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Quest Means Business
Supreme Court Allows Construction To Continue For Now; U.S. Dollar Accelerates Losses; Gold And Bitcoin Higher; Ukraine: 15 Killed In Russian Double Tap Strike On Mall; How Spain's Huge African Workforce Helps Feed Europe; $20 Burrito: Affordability Crisis Or Psychological Shock; Tavel E- SIM Boom Threatens Noble Industry's Roaming Model. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 21, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:18]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on Wall Street. Manchester United ringing the closing bell. There
you are. As trading comes to an end, it has been a bit of a bullish session.
Hit the gavel. A one and a two and a one, two, three, four. That's the market up 517 points and the triple stack also showed extremely good gains
at the end of what has been a difficult week for markets that we will get to over the course of the hour.
Those are the markets and these are the main events: The dollar drops and gold prices rise. Wall Street is fretting over the U.S. Treasury's attempt
to soothe that worried bond market.
U.S. Supreme Court says the Trump administration can continue construction on the White House ballroom for now.
And a British Court has ordered Prince Harry and six others to pay millions of pounds in legal fees to "The Daily Mail's" publisher over its failed
privacy case.
We are live in New York, end of the week, thank goodness, Friday, August 21st. I am Richard Quest and as always, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
Good evening.
Within the last couple of hours, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed President Trump to keep building his massive new White House ballroom. For
now, the justices had temporarily frozen the lower court ruling that would have halted construction at midnight.
The order does not address whether the project is legal. It simply gives the court more time to consider the case. The Trump administration says the
ballroom complex is already 65 percent complete.
Kevin Liptak is at The White House.
Kevin, this has been called first mover advantage. The President knocked down the East Wing, started construction even though new two lower court
judges said this was illegal or wrong. He was allowed to continue.
And now, essentially what the Supreme Court has done today is basically say, go and finish it off.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, I mean, it is a temporary victory. Eventually, they are going to weigh in on the legalities
of this once they have more time to deliberate. But obviously, every day that goes past is another day further along that this ballroom will be and
one of the arguments that the administration has been making in courts is that because it is so far along, it would not make sense to stop it now.
You know, they say that its already been built five storeys underground. Its already 70 feet in the air. When you look over there and hear over
there, you know they're pounding away seven days a week. They say its 20 hours a day with a crew of 250 people.
And so essentially, I think what the administration will say is that the time to have halted this would have been before the East Wing was torn down
or before there was a giant hole in the ground where this new bunker for the military would go, not once it is, you know, 65 percent underway.
And so we will see what the Supreme Court says, but this is obviously a big win for the President, albeit a temporary one. It is still one that will
allow construction to proceed. When it comes to all of these other projects around town, and most of them have in fact, been caught up in the courts,
not all of them have gone the President's way. You ve seen, for example, some questions about whether he can paint the big building next to The
White House, the old executive office building, whether he can paint that white.
And so still, this is going to continue in the courts, but at least for now, the ballroom project is still proceeding apace.
QUEST: But what the President has done, he has played the system so that essentially he has presented everyone with a fait accompli and even if the
Supreme Court finally decides, never mind on the standing issue, which one person might go on. But even if the Supreme Court does decide that all this
was wrong, what are they going to do? Tell him to knock it down.
LIPTAK: Right or tell him to just leave this giant pit in the ground that is right next to The White House and is, as the President has argued,
exposing all of this pretty sensitive military facilities to the general public and also exposing it to rain and wind and all of that.
And so, yes, the President seems to have figured out a way to avoid all of this. I don t know that that was in his mind when he started tearing down
the East Wing last fall. And to be fair, The White House did put out renderings of this project months in advance that showed it going up where
the East Wing used to be.
[16:05:10]
And the National Trust for Historic Preservation only decided to file suit once that building was knocked down and once it became clear that this
ballroom would really dwarf the size of the actual White House itself. And so I think there is actually something to the fact that they didn t get
their ducks in a row in time to actually present a valid legal argument that could have prevented all of this from happening.
But for now, the President seems to be in a place where this is just going to continue.
QUEST: And Canada, let's just talk tariffs in Canada, there was a -- there was a postponement of the tariffs, the 50 percent tariffs, but that now all
expires tonight. Are there any serious talks that you know taking place that would suggest those tariffs for midnight will be delayed again.
LIPTAK: You know the teams I am told are still going back and forth. It sort of resumed in earnest today. This very intensive negotiations between
the two sides remains to be seen. Whether they will put in a new delay. The President earlier this week did seem to suggest that there was a deal to be
had, and he seemed relatively optimistic about it.
