Ep: 88: Our Take On The Silicon Valley Bank Issue
THE X'S & O'S
The Silicon Valley bank issue, the future of the automotive industry, and the constant rise of inflation are making the heads of Americans spin!
Needless to say, there’s a lot going on in the financial world right now, and RPA Wealth is ready to dive right into it.
In this episode, Matthew Theal, Brent Pasqua, and Joshua Winterswyk discuss some of the hottest headlines in the financial industry by sharing their insights, making educated predictions, and so much more!
Matthew, Brent, and Joshua discuss:
Some important updates about the Silicon Valley bank issue
What the FDIC limit is and how to find out if you are protected by it
The landscape of the current automotive industry with the uptick of EV models
The dangers of TikTok - to delete or not to delete?
And more
Resources:
Connect With RPA Wealth Management:
Transcript
Welcome to The Retirement Plan Playbook with Brent Pasqua, Matthew Theal and Joshua Winterswyk from RPA Wealth Management. In this podcast, we cover current events, retirement planning strategies. And provide you with the tools to help you build a successful retirement playbook in any political or financial landscape.
Join Brent, Matthew and Joshua as they navigate the issues that can make the later stages of your retirement plan challenging and help you create the best Retirement Plan Playbook. Now let's get to the show.
Well welcome to the Retirement Plan Playbook. Uh, I'm your host, Brent Pasqua, founder of RPA Wealth Management. I'm here with Matthew Theal, Certified Financial Planner and Joshua Winterswyk, certified financial Planner. I think today we're just going to go with a different format, a little more open because the Silicone Valley Bank issue has been a, a tremendous story in the news for the last week and a half.
And so I think there's actually a lot of talk about here. Yeah. So, you know, I don't, it's wild because literally I didn't have bank failure on my Bingo card. This. And Silicon Valley Bank is the second largest bank failure in US history. And uh, I think it's left a lot of people, like really nervous, really scared, and they probably have a lot of questions.
Josh, what happened? So, silicone Valley Bank had a very specific clientele. They work with startups and venture capitalists and really, With interest rates going up, they had some internal risk problems. We like to use the words duration mismatch, and they bought some long rated securities, mortgage backed securities, and with interest rates going up and the startup world also being hurt by the interest rates going up, it caused a recipe for disaster for this particular bank.
So the fed raising rates from zero to 4.25 and under a year finally broke. It did. We were waiting for something to break and it broke. It doesn't sound like a lot of the clientele of SVB was a lot of just normal people out there using the banking system. No, it wasn't. But if you go on Twitter, it's a bunch of Silicon Valley VCs, retweeting people who were impacted and they do sound like everyday people you know, who are just trying to make a living.
But I think they're just trying to make themselves feel better because they kind of got bailed out. No, it's not. Everyday people, 80% of their deposits were uninsured, meaning they were over $250,000. That's not normal. Almost high net worth people that were people banking with him. Yes. This is like an exclusive club.
It doesn't sound like they were the most like standup characters. There Seems like there was a lot of people that banked with him that aren't like, you know, the most standup people in the, in any industry. Yeah. And now even you look at their, kind of board and cfo very questionable players.
that area. Was it the CFO or the chief risk officer who was with Leman Brothers? I think you said chief risk officer, actually. But that's not a good look. . Yeah, that's not good. Um, but so Silicon Valley Bank, they went under and this has kind of caused a, a domino effect, right? Signature Bank then got taken out.
Um, what was the other one that started with s with I, I keep thinking it's signal, but it's not Signal. Silver Gate. Silver Gate. The crypto bank. Yeah. So then they got rescued. . Is it First Republic? Yes. That one. It's in trouble First. Republic's in the news. They're in trouble now. That's a pretty popular bank though, for retail clients if we're being like kind of more transparent with that.
