Episode 115

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Published on:

26th Sep 2025

H-1B Fee Chaos and Deepfake Deception: America's Surreal Shift from Policy Swings to AI Scams

Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley slam the massive H-1B visa fee hike to $100,000, unraveling its chokehold on businesses through inflated costs and indentured servitude vibes. They connect the dots to raging inflation, looming interest rate cuts, and a president's unchecked grip on immigration policy. Amid surreal White House antics, they probe U.S. foreign policy failures in Gaza and Ukraine, urging a wake-up from malaise to reclaim domestic priorities.

Timestamps:

  • (00:00) Current Events Dive: Breaking from Voting Talk
  • (00:33) H-1B Fee Surge: $100K Barrier Hits Hard
  • (01:46) Immigration's Economic Ripples: Business Burdens Exposed
  • (07:22) Inflation and Rates: Borrowing Bets in Turbulent Times
  • (12:50) Global Wars and U.S. Stance: From Malaise to Critique



Transcript
Jerremy:

Here we are.

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We're back for more doing it again.

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Dave: We are, and we're taking a little

bit of a break not on the podcast,

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but on just the topic right now.

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We're in the middle of the

topic of voting, right?

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And that's been cranking, and we

have some really cool stuff coming

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up, but we wanted to take a look

at what's going on in the world.

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You know, like, what's up?

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So what's up in the last week?

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What's up in the last two weeks?

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And that's our idea here.

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What do you have?

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What's on your mind?

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Jerremy: There's a lot going on, man.

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Tons.

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So I think randomly we'll drop this in.

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Since very recently we were

discussing immigration.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: But let's talk about

the H one B Visa fee hike.

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It was a small increase.

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It's a tiny, tiny, uh, multi

tens of thousands of dollars.

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So it's a hundred thousand

dollars fee for new applicants

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that starts on September 21st.

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And it confused a lot of.

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Yeah, Indian firms definitely

like, uh, like Tata Motors and

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Dave: yeah.

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Jerremy: Uh, many others.

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There's probably some exemptions

that are case by case, but that

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was a pretty large fee hike.

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And again I really do think the biggest

solution slash hyphen semicolon problem

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that I see is that one individual person

being the president has way, way too much

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control over immigration in this country.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: And that person gets to dictate

essentially how any sovereign human being

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gets to come in or out is kind bogus,

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Dave: bonkers, bonkers.

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My favorite word.

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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So that was big man.

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A hundred thousand dollars.

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That's a lot.

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Dave: I'm talking to Melissa,

who we interviewed here who is

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the corporate lawyer, and she

talked about this that there has,

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always been a reluctance by

businesses to do H one B visas.

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That's the myth, right?

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That, uh, companies love this and they're

replacing workers, you know, American

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workers with these H one B visas, and I'm

like, no, that's actually not the case.

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They do want more flexibility there,

but they're really expensive and

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now they're way more expensive.

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And then the government

sets the rate, right?

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Like of whatever you have to pay somebody.

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So you might actually hire somebody

from overseas and have to pay them

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more than your current uh, crop

of folks that are working for you

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because the government sets the rate.

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And she's like where, where

did this rate come from?

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This doesn't make any sense.

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And they're like, no, you've gotta

pay your developer like twice as

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much as your current developers.

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That's not market rate.

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Mm-hmm.

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So the like between, between.

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Companies holding the visa, which

is like, okay, now you work for me.

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You know?

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Which is scary.

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It's sort of an indentured servitude,

the market rates not being set.

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No flexibility.

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Oh.

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And it only counts for like some people.

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So if you have like a world class sales

person, forget it, it's only gonna be

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like, scientists and computer science.

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It's only like really high

level, college educated.

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If you needed like a bunch of

people to like work on your

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building, you're like, forget it.

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They're not getting H one B

visas to your absolute point.

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This hasn't been touched since 1986.

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There was like a little bit that

we learned about that, was the,

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the DACA stuff that Obama did.

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Nothing since 1986.