Of course, we know at this point that the President has a track record of threatening the tariffs, only to back off when he has a deal that he is
able to announce. So if I were a betting person, I would say that that was going to happen and the teams are underway now to try and make that happen,
but I guess we will see at midnight whether they were successful in staving off these tariffs.
QUEST: Kevin, have a good weekend. I am grateful, sir. Thank you.
And so now staying with Washington and the Treasury's effort to support the bond market is naturally having unintended consequences. Yields have now
risen for a second straight day, and they are back to where they were before the Treasury announced plans to double its bond buybacks over the
coming months.
The effects on borrowing have been negligible. Here is how James Sullivan, co-head of Global Fundamental Research at JPMorgan described the situation
when speaking on CNBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES SULLIVAN, CO-HEAD OF GLOBAL FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH AT JPMorgan: What we are seeing right now is the U.S. government effectively buying back longer
duration bonds by issuing shorter duration bills. It is a little bit like paying your mortgage with your credit card. It can work for a while, but
eventually the mismatch starts to become more obvious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Now just remember, of course, the bonds yield moves in the opposite direction of its current price. So what is happening here is that people
are selling their treasuries. That is affecting the dollar's value against other currencies like the euro, where you can see weakness accelerating
over the past couple of days.
And investors instead going for gold and Bitcoin, you can never go wrong with a bit of Bitcoin, turning assets on their head. Bitcoin has risen more
than 10 percent over the past couple of days, now, $77,000.00 quite a lot less than it was originally. And gold, the traditional safe haven, has been
on a tear, climbed to a three-month high.
So bond yields are higher, the dollar is down. Gold and Bitcoin are up and stocks seem to move higher no matter what. Rana is with me, Rana Foroohar.
Let's pull this apart. Let's first of all just deal with the operation twist my words -- Operation Twist. It has not been successful. It has not
been successful, but at $4 billion, it was never going to be very good.
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well indeed. First of all, I love your slogan there. Look, this reflects the fact that there is just so
much debt floating around there in the world. I mean, you know, if you pull the lens back from the U.S. just globally, go back pre-financial crisis,
2007 debt was 59 percent of global GDP. It is now 95 percent of global GDP.
A lot of that is the U.S., you see the administration saying we are willing to further distort markets to enable borrowing costs to stay lower. But as
you say, it is not working because I think there is just so much debt out there. This administration has made so many own goals that the markets are
saying, hold on. And that's why you're seeing gold higher, and that's why you're seeing the dollar fall. It is a confidence game.
QUEST: Let -- I am being slightly facetious when I ask this, but I think you'll know what I am getting at. Does any of this matter if the market is
still prepared to lend to A.I. at, you know, trillions to A.I. and still prepared to lend to the U.S. government, albeit at higher rates than
before, what does it matter?
[16:10:00]
FOROOHAR: I love that question, and I am going to answer it in two ways. You can say, hey, it doesn t matter and let's sort of have a reality check
and look at corporate earnings. Let's look at the fact that, you know, companies in the us are still doing pretty well and A.I. is still a story
that is trickling through the economy. You know, clearly a lot of debt and I love the idea of paying the mortgage with the credit card analogy,
because there is a way in which the A.I. companies have created credit structures that are a little -- not a little bit, a lot financialized
propping themselves up, it becomes a kind of snake eating its own tail sort of a situation.
But look, until the house of cards starts to fall and until you know where the chinks in the armor are, we don t have a lot of visibility into a lot
of that private credit that's pushing up A.I., then you have to ask, all right, well, you know, maybe this can keep going for a while.
QUEST: Scott Bessent knows what he is doing. I mean, he is a seasoned -- he may not be a seasoned policymaker, but he is a seasoned financial operator
who knows markets well.
And to a large extent, what we are seeing is the is the credit and confidence in him in a sense. But his credibility becomes on the line if he
can't get rates to come down and comes up with fanciful excuses about liquidity and the like.
FOROOHAR: Well, for sure. And, you know, look, even in the best of situations, this would be a delicate balancing act. We are not in the best
of situations. You know, we've got, you know, conflict in the Middle East. We've got a China that is developing its own trade and currency systems.
We have a sense that the dollar is simply not as much of a safe haven as it used to be. There is a lot that could go wrong. I am glad Scott Bessent is
in charge, but boy, what a job does he have right now.
QUEST: Rana, I am grateful. Thank you Rana Foroohar joining us.
