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Expert Warns Small Interest Rate Cut 'Will Do Little to Address Trump's Economic Turmoil'
"Trump promised to lower prices on day one and be 'the champion of the American worker,' yet his economic agenda has delivered higher prices, a stalled job market, and sluggish growth," said another economist.
Sep 17, 2025
As working-class Americans contend with a stalled labor market and rising prices under US President Donald Trump, economist Alex Jacquez warned Wednesday that the Federal Reserve's "small rate cut will do little to address Trump's economic turmoil."
"Driven by a stagnant job market, the Fed's move offers no real relief to American households, consumers, or workers—all of whom are paying the price for Trump's economic mismanagement," said Jacquez, who previously served as a special assistant to former President Barack Obama and is now chief of policy and advocacy at the think tank Groundwork Collaborative. "No interest rate tweak can undo that damage."
Jacquez's colleague Liz Pancotti, managing director of policy and advocacy at Groundwork, similarly said Wednesday that "President Trump promised to lower prices on day one and be 'the champion of the American worker,' yet his economic agenda has delivered higher prices, a stalled job market, and sluggish growth. He's leaving families and workers high and dry—and no move by the Fed will save them."
The president has been pressuring the US central bank to slash its benchmark interest rate, taking aim at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump appointed during his first term. Powell remained in the post under former Democratic President Joe Biden.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to lower the federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage points, from 4.25-4.5% to 4-4.25%. It is the first cut since December 2024, and Powell said the decision reflects a "shift in the balance of risks" to the Fed's dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment.
Daniel Hornung, who held economic policy roles during the Obama and Biden administrations and is now a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said in a statement that "beyond the Fed's September cut, the main story from the Fed's projections is a cloudy outlook for the economy and monetary policy over the rest of the year."
The cut came after Trump ally Stephen Miran was sworn in to a seat on the Fed's Board of Governors on Tuesday—which made this FOMC gathering "the most politically charged meeting in recent memory," as Politico reported.
The new appointee "was the only Fed official to dissent from the decision," the outlet noted. "Miran called for twice as large a cut in borrowing costs, and the Fed's economic projections suggest that one official—likely Miran—would support jumbo-sized rate cuts at the next two meetings as well—an estimate that is conspicuously lower than the other 18 estimates."
Hornung highlighted that "an equal number of members favor hiking, no further cuts, or one cut to the number of members who favor two more cuts, and one outlier member—presumably, President Trump's current Council of Economic Advisers chair—favors the equivalent of five cuts."
"Besides Miran’s outlier status, which sends concerning signals about continued Fed independence," he added, "the wide range of views on the committee is a reaction to the real risks that tariff and immigration policy pose to both sides of the Fed's mandate."
Federal immigration agents across the United States are working to deliver on Trump's promised mass deportations, despite warnings of the human and economic impacts of rounding up immigrants living and working in the country. The president is also engaged in a global trade war, imposing tariffs that have driven up prices for a range of goods.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced last week that overall inflation rose by 2.9% year-over-year in August and core inflation rose by 3.1%. Jacquez said at the time: "Make no mistake, inflation is accelerating and American families continue to feel price pressures across the board from children's clothing, to groceries, to autos. Rate cuts will not ease the inescapable financial pain that the Trump economy is inflicting on households across the nation."
That came less than a week after BLS revealed in its first jobs report since Trump fired the agency's commissioner that the US economy added only 22,000 jobs in August, and the number of jobs created in July and June were once again revised downward.
Jacquez had called that report "more evidence that Trump’s promises to working families have fallen flat."
Recent polling has also exposed how working people are suffering under Trump's second administration. One survey—conducted by Data for Progress for Groundwork and Protect Borrowers—shows that "American families are trapped in a cycle of debt," with 55% of likely voters reporting at least some credit card debt, and another 18% saying they “had this type of debt in the past, but not anymore.”
The poll, released last week, also found that over half have or previously had car loan or medical debt, more than 40% have or had student debt, and over 35% are or used to be behind on utility payments. Additionally, nearly 30% have or had “buy now, pay later” debt through options such as Afterpay or Klarna.
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'Corporate Greed Is Out of Control': Tlaib-Sanders Bill Would Tax Companies for Excessive CEO Pay
"At a time of record-breaking income and wealth inequality, we must demand that the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America finally pay their fair share of taxes," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Sep 16, 2025
With the world's richest person, Tesla CEO and Republican megadonor Elon Musk, on the cusp of becoming the first trillionaire on the planet, two leading progressive lawmakers are calling on Congress to pass a bill to "rein in the obscene salaries of America's top executives."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Monday introduced the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act with the aim of raising taxes on companies that pay their executives more than 50 times their workers' wages.
The legislation would impose penalties starting at 0.5 percentage points for companies with CEO-to-worker pay ratios between 50-to-1 and 100-to-1. Firms where executives make more than 500 times their workers' pay would be forced to pay the highest rate.
The bill would also require the US Treasury Department to crack down on tax avoidance, including schemes that disguise pay disparities by outsourcing jobs to contractors.
Sanders said that exorbitant CEO pay and massive pay gaps at corporations are intolerable "while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and millions work longer hours for lower wages."
"It is unacceptable that the CEOs of the largest low-wage corporations make more than 630 times what their average workers make," said the senator, who has been criss-crossing the country this year with his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, galvanizing people in red and blue districts against wealth inequality, political corruption, and corporate power.
"This is not only morally obscene, but also insane economic policy," said Sanders. "At a time of record-breaking income and wealth inequality, we must demand that the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America finally pay their fair share of taxes and treat all employees with the respect and dignity they deserve. That’s precisely what this legislation begins to do."
