[Music]

yo okay hey he got it fixed in time

whoa Lord have mercy you're kind of

uh yeah this hella close how you doing

I'm good how are you I'm doing better

I'm doing better and like shout out to

everybody that definitely sent my wife

well wishes she's doing much better uh

she's feeling better uh still work in

progress but she's doing all right

so but she's she's getting back to Erica

and anybody that met Erica you know

that's good to hear she's a Brave Little

Toaster Little Toaster oh my gosh

okay so how are you what's been going on

with you what has been going with me

well I'm back from afro tich okay um

which did we talk about last time I

can't remember

if okay we were off that's why right but

feel free we can always talk about it um

so for me personally

um it was more afro than Tech um but

that's okay that's okay I think if you

are um just starting out in your Tech

Career I think it's a great place to

start as far as job opportunities and

meeting people um I will say that one

thing that they are going to be doing

for next year it's in Houston again next

year October 27th through the 31st I

believe one thing they're going to do

for next year is to

um increase the offerings on the

executive track and I had the executive

ticket so um I thought it was good but I

also didn't have very high expectations

or just expectations period I should say

for the first for my first afro Tech I

had fun ran into um hel cousins so shout

out if you were there and I met you that

was really nice um and then you know

Houston's a whole a whole vibe and I was

definitely in them Houston streets

kicking it way too hard um and I'm

looking forward to it next year um but I

did meet a lot of cool people that I

hope to follow up with and have them as

guest on the show nice nice nice nice

yeah 2025 is going to be a pretty

jam-packed year for us especially since

we'll be having a lot of very cool

guests coming onto the show so I'm

really really excited about that so all

right so should we get should we get it

popping you know yeah we have a lot to

cover in this hour and we have a hard

stop at 6

it's getting

sticky it

is I got that mop all right so what

what's good everybody I am Mark Monroe

accompanied by my wonderful co-host

co-producer co-creator and all things

Galactic give it up for none other than

the wonderful gceo it's oh my gosh what

did I say I'm just kidding it's jillan

GC and the place to be what does ITT

cousins and yeah that's all I got for

right now okay well you know you're

fresh from Apple tech so we'll give you

that one

so there it goes okay there it is I

was I forgot about the song that we were

doing but you know right when we're off

air I think it was the Rihanna song but

you know I know now you're gonna have

that stuck in my head it was gone but

now it's gonna be back oh y wait I do

have to say Mark hel hit this High not I

was like okay what was the song again

I'm not saying okay there it is I'm not

saying because it's gonna get stuck in

my head okay so Jolan we got Lu you said

we have a lot to get into with a short

amount of time y'all I hope you have

your pen and paper ready um because you

guys know how we do uh yeah I'm here I

am waving a pencil and my iPad is my

iPad is dead dead it's dead but you know

we got a lot to get into so I have it

over here on my prompt side of the

screen so I have multiple windows Mark

oh you know I'm you know I'm I'm ultra

wide over here so yeah let me know where

is it that we should start how is it

that we should get this popping should

we get it popping with an I Told You So

or should we get it popping with

definitely you you definitely need your

space to talk to talk your is um but how

about we just let them know like what

we're GNA cover in today's episode so

let's do it let's do it right so today's

topics that we're going to cover well

first of all the title of the show is go

ahead Mark oh Trey

talk broke or rich in 2028 will you be

broke or rich in 2028 that is a good

question to ask ask answer that question

now in the chat um and tell well answer

it in the chat will you be broke or rich

in the chat so if you and it's okay it's

like look we all start somewhere or

we're all where we're at so just just

give a just give an honest answer if you

can you know if you have put lie but we

preferably but yeah so all right so goal

to be okay so we got go to be rich I'm

seeing a lot of Rich I'm hearing uh oh I

like this one richer I love that uh we

got

rich okay yes we got all right the I

like that I like that jolen over here

talking about it's a

heist and then somebody says after I

finish this PhD I'll be rich I will be

look I will be comfortable at okay all

right all

right okay all right so and then we got

another Rich AF all right I love it I

love it somebody says I what is it I

plan to be rich uh right now my

portfolio is on on The Struggle Bus but

ready to fix it okay well I mean hey get

the get the wrench get the screwdriver

whatever is necessary let's get let's

get to fixing it all right so uh jolen

so I'm guessing that we have like

majority of the room right now is

optimistic I think we have some

cautiously optimistic uh Minds in the

room and that's okay um I haven't uh I

haven't seen anything in the chat that

says broke

so I wouldn't expect broke from come up

cousins but I

mean Rich Hunty okay all right now some

walking away d'angela said walking away

I see you little bro angel I see you I

see you all right so said def uh depends

on how you define being rich it's up to

you so you your definition it's up to

all right design your

life um but Mark the topics as we just

so that we can you know frame this

conversation um today we're GNA talk

about um the US debt bomb along with the

corporate debt bomb we're going to talk

about some um m&a AKA mergers and

Acquisitions um also we're going to get

into um tariffs uh the jobs lookout for

2025 okay and we're going to talk about

two Tech Giants potentially going at it

okay and how all of that impacts your

entire life um basically yeah so let's

get into it where do you want say look

look I'm okay I'm easy like Sunday

morning so let's go look all right let's

talk about let's talk about the debt

we'll move from broke to Rich so let's

talk about the debt okay all right so so

are we talking about us-based debt are

we gonna talk about corpor let's go

micro and then or macro then micro so us

then corporate so US debt is at 30 it's

above a little bit above $ 36 trillion I

think you know you had some pretty dope

stats on here like for example 14% of

Interest like the interest payments now

represent 14% of the entire budget which

is exceeding military spending so I want

everybody to understand that military

spending is one of our heaviest uh is

one of our heaviest expenses I think

it's one of three um I think we spend in

other areas like Medicare and all this

other stuff but I mean still I mean it's

if your interest payments exceed say for

example one of your top

spins um that's something

to think about I think we also need to