FOROOHAR: Thank you.
QUEST: Prince Harry and the other litigants, the plaintiffs who sued the publisher of "The Daily Mail" now have to pay at least $13 million in
costs. That's what the judge ordered them to pay towards the cost of the other side. And no doubt there is more to pay as it goes on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Ukrainian authorities now say Russian attacks on a shopping mall have killed at least 15 people and wounded 130, including multiple
children.
[16:15:05]
This is the video posted on social media. The strike was a so-called double tap. The first causes a massive fire and the second, according to President
Zelenskyy, came around 30 minutes later and targeted the emergency responders. At least 29 of the people who were hurt are in serious
condition.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, the images are particularly distressing. Remember, we seem to be in
something of an escalatory spiral here between Ukraine and Russia. Russia continuing its callous, often targeting of specifically civilian sites and
also Ukraine hitting recently as well distribution centers for Amazon style delivery service called Wildberries.
Now, they said that's part of their military logistics network, but both sides sort of increasingly looking towards civilian targets. Russia has
been doing that much more severely for some time.
But this strike on Kryvyi Rih in a shopping center is a particularly ghastly strike, it seems. I've been to that shopping center. It is
frequented by everybody you might possibly imagine.
According to officials here, there was one drone strike in two waves and then 30 minutes after the first, a second drone went in specifically so
Ukrainian officials to hit the first responders on the scene.
Now, the numbers here are particularly striking because we are talking about devastating toll in this, particularly specific bid to hit a civilian
target there.
You know, these shopping centers, yes, sometimes you see soldiers in there buying food like everybody else. But this is very clearly a civilian target
being hit. And we are now seeing, I think, this increasing scope of targets by both sides, I should say Ukraine is targeting more infrastructure and
military it seems in its focus. But Russia, increasingly brutal in what it is willing to hit out at.
We've reported on damage to gas stations across the country upon the energy infrastructure regularly, look, almost nightly apartment blocks are hit.
Unclear if that's purposeful or just missiles going wildly off course. The Ukrainian official you were referencing in that earlier report talked about
how some of these North Korean missiles land 15 to 19 kilometers off what they believe is their target.
So an increasingly horrific toll there, and I should point out, too, that July was the most deadly month for Ukrainian civilians since May of 2022.
There is no real peace mechanism at sight here. There have been discussions, potentially that maybe the U.S. process, essentially moribund
now, might somehow have life breathe into it again, maybe a visit by Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff to Moscow, they even floated some individuals. The
idea they might even go to Ukraine for the first time.
But that seems to be paused. And instead, now we are seeing Russia clearly exploiting the horrific gap in Ukraine's air defenses because they are not
getting the patriot interceptors they need to strike. You're seeing images from now that's a drone. Russia's drones jet powered now faster, harder to
stop. We are going to see more horrific incidents like this, I fear, in the months ahead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Nick Paton Walsh reporting there on that story.
Now, let's turn our attention in a different direction.
Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and five other people who sued the publisher of "The Daily Mail," have now received a large bill and it is only an
interim bill. A judge has ordered them to pay the publisher's legal fees of at least $13 million.
The group has accused "The Daily Mail" of gathering Unlawful Information Gathering, UIG, as they called it, and included phone hacking, et cetera.
The judge dismissed the case last month. He said the claimants had failed to prove that the information was obtained unlawfully.
And as you know, of course, Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex have announced that they are returning to the United Kingdom, and we are also
hearing that the Duchess could be making a big return to acting. She is in talks to possibly join the third season of Guy Ritchie's "The Gentlemen,"
which shoots in the U.K. So put all of that together.
Let's first of all go to Elizabeth Wagmeister who is going to bring us that side of the story. You ve just confirmed this, and I am not suggesting that
that is the reason for them to return to the U.K., because at the end of the day, she could commute across the Atlantic regardless.
But this is big because I actually like "The Gentlemen." I was a jolly good watch.
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: This is huge news, Richard. Big news, of course, in the U.K., but also in Hollywood. Of
course, Meghan Markle really got her start on her breakout role in "Suits," and this would be her first major return to acting ever since she joined
the Royal family and then since they left the Royal family.
[16:20:10]
So a source familiar with ongoing discussions does tell me that there are talks that are going on about her possibly joining the third season of this
Netflix series.
Now no deal is in place, is what I hear. And "Deadline," which is one of the Hollywood trades, they were first to report earlier today that Meghan
Markle had been offered this role. They say that it is, "... hypothetical at this point," and they noted that "... no specific role has been
identified for her so far."
