Jimmy Kimmel Suspended ‘Indefinitely’ & The Fed Finally Cuts Rates

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0:29Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, late night TV descends into further chaos after ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel. Then, surprise, surprise, the Fed cut interest rates, but there was some dissension amongst the ranks. It's Thursday, September 18th. Let's ride.

0:51Good morning and happy Thursday. If you've ever wondered which one of us is taller, me or Toby, you'll never have a better chance to find out than in December when Morning Brew Daily is hosting a live holiday party. This is super exciting. As the year winds down, Toby and I are going to be hosting a big event, bigger than any we've done before, filled with business news shenanigans, guest appearances, pre-show games, and finally meeting hair and makeup. It's going to be an incredible way to send off 2025 and celebrate you all who make this show possible. Toby, tell everyone how they can grab tickets.

1:25Yeah, just selflessly, it's a chance for Neil and I to meet other listeners and laugh and cry while looking back at 2025. Now, how to sign up? We tossed a Ticketmaster link in the show description. Click on that, then enter the pre-sale code LETSRIDE, all one word for early access. Also, this is a holiday party, so it could be a lovely Christmas gift for the MBD-obsessed person in your life. Just trying to help you all get ahead of your Christmas present buying. Can't wait to see you all there. And now a word from our sponsor, Roku. Toby, have you ever wanted to get insights in real time? Yes, like sometimes I wish I had insights into which one of us is better liked in the office.

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2:39Right now, our listeners can get a$500 match on their first$500 spent with code BREW500 at advertising.roku.com slash brew. That's code B-R-E-W 500 at advertising.roku.com slash brew. Terms apply. The media world is in shock after Disney made the abrupt decision last night to pull Jimmy Kimmel's late night show over remarks he made about the murder of Charlie Kirk earlier this week. Celebs were already on their way to Wednesday's taping when the news headlines hit their phones just like everyone else. Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely, an ABC spokesperson said, a remarkable move to suspend one of its biggest stars.

3:22Here's the sequence of events, and yes, it involves political pressure. On Monday night's show, Kimball talked about the Kirk assassination and said, quote, the MAGA gang is desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. He also said of Trump's reaction to the shooting of his friend, this is how a four year old mourns a goldfish. These comments drew conservative outrage and caught the eye of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who said that his agency, which grants broadcast licenses, could revoke ABC affiliate licenses to force ABC parent Disney to punish Kimmel.

3:59ABC's affiliates apparently heard the message loud and clear. And earlier Wednesday, Nexstar and Sinclair, two companies that together own and operate over 60 ABC affiliates, said they would no longer carry Kimmel's show. The president of Nextstar's broadcasting division, Andrew Alford, called Kimmel's comments offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our nation's political discourse. This got Disney HQ on high alert. According to Rolling Stone, multiple execs thought that Kimmel had not crossed the line, but they were worried about retaliation from the Trump administration. So CEO Bob Iger and TV chief Dana Walden made the decision to pull the show.

4:35So, Toby, conservatives see this as a righteous punishment for what they consider beyond the pale comments in the wake of political violence. Free speech advocates and others view Kimball's suspension as another attempt by the Trump administration to manhandle the media into becoming its political mouthpiece. Let's just go down through this hierarchy of distribution once more. So Disney owns the network ABC, but these local broadcasters, like you mentioned, Nextar and Sinclair, they air ABC programming under certain agreements. But then over all of them is the FCC, which grants license to those affiliates.

5:07So the FCC has this power to regulate radio, TV, cable companies, and every broadcaster needs them to kind of sign off on it. And what Brendan Carr has been doing is saying that those licenses come with a legal obligation to, quote, serve the public interest. This is a broad mandate, though, that has never been really narrowly defined, but one that Carr has really taken and run with. So the FCC doesn't necessarily cancel shows directly, but it can put pressure on those affiliates to revoke their license if you don't do what we say. So that is kind of how it kind of filtered down here. And then also the subtext here is that Nextstar, who is this big local TV station operator, is trying to buy its largest rival for$6.2 billion.

5:52And for that to happen, they need some things to fall into line here. the FCC needs to lift a 39 % cap on the number of households one company is permitted to reach through TV station ownership. So that's all the subtext here is that they're trying to play nice with the FCC, which is why potentially that you saw this pressure put on ABC and hence on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Brendan Carr has said some things in the past about what the FCC should do to regulate TV stations. This was in 2019. Should the government censor speech it doesn't like, The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the public interest.