It is. And I think I was, I was reading, but I think they have a brokerage business too, which is interesting. Mm-hmm. . Um, but so did you guys hear what happened? I mean, this is kind of like late breaking news as we're recording the show. It broke on Thursday. , but the, all the big banks got together and I think they deposited like, 20 something billion into First Republic.
Yeah, I heard about that. Yeah. To help restore even confidence. So the big four banks are bailing out all the regional banks. Mm-hmm. , most of the big banks. This is long. Is that just to avoid a bank run on their banks? So what I was reading about it, and I guess the big four banks have so much cash that they don't know what to do with.
And so this is a way to, yeah, kind of stop the bank runs. But then also everybody's been going and opening up a, you know, an account at Chase or an accountant city, an account at Wells. I think it was over 10 billion. Bank of America acquired in just a week from WOW deposit, leaving other smaller regional banks.
So what I don't understand what's happening with SVB or. Like, are they still going to have their sign on their bank or is that going to say like, now F D I C or what, like who owns the bank now? Cause they're getting billed out, but then they're still there. They can, their deposits are still there, but they can still op, they're operating so employees must be working right.
Yeah. So actually that's a really good, good point. Let's talk about that. Technically, Silicon Valley Bank didn't get bailed out. What the, what? The Federal Reserve, the F D I C and the Treasury did was backstop all deposit. Using the F D I C insurance. So Josh, I believe, is it that all banks have to pay into the F D I C insurance?
That's correct. Is is that how it works? Yep. Yeah. To have it, you have to pay for it. So it's kinda like an insurance policy. Yep. And that's what's backstopping all the uninsured deposits, but the, the common equity is, is getting wiped out. And as of, this morning recording, they file file chapter 11.
Mm-hmm. , and I, I'm pretty sure most of the senior management team has been let. It and the bank right now they're trying to sell it off whatever assets they can. I'm not sure they were looking for buyers. Yeah. Yeah. And then last I heard the bond holders seem optimistic they're going to get something back.
I know the bonds are trading about 60 cents on the dollar, so there might be some assets there that they're able to recover. But it wasn't like a bailout like 2008 where all the stockholders and the bond holders got bail. . It was really just the depositors. Does Elon Musk want to come in and save another failing company?
I don't think he's going to touch this one. . He, he joked about it, but I think his guy, his hands full with Twitter. Um, so Brent, like I. I know, I was like really doomy about all this. Um, what have you been telling your clients to do? Well, I think the only important factor with all of this is just make sure that, you know, you're within the F D I C requirements especially in a time like this where there's a lot of more uncertainty in the banking system.
Like it's my opinion probably that nothing happens to any of the large banks, but you never know during this time. And it does make sense I think, to kind of move some stuff around, especially if. With one of the banks that are in the headlines, I would definitely make sure you're under the, the two 50.
Yeah. I've, I think we've always kind of, generally given the advice, and Josh you can tell me if you're, I'm wrong, but to tell telling our clients like, Hey, like you should be banking with the big four bank. You're not going to get the greatest customer service, but like, who cares? You don't need to be best friends with your banker.
Like you're really just using them to store your money and transact your everyday. Yeah, I mean, it's always been our advice that clients' major savings account, their emergency fund and where they want liquidity is either in a, a savings account that's paying a high interest yield, and we generally recommend it to be under that F D I C requirement.
Or it's, in a brokerage account where it's either in bonds or somewhat invested. I mean, I think, you know, this follows the recommendations of why we tell people that because these things can happen and these are like guidelines from like the cfp, board certified financial planning board that like assessing your cash management strategy and making sure you have proper coverage, cuz there's also strategies out there that you can increase the coverage depending on titling and benefic.
Definitely here's a good time to making sure that if you have large deposits somewhere else, that you're using a very good, reputable big bank. Um, and then also that you have enough coverage and reach out to your banker. I mean, they can be very helpful to making sure you know exactly what's insured and what's not.