So I do want to caution, until the ink is dry on that contract, anything can happen. But I do want to point out that Netflix declined to comment
when I reached out to them, and I have also reached out to numerous other representatives for Meghan Markle.
QUEST: Look, I very much enjoyed her performances in "Suits." And you know, she is a fine actress of good quality and it would be a remarkable shift, I
mean, let --
All right, I've got the caveats there, Elizabeth. We can't confirm. We don t know. it is a possibility, the talk and the scuttlebutt is, but you've
got to admit it is pretty dramatic if true.
WAGMEISTER: It is. And look, no sources are walking me off of this. So while I do have the caveat, you know, I do think that this is going to
happen. That is what I am hearing and it is a massive shift for her. Right?
She had stepped away from acting, but she always had said that maybe one day she would return and this would make sense because as you noted, they
are moving back. You know, our reporting has been that their two young kids are enrolled in school over there. This is a show that shoots in the U.K.
and it has a huge global audience on Netflix, so it would make a lot of sense.
We also know that, of course, Harry and Meghan have had a deal with Netflix. It is of course where they did their big docuseries and where she
also has had her lifestyle series, so there is a relationship here. And as they appear to be leaving Montecito, which of course is pretty close to
L.A., she could just be saying, you know, it is time to get back to what I love, which is acting and maybe her plans of what she was doing over here
didn t quite come to fruition.
QUEST: Thank you for bringing and standing it up as much as we could. All right, thank you.
The British broadcaster, Bidisha Mamata is with me in London now. The caveats are all on the table, so we don t need to worry about them. The
caveats of if, what and why -- you ve got to admit, this is a really, really interesting development.
BIDISHA MAMATA, BROADCASTER: It is a definitely interesting and also convenient development because if you are married and your other half has
run up a rather large legal bill, plus you fortuitously do also want to return to acting and you are famously ambitious, you are actually a self-
made woman you are going to be celebrating the fact that finally, maybe all the bits are clicking back into place.
I think that if true, this is a great opportunity and we know that Meghan Markle never saw herself as the smiling First Lady type who is off to the
side. She is very efficient. She is a self-starter.
So this is going to work for everyone despite the bad news in other areas of the couple's lives.
QUEST: And let's be clear, there is nothing un-Royal about Meghan Markle having a decent acting career. I mean, there have been plenty of Royals who
have had many different types of jobs. Linley, for example, making his furniture, making a fortune out of his furniture.
So it is not like its unusual and it is a perfectly respectable profession to be going into. Where I think it is going to get tricky is like today
when they ve put out this request for the media for privacy.
Yes, privacy for the children. Yes, for the school. Yes for X, Y, Z. But if she is going back onto the boards, then it becomes a little more tricky
then.
MAMATA: Back onto the boards. What is this, the 19th century? It I the 21st century. I think we'd be more surprised if any woman in the 21st century
didn t have something to do, something to occupy her. That was a vocation. And in fact, I would strengthen what many actors and actresses have said
over the last hundred or more years, which is just because you're an actor and your job is to fulfill a role and to be public in that sense, and to
have lots of eyes on you, doesn t give everybody full license, including the media, but including ordinary people who are watching you to gossip
over much and speculate over much about the other things that you're doing.
I do think that this couple's plea for privacy, in the sense of not wanting scurrilous gossip about their family or their relationships, and certainly
not pictures of their kids, I think that's completely fair enough and I hope that everyone on every side of this abides by normal rules of decorum.
QUEST: Oh, of course, that would be the norm and of course, the press guidelines and the IPC and all of those sort of things that are in place.
[16:25:10 ]
Finally, though, how -- there is no getting away from a potential conflict of three courts. The Court of King Charles, the court of the Prince of
Wales and the court of the Duke of Sussex, and I agree fully with you about this idea of security. Clearly they must, you know, the Sussexes must be --
even if it costs me as a British taxpayer as well, dear, because they are entitled to proper security. But there is going to be competing demands for
public attention in the Royal arena.
MAMATA: This is a really interesting one because they announced that they were returning to the U.K. very recently, and they hadn't said anything
about it over the previous six months, which makes me think that all of these competing courts and stakeholders and interests, including the
question of who exactly is paying for these new arrangements, has all been worked out and hashed out personally, politically and economically in
absolute dead privacy and secrecy.