pause mark on this 36

trillion dollars like what it's the US

it's just a number it's it's just an

arbitrary number I'm just kidding it's

not an arbitrary number at all a lot of

debt n it's a lot of debt when you're

spending one trillion dollars in

interest payments and not even really

making a debt now you start to

understand what students feel when they

pay their student loans or when people

are making those mortgage

payments listen I I understand I

understand so that's something that we

definitely need to be attentive to

because of course it's like you know

when you see us St and you see how that

goes across like looking even even more

granular like bringing it in micro so we

live in Seattle Washington right and so

Seattle the city of Seattle I mean ish

uh was the city of Seattle has a$ 261

million deficit out of A8 billion doll

uh budget so our our City's budget is8

billion and out of the8 billion it's

$261 million in the whole so what does

something like that do so I'm going to

explain you on this level so then that

way you can kind of get an idea of what

it looks like on a macro level which is

the overall us so what happens you have

like say for example the city of Seattle

that starts to decrease exactly how many

jobs that they start to literally they

they either go some go furload or some

they just like say okay hey we're just

going to cut recruiting in these

particular departments which means that

if you're cutting in specific

departments let's say Public public

works so where it's like people clean

parks and everything else well those

parks are going to take a little bit

longer ER to get cleaned up and

everything else um if you're looking at

other areas as it pertains to like where

the budget goes as it pertains to

education uh that education spend or to

nonprofits that benefit on say for

example any of those fundings uh or when

you look at say for example Municipal

projects like for example cleaning up

streets roads and all those other things

where it it where a lot of small

businesses they rely on that contract

work from from municipalities when those

things get cut back then that hurts the

project and then ultimately if it hurts

the project then ultimately that's jobs

that's also hurting and when you think

about it it's like all states ultimately

have their own GDP and then you combine

that all together then that's ultimately

how you get to the overall us-based GDP

so go ahead no I was gonna say I do want

to share that like with the when I think

about Seattle's budget um and this

deficit how it will impact um the

nonprofit sector like I just went to the

um Urban League's uh annual breakfast Y

and while sitting there before the event

was over they were able to raise 1.3 um

million dollars um during this breakfast

that started at like8 o'clock in the

morning um there was over 2,000 people

there right um

and what when I think about how these

organizations are the organ the

nonprofit organizations in Seattle do

the majority of the service work

so they usually stand in the gap for

when um there's like a job issue like if

there's less jobs then they try to place

you with different jobs or supplement

like your um things that have to do with

a lack of income or reduced income so

think paying light bills think um

utility bills covered um packages for

when newborns are born um even

assistance in purchasing a home so if

the city is reducing their budget then

you can imagine that also the state

would be um it has impacts for the state

as well so now the organizations will be

uh competing for some of those dollars

so if they're competing that means that

there will be less to offer so that

means more people will be suffering

because if you think about it Washington

State overall is a blue State um and so

if we have the federal government

reducing money that's going out to all

these organizations it's going to have

major implications for not only just the

nonprofit

sector because again that kind of uh

captures the the Gap that um tends to

happen um but it's going to have impact

on just everyone that lives in

Washington state and then you look at

that as a small example and then you

kind of step back and that it then it

impacts even more people you know you

look at the city of Seattle we one of

the smartest most educated um and more

the most millionaires per

capita

um that's great but at the same time

those aren't the only people that live

that live here so we really have to take

into consideration how is this going to

impact everybody on this spectrum from

broke to rich exactly you you nailed it

right there on the head and so you know

somebody asked in the in the in the in

the chat like you know I think it was uh

cousin

Kareem um or someone that asks yeah he

said who is Us in debt to so like for

example an easy way to look at it is

remember when Japan started going on

remember when Japan was like the topic

discussion H towards the middle of the

year and when Japan started becoming a

part of that topic of discussion the

market started to dip as soon as we

started to see what was happening in

Japan

yes there you have

it so Japan is so Japan is one of the

large is one of the largest holders of

us us back debt of course you got China

you got United Kingdom and then of

course you got like places like Germany

and Canada but I mean really it's like

you know Japan and China that ultimately

hold a lot of those notes um I I can't

really give you the the exact number

last time I talked I think it was like

uh I think it was like 1.1 trillion uh

as it pertains to like countries that

they had invested that they had invested

um so when you see things that happen

and that get you know erupted in the

bond market now you see what's happening

as it pertains to like what's what's

happening on that us back back debt side

who's investing into what

so it's well it's the one of the

problems though Mark with the US debt is

that it's not looking to it's not going

to be slowing down no we'll probably

reach $50 trillion dollars if you know

at the rate in which that we're doing

probably within the next 10 years we'll

probably have a $50 trillion debt bomb

yeah which

anyway it's hard to conceptualize that's

a that's a lot that's a lot that's a lot

like it's it's kind of like it's and

that's what I was asking like is it real

or is it like more like an arbitrary

number I think that sooner or later

we'll come to a point where it's like

when things slow down we'll have no

other choice but to ultimately start to

pay off uh large portions of that debt

but I think that we have to get to a

place in which that the United States

economy is very much so booming and

that's really letting you know a sign of

the times it pertains to where we are

economically um George not George I'm

sorry why am I saying George Jerome pal

does not think it's sustainable no it's

not I mean nothing is ever sustainable I

mean it's just like having a checking

account and then ultimately like you

know your checking account has a balance

