The Indicator from Planet Money - The Fed cuts rates, America's FICO dips, and forever ends for sweepstakes winners

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

It’s … Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at some of the most fascinating economic numbers from the news. On today’s show: A rate cut and drama at the Federal Reserve, the average American gets a little less creditworthy, and those giant check sweepstakes winners? Well, they might have to get a job soon. Related episodes: Why an aggressive rate cut could backfire on Trump Trump's unprecedented attack on the Fed What goes into a credit score? For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. I'm Adrian Ma. And joining us today is a little surprise guest, producer Cooper Katz McKim. I am here. I have ascended to the highest level. Darian Woods, I've taken his role.

Oh, doing the accent work. You know, I don't think people will know the difference. We'll find out. No, I just said who I was. Well, Adrian and Cooper, this is a special day, not just because Cooper is here filling in. It is Indicators of the Week. Ah, the crowd goes wild. We have looked at interesting numbers in the news this week, and we're here to tell you all about them.

Today on the show, the Federal Reserve finally cuts interest rates. America's credit score goes down, and sweepstakes winners may have to go get a day job. That is after the bryke. It is Indicators of the Week. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates this week for the first time since December. The rate cut was a quarter of a percentage point. And there was one member of the Fed Committee that dissented. This person wanted a bigger half-point cut.

And that, my friends, is my indicator. Half a percentage point. Yeah. And it is no mystery who the dissenting governor was. Exactly. It was Stephen Myron. he is the newest member of the Fed committee that votes a monetary policy. And he's a Trump appointee who just joined the Fed, as in he was confirmed on Monday,

and then the Fed's meeting started on Tuesday. We just did an episode this week about how Trump wants more aggressive rate cuts. He's been attacking the independence of the Fed. Trump basically wants the whole committee to vote like Myron. Yeah. And what's interesting is that in the previous Fed meeting, when they held rates steady, there were two dissenters, both Trump appointees. They both wanted a rate cut.

This time around, those two officials voted with the rest of the group. That left Myron as the lone dissenter and the one calling for a bigger cut. So there's definitely like more tension, I would say, than your typical Fed rate announcement. What's weird about the situation, though, is that Myron also seems to be still moonlighting at the White House. Yeah. He's taken an unpaid leave from the Council of Economic Advisors, but he hasn't fully resigned, which is unprecedented. And speaking of unprecedented, we haven't even gotten to the Lisa Cook situation yet. I know, there is so much going on. So just to give you a quick recap, Lisa Cook is a Fed governor that the Trump administration is trying to fire. It accused her of mortgage fraud. She sued Trump over her firing. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and other media outlets have reviewed mortgage documents with details that contradict the White House's allegations. And this week, a federal appeals court backed up a lower court ruling allowing her to stay on as governor while the lawsuit plays out. So this one really came down to the wire too. but she got to vote in this meeting.

And then yesterday after the rate decision, the Trump administration made an emergency request to the Supreme Court. I've got the popcorn ready. I mean, we've got two more Fed decisions before the end of the year, and I feel like both of them are just going to be like, hold on to your butts.

And with that news, Adrian, your indicator. My indicator of the week comes from FICO, which is the company behind the FICO credit score. And before I tell you the number that I have chosen. Does anyone actually know what FICO stands for? I do actually. It's freshly indigo, calico orange. Nice. You're welcome. Try, but that's wrong. It is, it actually stands for Fair Isaac Corporation, which I just learned this morning. After a very fair Isaac. Actually, after two guys, one name Bill Fair and the other name Earl Isaac. Back to my indicator, according to a new report from the

Fair Isaac Corporation. The national average credit score is 715. That is my indicator, 715. Okay. Well, for an average, this seems, honestly, I thought the average would have been lower than this. I would have thought of, you know, something in the 600s. And me too, actually.

But the real story here is not just the score. It's that the score has come down a couple of points since last year. And FICO says there are a couple of of things going on here that are dragging down the nation's credit score. So the big one that they highlight is student loans. So a lot of people know student loans were put on pause during the pandemic. Those loan payments were resumed in October 2023. And after about a year-long grace period, the people who fell way behind on their payments are now starting to see those delinquencies reported on their credit reports. And according to FICO, about six,

Six million borrowers this year saw their credit scores drop by about 70 points because of this. That's kind of terrifying. Yeah, so that's a pretty substantial hit to a person's credit score, but it's also not the only thing that is affecting the nation's credit score as a whole. So other things that go into calculating a credit score include things like whether people are keeping up with their credit card bills or auto loans or their mortgages. And in each of these categories, the number of delinquencies has actually been rising over the past. four years. Although with credit card delinquencies, those have actually sort of stabilized over the past year, overall, these categories still are not helping America's credit score. Something to watch when it comes to, you know, the health of the everyday person. Okay, Cooper,

what do you got? My indicator is 5,000. That's how much one man has been receiving every week since 2012 as part of winning the publisher's clearinghouse sweepstakes. It's a $5,000 a week for life prize. $5,000 a week? That's so much money. Gosh. You could buy a jet ski a week with that kind of money. It's actually funny.

This guy did buy a jet ski and is literally selling it. For the reason that I'm about to get to. Oh, no. What happens? He and other winners might not be receiving money anymore because publishers clearinghouse filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and they got bought. But the new owners, they are not planning to honor those lifelong prizes. Huh. Oh, gosh.

And now he has to go get a job because he basically got cut off. Like this was his money that he was living on, right? So there are like 10 people who are still owed a lot of money like this guy. The bankruptcy filing estimated the total current value of its promised prizes is still at like $26 million. Huh. And Publishers Clearinghouse does not have that much money. I mean, isn't there a way for prize winners to still get the money somehow? Didn't Publishers Clearing House insure the money that they were supposed to pay?

So once upon a time, they did protect this money a little bit better. Before 2003, the company actually bought prepaid annuities to dole out the cash over time. Okay, so an annuity is a contract, right, between two parties. Yeah. So generally, how it works is a company like Publishers Clearing House would give money to an insurance company over time or in a lump sum. And then that insurance company would guarantee. that they received their income regularly. And what made it even better for publishers clearinghouse is they can put like a million

dollar price tag for their sweepstakes, but the annuity they buy would be less than that because they'd be spacing it out over somebody's lifetime. So more bang for their buck. Older people do this too. Annuities are a common thing to guarantee regular income in retirement. And you're saying that Publishers Clearing House just stopped buying these annuities, but all the way back in like 03 or something. Yeah.

So it's worth mentioning. that bankruptcy isn't settled yet, winners still could get something. But, you know, there's a relevant Seinfeld clip I think we should hear. Wouldn't it be great of a sweepstakes company? Get some guts. Do you know what I mean? Send out the truth to America. Send everyone giant envelopes. You have definitely lost. The envelopes would also say, your credit score has gone down. You owe student loans again. That feels like a poorer use of funds for a sweepstakes company. The giant checks?

That was their whole shtick. Giant checks don't grow on trees these days. It's true. They're hard to come by. Buy that extra thick stock paper. Most of their unsecured creditors are just giant check owners. This episode was produced by Angel Carreras with engineering by Jimmy Keely. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Julia Ritchie.

Cake and Canon is our show's editor and The Indicator is a production of NPR. Thank you.