And that's why we are not getting any very reliable details about it. I think that they knew that this was going to be an issue that we would be
talking about. Okay, so how much is too much? They say they want privacy, but they clearly enjoy being famous. They like to be in public life, but
they don t want to do their Royal duties, but they are getting closer. They are getting back to the Palace symbolically and literally.
I think they must have worked it out and had lots and lots of hard conversations, and a few checkbooks came out and a few tears were shed in a
great big melange of the personal and the political and the Royal and the civilian.
QUEST: You are a lot more optimistic than I am about how this is going to work. I am talking about from the Royal side, not the acting side. From the
Royal side, I have to say, you are a lot more optimistic. I foresee this as being a potential nightmare.
MAMATA: Well, it is the never ending saga that amuses and interests us too much. I actually do think that at the heart of it, just to be very serious
for a moment, this is personal. This is about a son trying to rebuild bridges with his father and his brother, and coming back to his rightful
place.
I would be interested to know what Meghan Markle does now as well, because she is so clearly a professional woman that this Netflix deal, whether it
is true or not, it is in its in line with what I expected she would ultimately do, which is that I think ultimately she would like to be a
figure like Oprah Winfrey or Ava DuVernay or Shonda Rhimes or someone like that, or Mindy Kaling, a kind of powerful media lady and she is making a
step towards that.
QUEST: I am grateful for you tonight. Have a lovely weekend. Have a stronger and a lovely weekend. Thank you.
Now, Spanish Police are moving hundreds of migrants from a beach camp into temporary shelters. There are some of the thousands of people who tried to
enter the country last month. In a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:31:13]
QUEST: Now, welcome back to QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Richard Quest, and we'll have more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment.
We'll also tell you about how much should a burrito cost. The question has bigger economic issues and implications than you might expect at the
moment.
And connecting to the Internet whilst traveling aboard. It can be a hassle, so, accompany, of course, the eSIMs, entire business of eSIMs, what you
should know about it if you are going away, and how it's best to use it.
We'll get to only those stories only after news headlines, because this is CNN, and here on this network, the news always comes first.
The U.S. Supreme Court is letting work continue for now on President Trump's White House ballroom.
The ruling gives the justices more time to deliberate. An historic preservation group, of course, has sued to block the project, arguing the
president needs congressional approval for this ballroom. The administration says the project is a security need.
Ukraine's officials say at least 15 people were killed and 130 people wounded in a Russian strike on a shopping mall.
President Zelenskyy said the attack drones came in two waves. The first caused a massive fireball, and the second strike followed around 30 minutes
later, targeting the emergency response.
FIFA has suspended three players from Argentina's national team for getting into a scuffle after the World Cup Final. Argentina lost 1-0 to Spain, and
the brawl took place immediately after the final whistle.
In addition to the three suspended, Argentina must play its next home game to a limited capacity crowd.
Burials now are finally taking place for some of the migrants killed three weeks ago trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. The stampede
sparked. outrage in parts of Europe, even though migrants help feed the continent.
Jomana Karadsheh met some of those in the southern Spain has sent this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Chaos and utter human despair at Spain's doors. Scenes that fast became fuel for the
far right and growing anti-immigration voices on both sides of the Atlantic.
But behind these images lies a more complex reality, as we found on our journey to try to understand Europe's immigration debate and what drives so
many to risk everything to get here.
KARADSHEH: We are in the middle of a sea of plastic so vast, it's visible from space. Greenhouses everywhere you look. This is Almeria in southern
Spain. It is often described as Europe's vegetable garden, because of this concentration of greenhouses. It produces millions of tons of fresh fruit
and vegetables every year, enough to feed half a billion people.
KARADSHEH (voice over): In the shadow of one of Europe's agricultural heartlands exists a darker side rarely seen, slums like this one that have
been around for years, home to part of the massive African workforce, helping feed this continent.
In a scene of squalor in modern-day Europe, we find migrants from north and West Africa.
In his previous life, Amoateng Foster was a math teacher in Ghana. Two years ago, he left it all behind, saying he paid smugglers about $2,300 for
a perilous journey through Libya and across the Mediterranean, eventually making it to Spain.
AMOATENG FOSTER, GHANAIAN MIGRANT WORKER: And I'm not going to recommend anybody to do so.
KARADSHEH: Why?
FOSTER: Very dangerous.
[16:35:00]
KARADSHEH (voice-over): He shows us around this rundown shack he shares with another worker.
FOSTER: So, this is my place.
KARADSHEH (voice over): Amoateng's story is that of so many parents, enduring these subhuman conditions, all for the future of his kids, he
says, to save enough to put them through college.