and then it also has a credit balance

and then once you exceed that credit

balance you know it's like you start

getting into No Man's Land you can keep

going like for example hey you're going

to take out loans okay okay so then your

checking account balance is negative

then your credit balance is negative

then essentially your your loan balance

is negative and it just it's a Snowball

Effect where as you can see it's not

sustainable so ultimately sooner or

later things are going to have to get

reeled in and Uncle Charles said it best

like he said Monopoly

money right they're gonna be printing

like crazy so okay now with the

corporate debt how now if we take it

from macro to micro what is is that

setup looking like um so remember those

times when interest rates were low and

everybody was ultimately out there

borrowing and just like Hey we're

borrowing at these rates and they're not

borrow like a lot of them weren't

borrowing at fixed rates they were

borrowing at uh variable rates and so

now a lot of those chickens are coming

home to

roost and so you're now starting to

reach those moments in which that you

reach those maturity points now of

course they can go through like Banks

and ultimately if it's like relationship

based which a lot of banks are they want

to keep their relationship so like a lot

of your major Fortune 500s should be

fine key word should be fine right um

but if they're not and essentially it's

like that can eat significantly into

their profit margins and then

essentially then you have to start

looking at those companies very

differently as it pertains to growth

because their growth is being calized by

the debt that they have to pay so and

then which can also stunt their growth

significantly as it pertains to well if

your if your grunt is if your your

growth is stunted based upon profit

margins which means that essentially you

can't really make the Investments which

means that you'll probably start like

here's an easy way to notice you'll

start seeing companies that start doing

layoffs where they have to start cutting

back on say for example staff because

why it always comes down to the bottom

line and it the cash flow always

dominates the the conversation here's

the thing that I want everybody to like

if you can if you've got children or if

you got like children teenagers whatever

or even just you're just amongst friends

I strongly urge for everybody to get the

board game cash flow like if you can't I

know that we I know that a lot of us

grew up on Monopoly which is great and

it's a very arbitrary board game but if

you want something that's a little bit

more realistic to help you understand

not only just the the like how to

mentally get out of the nine to-5 and

getting into that next phase and also

understanding like when to take risk and

when not to take risk and everything

else look the idea is ultimately to

literally play that game because he'll

give you some understanding D'Angelo

says that he's triggered because the

last time that he was here you know I

WIP I wiped the floor with him in the

game but he learned hopefully he learned

we should we should um we should

organize like a national cash flow day

party and have everyone like you know

play the game host they can host their

own game and we all play at the same

time and then and just tag us like just

tag us like for real

like we should we should get to the

point where we actually start playing

teams I'll ref because I don't want to

be the cheat

coach a

note yeah so and and what I want you to

do is I want you to look at it from like

it gives you different perspectives also

like people always sit there and when

they play the game they wonder why it's

tougher to get out of the rat race when

you're like the doctor or anything else

and we always pride ourselves on these

high-paying jobs but not understanding

that with highp paying jobs you're also

your expenses are just as high and

everything else you know it's it's kind

of like a assumed and so essentially

like you know your passive income has to

supersede your expenses so again like

all in all to say bringing it back

because I know I was kind of going on a

tangent but I hope that people kind of

like grab the gem out of that one and

here comes another one so when you see

companies that are like having to pull

back like let's say 10% of their

Workforce or 7% of their Workforce you

know okay imagine if that's 7% of their

Workforce what does that calculate as it

pertains to Dollars that's billions of

dollars in which that that company has

now just so in those billions of dollars

that it's now saved it's letting you

know that it's trying to protect profit

margins and they're going to try to

protect profit margins at all costs if

they don't then essentially like again

it stunts growth and so again when

growth is stunted then essentially then

they can't go any further they can't

make any other Investments towards the

future and you're starting to see

companies like that that that are

ultimately like okay hey they join the

AI race but they were slow to join the

AI race and then essentially it's like

now that they're in it it's like okay

they kind of like don't know exactly how

to navigate and now they're like talking

about laying off large portions of their

of their Workforce and even then you're

like okay well now the conversation as

it pertains to mergers and Acquisitions

are starting to jump into the

conversation well okay should I just go

ahead and just cook because I just cook

like if we want to wait get your apron

get your apron and your

Chef so so when we start looking at

mergers and Acquisitions it's going to

be like the companies in which that are

that are just struggling so you're going

to have the companies that are just like

struggling to like literally get it into

gear and and just because they're

publicly traded companies and they sit

on the stock market doesn't make them

Ironclad and they're not defensible I

mean look at what happened with super

micro somebody had called me the other

day asking me about uh super micro and

saying hey are they are they safe and

I'm

like I don't know because literally it's

like if I'm not even looking at the

stock and if I'm just looking at the

company itself I'd wait until the audit

complete but I mean you're going to have

companies like Intel like I said Intel

is definitely

unwatch for an acquisition they need

they need to pick up something that'd be

that'd be funny if it was AMD and it was

government

sponsored wow your favorite and little

boy blue interesting listen you know

sooner or later we have to come together

and not be enemies anymore

we understand how much we need each

other but yeah you're going to start

seeing companies that are going through

mergers and Acquisitions because they

say that it's the Strategic move to do

no it's not just a strategic move to do

it's ultimately like giving you a way

out and ultimately it's like when

essentially like you've already cut your

Workforce and everything else now you

