Month: October 2025

• Year-over-year inflation rose to 3.0% in September from 2.9%, just below the forecast.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics hasn’t published other key data releases during the government shutdown.
• The Federal Reserve’s next rate decision, informed by data like inflation, is next week.

The year-over-year inflation rate heated up to 3.0% in September, back to where it stood in January.

Economists expected last month’s rate to be 3.1% after an uptick to 2.9% in August.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics was supposed to publish September’s consumer price index report on October 15, but the release was delayed when the government shut down on October 1. The shutdown, which is now the second-longest in US history, has affected the compensation and employment of many federal workers and some agencies’ operations.

The BLS’s jobs report wasn’t published earlier this month due to the shutdown and hasn’t been rescheduled. The Fed is meeting on October 28 and October 29 to discuss rates, and given the lack of official data, they may use private data releases and previous jobs reports to understand how the labor market has been performing.

While the full picture of the job market remains murky, today’s CPI report at least gives Fed members some insight into prices. The Social Security Administration will also be able to use the fresh inflation figures to calculate and announce the annual cost-of-living adjustment for benefits.

The Fed cut rates for the first time this year in September, providing some relief to Americans’ wallets, and is expected to make another rate cut. CME FedWatch showed an overwhelming probability of a 25-basis-point cut next week and a slim chance that the range will be held steady.

“In our view, the Fed is increasingly focused on supporting the labor market, especially as inflation risks appear transitory and tariff-driven,” a note from global financial services company Raymond James before the latest CPI report said.

Large companies and small businesses have been figuring out whether to increase prices, reduce head count, and make other business changes due to tariffs and economic uncertainty.

Median inflation expectations for one year ahead increased for the third straight time in a New York Fed survey, rising from 3.2% in August to 3.4% in September.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• Palmer Luckey says he would join the show “Survivor” if given the chance.
• Luckey, who founded Anduril and Oculus, says he applies to be on the show every year.
• He doubts he’d win if he did get on the show, however, due to his billionaire status.

Palmer Luckey just wants to survive.

The Anduril founder said he told his investors that there’s only one thing that could ever distract him from running his nearly $31 billion defense tech startup: the hit reality show “Survivor.”

“If I ever get on ‘Survivor,’ I’m going to go on it. I’m going to disappear for six weeks to a beautiful island in Fiji and compete in a variety of intellectual and physical challenges,” he told Bari Weiss, the founder of The Free Press who was just hired to be the new editor in chief of CBS News.

His investors, he added, “can’t say anything.” Luckey said he told them that if he were ever on the show, they couldn’t fire him, lord it over him, or make funny jokes about it.

He said he requested that flexibility eight years ago. He still hasn’t had a chance to get on the show, but he said he applies every year.

The 33-year-old founded the virtual reality company Oculus VR in 2012 and sold it to Meta 2 years later for $2 billion. He founded Anduril Industries in 2017, which has since won several government contracts to develop autonomous weapons. In March, it scored a 10-year, $642 million contract with the US Marine Corps for anti-drone defenses geared toward fighting smaller drones.

All this success, however, might prove troublesome for Luckey if he ever managed to land a spot on “Survivor.”

“I don’t think I can win because I’m too rich,” he told Weiss. That’s because no matter how low he kept his profile, his identity would almost certainly be revealed by someone, at some point, he said.

“What jury, in their right mind, is going to vote for a billionaire to get a million dollars,” he said, referring to the group that casts a vote to determine the show’s ultimate winner every season.

Luckey said the other contestants are likely to seem more deserving of the prize money than him.