KARADSHEH: A lot of people are saying, we don't want any migrants. Close the borders. I mean, how does it make you feel?
FOSTER: It becomes a little bit worried. Everything that they are doing here is farming. And the workers that they are using, it's all of us, we
are immigrants. These white people, they can't do it. The government has saw the need that we are helping them, they also helping us. It's a mutual
benefit.
KARADSHEH (voice over): The Spanish economy relies on migrant workers so heavily that the government announced an amnesty in April, offering legal
status to hundreds of thousands already in the country.
Amoateng hopes being here legally would bring him rights and respect.
FOSTER: If you are outside the fence, you may think that it's rosy here. It's not rosy here. Look at the environment that we live in. But when you
are outside, you may think that, oh, Europe is Europe. No, no, no, no, there is no rosy here, because you suffer before you can get a cent.
Do you know how much they are giving us -- how much they give us here, to work in this farm? For one hour, they give you five euros. This hot
environment like this, you kneel down like this, work continuously just like that, and they give you five euro.
KARADSHEH (voice over): We get a glimpse into that grueling reality Amoateng described inside one of the countless greenhouses. These men spend
hours delicately planting tomatoes. Their hard labor will soon fill the shelves of European supermarkets.
In the sweltering summer heat, temperatures must remain constant in here.
KARADSHEH: We have been here for a few minutes, and this heat is intense. I'm sweating, and I can't begin to imagine what it's like for these guys
working in these conditions, in this heat. Apparently, it hit 44 degrees or 111 Fahrenheit earlier today, and they have to do this for hours and hours.
KARADSHEH (voice over): The owner of this greenhouse told us he only hires documented workers and pays the legal minimum wage.
But across Almeria, you find so many who are undocumented, vulnerable to exploitation, some of it happening in plain sight. At roundabouts and
street corners, they wait to be picked up for off-the-book jobs that pay well below the minimum wage.
Off-camera, business owners told us they pay what they can afford to still make a profit.
The arrival of foreign labor helped revive a region that was once in decline. All around here, you find thriving migrant communities that have
left their mark on this place. And the far-right has seized on that.
In suburbs like La Canada, that overwhelmingly voted for the populist radical right party, Vox in the last election, we find pensioners echoing
the rhetoric of these parties.
If they can work and have papers, great. The rest is an invasion, they tell us. They are people who don't want to integrate.
It's a narrative that's been gaining traction across Europe. Fears of demographic change and migrants being blamed for the rise in the cost of
living. Scattered graffiti hints at brewing tensions. This one reads: no Muslims, no NGOs.
Perhaps, a message for the groups on the front line of this crisis, like the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity. The calls for help to this Catholic NGO
helping migrants get back on their feet seem non-stop during our visit.
SISTER FRANCISCA, MERCEDARIAN SISTERS OF CHARITY (text): No, I'm sorry my boy.
KARADSHEH (voice over): Sister Francisca turned 80 this month, but there is no rest for this woman on a mission.
FRANCISCA (through translator): The most common this is that ask us for is a sandwich, and they tell us, I'm hungry.
KARADSHEH: So, they come saying we're hungry, we want a sandwich.
FRANCISCA (text): Of course, they come here asking for something to eat.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): At their food distribution center, the hungry queue for donations from local supermarkets.
Amal tells us she hasn't eaten today. Sometimes, she doesn't have money to buy water and bread. She had to leave her 6- and 4-year-old children in
Morocco, she tells us, and came here on a contract to pick strawberries.
After a dispute with her employer, she found herself on the street, begging for any work.
It was poverty that brought me here, she says. If I had something back home, I wouldn't have come.
Sister Francisca remembers a time when there were no migrants here, then the greenhouses came. The road to a better life has led so many to this
miserable place.
[16:40:00]
It is in this land of plastic and shattered dreams where Europe's paradox is laid bare.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Almeria, Spain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS on this Friday.
The question of how much is too much when it comes to the affordability crisis. Well, we managed it. This is a burrito that we managed to put
together. It costs some $20. There is a massive argument in economics at the moment. Is $20 too much for a burrito? Which really is all about how
much can we all afford? Just a moment, I'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: How much should the good old-fashioned humble burrito cost? We have one here. And now, you might have a figure in mind: $10, maybe $15. Well,
the $20 burrito, which is what this is, and boy, we had to load it up with everything to get it to $20, is starting to cause a real controversy.