prepared you prepared your financials to

look beautiful for any potential Suitor

and any potential acquirer like that's

that's the that's the secret to the

entire game anybody that you ask if you

ever go ask a lawyer or if you go ask

anybody that's in finance they'll tell

you your financials always must look

beautiful if your financials don't look

beautiful then nobody wants to buy it so

we got companies out here

intentionally making themselves

eligible for the for the

okay so I

mean listen I I look I feel for some of

the companies that are like going

through that that are going through

those struggles like their capex

spending is starting to drop uh so which

means that their capex spending drops

which means either one they're ready for

they're they're in growth phase but you

can't be in growth phase if your capex

is being spent so let's just retract

that so then that means that essentially

that oh well then that means that we're

making Investments for the future oh

wait a minute but you cut back your

Workforce okay can't use that so let's

retract that well so we're just trying

to prepare ourselves and ultimately just

hker down oh no you're not because again

it's like okay well why are you selling

off these assets or ultimately cutting

out these departments and putting them

on the Shelf at your company see again

it's like you know just just pay

attention people like if like I said if

people have been paying attention to all

the things that are happening in music

and if you're following look if you're

so good at following Drake versus

Kendrick Lamar as it pertains to Drake

you know calling HR on Kendrick Lamar

then you should be able to go and check

and see what's going on in the markets

and see what's happening within some of

these companies and sitting back and

asking the questions with the side eye

hey

yo are you getting ready to get acquired

like because look it it something

something sound

right right they in the mirror like okay

let me make sure I look good for you

know apple right quick look like I said

better find a mop that's getting sticky

because literally like I said I I I try

to warn everybody ahead of time saying

hey the companies that you trust are the

companies that strong cash like the

companies that have strong cash are the

ones in which that you trust if they

don't have strong cash on their books

and everything

else I mean think about it we just went

through x amount of time period and

companies like apple and Microsoft were

still making aund and and even we'll

throw even meta into that conversation

and even we'll throw in Amazon these

four companies were bringing in hundred

billion dollar in Revenue over a three

Monon

span 100 billion with a B

okay

so speaking of we're still on this topic

of um mergers and

Acquisitions

um do you want to talk about actually no

well maybe okay let's talk about um well

okay when I think about the mergers and

Acquisitions like it naturally makes me

think of you know

competition and who's competing against

who because the more you can scoop up

you know to make your bottom line that

much um that much better by acquiring

another company that already smaller

than you already has the technology or

whatever so that you can compete against

another big dog um let's talk about two

giants so what we talking about

Amazon and

Nvidia so there's competition between

the two because you know uh Amazon now

is stepping into the AI uh ship maker

market so that they can essentially

compete against Nvidia so my question

mark is okay

so I it may be likely that we'll have

more um oh yeah there goes the article

it may be likely that we have more uh

Cloud companies looking to compete in

this Arena to kind of get rid of the

third party chip maker Reliance funny

it'd be funny if meta is the number one

Custer customer to Amazon for that AI

chip but well well well well so okay so

in the short term I don't see when I

think about Amazon versus Nvidia in the

short term I don't see any um immediate

risk just given nvidia's um Market

leadership but if we're looking at it in

the long term what are the potential

risk um and threats vers when it comes

to Nvidia going up against players yeah

other players I mean your biggest risk

is other as the other players like you

know you don't have to out you don't

have to out swim the Sharks you just

have to out swim the guy you're scuba

diving with

right like and

honestly

listen if I'm Nvidia I'm Not Afraid as

it pertains to Amazon stepping in to

compete within this AI chip space you

know I'd kind of expected it like

Google's already there I mean Apple's

got its own rendition mhm Microsoft is

still using you know its you know

various providers through the cloud

services and you see many other players

and of course AMD is also ramping up

into that space as well so I think that

it's providing a lot of legitimacy I

think the thing is is that Nvidia

Embraces the fact that okay there's

going to be competitors but at the same

token we've got folks in whom wish that

are legitimizing the space in which that

we're in that that ultimately like

enriches it um I I my biggest hope for

NVIDIA is is that they don't become

complacent like I think that they've had

a blueprint of what it looks like when

you have been the leader for a dominant

period of time because let's put it into

perspective Nvidia has just become the

dominant like chip company but once upon

a time once upon a time it was actually

you know somebody else which was Intel

Now intel is struggling why because

Intel got complacent

yeah slow to adopt slow to move exactly

so with that being said it's like I

think that as long as Nvidia still stays

on its

course as it pertains to hey let's keep

innovating let's keep pushing the

envelope let's keep being the leader

that ultimately like okay we keep going

to different Arenas they're going to be

just fine um but I did try to give

people a for warning and saying that

look

be advis you know Amazon has dominated

the cloud space for quite some time they

have remained number one for quite some

time and the way that they do is they

iterate iterate iterate iterate iterate

and then essentially get to a place of

scale scale it continue to scale as as

they're continue to scale they're

continue to make iterations even within

those scaling periods so I think that

it's something that they've been talking

about underneath the hood and is now

just like hitting the foray but if we

journey back a little while I could have

sworn we kind of had this

conversation a while back earlier this

year when I think it was like around the

summer that I was trying to let

everybody else know that hey

look don't be surprised if you see am if

you see Amazon step into the space to

challenge companies like Nvidia within

AI chips and don't be surprised if they

also look to bring on a massive customer

AKA like a meta into the conversation I

think that that's gonna

be I think that that's GNA be the

interesting

conversation as we move forward over the

