WSJ What’s News - The Fed Saw Risks Shifting in September, Minutes Reveal

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

P.M. Edition for Oct. 8. Minutes from the September meeting of the Federal Reserve offered more details about divisions among the governors and how they are thinking about rate cuts for the rest of this year. But as WSJ chief economics correspondent Nick Timiraos tells us, the government shutdown could complicate the Fed’s balancing act. Plus, as the country’s top drugmakers are set to meet in early December, WSJ White House reporter Annie Linskey discusses how family members of President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are poised to benefit from efforts to remake the industry. And advertisers, who spend tens of millions of dollars per year on digital ads, are pushing tech companies for more transparency around how those digital ads work. We hear from WSJ reporter Patrick Coffee about the proposal and why advertisers are asking for these standards. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former FBI director James Comey pleads not guilty to charges of lying to Congress. Plus, what the minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting reveal about future rate cuts. And why advertisers are asking big tech for more transparency around digital ad sales. The concern is that as more and more of the digital ads that are sold go through these same platforms, that the advertisers themselves and the companies that buy ads on their behalf, as well as the media publishers will have less and less say in what they're ultimately paying for and what they're getting. It's Wednesday, October 8th.

I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. minutes from the Federal Reserve's meeting last month are out today, and they reveal that officials were divided over how much farther they should lower interest rates. For more, I'm joined now by WSJ Chief Economics correspondent, Nick Timrose. Nick, we had talked on the show last month about how that last Fed meeting was kind of a strange one. It was Fed Governor Stephen Myron's first meeting, and it was in the middle of President Trump's effort to get Lisa Cook fired.

Did that tension play out in the minutes? It didn't. And the minutes are normally a fairly sanitized document. They don't paint with bright colors. They paint in different hues of beige. And so they didn't draw a lot of new insights into how the debate is unfolding. The Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates at its next meeting. What did these minutes reveal about how likely that is to happen? So the minutes show that most officials thought it would, quote, likely be appropriate. to ease policy further over the remainder of the year. And this is from the September meeting. There's only three months left in the year. So it's a pretty strong hint that this one interest rate cut was not being considered in isolation from at least one more, if not two more, this year.

And the economic projections that the 19 meeting participants submitted at this meeting showed that a narrow majority expect two more rate. cuts this year based on their current economic outlooks. The lapse in federal government funding last week has postponed major data reports, including the September employment report that was set for release last Friday. How is the Fed handling this changing environment? Officials are flying blind without the main macro data releases. And it's not clear when the government will reopen. It's not clear whether we'll have that data in hand before the next meeting.

There's always inertia in these Fed policy decisions, but now it makes it even harder to change whatever you were going to do because there isn't a lot of the highest quality data. That was WSJ Chief Economics Correspondent, Nick Timrose. Thanks, Nick. Thanks for having me. As the record-breaking run in gold continues, a rally in tech stocks helped lift major U.S. indexes, though they ended the day mixed. NASDAQ added 1.1%, the S&P 500 was up 0.6%, and the Dow stayed flat. Online prescription drug delivery company BlinkRX will be hosting a summit for the country's top drug makers in early December. Among those expected to be in attendance are Donald Trump Jr., who was this year installed as a board member of BlinkRX,

and senior Trump administration officials that regulate the pharmaceutical industry. WSJ White House reporter Annie Linsky joins me now with more. Annie, you mentioned in your story that BlinkRX, as well as family members of President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, stand to benefit from a shake-up of how patients buy drugs. How does that work? The story that we did details how the children of President Trump and also of Commerce Secretary Lutnik are both positioning themselves in different ways to benefit from policy changes that their parents, are doing to the pharmaceutical industry. President Trump, his son, Donald Trump, Jr., is on the board of BlinkRX. And this company helps pharmaceutical companies set up direct to consumer sales. Pharmaceutical companies are in the business of research and development, creating drugs,

and they don't all sell directly to consumers. But President Trump has been very clear that he wants that to change, and he wants these pharmaceutical companies to offer this ability. And in comes BlinkRX, which is the company, Donald Trump Jr. is on the board of. They do that service, and they have been pitching it to various pharmaceutical companies. They're also doing a summit, which is unusual to have the president's son convening the president's top cabinet members, tap aids with the very drug makers that those AIDS regulate. So it raises questions of a potential appearance of a conflict of interest. The event is hosted by a number of other firms. What have the various stakeholders said about this. What White House has said is the president

has been clear. The president wants pharmaceutical companies to be selling at the lowest prices to consumers directly, and they don't care how that's done. Howard Lutnik's children have a financial stake in a company that stands to benefit and is trying to benefit from this sea change to the pharmaceutical industry that their father is pushing. The Commerce Department says that Lutnik is adhering to a strict ethics agreement that he made not to mix business with his work. And so they see no concern here. That was WSJ White House reporter Annie Linsky.