So, like, one thing I, I understand I understand why a business needs to have 500, a million, 10 million in an account, right? Like they're moving money all around. I get. Like as an individual, like why would an individual even need to have above two 50 in a bank account? Like I don't understand that. Like what are they doing with the money down payment for a home is one example.
Yep. Lot of reasons why it could be there for a short period of time, but it's still there. That's true. I mean, that'd be really short. Right? Because really at the end of the day, You're just waiting until you have to wire that money to the escrow company. But a lot, but a lot of people operate in big numbers.
A lot of people transact in big numbers. It's not the everyday person, but there's a lot of people out there that are operating in big numbers. There's, there is the business element to it. Misinformation as well. Like you shouldn't be having that much cash if it's not a, you know, a particularly, how many times do we also see people in a brokerage account or even in like an IRA or their 401k, that the money's sitting in cash or a stable value plan all time, like account, right?
Like it's one of my biggest like pet peeves, like we needed to get that money invested in. The lack of information, unfortunately is hurting those people with all of that money. And now look at, you're seeing the risk also, not just the lack of getting interest on those funds, but the. Of having more than you know, the F D I C coverage now.
I always look forward to your takes, Matt, because you know, we come in here and we get the more, you know, dramatic side of it. , what, what is your thought of bank runs like? Are we at a point where it's pretty safe to say there's not going to be a bank runs across massive banks because of the way that the government got involved?
Or are we still kind of teetering the edge that these things still could happen? Yeah, I think the only way to really answer that is to look back in. and in 2008, I would say probably around this time, the biggest thing that happened was Bear St. Sterns going under and JP Morgan came in and saved them. Uh, I think they bought 'em for like $2 a share or something ridiculous like that.
Ended up being pretty successful for JP Morgan, but that was really just like one of the first dominoes to. and then it, you know, we had to wait until September for Lehman Brothers. You, you go back to the savings and loan crisis in the late eighties, early nineties. I mean, banks were failing like every week at that time.
And it's a kind of a, a similar time where we're in right now where interest rates were skyrocketing. Like as interest rates continually go up, things are going to. You know, it took less than a year for the Fed to break something. They broke a bank or the banking sector. And different banks have different problems.
Like there is some different variables. Not every variable is the same. Silicone Valley Bank is a lot different than like first Republic's issue, right? So I think that interest rates. moving up so quickly is going to expose some of these risks and different types of risks that banks have. And now we need to be more mindful, you know, of this industry.
Cuz I do believe you in, I think it's a good point, is that there's going to be more fallout from this. Yeah, and that's why too, the regional bank stocks, I think the index is called like the K R E that everybody watches. That's why they were going up in Downing, you know, 20, 30% in a. Because they're getting rerated.
There's like a non-zero risk that they might fail. Now. For people that are listening though, why, what is the purpose of so many regional banks? Like why are there so many out there? I, I've been trying to figure that out. I think it comes down to like some people like the service of a homey bank. I don't know.
Josh, do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah. In some, in some of the national banks, I mean, they're just not located in certain areas like they. It's not profitable for them to be in certain areas. So regional banks play a, a good role in that. And they, they actually provide, again, a little bit of a different service, maybe a more hands-on, um, one-to-one kind of attention, like you're saying.
But then also, I mean, there's opportunity there, right? So if you don't have a bunch of national banks in your area, Regional bank step in and look, there's opportunity for profits there to serve like my community and a lot of cus clients. Um, and even from my experience, at the bank they like to have multiple banks.
So even if Chase is in your town, you know, I also want to have money at. You know, ABC Credit Union or First Republic Regional Bank I feel more safe doing it. Yeah. So I was talking with a banker, I think he works at Fifth Third. Um, he's in a networking group I am in, and he was saying that, you know, across the industry it was pretty much known that Silicon Valley Bank would take, pretty much any company, do any deal, no matter how risky it was.