next nine to 12 months well one of the

things too that we've talked about since

2020 when we first came on was how

Amazon like their whole philosophy

really is a startup model yes all of

their different branches departments

where you want to call them are separate

companies are all ran like startups so

when you have that philosophy you are

able to Pivot because it's a part of

your culture and that's probably one of

the mistakes that Intel did not have um

and they became almost like a tech I

mean I guess dinosaur in that in that

sense because they weren't able to move

quickly like a startup so when you have

you know a company like Amazon stepping

into the foray it's like okay you got to

pay attention um and see what they got

going on pay attention to any potential

mergers and Acquisitions like just

because they have cash so just look and

be on your and look at those cash

balances like stay stay stay tuned to

those those cash balance sheets because

you know and then on top of that when

those 10 Q's come out and 10ks come out

um pay attention because you know

Acquisitions fall underneath those like

you can you can see like what is it that

they acquired even though that they

don't publicly they don't they not

publicize it but they do have to mention

those things legally and they have to be

reported to the SEC as it pertains to

what was acquired so uh I would just you

know I would just be very attuned to

what's happening there and I think that

we're we're coming to the end of phase

one as it pertains to this AI craze now

what does that mean you're going to

probably start seeing a lot of companies

dump off or you're going to probably

start seeing a lot of companies hit that

struggle period because now it's like

okay hey investors are going their

expectations even more stronger and

essentially they're going to be looking

to see okay hey well what does it like

you had a lot of hype that went behind

it but now what does that turn into as

it pertains to like how does that

portray an actual dollars or an actual

performance so that's going to be the

big that's going to be some of the

biggest questions and which is going to

be sitting at the feet for a lot of

these companies as we move into phase

two and if they can't if they can't meet

that that's just like a startup that

raises money out of some high ridiculous

valuation and then when when it comes to

this point where it's like okay hey have

you met this valuation and they haven't

met it then essentially that's

ultimately how CEOs get fired I'm not

saying that any publicly traded CEOs get

fired at this point but ultimately that

could spell Doom and Gloom for some of

the companies as it pertains to

shareholders wanting to be involved so

again just something to pay attention to

uh for sure yeah and I realized when I

said oh let's go from broke to um Rich

um as we were you know going over these

tops I forgot one of the topics that I

wanted to cover which was um tariffs yes

um so we have this potential uh tariff

coming up or tariffs I should say I was

gonna say it's two China Canada and

Mexico so those are the top three and

with this new um Administration they're

basically saying okay we need to impose

this 25% tariff on those three to combat

um well they say it's for drugs um and

immigration reasons like to stop the

flow so then why so then why did the

Autos go negative when that was

announced well we already know what

happens when you start to cut back on

immigration when it leads to jobs which

we'll talk about jobs next but yes um

the whole piece about stopping the

inflow of drugs my question is what how

how are they how are they going to track

this like how do they know when they're

successful um when it comes to to that

portion of it specifically and then two

let's talk about like the real

implications of these terorists because

you got major companies like wmart

already saying look we're raising the

prices y'all if he if old boy says 25%

the prices are going to raise

automatically don't ask us no questions

don't you know don't call Corp customer

service you know Karen Stand Down H pipe

down like

they're already

saying they're already saying that we're

going to increase prices so if we're

looking at this like in the context of

um investors and we're looking at this

in the context of like where how is this

going to impact our portfolios or where

we should be looking um to conduct like

our analysis of this impact where do we

go what are we um looking at here what's

really the impact for us that's a lot of

that's a lot to unpack But ultimately

you're looking at you're looking at at

least a 1% rise in

inflation so now what's interesting

about that Mark is all of this talk

during election season was like you know

prices are too high so that's why I'm

gonna vote you know red or whatever and

now we're looking at the increase of um

cons not gonna be instantaneous though

that's the beautiful part about it it's

not going to be instantaneous remember

how slow remember how slow it took for

inflation to rise even with Co yeah so

much to the point where they said that

oh this is just you know temporary you

know it's not going to stick and it got

sticky now I got you look I I knew it I

knew it it was it it was bound it was

bound to get jolen it was bound to get

you oh lord well Ms are gonna be more

expensive too now okay look listen you

better get your mop now

listen so just okay so for everybody out

there they're like yo what what is the

running joke here as it pertains to like

this whole sticky conversation so the

sticky part is like we were listening to

Tyler the Creator's song and he has a

song sticky so listen at your you know

if you got kids you know it's such a

great album it really is album of the

year um all right so let's talk about it

a little bit further though all jokes

aside

so the best way that I was ever

explained to as it pertains to like we

think about politics and when we think

about like when when when people run on

specific

campaigns um A wise

man once taught a young man and he said

you know he said a guy literally went to

go visit uh before he had to make a

choice he had the opportunity to go look

at what hell was going to be like and

what heaven was going to look like and

when he went to go look at hell hell was

like this amazing place and everything

else it was lit it was popping and

everything everything else and when he

got to heaven when he showed him heaven

heaven was just like so dull and

everything else boring and everything

else and then when he asked him he was

like when you make your decision you

have to stick with your decision and the

guy was like yo he was like I want to go

I want to go down under and the guy was

like are you sure and he was like yeah

and so he went he ended up going to hell

and then when he got to hell it was

nothing like how he pictured and he was

like wait a minute you tricked me and

everything else and he's like that's

what it's like to actually be campaig

and Market it to

[Music]