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The internet wasn't a

thing in:

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Do you think Reagan and any of that

crowd knew anything about technology?

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Technology wasn't at the

forefront of our society.

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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You had just barely

graduated college in 86.

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Dave: I was not.

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I'm gonna go get my cane.

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Where's my, that's right.

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Oh, wait.

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Okay.

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So I do have something funny to say.

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Tell me

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about being old.

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Oh, let's bring it up.

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When we, I wanna talk about a

little bit about Maha because

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that's, when that comes up.

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I was like, I actually logged

onto my pharmacy today.

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I'm like, uhoh.

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All right.

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So we'll come back to that.

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Let's talk about this H one B stuff.

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Okay.

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So what, what do you, what I

mean, what else about this?

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What, what's, you know,

like, what, why do we care?

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Jerremy: I mean, I think ultimately

that the big shift there probably

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for me is really just topic of mind.

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That we were talking about immigration

and that one is, to your point, it's not

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like anyone stealing any American jobs.

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It's like they are already an

international warrant for more employees.

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And uh, I just think that that was a

fascinating, almost out of left field

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very large decision on both the financial

aspect and implications of individuals

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to get that, but also an interesting

outcome for the whole tariff situation.

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'cause I can also see how Trump is making

that feel like a tariff increase in

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the sense of, hey, if you're a company

and you want more workers that are

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international that are not here, pay a

whole lot more money to have them and.

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Uh, is that a tariff approach?

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Apparently he's trying to make that

happen, or at least it seems that that's,

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that's the case because he really does

truly want less international workers.

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That's the only way that this can be seen.

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Like, you can't say that you have

a hundred thousand dollars H one B

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and you're like, yeah, so we don't

need international workers anymore.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Okay.

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Let's bring this up a level.

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Does it feel like this

is a complete clown show?

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Like just a clown show?

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I think the first administration was,

was certainly like, they didn't seem like

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they knew what they were doing, for sure.

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I don't think they, they believed that

they were going to be even in office.

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Now it seems like they

had years to prepare.

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And they brought in people supposedly

that like, knew the system and they shook

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everything up like an Etch a Sketch.

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And now it just, it seems like

extra clown show, you know?

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Like now they're, now they're doing

stuff and it's, it seems bonkers.

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Uh, back to that it just seems crazy.

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Like, do we got extra clown show going on?

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Jerremy: Yeah, a little

bit, a little bit, I think.

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But at the same case, I understand

what he's trying to accomplish.

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I wouldn't agree with it necessarily, but

it does seem like that's, ultimately to me

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if I was in a position of really ultimate

strong decision making, it really would

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be that an individual person, AKA, the

president will not have or should not have

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that much sway or decision making capacity

or capability over the effects of.

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Millions of people and their jobs

and their employment and how they

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actually are processing that.

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And the president's also extremely

aware that immigration is a problem.

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And I think he's just

handling it the wrong way.

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I don't think he's trying to fix the

solution, or create a solution and

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actually make some policy changes that

are in reference to how immigration

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can be settled faster, easier, quicker,

more efficient, more effective.

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It's just, hey, it's

gonna cost a lot more.

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And that cost is gonna go directly

to companies that employ or

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higher international workers,

and that's gonna create the cost

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of goods to spike exponentially.

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Which again, back to the

whole tariff situation.

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I think that's still kind

of in a backwards way, his

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ultimate goal of this, which.

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He told us it was gonna

happen and it is happening.

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So I guess he's happy with it.

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Dave: So inflation goes up.

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We already, I mean,

we're already seeing it.

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We've seen it.

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Oh yeah, we saw it two years ago.

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We saw it last year.

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We're seeing it again this year.

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Like it's getting noticeable.

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Mm-hmm.

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Uh, again.

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Which made people crazy last time.

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It's not helping.

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And then you cut rates,

which happened, right?

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Yep.

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And that's, is that also inflationary?

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Or is that deflationary?

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I don't know, what does stagflation mean?