So most likely, these are a lot of businesses too who are using these smaller regional banks who you know, JP Morgan or City Group or Bank of America, you know, just really don't want their business. And some of them are niche, right? Like, I mean like Silicon Valley Bank is extremely niche, right, of what they do.
And a lot of these regional banks do have some sort of expertise. What I'm confused on though, on, on this whole Silicon Valley banking thing is like Silicon Valley is like known as kind of this tight boy culture, right? Like a bro culture. You know, once you get in, you're in, you start sharing deals together.
You, you sell your company, then you go start a VC fund. Like where were the venture capitalists on this? Like, they're supposed to advise these young founders on what to do. and a lot of 'em are pretty wealthy, and so they're advising their founders to keep, you know, multiple million dollars above the F D I C insurance.
That, that was always the thing that just hasn't clicked with me in this. Like, it's like they're getting really bad advice from these VCs and maybe just the, the, the people that were banking with them didn't know what internally was going on. Because if you're not on the board or you're not in like working for senior management, do you really know what's going on with the.
No, not at all. So that's probably where the problem lies, is they're trusting in the good old boy club that everything at the bank is stable and they're doing the right thing. That they're not probably taking risks. That's what I would probably think. Yeah. They, and they don't, that wasn't a concern at all.
Right. You know, whatsoever. And, and look at how surprising it was even to us and how quickly it happened and, and they've had so much confidence, like you said, in like the good old boys. That, no real foundational planning was ever done on the business side. And then I also would've thought, hey, we're having bank runs, right?
I would think the stock market would be crashing right now. Absolutely crashing, but it is pretty isolated. Yeah. That's my, yeah, that's my point though. Market's up this year, but there is there really that big of a fallout? The government came in and saved them. They, they insured all deposits. The bank's going to be done.
They'll have somebody come in and take it over and what's the real fallout? You can even make the argument that Silicone Valley Bank deposits are the safest deposits right now. Yes, they're a hundred percent insured. Yeah, I just moved 10 million, hold on. . Got the government to back my deposits. You know, one of the other questions I think we've received is, you know what's happening with brokerage accounts or investment accounts, or if your money's in Fidelity, Schwab, or any other custodian account like that, money that's invested, those are ownerships of shares.
Like that money isn't invested in a bank account or deposit account. Those that money actually owns the share. , your money is not sitting in the money market account or checking account or savings account a lot of times, unless you're holding more money in cash. But we always recommend being under the F D I C requirement regardless.
Absolutely. Yeah. It's the same thing. The cash accounts are treated as bank accounts. Um, but as long as you're under the F D I C limit, you're good. Everything else is a security. As long as you know you own a bond, you own a mutual fund, you own an etf, you own Apple stock, you own Tesla stock, whatever it is.
It's a security marketable security. But a lot of the brokerages though, and, and it's good to even, go back and review your brokerage because they've become under a little bit of scrutiny because they do act like banks in a lot of ways, right? So they are a brokerage investment company, but they all have, they all have bank arms now.
They all have cash, Wes, they all have deposit accounts, they all have lending. That's another thing we're monitoring here in, in our house. For us, I think the first step was. You know, once the news came out, we made sure all of our clients were okay, right? We made sure that we got the advice out appropriately to make sure clients, you know, during this time of volatility just be under F D I C.
Like that's most critical. Of course. Um, and then besides that, like once we made the clients make sure that they were okay, I think the most enjoyable thing is watching the news because just like constant panic all over Twitter, all over cnbc. It's like the ratings just probably skyrocket through the roof.
Matt and I talk about it though. I mean, it's, it's. Interesting time and there's more to learn when things are breaking and changing. . Yes. It's so funny too when you get to these kind of like crisises though, like, and people get glued to cnbc. Cnn like the guy giving trading advice on cn, bbc. Like, dude, he doesn't care about your 401k.