so I'm not saying that essentially that

like what Donald Trump is going to do as

it pertains to within his campaign or or

or within his presidency is ultimately

going to literally you know drop the

entire like economy and everything else

though I have this here's here's my

personal opinion I think that in three

years you know it's going to get very

sticky and very muggy and very hot for a

lot of people within this economy and

within this country and they're going to

be like okay this is I'm not feeling

good about where we are and it's not

because of the fact of all the other

like you know statements and comments

and all this other stuff they're going

to look at it purely based upon what

ultimately got him uh that what got him

elected and that was like pretty much um

the economy he ran on the economy now

the question is can you fix the economy

if he can fix it great but then the

question is is it going to be a

temporary fix and then It ultimately

starts to rear its head the question

that the reason why I say three years is

because I expect the economy to start to

slow down the economy has been like

literally running in high overdrive just

trying to get inflation down and on top

of that trying to do XYZ remember all

these conversations that we kept talking

about as it pertains to corporate debt

and US debt and all those things well

when you have to re those in certain

things start to also have to get cut I

mean you're going to have to try to

balance budgets and everything else and

you're going to go through some pain so

the question is like what is that going

to look like for the long run and so

will people feel better about where they

are four years from now um that's the

question but if you're bringing on the

tariffs conversation which ultimately

makes it rise by at least 1% this could

be a challenging situation in which

that like because when you think about

it tariffs ultimately hit the companies

and who much that they're trying to

serve and I have to applaud like

companies like apple that literally held

it down for their customer base and

didn't raise the prices but the not

every company is like that because not

every company has like pricing control

when they can control the supply chain

and Logistics side of the and on top of

that the manufacturing process so they

have power over the entire process not

every company is going to have that and

so so when they don't have that type of

power then they're going to have to

adjust their prices to ultimately meet

the fact that okay hey it's either that

or we're selling things closer to a loss

like you have to look at some Industries

like 22% is a good profit margin for

them but any any disruptions within that

like you're literally going to say that

it's like they're going to feel the

effects especially like retail stores

like Walmart or Target they're going to

feel the effects you know when you think

about like industrial companies or when

you think about agriculture they're

going to f the effects and ultimately

the consumer is going to that like who

does it pass on to it passes on to the

consumer the consumer is going to feel

that

pain so okay one of the things that

besides being able to control like

Supply that um Apple was able to do to

keep those prices down um was some of

their ESG um policies so what other

I mean especially like with the being

able to recycle old phones and then make

you know something new um which people

were happy to turn in old phones just to

get the discount and then you know then

buy a new phone which is probably parts

of their old phone but anyway um what

how can ESG um where are other ways that

ESG can have a a positive benefit um on

this potential

uh rise in uh

prices for some of these other companies

it depends upon how it depends upon like

the control that they have within their

supply chain and and their process I

mean also when we think about ESG it

also depends upon how is that they're

making decisions most ESG is it you fix

things today so then that way you don't

have to deal with the tomorrow You Fix

You Fix today's lazy so that way you can

you could solve tomorrow's crazy like

that's literally the concept of what we

think about when we think about ESG

solving environmental social and

governance problems today so then that

way when things get crazy later it's

less crazier for you because you're

already prepared for it so if companies

are ultimately doing that um then

they're going to be fine I mean to a

certain degree but again it it depends

upon how much of the process do they own

they have control of okay gotcha yeah if

they don't own a massive part of the

process or the or or control of the

entire cycle of things that that could

spell a problem like for example the

reason why we say apple can the problem

is because of the fact that every single

iPhone that they sell is like nine times

out of 10 we're at a place now jolen

that every single phone that that people

buy today is recycled material from

somebody else's phone that they were

using that now you're using that has

been made from it's actually pretty

ingenious because you're still selling

it at the same price you're not even

selling it at a discounted price you're

selling it at the same price but yet

you're using the same materials that

ultimately created let's say the iPhone

8 iPhone 10 or iPhone

12 whatever

it well but that's the beautiful thing

about it though carbon carbon positive

now so they went from or is it carbon

positive or carbon neutral or negative

everybody wants to get everybody wants

to get to neutral look I'm getting a

little tongue tight here because I know

that we got other subjects that we got

to run to but whatever it is is the good

side that's Apple where they are now and

every company wants to be in that

process yeah all right so um now

yeah we got to go back to um this us job

market yes sorry we kind of been all

over the place but we have well we

already know how unemployment is looking

right now um right now it's a little

under 4% at

3.9% and it's going to um increase to

well they're saying it's going to

increase to well when I say well over

that even a tenth of percentage point is

too high when it comes to um

unemployment rates in the US market

market so they're saying when I say they

I mean like economists are projecting

4.2% so the question is um how is this

going to impact impact the market um and

what what sector should we be looking

it's kind of crazy because when we look

at it like if you notice like

uh if you ever see that a company lays

off like a massive amount of folks then

you know have you ever noticed that the

stock typically jumps yeah because

they're they're decreasing their profit

margin they're well either that they're

keeping their profit margins the same

and also getting rid of expenses and of

course investors look that as a

knee-jerk reaction to say oh hey they're

getting rid of

expenses um or they're they're

decreasing

expenses

um I think that some companies are

better well positioned I think that

there's a lot of companies like for

example within the tech sector that like

literally went through massive layoffs

and I think that they overlay it off

people yes and now they're trying to now

they're trying to go back and hire quite

a few people because they realize okay

hey we're hitting this place and we're

