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Maria Aspen
Hi, this is Susan and Dan at Newark International Airport getting ready to depart for a trip to Prague and Amsterdam.
Ashley Lopez
This podcast was recorded at 12:40pm Eastern Time on Friday, September 19, 2025.
Maria Aspen
Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but two MFAs, one baby, three cross country moves and one pandemic later will finally be enjoying a vacation that has been in the making since March 2020. An extra big thanks to Nene and Nance for watching our kiddo making this all possible in the first place.
Tamara Keith
Oh, wow.
Maria Aspen
Enjoy the show.
Ashley Lopez
What an earned vacation and ditching the kid.
Tamara Keith
Now that now that is.
Ashley Lopez
Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics.
Tamara Keith
I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.
Ashley Lopez
And NPR financial correspondent Maria Aspen is also here. Hi, Maria.
Maria Aspen
Hey there. Great to be with you.
Ashley Lopez
And today on the show, we're talking about the Federal Reserve's decision this week to lower interest rates slightly and what political and economic forces are at play. But let's back up. First, Maria, can you give us a quick update on the state of the economy?
Maria Aspen
So I'll give you an analogy. And then the data, the analogy I think about is imagine you're at a summer picnic, cloudless seeming sky, sunny day, and you get into the picnic and you look away. And then 20 minutes later, you look up in a different direction and there's this mass of storm clouds that you didn't notice before gathering. It's not clear that it's going to rain or when or how bad it's going to be. But suddenly you're feeling a lot less confident that things are sunny and bright. And that's kind of where we are with the economy. The data still generally good, right? Like inflation is not as bad as it was a few years ago, but it is ticking up. And President Trump's tariffs have the prospect of prices continuing to increase. And hiring, which had seemed strong, now looks a lot weaker than we thought it was, including the Labor Department unveiled this month a big revision of the hiring data from the last year of President Biden's presidency through March. And it was like, oh, suddenly the economy and the employment picture was not as strong as it looked initially. So there are all of these warning signs that the economy and especially the jobs market is not as Strong as we thought it was. And we heard the Fed acknowledge that this week.
Ashley Lopez
Yeah. And in the midst of all this, Tam, President Trump has been pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates for a while now. Can we explain what he's been saying about this?
Tamara Keith
Yes, he has been saying a lot about this. Has been very clear that he wants the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates significantly. He wants the Federal Reserve to supercharge the economy. He says it needs it. Um, and he has taken to calling Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell too late. Too late, Powell. He says it all the time because he thinks Powell and the rest of the Federal Reserve have been too late in lowering rates. And this has gotten to the point where it isn't just the President verbally berating the Fed chairman. It goes to the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a key Trump ally, accusing the Fed chair of all kinds of nefarious things. The president even going to Federal Reserve headquarters to say that a big over budget remodeling project has been so mismanaged that maybe the Fed chair should go. Then this same Trump ally leveling charges against a Federal Reserve board member, Lisa Cook, saying she committed mortgage fraud. Trump firing her, her saying, no, I'm not fired. You can't do that. And then there's now a legal battle. There's just a lot going on here. And there is no question that the President doesn't want just a little rate cut. He wants a giant rate cut.
Ashley Lopez
Yeah. I mean, this may not be the timeline he wanted, but he did get some results this week. The Federal Reserve voted this week to lower interest rates a quarter percentage point, which we're not sure yet how Trump feels about that. But can you explain why they made this call? How much of it was because of the President's pressure campaign or the larger?
Maria Aspen
Well, I think Jerome Powell would deny that it was at all about the President's pressure campaign. I mean, the rate cut, especially after some of the hiring reports we've seen, the rate cut was pretty expected, widely expected. And to Tam's point, it was a small cut, not the gigantic one that President Trump wants. Fed policymakers did also signal that they expect to cut rates by an additional half percentage point on average this year. But that's obviously tbd. The Fed did acknowledge in its statement that. But it judges that the downside risks to employment have risen. That is a very dry way of saying, yeah, we're worried about the job market.
Tamara Keith
Now, Maria, could you possibly explain the dual role of the Fed? I feel like this is the Moment where we need to understand why they lower interest rates.
