Today marks the first rise in interest rates in over three years for the Federal Reserve. The central bank is anticipated to increase its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point, pushing it into a range of 3.75% to 4%. That move will lift borrowing costs for people buying cars, businesses seeking to expand, and those carrying credit card debt.
This afternoon, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is scheduled to address reporters to explain the decision, with other rate-setting committee members also sharing their own individual forecasts for what comes next.
The Kennedy Center vote
The Kennedy Center’s board of directors voted yesterday to close the arts complex. The decision followed a federal judge blocking a plan to put President Trump’s name on the building or its grounds.
The president has promised to call off the building’s planned makeover unless a higher court overturns the decision to add his name. A memo the board got over the weekend covered only physical matters, leaving the particulars of the programming untouched.
The board intends to relocate its two major events, the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize, to new venues while keeping its backing for the National Symphony Orchestra. According to NPR’s Anastasia Tsioulcas, it is still not known how these shifts will be carried out.
This situation raises nearly as many questions as it has answers.
Iran war costs
According to reports from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Pentagon Inspector General, the Iran war has led to significant destruction at U.S. bases and a shortage of American arms. These two reports both originate from independent, nonpartisan agencies.
An estimated 60 U.S. aircraft have been destroyed, with roughly 30 Reaper drones among them, each worth at least $30 million. The war is estimated to have cost more than $30 billion, though that figure does not account for the expense of repairing damaged U.S. bases.
NPR’s Greg Myre says the Congressional Budget Office tried to obtain these estimates from the Pentagon and failed to get an answer. The CBO estimates that if the United States keeps a substantial military presence while engaging in little fighting against Iran, the war could end up costing between $2 billion and $3 billion per month.
Birth control access
Two reproductive policy groups, Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute, have produced updated county-level maps showing where women lack easy access to affordable birth control. Their new analysis finds that 21.4 million women in the U.S. who need subsidized contraception live in counties with limited access. The two organizations issued the maps as revised versions of an earlier contraception desert map first published by Power to Decide in 2017.
Megan Kavanaugh, principal data researcher at Guttmacher, says there’s reason to believe the current picture is already worse than what these maps show.
Since 2020-2023, numerous clinics have shut down, and the loss continues. Federal Title X grant distributions have shifted, and some of these changes appear tied to opposition to abortion, which could cause even more clinics to close.
Junk fees in real estate
When you purchase a house, you may find yourself charged with junk fees. These charges have existed for decades and come with various labels, including document fees and storage fees. While they represent just a small part of the total cost of buying a home, they arrive all at once at closing rather than being divided across monthly payments like a mortgage.
Commissions on home sales can easily exceed $10,000, and real estate agents say those fees are too high. The agents earn the money from sales, and usually split it with their brokerage. The brokerage companies then charge the agents fees, which the agents generally pass along to the people buying homes.
Buyers need to stay alert from start to finish, since these charges can be slipped in without adequate notice, frequently just days or even hours before the deal closes.
Each year, according to the Consumer Policy Center’s estimate, buyers and sellers together pay roughly $2 billion in junk fees.
What this means for the Kennedy Center
The board voted to close, yet Tsioulcas’s line captures the whole situation: nearly as many questions as answers. What happens to the orchestra, where the Honors and Twain Prize will move, and whether the building stays open at all remain unclear.
The judge’s ruling on Trump’s name blocked the naming plan. The board voted to close. The president vowed to cancel the renovation unless a higher court reverses the ruling.
A federal judge’s ruling, a presidential threat and a board vote to shut down operations all now sit on top of this building. What comes next remains unclear.
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