{"id":211056,"date":"2025-10-09T06:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211056\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T06:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:24:11","slug":"fed-minutes-most-officials-supported-further-rate-cuts-as-worries-about-jobs-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211056\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed minutes: Most officials supported further rate cuts as worries about jobs rose"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Most members of the Federal Reserve\u2019s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, according to minutes<\/a> from last month\u2019s meeting released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A majority of Fed officials felt that the risk unemployment would rise had worsened since their previous meeting in July, while the risk of rising inflation \u201chad either diminished or not increased,\u201d the minutes said. As a result, the central bank decided at its Sept. 16-17 meeting<\/a> to reduce its key rate by a quarter-point to about 4.1%, its first cut this year.<\/p>\n

Rate cuts by the Fed can gradually lower borrowing costs for things like mortgages, auto loans, and business loans, encouraging more spending and hiring.<\/p>\n

Still, the minutes underscored the deep division on the 19-person committee between those who feel that the Fed\u2019s short-term rate is too high and weighing on the economy, and those who point to persistent inflation that remains above the central bank\u2019s 2% target as evidence that the Fed needs to be cautious about reducing rates. <\/p>\n

Only one official formally dissented from the quarter-point cut: Stephen Miran, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and was approved by the Senate<\/a> just hours before the meeting began. He supported a larger, half-point cut instead. <\/p>\n

But the minutes noted that \u201ca few\u201d policymakers said they could have supported keeping rates unchanged, or said that \u201cthere was merit\u201d in such a step. <\/p>\n

The differences help explain Chair Jerome Powell\u2019s statements during the news conference that followed the meeting: \u201cThere are no risk-free paths now. It\u2019s not incredibly obvious what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miran said in remarks Tuesday that he thinks inflation will steadily decline back toward the Fed\u2019s 2% target, despite Trump\u2019s tariffs, and as a result he doesn\u2019t think the Fed\u2019s rate needs to be nearly as high as it is. Rental costs are steadily declining and will bring down inflation, he said, while tariff revenue will reduce the government\u2019s budget deficit and reduce longer-term interest rates, which gives the Fed more room to cut.<\/p>\n

Yet many other Fed officials remain concerned about stubbornly high inflation, the minutes showed. Jeffrey Schmid, president of the Federal Reserve\u2019s Kansas City branch, said in a speech Monday that \u201cinflation is too high\u201d and argued that the Fed should keep rates high enough to cool demand and prevent inflation from worsening.<\/p>\n

And Austan Goolsbee, president of the Fed\u2019s Chicago branch, said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press that he supported a cautious approach toward more cuts, and wanted to see evidence that inflation would cool further. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am a little uneasy with front loading rate cuts, presuming that those upticks in inflation will just go away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The minutes provide insight into how the Fed\u2019s policymakers were thinking last month about inflation, interest rates, and hiring. Since then, however, the federal government shutdown has cut off the flow of economic data<\/a> that the Fed relies on to inform its decisions. The September jobs report wasn\u2019t issued as scheduled last Friday, and if the shutdown continues, it could also delay the release of the inflation report set for next Wednesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Most members of the Federal Reserve\u2019s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,157,109,8877,6498,1904,12478,793,2402,97416,2938,6946,59740,795],"class_list":{"0":"post-211056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-economic-policy","11":"tag-federal-reserve-system","12":"tag-finance-business","13":"tag-financial-services","14":"tag-financialbusiness","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-inflation","17":"tag-jeffrey-schmid","18":"tag-jerome-powell","19":"tag-kansas-city","20":"tag-stephen-miran","21":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}