Like he's not talking about like you switching your Vanguard target date retirement fund. He's talking about probably the few thousand dollars he's day trading in his e-trade account. That's what I always wondered. Are they talking, when they're talking about the stocks they're trading, are they talking about.
A hundred thousand dollars in a stock position? Or are they talking about like, you know, they had 10 shares of it. They're paid as entertainers, so like, I'm thinking they're talking about 10 shares, if anything. Or they're talking about a fake account. and for today, yeah. I mean, it's always today. Today they loved Microsoft.
Tomorrow, they hate it. Well, I didn't know that. CNBC, a long time ago made a ruling that the people that are, that post the show, the people that work for CNB. They cannot own a stock portfolio that they actually trade in. Well, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. They're reporters, you'd think that'd fall.
Politics can't have his own Nope. Trading account. Nope. It's a, it's a shame we can't get Congress to do that. Right? Yep. I know Nancy Pelosi best trader in the world because they're also like investigated, right? I mean, they're, they're journalists so they're investigating all of these stories all the time too, to, to stay in.
Right. Makes sense. Yep. Key takeaways for clients. Anybody got 'em? Standard F D I C. Josh, review your banks. Go back, make sure you got a, a big four bank. Yeah. Big four Bank for sure. Um, outside of that, probably nothing. Burger for most people. Y yeah, don't panic. There's probably not a lot here in this, you know, this got catastrophically worse for some reason.
That's unforeseen right now. Mm-hmm. . Um, you guys want to talk about something else? Yeah, I do. I actually want to talk about Tesla. Ooh, you got some price drop in Tesla. They've been cutting prices all year. It's just the most expensive cars are now being cut . Yeah, I know. I, uh, in a way I feel bad for the rest of the, the car makers trying to catch up to Tesla though.
Cuz every time Tesla cuts the price of their cars, it makes one gasoline cars more and more useless. And two, like these other companies like GM, Ford. Kia who are trying to get their own EV line started to compete with Tesla, makes those cars kind of not comparable. Yeah. They're kind of changing the game and it is making them, you know, struggle a little bit more.
But like this story about, you know, the model X and S being cut, like these were their most expensive cars and they what only accounted for 5% of like their. So it's really not that, you know, it wasn't cars that a bunch of people were out there buying, but what's wild though too is before I want to talk about on the show, a few months ago, they cut the price of the model.
Why? That was huge though. That was a really big price cut, and they got so many requests that they actually ended up raising the price a few days later. . Brian, what did you think about this? I want to know if you're going to buy one . That was a going to be my question. Um, no, it, it's just too expensive to finance things right now in this country.
They tease you with a five or 6% rate on the website, but it sounds like most people are getting auto loans done at seven or eight. go to your credit union. 5%. Man, I don't have a credit union. I ba I bank with JP Morgan. They don't talk to me. Uh, I don't understand if they're teasing you, if they've got a better rate than the bank, then why wouldn't you just finance their Tesla?
Uh, no, I'm saying that's a teaser, teaser rate most likely. Like it's, uh, once you run your credit, they're going to bump it up low. I mean, I have good credit, so probably mine will be around five and a half. So did you go that far with looking into one? No. Are you going to do it? What if rates come down and they raise prices?
Rates are coming down. Okay. And Tesla raises prices. So you're saying it's like a bond? That's an inverse relationship. probably. Easy money. No gain, no loss. All right. Let's, anybody, anyone else? Let's move on. Um, did you guys see that GM offered to buy out the majority of their salaried workers who had I think more than 10 or 11 years experience at the company?
This, I would assume is some good news, right? For the economy and for rates. . Yeah. And I, I think it's like really relevant to like a lot of our clients or a lot of people who are getting close to retirement because like, this is one of the things you want, right? Like you want your company to come to you with a buyout package.
Yeah. We have a lot of people that are probably one to five years away from retirement. I mean, this is, this could be a snowball effect of what's to come. Yeah, we would be great. You get the buyout package, you know, maybe it could buy you an extra year or two of early retirement that you couldn't. s Some of it is though, it's like a, a nice way to say we're laying off people.
