chart and these different personas and then feeding it work so that each one of those kind of did their own task.
Because now, I mean, you know, these things can generate emails. They can facilitate a lot of like digital work. And from emails to copy to image, creating images, generating images, generating video. And again, I'm using the example of an ad agency in the structure within an ad agency of the departments.
But it was fascinating how that was because then they're kind of they're they're working within the framework of that organization, how it would normally work. And each one of them have a specific task and they're informing each other to maximize optimism. I was like, whoa, OK, now I see. I mean, does that blow your mind or what?
Like, I mean, it makes sense that you hear it and you see it, but I couldn't unsee it.
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Chapter 7: What is Elon Musk's current focus regarding Tesla and his business ventures?
That's what it seems like. I think there's an endorphin, I think, with politics because it's so charged and so front and center. And look, I mean, Elon's in the news no matter what he does. But... I can see the rush that these politicians get from all that. And I think Elon's trying to cut money. He's feeling empowered.
Hey, Donald gave him a big role to do, and he's trying to do what he thinks is best. And he sees these clear opportunities, but I think he probably underestimated sort of the blowback a little bit. Sometimes, and you'll learn this, I've learned this as an entrepreneur, something that seems so clear to me
like an inefficiency or something like that, there's the unintended consequences sometimes of decisions that you make. It doesn't make it the wrong decision, but it doesn't always mean that it was right at the right time or that there weren't other steps that had to be taken to get there.
Because sometimes you can't, even if it makes sense to blow up the foundation, you don't need the building to fall over. Unless you're, you know, so I've learned that in business myself. I'm like, this, this takes no sense. X. And I'm like, Whoa, okay. That had an impact.
It wasn't, didn't make the decision wrong, but maybe the timing was, and I'm not saying that with everything that Elon did, because it's so diverse and things like that. But I think at the end of the day, You got to get back in the saddle. I don't know how the hell he'd run companies.
He's running two or three of the largest companies in the world, you know, like structurally and by value and trying to save the government efficiency. I mean, and he plays video games all night, supposedly. I think he might be a robot. I think he implanted one of those chips, Chris.
He's something.
He's different. Uh, and I still have no interest in buying a Tesla. So I don't know. And I, but I didn't before this. So, you know, it's just not my cup of tea, but it's, uh, have you seen any Tesla's burning on fire?
No, there's none of that down here. Someone would probably get shot. So there's no crazies trying to keep Tesla's down here. Yeah. It's all friendly fire anyways.
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