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It means like the economy doesn't

move and the prices go up.

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Yep.

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Oh, well that doesn't sound good.

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And price, that sounds like that.

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And prices

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Jerremy: and prices still go up.

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Yeah.

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That's, that also happens, right?

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So the Federal Reserve, Trump has

been pushing for that since day one.

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But, I think everyone at this point

kinda knows my stance on that.

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We knew he was going to, because.

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He has one goal in office and that is

to increase the prices of real estate,

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of which would benefit him directly.

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So I believe with the current

rate drop or the rate cut that we

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have, which was a quarter percent,

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Dave: yeah,

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Jerremy: that happens.

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That's gonna come into place pretty soon.

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So if anybody has an adjustable rate

mortgage, they should at least feel

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or notice some level of decrease here,

which is definitely gonna help a lot

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of individuals that are getting kind

of stuck or that were stuck in the,

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in the huge increase that happened,

uh, over the last two to three years.

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So that is happening, and we're gonna

also figure out if there's gonna be

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any more cuts in the future, which,

which it does seem like there will be.

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Dave: Quarter point rate.

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Cut.

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All right.

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So

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Jerremy: quarter point rate

put more, more is coming.

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That's an interesting thing.

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'cause I'm really trying to figure out

what, what Trump's goal is to like, how

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low he wants, wants interest rates to go.

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Four, four and six.

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Four and 7% is really normal and

that's actually pretty healthy.

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If we get back into the, which

I'm sure he wants it to 0% again,

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man, that's gonna seem like.

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We are really gonna get into

an inflationary standpoint

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at that point, right?

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Because with 0% interest

rates, money is free.

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Again, people are gonna be spending so

much more money on pretty much everything,

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again, which is gonna directly impact

the cost of vehicles, housing, food.

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It's all gonna be more expensive.

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Yeah.

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Again, and obviously a lot of the

economists are out there, is when does

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the, uh, does the pain cycle come in?

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Because not only are interest rates

going down relatively quickly, but

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we also still have a lot of debt.

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We still owe a lot of

countries a lot of money.

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Lowering interest rates doesn't

impact that interest rate at all.

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And when does the bill come due?

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Like when, so there, there's

a lot of those economy.

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Economy challenges that are ahead of

us that I think this administration's

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kicking it to, whoever's gonna pick it

up next, uh, that's gonna be a little

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bit of a tricky situation for sure.

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And, uh, it definitely seems a little

spooky that it continues to happen with

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potentially two more cuts by year end.

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Whoa, this is steep.

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Yeah, it's fast.

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Yikes.

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Really fast.

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So we'll see, man.

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Again, the lower the interest

rates, the higher the prices of

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almost everything are gonna be.

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For sure.

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And so we've, had price increases

with the tariffs and now with lower

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interest rates, it's gonna happen again.

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Dave: So if the markets and business

are expecting lower rates in the future.

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Does that mean they hold off

on spending or investment?

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So tariffs cause one thing, right?

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Because it, it's, they're on, they're off.

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They're on, they're off.

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So any major investment people

would be like nuts to do.

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Does a future rate, ' cause I'd

imagine a future rate hike would be

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like, oh, let's get in now let's get

the loans now let's start building.

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Now if it's a future rate

lowering, would you stall?

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Like what's, I don't know.

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What's the knock on effect I feel like

I need to talk to a libertarian about?

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Jerremy: I have a few, um,

ultimately the short answer is

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they will depends on the product.

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Yeah.

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Is a quick answer.

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Because if you're borrowing money,

there's tons and tons of ways

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that you can borrow money on an

adjustable rate, which most people do.

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Because it's cheaper.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: And you can

borrow money right now.

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And if you know that the interest rates

are gonna decrease, you get an adjustable

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rate is exactly what you get, and you pop

into one of those, and they can be a lot

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less expensive upfront, a lot less fees.

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If you're borrowing from a lender, you

can get some really good deals on those.

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Obviously there's pros and

cons to adjustable rates.

