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
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.