Yeah. This is a very nice way to say that, , because I think they offered it, it wasn't even just to re like a retiree age. I mean, they were offering people to leave non, I think I only had to be there for, what, five years or something like that. As articles said could be wrong. It's 12 years experience. Is it 12?
Yeah. Okay. That, but that, that doesn't, I mean, you could be thir in your thirties. Yeah. Okay. And you could be, you know, they can be giving you a golden handshake to go somewhere. Yeah, you take a year off, you go travel to Europe, travel, take your job then you go back and you hired by Tesla. But meta reported this week that they're laying off 10,000 people.
So, and MEA did. Yeah. I mean this, now you have gm. I mean, hopefully we're getting in a position where unemployment for rates purposes is starting to go up. They also have other companies hiring. It's a very interesting economy we're in right now. Inflation. . Yeah. Let's touch on inflation. I mean that, we just got the report.
I, I think this is worthy of a hot take headline today. Yeah. So it cooled, right? But it's still too high. It's like a six point something percent. So I, I think the Fed's in trouble here. Inflation at six percent's not good. It's coming down. Um, I know the, I think it's, is it the Michigan? Inflation reading room, whatever that people like to look to as a forward indicator is, is priced at like 3% for the whole year, um, which would be pretty in line with what the Fed wants.
But the Fed has a really interesting decision. By the time this podcast comes out, I think we'll have the March interest rate decision. But for a long time they were saying, Hey, we're going to keep raising rates aggressively. And before the Silicon Valley Bank thing, it was kind of being priced in, in the market, in the rates.
Of a 50 basis points rate rise. That said, now it's kind of like 50 50 chance, uh, but they got their back to the wall. P pal's like on one hand he's gotta either look at it and say, okay, I'm going to choose financial stability. Right? Like, I need to calm this down, like bank's failing is not good for me.
But also inflation at 6% is going to be really long-term damaging to the US economy. Yeah. And I feel like they got their. They got their event, they were waiting for something to break, you know, that had a little bit of a trickle down effect and they're getting it. So it's going to be very interesting to see what they do next.
Cuz you're right, they're they, you know, it's a double edged sword. This Fed has been so behind the curve though they're always behind the curve. For the last year and a half they, they two years literally let inflation run up and didn't raise interest rates. They're still buying bonds for like a year. So was the crypto market that pretty much collapsed last year.
Sort of like the appetizer of like the banking com collapse of this year. Then, Uh, most likely, yeah, a little bit. But also, I mean, FTX was, it was just fraud. , there's, there's a lot of outright criminals in, um, crypto, for those who don't know, drone Powell's the chair of the Federal Reserve in the United States.
Why I, I wonder if he's sleeping. No, he's not sleeping. No, he doesn't look like he's sleeping. If you're watching C B C when he's on Yeah, he, he looks like he. Grinding textbooks or trying to figure out what to do, and he's getting pulled in a lot of different directions. I do have a take on this though as well, just as far as the fed and inflation.
Is that the Silicone Valley Bank story though? Like totally pushed inflation num the number and the report to the curb, like it wasn't even really talked about at all, like it has been in previous months. It was the hottest headline. Um, but this banking story completely overshadowed inflation reporting
We used to lead our shows off with inflation. And look, we're talking about it like towards the end of the show now. I think it's almost the end. . What if you were a pal though? What do you do now? You gotta raise. What would you, Josh, pause and, and he's, he's really teetering a thin line. He rose rates way too late and he's going to be in a position that he can look back and say that he didn't pause soon enough.
Right. So, I know you guys make fun of me for having predictions, but here's my prediction. Them backstopping, Silicon Valley Bank, they did it so that they could raise rates more. Yeah, that's a, that's good. . Yeah, because what, what is the, the fallout then if the bank doesn't fail and depositors are made whole.
