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Friday, October 31, 2025Fed Issues Second Straight Interest Rate Cut
The Federal Reserve went months without dropping its key interest rate in 2023 and 2024. Now it has cut the rate for the second straight meeting. On Wednesday, the Fed cut its key interest rate for a second time this year, bringing the rate down to about 3.9%, from about 4.1%. as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. “Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remained low through August,” the Fed said in a statement issued
Friday, October 31, 2025Federal Shutdown Could Cost Economy $14 Billion, CBO Says
If the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is right, the U.S. economy stands to lose somewhere between $7 billion and $14 billion because of the federal government shutdown. In a report released Wednesday, the CBO – Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper – said federal workers missing paychecks and the interruption of food benefits for low-income Americans are expected to temporarily lower gross domestic product by 1 to 2 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2025, the Washington Post reported. Output
Friday, October 31, 2025Fed Reduces Rate to Under 4% For the First Time Since 2022
Key Takeaways: The Fed cut the target rate a quarter percent at their October 29 decision, as expected.The Fed also announced an end to balance sheet runoff a.k.a. Quantitative Tightening (“QT”) on Dec 1st.In the post-decision press conference, Chair Powell was noncommittal about whether the Fed would cut again at its next decision in December. Even so, Comerica continues to see an additional cut then as likely.Economic growth has likely hit an air pocket in the fourth quarter of this year, but should
Friday, October 31, 2025Amazon Ramping Up AI, Cutting 14,000 Corporate Jobs
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said earlier this year he anticipated at generative AI would reduce the company’s corporate workforce in the next few years. That process has apparently started. The Associated Press is reporting that Amazon will cut some 14,000 corporate jobs while ramping up spending on artificial intelligence and cutting costs in other areas. Since 2024 started, Amazon has committed to about $10 billion apiece to data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina while building
Friday, October 31, 2025U.S. Retailers Running Short on Pennies
In the movie “Grease,” there’s an old adage used: “See a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck.” That may be happening a lot less often these days. President Donald Trump decided earlier this year to stop minting pennies, a decision that appears to have banks and retailers scrambling. Merchants in many areas of the country have run out of pennies and are unable to produce exact change, according to a report from The Associated Press. Banks are unable to order fresh pennies and are
Thursday, October 30, 2025Tariff Policies Raising Expenses for Small Businesses
The cost of doing business is becoming particularly expensive for many small business owners who don’t have the volume of business that can help overcome margin challenges caused by increased expenses from tariffs. Some entrepreneurs have been forced to raise their prices to reflect their additional expenses, causing a trickle-down effect that impacts consumers. A majority of the women’s clothing and accessories carried by Detroit-based retailer The Peacock Room are made overseas, so the impact of tariffs