It started with this post from Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet. "One of our TPUSA college students gave me his take on
affordability: A burrito shouldn't cost $20. It just feels like a basic thing that costs too much."
The claim was then dismissed by conservative commentators like Ben Shapiro and Marc Thiessen, whose response even got the attention of Vice President
J.D. Vance, some are saying that a $20 burrito speaks to an affordability crisis.
Now, the cost to eat out is rising nearly the same rate as wages, suggests this shock price could be more psychological.
Justin Wolfers is the public policy and economics professor at the University of Michigan, who has now been well aware of. Never mind the
burrito I've got in my hand, which is weighing a huge amount, but costs 20 bucks. What this is really all about is what we think is what prices should
be doing vis-a-vis what we are all earning, and that's when it all goes wrong.
JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Richard, I'm just going to insist that you start by calling me
CNN's leading burrito economist, and as soon as we get that going, we can get into this.
[16:45:01]
Look, the truth is, the burrito is just a metaphor here, and the metaphors for the cost of living. The reality is, burritos don't cost $20. The
typical price of a burrito in the United States is $13.67, but that's not the point. The point is, it feels like the burrito is more expensive.
And so, I want to just juxtapose two very interesting facts that are in tension with each other. One, the amount of stuff people can afford with
their incomes. That's how an economist might think about affordability. So, how much has your income gone up relative to wages?
The amount of stuff you can afford has actually been rising over the past few years. The flip side is number two, one of the most important political
points in the United States right now is it just doesn't feel that way. People feel there is an affordability crisis underway.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Right.
WOLFERS: And the burrito is the tension created by those two forces.
QUEST: Now, a lot of it, of course, is because wages have gone up, but then, prices have gone up. So, you feel like you are giving back part of
your pay, which you think you got because you were better. But the reality is, nobody ever won an election by telling the public that what they are
feeling is wrong, and that what they are feeling isn't true.
And if there is that feeling at the moment, that if you will, there is this affordability problem, then, that has to be respected.
WOLFERS: Absolutely. So, there is actually sort of two levels of this. So, one we actually saw play out under President Biden. It's that prices were
rising, but the truth is, most of the time when prices rise, wages catch up.
We don't think of it that way because when I get my annual pay rise, I think, it's because I did a really good job. And then, the prices rise, and
I think, I said, oh, someone stole it from me. That's terrible. But that's the reality.
President Biden tried to explain that to the American public, and that's part of the reason he is no longer president.
The other thing, though, is this president has gone a step further. He is not just saying affordability is OK; he is telling people that prices are
falling.
He promised to reduce prices on day one. He said time and again that prices are falling. The reality is, even that burrito will tell you the prices are
not falling, this is a reality that people who are not presidents face every single day at the store. You can't lie your way out of this one.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: All right. So, I'm familiar, obviously, we haven't done this long enough. That, you know, you have got purchasing price parity, which means
that the McDonald's, the famous McDonald's index, what a McDonald's Big Mac cost in euros versus dollars versus yen.
But when you have got this burrito at $20 bucks and it's become a talisman for economics, how do you get your way out of it besides eating the
burrito?
WOLFERS: Mate, very difficult. First of all, I just want to recommend, burritos are fantastic. I came from Australia. We don't have very good
burritos. I would say on CNN International, much of your audience are not seeing the perfect burrito, but you can get them over here in the US.
Obviously, terrific in Mexico too.
Look, these fast foods becoming a metaphor for big issue is not new, as you say. Say, the burrito is a symbol of affordability. The Big Mac is an index
for -- it's often used to compare the cost of living across different countries. And then, my favorite, I come from Australia. Avocado toast was
often seen as a metaphor for whether young people can get ahead as well.
These are metaphors, but they are very important stories. Because when I come to you, Richard, and I explain consumer price indices and I explain
wages and all of this mumbo jumbo, it's never going to stick the way a burrito will.
Look, the president has promised he's going to bring burrito prices down. That would be a terrible thing. It's very expensive from an economic
perspective to bring prices back down.
QUEST: Right.
WOLFERS: The best way to do that is through a recession, and crikey (PH), I don't want a recession right now. So, what we have is irresponsible
promises hitting reality, and all of that's going to come together and collide in November with an election that looks like it might be about
dissatisfaction and everything else wrapped up in that burrito.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: All right. Justin, who is that over your left shoulder on the floor? Who is -- who is that? Go on, look behind you.
