Claire Jones

Now, lower interest rates mean more demand.

That means more output in the US economy.

And without that increased demand and the boost that interest rates are going to give you, economists are predicting both at the Fed and elsewhere that

something like $200 billion in lost output.

You know, I'm not a politics reporter, but it's certainly my impression that the affordability crisis was something that hit the Democrats very hard in 2024.

And in light of that, I'd be very surprised if it doesn't impact Republicans again at the polls for the midterms in November.

Thanks, Mark.

Hi, Sonia.

So the Department of Justice said it needed to investigate Fed Chair Jay Powell's handling of

of a 2.5 billion renovation of the Fed's headquarters.

They said they were looking into whether or not he'd misled Congress over the project, which has cost overruns of around $700 million.

However, Powell denied the allegations and went as far as to say what the probe was actually about was pressure from the Trump administration for Fed officials such as himself to cut US borrowing costs.

There was this dramatic reversal, of course, that we saw on Friday.

And what that really spoke to was just an appreciation from the White House that the

They were not going to get Powell out of the job of Fed chair and Trump's pick to replace him, Kevin Walsh, in on time unless this probe went away.

I think it almost certainly does.

Tillis did have the blocking vote on the Senate Banking Committee.

They'll now vote on Wednesday and probably vote in favor of Walsh moving to a vote on the Senate floor.

The sense we're getting is that all of the Republicans who had objections to Walsh

Those objections were really centering on the probe.