Who's got the pricing power?
Marketplace
American Public Media
4.6 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Economic data reports tell us two things are true: Inflation seems here to stay, and consumers haven’t let up on spending. It’s the perfect storm for businesses to wield the power to raise prices without losing customers. What could tip the scale in the other direction? Also in this episode: GOP-led changes to the H-1B visa program could hurt U.S. businesses long-term, home sellers are cautious as supply dwindles, and the new farm bill faces familiar obstacles.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once again, it's all about the jobs. |
| 0:05.2 | Oh, and inflation and real estate and politics, too. |
| 0:10.1 | From American public media, this is Marketplace. |
| 0:19.0 | In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzdahl. |
| 0:25.3 | It is Monday, today, the 22nd of September. |
| 0:28.1 | Good as always to have you along, everybody. |
| 0:30.2 | We began today with Section 101A-15 H-1B of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 as amended. |
| 0:43.6 | It covers, broadly speaking, and as you have perhaps heard by now, skilled workers for whom the Trump administration has decided the price tag for companies wanting to hire said skilled |
| 0:54.6 | foreign workers should be $100,000 per. |
| 1:00.7 | There has been confusion, it's fair to say, over exactly what the administration meant |
| 1:05.8 | with its announcement about H-1B fees last Friday. |
| 1:09.1 | But the White House does say it is doing this because it wants to |
| 1:12.4 | boost the employment and the wages of American workers. Marketplaces, Subrey Benshore spent |
| 1:18.4 | his day trying to figure out whether it will, in fact, do that. A hundred thousand dollar fee |
| 1:24.2 | is, by all accounts, going to discourage a lot of companies from hiring foreign workers through the H-1B program. |
| 1:30.1 | What happens next is debatable. |
| 1:32.9 | Now, it might improve the job prospects of certain types of U.S. workers. |
| 1:36.9 | Garov Kana is an associate professor of economics at UC San Diego. |
| 1:40.3 | He's thinking computer scientists, for example. |
| 1:42.8 | In the short run, IT firms might try to hire a few U.S.- thinking computer scientists, for example. In the short run, IT firms might try to hire |
| 1:46.5 | a few U.S.-born computer scientists. That is in the short run. Longer term? It stops the IT |
| 1:53.3 | firm from growing, and as a result, it doesn't hire other workers. Historically, top science and engineering talent from around the world has been drawn to |
... |
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