The proposal would raise an estimated $150 billion over a decade if tech giants, Wall Street firms, and other large corporations continue their current compensation patterns, and Sanders and Tlaib noted that the largest companies in the US would have paid billions of dollars more in taxes last year had the legislation been in effect.
JPMorgan Chase would have paid $2.38 billion in taxes, while Google would have paid $2.16 billion and Walmart would have paid $929 million.
With 62% of Republican voters and 75% of Democrats supporting a cap on CEO pay relative to worker salaries, the legislation would likely be well received by Americans across the political spectrum—but Republican lawmakers have shown little to no interest in confronting the pay gap, ensuring fair wages for workers, or reining in excessive executive compensation.
With the current CEO-employee pay gap, CEOs at the 350 largest publicly owned firms make 290 times more than the average pay of a typical worker at their companies, with the gap much larger at some corporations.
The median Walmart worker made $29,469 in 2024, while CEO Doug McMillon took home $27.4 million—a 930-to-1 gap.
The median Starbucks worker would have to work for more than 6,000 years to earn the pay CEO Brian Niccol took home in 2024.
"Working people are sick and tired of corporate greed," said Tlaib. “It’s disgraceful that corporations continue to rake in record profits by exploiting the labor of their workers. Every worker deserves a living wage and human dignity on the job."
"It’s time," she added, "to make the rich pay their fair share.”
Tlaib and Sanders introduced the legislation as Pope Leo spoke out against exorbitant CEO pay in his first interview since taking the helm of the Catholic Church, reserving particular condemnation for Musk, for whom the Tesla board proposed a $1 trillion pay package if he grows the company by eightfold over the next decade.
“CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving... it’s [now] 600 times more than the average workers are receiving,” the pope told the Catholic outlet Crux.
“Yesterday, the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world: What does that mean and what’s that about?" he added. "If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.”
Sanders said Monday that the pope "is exactly right."
"No society can survive when one man becomes a trillionaire while the vast majority struggle to just survive—trying to put food on the table, pay rent, and afford healthcare," said Sanders. "We can and must do better."
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Hundreds Arrested in France at Anti-Austerity 'Block Everything' Protests
"We're fed up with paying, we're working hard, we're barely managing to keep our heads above water and to think that the hole in the deficit would be our fault is unbearable to hear," said one labor representative.
Sep 10, 2025
On his first full day in office Wednesday, newly appointed French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu was greeted with nationwide protests, organized online by the decentralized "Block Everything" movement, with demonstrators condemning the government's austerity measures that they said would likely be continued by the new leader.
Lecornu, the former defense minister and a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, was hand-picked by the president to succeed outgoing Prime Minister François Bayrou two days after Bayrou lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly over the government's plan to cut the federal budget by over $50 billion.
Bayrou had proposed eliminating two national holidays, freezing pensions for 2026, and cutting billions in health investments to reduce the deficit.
The proposals have intensified anger that's already been brewing over inequality and poverty in France, both of which are on the rise according to the country's statistics bureau.
Research by the EU Tax Observatory has shown that ultrawealthy individuals in France pay an effective income tax rate of about 0.1%; the National Assembly voted in favor of a 2% minimum tax on wealth exceeding €100 million, or $117 million, earlier this year, but the measure was rejected by the Senate.
Eric Challal, a representative of SUD Rail-Paris, one of two unions that joined the protests on Wednesday, told Euronews that the anger "being expressed today is what we've been feeling all summer, fed up and angry since the Bayrou budget plan was announced, asking us to work more."
"We're fed up with paying, we're working hard, we're barely managing to keep our heads above water and to think that the hole in the deficit would be our fault is unbearable to hear," added Challal.
A university student named Thomas told the outlet that "it's time for Macron and politicians to understand we are serious."
"We're angry with the political system and the fact that the ultrarich and corporations are not paying enough taxes," he said.
The protests included demonstrations at train stations such as Gare du Nord in Paris, one of Europe's busiest travel hubs, where several hundred people gathered Wednesday morning and chants of "Step down, Macron" rang out. Police officers, 6,000 of whom have been deployed in Paris alone to quell the unrest, fired tear gas at the protesters, with some travelers caught in the chaotic scene.
Demonstrators set garbage cans on fire and attempted to block highway traffic in eastern Paris, while police clashed with dozens of students who had blocked the entry of a high school in the area.
The decentralized "Block Everything" movement was organized largely on social media and was originally embraced by far-right activists before garnering the support of progressive France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and left-wing groups including labor unions, which are also planning broader workers' strikes for September 18.
Demands listed in one document that's circulated online include strengthening public services, fighting media consolidation, and taxing the richest corporations, and a survey by the left-wing Jean-Jaurès Foundation found that a majority of people involved with the movement were "educated, highly politicized and angry far-left sympathizers," according to The New York Times.
A recent poll by Ipsos showed that 46% of French people support Block Everything, with strong backing from left-wing voters as well as more than half of far-right National Rally supporters.
Outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Wednesday morning that "law enforcement has the order to not tolerate any violence, any vandalism, any blockage, any occupation of our nation's essential infrastructure." A total of about 80,000 officers were deployed across the country to respond to the demonstrations, and more than 200 people were arrested.
Though Bayrou is no longer in power, Marine Tondelier, the leader of the French Green Party, told the BFMTV news channel on Tuesday that Macron's choice of Lecornu to serve as the new prime minister was a "provocation" that showed a "total lack of respect" for French voters who remain distrustful of Macron's government.
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