Maria Aspen
Yeah, absolutely. The Fed basically has one main tool to both fight inflation and stimulate the economy, try to stimulate hiring, and it is interest rates. But the challenge is that it works in opposite directions. So if prices are rising, the Fed tries to keep rates high or raise them to basically dampen demand for loans. So if you make credit more expensive, that discourages people and businesses for taking out loans and discourages them from buying as much. And the idea is that tries to keep a cap on prices, but then when hiring slows, you want to encourage people and especially businesses to spend money. You want to make it cheaper for them to take loans and use that money to invest in things, build new offices, hire more workers. And the Fed acknowledges now that it is trying to navigate this dual mandate where it's got conflicting responsibilities and paths to take.
Ashley Lopez
Yeah, I do want to talk about the vote itself. There was a notable member who voted. Can you talk to me about how that vote went and who voted?
Maria Aspen
It was a near unanimous vote. And the people voting in favor of a quarter of a percentage point cut included two Republicans, Republican Fed governors who had been appointed by President Trump during his first term, Christopher Waller and Michele Bowman. And there was a little bit more of a question about whether or not they would stay with the PAC or vote for a bigger cut as Trump wants. But the fact that they voted with the consensus kind of was a little bit reassuring that whatever President Trump's pressure campaign, the Fed mostly appears to be sticking to its independent guns. The lone dissenter was the new guy, Stephen Myron. Stephen joined the Federal Reserve this week. He was the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. President Trump appointed him to fill a short term vacancy on the Fed's Board of Governors. He is not leaving the White House. He's taking an unpaid leave of absence from his job there. He wanted a half a percentage point cut and dissented from the vote for that reason.
Ashley Lopez
Ken, this has been like nearly a fixation for Trump at this point. Why has Trump been pushing for lower rates now? Like, what is the larger goal here for him?
Tamara Keith
He wants lower rates because he wants a strong economy, because the economy is his calling card. You know, he was this great businessman. That was his image. That was his reputation. That is what drove him into office the first time, along with a lot of other things. And it has been his strength as president for a really long time.
Ashley Lopez
And.
Tamara Keith
And that is not true right now.
Ashley Lopez
Well, Maria, I wonder if consumers or businesses are likely to feel the effects of this rate change since it was so small. Do we have a sense of what the populace writ large would be even feeling from this?
Maria Aspen
They might be feeling it on the margins and on some of the smaller loans like credit cards, for example, or car loans. Fed rate cuts don't generally have a direct impact on mortgage rates. They are high. But there is some separate good news there that they've been coming down. And in fact, the same day that the Fed voted or announced its decision, the Mortgage Bankers association announced that 30 year fixed year mortgage rates were at their lowest point in a year. Some of that was again, this, this latest Fed rate cut was widely expected. It's kind of already priced into the market. And some of it is that mortgages are not directly related to what the Fed does.
Ashley Lopez
Tam, can you talk to us about what this means for government debt?
Tamara Keith
President Trump, one of the reasons he has argued that he wants rates lowered is because there's a huge amount of government debt. As we all know, servicing that debt, paying interest on that debt costs a lot of money. If rates are lower, then the debt is cheaper.
Ashley Lopez
All right. We're going to take a quick break. More in a moment.
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Ashley Lopez
PR it's fall, so maybe you're figuring out your Halloween costume or where to get a pumpkin spice latte.
Maria Aspen
And if you want to know what.
Ashley Lopez
Buzzy movies and TV shows to check out this fall, we've got you covered. Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. This week, the White House asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on whether President Trump can fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Tam, can you remind us what's at issue here?
Tamara Keith
Right. So President Trump has been quite clear as he is about many things, that what he is trying to do is get himself a majority on the Fed Board so that he can have a greater influence on Fed policy. And Lisa Cook is a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The president has alleged that she committed mortgage fraud. She denies that. And he tried to fire her before the Justice Department even completed an investigation. Courts have sided with her, but now that's headed to the Supreme Court. There have been no actual criminal charges filed by the Justice Department. These were loans that she took out before she was ever a member of the Fed and doesn't directly implicate her work as a Federal Reserve Board Governor. The basic argument from the White House here is that, yes, the Fed is supposed to be independent under the law, but President Trump's Article 2 power is supreme, and that all of these independent and quasi independent agencies out there are part of the executive branch. The president is the head of the executive branch, and the president should be able to hire and fire whoever he wants.
