Fast Company, September 2025
The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates this week. Rates are currently around 4.25% to 5.5%, but the Federal Reserve is expected to lower the interest rate by a quarter point to 4.00%–4.25%, according to a Reuters poll of 107 economists. Over the past year, the Federal Reserve Bank has avoided cutting interest rates. Higher rates help curb inflation by making it more expensive to borrow money. In turn, this incentivizes people not to spend, which slows down price increases.
Trump has been pressuring Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates, while asserting that inflation is a nonissue. (According to a new Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, as of August consumer prices increased by 2.9% since last year: higher than the Fed’s goal of 2%.) “Could somebody please inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the Housing Industry, very badly?” Trump wrote on Truth Social on August 19. “People can’t get a Mortgage because of him. There is no Inflation, and every sign is pointing to a major Rate Cut.”
Unemployment is also on the rise, which means a rate cut could be important for stimulating job growth. On Thursday, the Labor Department saw a surge in unemployment filings, with 263,000, the highest number since October 2021. Moreover, the Labor Department recently revised its data, reporting that the U.S. added 911,000 less jobs than previously reported.