Yeah. We're just right where we were a few months ago. Mm-hmm. . Right. But the alternative was the bank fails. It's a massive crisis. You still have high inflation and now you got more banks potentially getting run on, and now you got even bigger problem and you can't raise rates. That's, that's a good point.
It's probably in between 25 basis points. There it is. Listen, , if, if it was me though, I. Yeah, I'd pause and let the dust settle a little bit more and, and let things kind of calm. And selfishly probably markets react really well, right? Yeah. I mean, maybe that's from a selfish standpoint, I want to see the markets go up.
did you guys see this, um, story about TikTok like this? Thing's like constantly in the news, and I just don't know where this is going to end up. It's kind of like this constant threat that they're going to ban TikTok in the US but nothing's been done yet. They're obviously using. User's data for benefit, for their own benefit.
So is something going to happen here? Yeah, so I think the big thing is right, like the TikTok is a Chinese company. It's not an American company. Like I tell that to people who like use the app. They're like, oh, have you, I love TikTok. Are you on TikTok? I'm like, no, it's a Chinese company, man. I'm never going to go on that thing.
And like, they don't know that. But yeah. So tech Talk is most likely stealing Americans da. And feeding it to the Chinese government. That's kind of been like the thing when people look at the source code of the app. So I think, uh, Donny Trump, you know, the ex-president, he, he was kind of the one that started pushing this forward and now it's picking up more and more steam in Congress and, you know, it looks like they're going to do some kind of ban.
What? But it's not like a ban. What they want them to do is sell the US business to a US. and like separate from China because right now there's no one stopping them from sharing all of your data and information that comes from that app from your phone, right? Yeah. But like I'm a little bit more extreme on this topic, dude, China really doesn't let our tech companies do business in China.
So why are we letting them do business in America? Yeah, I a hundred percent agree. Me too. And also, uh, I mean they already banned it right from us. Go. Devices, media devices. And I think the UK followed this is getting like it's picking up steam. It is. And it's good for American companies. Like I know Snapchat's stock went up on this meta stocks.
Facebook's been going up on this like America first. Yeah. And if Chinese steals their own people's data, like who knows what they're collaborating with our data now. Mm-hmm. . And I'm surprised though there hasn't been like a new player that's entered the. Kind of like capture TikTok. Cause I know it's, it's a little unique when you compare it to like Instagram and I don't use Snapchat.
So is TikTok and Snapchat pretty similar? I don't use Snapchat either though. I'm more on Instagram and Twitterer. Honestly. We don't need another social media device. Like these kid, these kids who are on their phones like, go outside, go touch grass. We don't need more social media. Get off that. Yeah. Pick up a ball.
Do something different. Yeah. The, that's not good for your brain. No, it's not. It's bad. It's bad. Bad. Um, okay, let's move on. What's next? Do you have any rec uh, recommendations? RPAs? Oh, I do. I have a RPA recommends. I have a really good one. You guys watched the Oscars? I did Academy Awards. Brent? No. Oh, come on man.
I didn't even turn it on. So, real quick before you start, my wife and I fill out our like, Oscars bracket and we basically picked the winners of all the categories and we've been doing that for like five or six years. And you're good at this, right? I'm awesome at it. And she gets so mad. I've beat her like five years in.
and, but I have a strategy that she calls cheating. I look at the VA odds of all the categories before I fill out my bracket. Smart. And she gets mad. That's not cheating. That'd be like, that's how I fill out my March Madness bracket for the first round. I understand. See, you guys just need to explain this to, I try to explain it to her.
She just calls me a cheater and then she gets mad that I beat beat her every time. You're just using information to your advantage. Exactly. See? Okay, so continue. I want to tell that that story real quick, but all right. So everything everywhere, all at once won, like every award. Yes, they did. And I watched the movie and it was the strangest movie I've ever seen, , and I hated it while I was watching.