WOLFERS: Mate, that's my good boy, Max. Maxie boy doesn't get burritos, but he sometimes gets some leftovers. He is about 180,000 years old, and -- but
he loves listening to economics, so, I always let him come into the office when we are doing this.
QUEST: I have just promoted you. You are no longer senior burrito. Your chief burrito correspondent. Justin Wolfers, joining us from university.
Thank you very much indeed, sir.
Now, as we continue, look, we all know the problem. There you are. You are. You have landed. You switch your phone on, and, of course, you could roam.
You could do this. You could do that.
Well, today, international travelers are trading in traditional roaming plans, going for digital SIM cards. The eSIM.
Joining me will be the head of the eSIM company, Saily, to talk exactly about this growing trend.
[16:50:04]
How it works, why it works, and what you can do about it. In a moment, (INAUDIBLE).
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: OK, the horror stories, and you've probably got one of your own. You've gone overseas, you come home, massive phone bill because of data
roaming. Usually data, not voice.
It typically costs U.S. travelers $12 a day to use their cell phones abroad if they stick with their wireless carrier.
Instead, people today are opting to download a digital SIM card, an eSIM. Saily is one such customer -- a company that's doing it for as little as $5
a day in total, it's good for seven days and a gigabyte of data and limited, et cetera. And onwards you can go -- you can get a bit more.
Now, joining me now is Vikintas Macinas, the chief executive of the Travel eSIM service, Saily.
This growth of eSIMs. Everywhere I go now, of course, everybody is in the business of trying to sell me an eSIM. Now, that, of course, is very
specific to the country that I might be in, but it's growing phenomenally. Why do you think?
VYKINTAS MAKNICKAS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SAILY: If you are traveling overseas, it's the cheapest option for you to get connectivity. And in
order for you to get cheap roaming, you can just install an eSIM and switch to it while traveling.
QUEST: Right. But, of course, the difficulty is if you want to keep your own -- now this works great for data, by the way, and for WhatsApp and
things like that. But if you want to keep your own number, if you want to keep your own number that you've got from back home, then, it all becomes
more difficult, doesn't it?
MAKNICKAS: So, not necessarily. While you are traveling, majority of smartphones already supports an option for you to keep your current SIM
card or eSIM, and on the side use different eSIM for data, meaning, that you can keep your phone number, get text messages, get calls, and use
different SIM cards specifically for data while traveling.
[16:55:01]
QUEST: You've got to agree that it would be a lot easier -- a lot easier if the -- I mean, it will put you out of business, but it would be a lot
easier if the telcos, the -- you know, the legacy telcos just didn't try and rob us left, right, and center on roaming charges, if they just sort of
said roam, pay a bit extra. But they don't and that's the problem.
MAKNICKAS: So, the history here is they got used to the fact that it was very, very difficult for you to switch between carriers, especially, while
traveling, because you needed to buy a local SIM card and add it to your phone, and then, use a local SIM card that includes both phone number, and
you cannot get text messages, you cannot get calls, you know, and you need to use a local number instead.
It's inconvenient, and they knew it. That's why they were basically overpriced the service. When eSIMs, what they did is they made it possible
for you to easily switch between carriers and download SIM cards over the Internet instead of relying on retail spots.
So currently, consumers have the choice, and before they didn't. That's why, you know, consumers win from the additional choice by getting cheaper
roaming, not necessarily from their provider, but from anyone that can provide services in said country.
QUEST: I'm grateful to you, sir, for joining us tonight from magnificent Cannes. I'm envious of you. How wonderful to be in the south of France at
the end of August. My word, sir. No sympathy from us on this case, and I bet you won't be roaming charges through the roof.
Good to see you. We will take our "PROFITABLE MOMENT" after the break. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, live from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's "PROFITABLE MOMENT". I very much hope the story of Meghan Markle going back into acting and being on the next series of The
Gentleman's true. First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Gentleman". It's a brilliant series.
And secondly, Meghan Markle is a very good actress, and enjoyed her watching her in suits, and it's a perfectly good way for her to get back
into the business of which she loves and which she is so good at.
Where -- and look, there shouldn't really be much difficulty. There have been royals that have sold furniture, Viscount Lindley. There have been
royals that have worked in P.R. if you look at Prince Andrews or the late or the former Prince Andrew's children.
[17:00:02]
Royals going into business is not new. The problem is they can't mix the two up, and that's where Prince Harry might come a cropper. Not the fact
that Meghan Markle is going to be back on the screen, which is good news for everybody.
And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for this Friday night. I'm Richard Quest in New York.
END