Ashley Lopez
And, Maria, I want to talk about Stephen Myron's appointment to the Board of Governors specifically. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's like, a pretty unusual thing that Trump did there, right?
Maria Aspen
It is. Especially because while Myron is taking an unpaid leave of absence, he's not actually leaving his job at the White House, which really muddies the waters of that independence that the Fed is supposed to have from the White House.
Ashley Lopez
Yeah. I mean, this seems like a basic question, but why does the independence of the Federal Reserve matter? Like, what is the risk of having a Federal Reserve that is not independent from presidential politics?
Maria Aspen
Well, history shows that it almost never works out well for countries that do not have an independent central bank. I mean, Argentina would be a really good example, Turkey as well, where after kind of a similar sit, the president wanted the central bank and successfully got the central bank to cut interest rates. And then inflation soared to, I believe, 80%.
Barbara Sprunt
Wow.
Maria Aspen
And the danger here is not just some theoretical ideal of central bank independence. Right. It is real damage to the currency and the economy. And I think it's worth pointing out that, you know, in Argentina or Turkey, soaring inflation is bad, obviously very bad for people who live in those countries and who do business in those countries. But their currencies do not undergird the global economy to the extent that the US Dollar does. So worst case scenario here is President Trump's exceed. In his pressure campaign. The Fed, against its independent reasoning, decides to cut interest rates quickly and dramatically to an extent that allows inflation to get out of control, and that weakens the dollar and weakens the global economy.
Tamara Keith
And here's the thing. About politicians. They want to juice the economy. Politicians want dramatic GDP growth. They want people feeling good about the economy. Because if people feel good about the economy, then they're gonna feel good about the politician, they're gonna feel good about the president. And right now, President Trump is underwater on his approval rating when it comes to the economy, and not just a little bit underwater, but like 20, 30% underwater on things like controlling inflation and prices or jobs in the economy. And that's not a place the president wants to be heading into midterms where, you know, voters will deliver their verdict on how they feel about him and how they feel about his party. So often a president's political interests cut in a different direction than the Fed's interests in maintaining a state stable economy with low inflation and high employment, especially.
Maria Aspen
With President Trump's tariffs. There's this added layer of complication where the president is enacting policies that are fundamentally weakening the economy.
Ashley Lopez
All right. Well, thank you for joining us, Maria.
Maria Aspen
My pleasure. Great to be with you.
Ashley Lopez
All right. We're going to take a quick break, and when we get back, it's time for Can't Let It Go on the.
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Maria Aspen
This message is from Synchrony bank, who wants to remind you to stay flexible. Not the 10,000 steps before breakfast, yoga, bending, circus performing. Wish I hadn't done that kind of flexible. It's about staying financially flexible. Like with our High Yield savings Account, you'll earn a great rate without monthly fees or minimums that can slow your Progress. Go to synchrony.com NPR member FDIC.
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ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel after a joke about the response from the right to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and after a threat from the FCC chair. This week on Consider this, what it says about free speech and about the business of network television. Listen to Consider this on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Tamara Keith
Hey, it's Rachel Martin. I'm the host of Wildcard from npr. For a lot of my years as a radio host, silence sort of made me nervous. That pause before an answer because you don't know what's going on on the other side of the mic. But these days, I love it.
Ashley Lopez
Gosh.
Maria Aspen
Give me a minute.
Barbara Sprunt
Yeah, yeah.
Tamara Keith
Thank listen to the Wild Card podcast Only from npr.
Ashley Lopez
And we're back. And congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt joins us now. Hi, Barbara.
Barbara Sprunt
Hi, everyone.
Ashley Lopez
And it's time to end the show like we do every week with Can't Let It Go. It's the part of the show where we talk about the things from the week that we just can't stop talking about politics or otherwise. Tam, let's start with you. What can't you stop thinking about this week?
Tamara Keith
Well, it's not what I can't stop thinking about in the last few hours, ever since a Politico playbook came out this morning and announced the hot new voter group of 2026. You know, like the soccer moms or the NASCAR dads. Well, Christine Matthews, who is a pollster, decided that women who wear weighted vests when they're out on their power walks. These women are the key swing voter demographic of the 2026. Mitch White. I am not kidding. And. And I feel seen, though I haven't actually acquired one myself.