Thanks, Annie. We should also note that in a statement to the journal, Trump Jr. said that the article amounts to an innuendo smear and accused the paper of pursuing the story at the behest of pharmaceutical industry advertisers. In other news, former FBI director James Comey pleaded not guilty today to making a false statement and obstructing a congressional proceeding. This was Comey's first court appearance after he was charged last. month in a criminal case that President Trump publicly demanded be brought against one of his prominent critics. The judge set a January 5th start date for trial, which both sides agreed would last two to three days. Comey spoke just once during the 30-minute hearing, acknowledging that he understood the charges against him. And President Trump has escalated his battle with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, posting on social media that the Democratic

leaders should be imprisoned for failing to protect ICE officers. Trump didn't specify what laws Johnson or Pritzker allegedly broke. Responding on social media, Johnson said he's not going anywhere. Pritzker told MSNBC that Trump is a, quote, want-to-be dictator. Coming up, how do digital ads really work? Why advertisers want more transparency after the break. We're exclusively reporting that some of the advertising industry's largest players have joined forces to propose new standards for transparency in the digital auctions that increasingly dominate ad sales. These auctions determined which ads show up when someone opens a website, conducts a search, plays a video, or scrolls through a social media feed.

Patrick Coffey covers advertising for the journal and joins me now. Patrick, what is the problem that these players are trying to address? The problem is that advertisers spend tens of millions of dollars with the biggest digital ad platforms every year. But they don't really know how their money is being processed. They don't know how the platforms determine how much they spend for ads. They don't know how the auctions determine which bidder on a given ad unit wins that ad. So what are they asking for in terms of a change? They're asking for all digital auction runners to voluntarily submit to audits about the transparency that they provide to both ad sellers and ad buyers.

So essentially, they want them to say, this is the kind of auction that we run. This is how we determine the prices for the ads that we're selling. And this is how we figure out which of the many parties that are. bidding on a given ad unit will win that unit. Take it from the perspective of the Wall Street Journal. Often when a visitor will click on a journal ad or when they'll see us in their TikTok feed and then scroll to the next post, they'll see an ad. And these auctions determine in a fraction of a second which ad will show up in that space. And they'll have multiple parties or agencies on behalf of brands bidding to win that ad space. Each different platform that sells ads has a different

way of going about it. And it's just not completely clear to the people who are buying those ads how it all works. The concern is that as more and more of the digital ads that are sold go through these same platforms, that the advertisers themselves, and the companies that buy ads on their behalf, as well as the media publishers that sell those ads, will have less and less say in what they're ultimately paying for and what they're getting. That was WSJ reporter, Patrick Coffey. Thank you, Patrick. Thanks, Alex.

General Motors said today that it is backing off a controversial plan to use its in-house auto finance company to effectively extend the federal $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit beyond its September 30th expiration. Late last month, GM and crosstown rival Ford used their finance companies to make down payments on many EVs in dealer inventory, hoping to claim the $7,500 tax credit and pass it onto consumers later in the form of lower lease payments. A GM spokesman said that customers will still get the benefit of the $7,500 discount for leases that start by the end of October, but the company will fund the incentive without claiming the tax

credit. Ford didn't immediately comment on what it has been doing to claim the credits or whether it is changing course. Federal authorities have arrested a 29-year-old man accused of sparking a California blaze on New Year's Day that eventually became the Palisades Fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and killed a dozen people. California leaders said the suspect's arrest represented a significant development in closure and justice for the thousands of people affected by the fire. And finally, Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yagi were awarded the Nobel Prize

in Chemistry for developing a new form of molecular architecture called metal-organic frameworks. The structures can harvest water from desert air, capturing carbon dioxide, store toxic gases, or catalyze chemical reactions. And that's what's news for this Wednesday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienname and Rodney Davis with supervising producer Michael Cosmedes. I'm Alex Oslo for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.