starting to hit like massive amounts of

demand here and we don't have enough

talent and staff to be able to suppl or

to be able to supply for the demand so I

think that that like other Arenas you're

going to see that that opens up

um my biggest thing is just that you

know I'm looking at it from the

standpoints as it pertains to cost like

a lot of times people will sit back and

say you know Mark you're you keep saying

cost you keep saying cost and I'm going

to keep saying it because at the end of

the day it still comes down to cash flow

um if cash flow if cash flow statements

and balance sheets are strong then

you're good um if cash flow is

ultimately

decreasing

um then there may be some challenges

ahead um and with that being said you

know I think that some Industries are

going to see like for example like

agriculture has definitely been needing

talent but the thing is is that

essentially the cost as it pertains to

you know to acquire that Talent

especially here in the US is too high

now we're talking about things like

manufacturing um where you saw that like

I think in as the fall in the early fall

we saw a lot of unions go on strike we

saw a lot of folks like literally asking

for pay

raises um which is which is fine um

but at the same time it's like okay hey

they don't understand like some people

just don't understand you know for that

that bumping 30% as as it pertains to

salaries it's gonna come from somewhere

yeah and at the same time that Boeing I

think settled they also like turned

around the next week and said hey look

listen we gonna have to do some

layoffs

yeah

so look I mean somebody asked a question

like I thought that they or us can't

compete or with uh fiscal structure and

then somebody said uh I thought they

laid off to prepare for

AI some companies did that but

ultimately but what was the what was

overall objective there you laid off to

prepare for AI to do what I

mean you still need people to process

that AI you still need people to you

still need to hire people to be able to

support that AI infrastructure that you

have you can't like and I think that a

lot of folks thought that they could

just like literally Implement AI

infrastructure and say okay hey well you

know we're we're going to be okay we

just implement it and we're good to go

and that's not the case you need the

system that ultimately supports it so do

I believe that there's going to be new

jobs created in 2025 yes I think that

we'll start seeing newer jobs come in um

in 2025 that support a lot of those new

new age Arenas and for the folks out

there that are like literally looking to

bring their kids into Tech

um wow this is what happens when you

have this what happens when your room is

smart your room is like all right hey

now there's your marker right

um and and then it's motion

censored um I think the thing is that

people need to understand though is when

we look at jobs there's going to be a

ton of jobs that are going to be created

there's going to be a lot of new job

jobs that are going to be created and I

think the thing is like if people are

wanting to know how to win you know

you're investors now you've been in you

like if you've been watching the come up

series since

2020 then every single

breadcrumb and honestly truth be told I

stopped speaking in riddles back in

2022 okay so every everything that I've

been everything that I've been saying

has been going straight up off like look

I'm shooting straight from the

hip so like straight nochaser literally

if you if you got kids that are

interested in being content creators

look I'm sorry that's a hobby if it's

not paying you if it's not literally

something that can sustain you over the

next five years and literally set you up

with a strong retirement plan then you

need to have a backup and if you if you

need that backup then you need to get an

education and if you need it could

either be college or it could be like

programs in which that they have 18 we

programs and everything else but I'm

telling you right now that essentially

if you're not embedded some where as it

pertains to stem especially within the

tech space understanding exactly like

okay hey now that We've Ended phase one

of AI and understanding that the next

phase is even going to be even more

lucrative than phase one like think

about it like this phase one is just a

hype right phase two is the investment

like that's the part that people don't

understand like you're starting to see

phase two in certain places where it's

like you have companies that are like

raising money at astronomical

valuations yeah that happens in Phase

One when you see hype but now it's like

people want to see the the result of

that hype and then after they've seen

the result of that hype the next thing

that they want is like okay that they've

seen when they see progress reports it's

like oh wow this is even bigger than I

thought it was going to be okay when's

the next time that I can invest in this

so again you're going to start seeing

you

know you're gonna start seeing more

investment you're gonna start seeing

billions of dollars what I saw um you

know at afrotech was um how big um cyber

security could be and is

getting um like as far as Jobs go and I

was shocked I was sitting there

listening to and I cannot remember her

name but I was sitting there listening

to a really good session on um why uh

you know black and other PLC should go

into cyber security and you know I don't

to work um like as I was sitting there I

was like oh my gosh like I was actually

interested um so if I ever return to um

the the workforce it would probably be

in cyber security because the way they

made it sound it it just it just blew me

away listen Okay

so I can't take my headphones off

because that's the only way I'm going to

have to hear you so okay listen

if you want to get into if you want to

get into cyber security go now and go

study your CompTIA and get your security

plus it's not that hard it's just like

getting an AA certification or anything

else you can go stud up on corsera if

you if you really want to start making

investments in yourself go on corser and

spend the $600 for the year it's more

than what you like if you really think

about it like if you add up every single

drink that you add that that you go

spend at the bar in a year you spent

more at the bar than you did on say for

example your own Improvement so spend

the or coffee go spend the $600 and then

literally go get as many certifications

as you can so which that you can learn

learn the space as it pertains to the

new things that are coming through oh

yeah I'm about to cook and then

essentially if you want to I mean if

like there's tons of jobs in which that

you can get that are either through the

government or also within other

companies where it's like there's a ton

of AI companies out there or there's a

ton of data center companies out there

that are looking to hire people and

they're getting paid six figures

anywhere from 120 to roughly $180,000 a

year and you didn't need a college

degree you just needed a few CTS

underneath your belt and understand

exactly how data centers work and also

understand good customer service and

essentially they'll hire you I mean the

ultimate objective is is just look be

curious and through your curiosity

ultimately let your curiosity run wild

and learn something like when you when