It took me two days to finish the movie. . It was very wild. I mean, there was parts where like, they had like hotdog fingers. They were like teleporting all over the world. Like it's just a very odd movie. I didn't even know what was going on for like the first 35, 40 minutes. Yeah, I watched the whole movie and barely even figured out what was going on.
I still don't know what's going on, what happened in the movie, but, um, you know, it's pretty good. It was very unique, very creative, but my point. After I took a few days to think about it, I think it sums up 20 20, 20 21 and 2022. Really. Well, remember how like a year ago I was on those podcasts talking about digital horses, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and all those weird stuff.
Oh, we haven't forgot cards. Yeah, like trading basketball, fake cards and monkeys. What are they called? The yellow monkey. That's everything everywhere. All at once. Sums all that up. Just like a wacky movie for our wacky. It is, it is, uh, a really good movie for like the times we're in. Absolutely. I'm so confused.
So you guys didn't understand what was going on at all in the entire movie. You don't understand what the point of the movie is, but it was a good movie. No, no, no, no. It wasn't good at all. I don't, I'm not even recommending it. Uh, I said it was a good movie. No, I recommend watching it because it is very, very unique.
The film editing in it is just absolutely crazy. And I think that it does have a, like a pretty good message from what I got. At the end, but it's just while you're watching it, it's like so many things going on and so many like different screens and cameras and it's just everything everywhere, all at once.
And so I do, I do think it's worth watching. So I'm confused as you recommend to go watch the movie you didn't like. Yeah. . Okay. Uh, I'll go next. I have a recommends, uh, do we talk about MLS Season Pass yet? . No, but it's great. Okay, so my recommends is the mls, the Major League Soccer season started. And as you know, we're all L a FFC fans on this podcast, and Apple bought the season pass, right?
So like for you to be able to watch all the games throughout the MLS season, and Apple did like a great job. The platform's great. The content's great. The, like, the, the camera, everything is really, really good. So my recommend re recommends is, is if you like the MLS or you like American soccer, go out and buy this cuz Apple did a great job.
The nice thing about it too is it doesn't have local blackouts. Yes, that is. I mean, so our teams are on there with. Just great quality because the quality from mls, some of those games like on channel, like the local channel and the quality was awful. Yeah. I was watching the Champions League, the, not the Real Champions League, you know, like the Fake Champions League over here in North America.
Yeah. and what are they call Conka? Kaf, the Conka Calf Champions League. The quality was so, that was rough. Like you came in, the camera's not even in the right angles. Have you watched a game on MLS Pass yet, or Apple tv? No. No. Yeah, it's, it's really good. So that's my recommends go out and get, and get, and it's not, it's not that expensive.
I think it's only what, $80 or something? Yeah. It's so good. So good. Uh, my recommend is, uh, new error release there. Baseball world. Classic hats. Oh, you're bringing it back? Yeah. This is your teaser from 20 minutes ago? Yeah, and I wanted to represent my country. I bought a USA hat. I bought one for my son. I more bought it cuz my son's so into baseball.
Like I want to wear a hat with him and I also want him to have like the hat to go to school with, but they look really cool. Like I, I bought one. I think they're most of the country's hats for the world. Baseball Classic Look. Awesome. So if you're a baseball fan and you want to represent your country, I think it's a great hat to go out and buy.
And, you know, they're relatively inexpensive. Whose hat doesn't look good? Great. Brenton's, . You know what, that was trending and I had got a lot of text messages from the base by baseball friends that their stuff looked. And it was bad. You know why? Cuz they don't play baseball. , the USA hat's nice. Yeah, you showed it to me.
That's a really nice hat. Yes. That's something I'm interested in. Yeah. I, I don't know who created, like, who did the marketing for Great Britain, but they clearly did not spend any time on it. I don't, I don't think they're a baseball country. No, no, no, no, they're not. Do we have anything else to say? No, I think we're.
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