Barbara Sprunt
Is this like a thing that a lot of people are doing? Yes, wearing a weighted vest.
Tamara Keith
So it hasn't probably. Maybe you're lucky come in your algorithm, but mine is just invaded by women wearing vests that add 10, 15, 20 pounds and then they go on walks. And in theory, it's supposed to help your bone density. But to get to the politics part of it, she says that this group backs Republicans and Democr basically equally in a generic ballot question, and that 48% said they would vote for Democrats compared to 35% for Republicans. So they are swing voters.
Barbara Sprunt
I mean, they're gonna vote for whoever will take this, like, ridiculous weighted vest off of them and lighten their love.
Ashley Lopez
But also, is this different from soccer moms? It's just like women who have adopted the hot girl walk. You know what I'm talking about? It's like the same thing. We're talking about the same group of people. Right.
Barbara Sprunt
It's not enough to be a soccer mom. Now you have to add physical pain on top of your chest. I think it's insane.
Ashley Lopez
Yeah. Is it worth it? Anyways, stay tuned. All right, Barbara. What? Can't you let go of this?
Barbara Sprunt
I'm gonna be thinking about that for a while. Okay. So I'm gonna cheat a little bit and smush two things together. The thing that I couldn't let go was royal fashion. I just like, for some reason, I just, I love it. And the president's trip to the UK I mean, lots of excell opportunities to see very stylish outfits and Princess Catherine looked amazing. And the first lady paid, I think. I don't know, but I think she paid some, like, fashion homage to Princess Catherine and some of the things that she's worn before. So I thought that was cool. Politics is fashion. But the thing that I can't let go is last night, on my way home from the Capitol, I ran across two Bernese mountain dogs. Oh, my gosh. And the owner was really nice and let me pet them. My blood pressure, like, immediately lowered. They were so cute. They were cousins, apparently. I mean, that's what they say.
Tamara Keith
Therapy dogs.
Barbara Sprunt
And I was like, I know. So I bring this up because if anyone listening knows about these dogs or has any advice or guidance, like, I left being like, can't let this go.
Maria Aspen
Want one?
Barbara Sprunt
You know, Want to know all the things?
Ashley Lopez
Yeah. My only advice would be get a good vacuum.
Barbara Sprunt
Yeah. Fair.
Maria Aspen
Lots of fur.
Barbara Sprunt
Okay. Well, what can't you let go, Ashley?
Ashley Lopez
So what I can't let go of this week is there was the World Stone Skimming Championships in Scotland recently. And this is this annual celebration of a sport we all know as stone skipping, and it's held every September in Scotland. But this year there was a big scandal because several competitors in this year's event were found to be wielding rocks that appear to be shaped by machines. It's this huge cheating scandal and apparently a bunch of people got disqualified.
Barbara Sprunt
You're kidding. What is the prize?
Ashley Lopez
The prize is saying you're good at throwing rocks. And that is my bigger point here. Like, it's sort of a silly thing.
Barbara Sprunt
To cheat at, but I think you should pick some. I mean, that. That must have taken some time, you know, and, like, investment of energy to, like, put ridges in rocks, like, pick a thing with a better payout.
Ashley Lopez
I mean, I know that humans get competitive about literally everything, but this seems silly. This seems like a bridge too far.
Tamara Keith
But anyways, I would like to quibble with the word sport.
Ashley Lopez
Sure.
Barbara Sprunt
Hey, it's just a stone's throw away from being a sport.
Ashley Lopez
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I still can't get my head around curling. So, you know, other things get to be in the Olympics. I guess we could call this one a sport.
Tamara Keith
Another stone related sport.
Ashley Lopez
Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. All right, that's a wrap for today. Our executive producer is Mithoni Muturi. Our editor is Rachel Bay. Our producers are Casey Morell and Bria Suggs. Thanks to Rafael Nam. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics.
Barbara Sprunt
I'm Barbara Sprent. I cover Congress.
Tamara Keith
And I'm Tamara Keith, I cover the White House.
Ashley Lopez
And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics podcast.
Maria Aspen
Short Wave thinks of science as an invisible force showing up in your everyday life, powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the Shortwave podcast from npr.