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Dave: Yeah,

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Jerremy: I think more cons than pros, but

it depends on the markets that you're in.

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And I believe as of right now, most

people that borrow money aggressively

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are pretty comfortable with locking

in interest rates, buying down points.

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Understanding that they can refinance at

some point, most likely, pretty quickly.

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So with this particular administration,

again, being very real estate

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forward, I think a lot of people

are like, let's go spend, let's

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go get as much credit as we can.

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Let's put on an adjustable rate and let's

go hog wild for the next three years.

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And so three and a half years really,

we're just kinda getting started.

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So we're gonna keep going on ball.

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Dave: I don't know.

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Okay.

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So, I can't decide if

this is, I don't know.

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None of this sounds

like a good idea to me.

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So let me put it this way.

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The last few years, it's been

very internationally focused.

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All we heard was Gaza, Ukraine,

Gaza, Ukraine, Gaza, Ukraine.

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And I feel like nothing

domestically was nobody, like

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there was nobody at the wheel.

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I mean, literally there was

nobody at the wheel, right?

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And I felt like.

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We were presented two terrible candidates

and you had to choose the least worst one.

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And at least one of them was saying,

Hey, make America great again.

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America first.

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Like, that sounds good.

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And yet, like the big things that

people talk about all the time is

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the cost of things, the economy.

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Education, healthcare.

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That's another huge one.

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And yet we're still talking about Ukraine.

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We're still talking about Gaza.

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Gaza's got, you know, way worse.

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When it gets down to it it's

that the local is not winning.

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The US isn't winning it feels

like there's a malaise out there.

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Am I misreading that?

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Jerremy: No, I don't think so.

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Or overthinking

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Dave: that.

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I don't know.

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It's just, yeah it, does

anybody feel good right now?

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When Tucker Carlson and Candace

Owens seem to be like liberal

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heroes, you're not winning.

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You know, like it's not working out.

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If those two are coming around, you know?

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Jerremy: When everyone's accepting them,

like, we actually like what you say.

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You seem very levelheaded.

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You seem levelheaded

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Dave: and reasonable.

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When that's Tucker Carlson and

Candace Owens, you're like, uhoh.

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Jerremy: You seem like you're

very in the middle with your

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discussions and your point of view.

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I love this bipartisan discussion

of Candace Owens and Yeah, agreed.

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It's, it is very, like, is it

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Dave: weirder than COVID right now?

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Are we, uh, you know, like at least

in the, in the vibe, not, not in the,

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Hey, we gotta throw on masks and stay

inside, but is it weirder than COVID?

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Jerremy: It's more surreal, I think.

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Uh, and what I mean by that is it's almost

like we have a current sitting president

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who was in the World Wrestling Federation.

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Dave: Literally,

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Jerremy: Course.

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Like literally, I know, I mean,

like, I know he actually was, he

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actually did wwe it, it seems like

we have an administration that is

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putting his best buddies, company.

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Yeah.

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In the front lawn of the White

House for the 250 year celebration.

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Dana White is coming to do

a UFC match, as you know.

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Dave: No, I didn't

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in

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Jerremy: the front.

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Dave: Really?

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Alex: Dave questions the clown-show

chaos of policy swings, while

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Jerremy warns one leader holds

too much sway over lives and jobs.

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But if unchecked power keeps

spiking costs, what's the

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real toll on everyday trust?

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Next—the wild White House

that blurs the lines between

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entertainment and governance.

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About the Podcast

Solving America's Problems
Solving America’s Problems isn’t just a podcast—it’s a journey. Co-host Jerremy Newsome, a successful entrepreneur and educator, is pursuing his lifelong dream of running for president. Along the way, he and co-host Dave Conley bring together experts, advocates, and everyday Americans to explore the real, actionable solutions our country needs.

With dynamic formats—one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, and more—we cut through the noise of divisive rhetoric to uncover practical ideas that unite instead of divide. If you’re ready to think differently, act boldly, and join a movement for meaningful change, subscribe now.