you're curious you learn and when you

learn now the next objective is is to

literally take that learning and to

apply it and that's ultimately what we

want for you guys there's no secret play

here there's no run the play and all

this other stuff if that's what you want

to do as a pertains to stepping into

cyber security if you want to if you

even want to go further go get your sis

your Cisco networking Academy or your

your CIS Cisco networking professional

uh certification I mean I think that

one's a little bit more pricier but I

think that it came down they used to

give it out in high school for high

school students I think they still do if

you're if you want to be ahead say for

example in high school go take classes

in college for while you're still in

high school and get the two years

underneath your belt that can like

literally spearhead you for college and

also not only just take the basic

courses but take things that are within

the stem Fields also so that way you can

round up your curiosity go get involved

with say for example folks in whom wish

that like a lot of Corporations out

there have a lot of programs in which

that are Mentor uh focus in which that

they can literally give like literally

take your kids on field trips to their

actual Corporate Offices there's a lot

of programs like I know here in Seattle

they have the black Achievers program

which was through the YMCA I'm probably

sure that that's National across the

country if not go start one and

ultimately do it there's there's so many

things in which that you can do oh

should I keep cooking or should I stop

you know what I'm going to keep cooking

because honestly it's getting hot in

here all right so another thing it's

like if you want to learn AI don't just

spend all your time on chat GPT and

everything else because that's just a

generative AI it doesn't measure your

creativity and everything else go learn

the infrastructures if if you're if

you're in software or if you want to

learn about software go take a few

python classes that's the language for M

for AI and machine learning within

itself I mean you don't have to be a

guru at it but at least you can be

knowledgeable at it and understand the

infrastructure as it pertains to where

we are go look at the jobs in which that

are Al like if you're in HR I mean I'm

going to give you a little I'm going to

give you a little bit of tidbit a lot of

HR is actually starting to be fragmented

where they're starting to put HR across

the different sectors of the business so

HR is no longer generalized anymore it's

actually being infiltrated through the

business and they they need less people

there so make the pivot go towards

operations goes toward go towards devops

go towards Business Development go

towards accounts those types of things

things and also start learning the tools

in which that ultimately make you even

more competitive I mean though even when

even if you're not even looking for a

job even if you're not looking for a job

learn these things because then you get

to learn the infrastructure and why it's

valuable and why is that other people

find it viable and valuable and then

essentially go look at the companies and

wish that are there here's another

tidbit now that we've done Hardware now

it's time to talk about software so now

that we've been making all this massive

investment dollars as it pertains to AI

Hardware now it's time to have ai

software it's time to have their moment

in the Sun so companies like Adobe C3 AI

uh and many others like

snowflake uh and many many others it's

going to be their turn now where they

get to partake in the Sun and also have

their valuations creep up just a little

bit so again there's so much opportunity

out there I mean my thing is it's just

like look

y'all well Mark be heard I just heard

another challenge for 2025 which is

everyone take

$600 and use that as your investment in

yourself and get as many Sears as you

can on corsera so and you know one thing

is you can look at it like okay A bunch

of us are going to get it on in this

sector another bunch of us are going to

get it in this other sector and then

that way you all can share the

information as far as um

not theer but you can share like what

you've learn and you can apply that to

your

investing yeah I mean that's ultimately

the thing and here's the thing it's like

sooner like everybody's jumping into

like all these different

things that's great like everybody's

running towards the

trend but look towards like we taught

you guys well enough to to well enough

by now

like look towards not only just what the

trend is

but be cognizant of what the market

needs like that's the thing like what

does the market need like when we think

about why

entrepreneurs do so well is because they

create something that the market needs

they build something that's valuable

that has a unique selling point to what

the market

needs you know don't get me wrong cyber

security is huge it's very huge data

centers are going to be even more huge

and is going to be huge also because of

the fact of the amount of processing

power and everything else that

essentially we have to rethink exactly

what energy looks like yes you know so

again like what is it that the what is

it that the world is leaning towards

what is it that the world what is it

that the world wants what is it that the

world needs right now what is it that

economies need right now what is it that

Industries need right now you know and

if you don't even want to think about

what they need right now look at what

they need upcoming what's coming soon

you know the writing is on the wall if

you guys just literally just stop listen

to some like you'll you'll start

noticing a trend after you look at some

of the the verbiage in earnings reports

when they tell you about their consumer

base like a lot of these earnings

reports will tell you about consumer

Behavior or their customer what they've

learned from their customers because

investors want to know what is it that

you've learned from your

customers whether what are your

Enterprise customers are telling you and

what are your consumers telling

you it P of it it paints an interesting

picture so

yeah well

um look I'll say that I'll say I'll say

that for another day I feel like I feel

like I I feel like I water the G the the

garden way too much I don't want to I

don't want to flood

it well you know it's about that time

it's exactly six o'clock aka the hard

stop this was a jam-packed episode um

and this is definitely one to play back

and get all the notes get all the gems

um do you have any closing remarks

before we shut it on

down better find them up it's getting

sticky uh no but real talk I mean we'll

we'll talk about it more as we go

through uh as we finish 2024 going into

2025 we got some interesting

conversations and the conversation will

continue to get interesting even well

into 2025 I mean I know that it's a

holiday coming up for everybody so have

conversations with everybody not just

the stock but you know we're we're more

than just the stock market like and

right that's just a place in which that

ideas sometimes become validated but

start looking at other Arenas as it

pertains to like let's start asking each

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Will You Be Broke or Rich in 2028?

Transcription