Ashley Lopez
A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story, but right now you probably need more. On up first from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes because no one story can capture all that's happening in this big crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the up first podcast from npr.
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It's time for the Emmy Awards, and we've kept up with all the nominated TV shows so you don't have to recapping television's biggest night, breaking down the big wins and the moments everyone is talking about. Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode: Federal Reserve Lowers Rates, But Less Than Trump Wants
Date: September 19, 2025
Host: Ashley Lopez
Guests: Tamara Keith, Maria Aspen, Barbara Sprunt
This episode centers on the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to lower interest rates by a quarter-point—less drastic than President Trump’s public demands for deeper cuts. The NPR Politics team examines the U.S. economy’s health, the intense political and legal drama involving the Fed’s independence, Trump’s pressure campaign, and the implications for regular Americans and global markets. The episode also touches on the unusual appointment of a new Fed governor and ongoing legal battles over Fed board membership, highlighting the friction between the executive branch and the traditionally independent central bank.
Maria Aspen uses a picnic analogy: things seem stable, but unexpected “storm clouds” (economic risks) are gathering.
Quote [01:22]:
“It’s not clear that it’s going to rain or when or how bad it’s going to be. But suddenly you’re feeling a lot less confident that things are sunny and bright. And that’s kind of where we are with the economy.” — Maria Aspen
Inflation is lower than its pandemic-era peaks but is ticking up.
Trump’s tariffs may drive prices higher.
Recent Labor Department data revisions show hiring was weaker than previously believed, especially in Biden’s last year.
Warning signals abound, notably in the jobs market.
President Trump has openly and repeatedly pressured Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates dramatically.
Quote [02:58]:
“He has taken to calling Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell ‘too late, Powell.’ … It isn’t just the President verbally berating the Fed chairman, it goes to the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency… accusing the Fed chair of all kinds of nefarious things.” — Tamara Keith
Trump has involved allies to accuse Powell and board member Lisa Cook of wrongdoing, with Cook’s attempted dismissal turning into a legal fight.
Why the Rate Cut?
“Jerome Powell would deny that it was at all about the President’s pressure campaign…. The rate cut… was pretty expected, widely expected.” — Maria Aspen
Voting Details
“The fact that they voted with the consensus… was a little bit reassuring that whatever President Trump’s pressure campaign, the Fed mostly appears to be sticking to its independent guns.” — Maria Aspen
Consumer & Business Impact
“They might be feeling it on the margins and on some of the smaller loans like credit cards, for example, or car loans... mortgages are not directly related to what the Fed does.” — Maria Aspen
Government Debt
“President Trump, one of the reasons he has argued that he wants rates lowered is because there’s a huge amount of government debt... If rates are lower, then the debt is cheaper.” — Tamara Keith
Attempted Firing of Lisa Cook
“The basic argument... is that, yes, the Fed is supposed to be independent… but President Trump’s Article 2 power is supreme, and that all of these independent… agencies… are part of the executive branch. The president… should be able to hire and fire whoever he wants.” — Tamara Keith
Stephen Myron’s Controversial Appointment
“It is... Especially because while Myron is taking an unpaid leave of absence, he’s not actually leaving his job at the White House, which really muddies the waters of that independence that the Fed is supposed to have.” — Maria Aspen
Countries with politicized central banks face economic turmoil (e.g., Argentina, Turkey), with inflation and currency collapse.
The U.S. dollar’s centrality means the stakes are global.
Quote [13:01]:
“History shows that it almost never works out well for countries that do not have an independent central bank. ...their currencies do not undergird the global economy to the extent that the US Dollar does.” — Maria Aspen
Politicians have short-term incentives (especially before elections), but the Fed’s mission is long-term stability.
Tariffs Complicate Recovery
“With President Trump’s tariffs, there’s this added layer of complication where the president is enacting policies that are fundamentally weakening the economy.” — Maria Aspen
The episode provides a timely examination of the intersection between politics and economic policy, highlighting mounting concerns about central bank independence amidst intense presidential pressure. Through clear reporting and relatable analogies, the team illuminates how policy decisions at the top filter down to everyday Americans—and why the world is watching what happens next at the Federal Reserve.