6:27And then back in 2022, he commented specifically on political satire. He said political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion. That's why people in influential positions have always targeted for censorship. That was Brendan Carr in 2019 and 2022. Now we have Brendan Carr in 2025 talking on this podcast just on Wednesday with a right winger, Benny Johnson, saying, frankly, when he sees stuff like this, I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimball, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

7:07And this is not just an isolated instance at all because CBS canceled Colbert's late show for, quote, economic reasons. But that came shortly after Paramount settled a Trump lawsuit. Many saw this as another case of, you know, political and regulatory pressure that was cloaked in this other business rationale. And again, Kimmel ratings probably weren't great either. So maybe people are seeing similar shades of Colbert in this decision as well. So this definitely fits the larger pattern of this Trump era FCC putting pressure on voices in late night. Now, it looks like Jimmy Kimmel may come back at some point.

7:41There's no return date that's been set. But according to multiple reports, Disney is, quote, monitoring the situation and sees a path to the show potentially returning. And then next several days, but truly extraordinary times in the media industry with the Trump administration exerting unprecedented pressure to censor speech that it does not like. Yesterday, Jerome Powell and the Fed did exactly what everyone expected them to and cut rates by 25 basis points, bringing the benchmark rate into the 4 to 4.25 percent range. It was a decision more predictable than Belly ending up with Conrad, as policymakers were all but assured to bring rates down given recent labor market weakness.

8:21It wasn't a unanimous decision, however, as Stephen Myron, the recently Trump-appointed Fed governor, dissented, pushing instead for a larger 50-point cut in line with Trump's perspective that the Fed has moved too slowly to bring rates down. Powell emphasized labor market softness as the central driver of this cut, saying that the recent pace of job creation might not be enough to maintain the current unemployment level. For the first time in years, Powell admitted he could no longer describe the labor market as very solid. As for inflation, it's still definitely an elephant in the room, with Powell admitting it has moved up and remains somewhat elevated due to tariff-induced pressures.

8:57But the three Trump-appointed governors saw things differently, arguing that the pressure is temporary and are pushing for faster cuts. Overall, Powell framed the move as a risk management cut, and despite some drama, markets took it all in stride, with the S &P 500 finishing basically flat from where it was at the start of the meeting. Neil, this cut was all but certain, But still, all the pressure Trump has put on Powell and the curveball of Stephen Mirren, certainly some intrigue to discuss. Total intrigue. And the path forward is not clear at all because the Fed central bankers, there's more than a dozen of them, are disagreeing more than a family reunion.

9:35So of 19 meeting participants, 10 penciled in at least two rate cuts for the rest of the year. Seven of 19 penciled in no further rate cuts this year. Zero. And two more penciled in only one more rate cut. It is just a very complex economic environment. The Trump administration has done these huge experiments at them with this huge crackdown on immigration, which is reducing the labor force. Of course, there are tariffs as well. So there's these huge economic factors at play that the Fed just can't necessarily respond to. And these are central bankers. These are the smartest economists that we have all getting in a room and none of them can decide what the path of future rate cuts will be.

10:13They did decide kind of collectively 10 out of 11 so that the 25 basis point cut was good to go for at least this week. But you are right. A lot of people want to see this as the beginning of a rate cutting cycle. They want to just basically they're penciling in rate cuts, but they want to pen these rate cuts in. But Powell has pushed back on that, saying that the Fed is in a meeting by meeting situation. So it's not really saying like, hey, this is the start of this easing of monetary policy here going into 2026. So this definitely is something he's trying to keep his optionality alive here, because right now the labor market is the biggest thing on his mind.

10:47But inflation is just sticking around. So maybe that those that dual mandate, as it's called, is going to shift in flavor of inflation going forward. So you are right that it is a piles acknowledging they're just in an unprecedented moment right now and leaving all roads open. And an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve sounds very hypothetical and way up at the 10 ,000 foot view level. But it actually does mean a lot for you, because whatever the Fed interest rate is kind of sets borrowing rates across the economy. And we're seeing that specifically in the housing market. Mortgage rates are down to their lowest level in three years, according to Mortgage News Daily.

11:26The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is down to 6.13%. Mortgage rates don't always track the federal funds rate, but sometimes they do. And in anticipation of this rate cut, we have mortgage rates falling to their lowest level since 2022. That spurred a huge surge in refinancing. Applications to refinance a home jumped 58 % last week compared to the previous week, 70 % higher than the same week one year ago. So people watching the housing markets or those who have been staying on the sidelines are maybe seeing these rate cuts. is finally the chance for mortgage rates to dip a little bit lower so others can join in and finally buy that house.

12:00And then one final subtext, we've been looking at who might take over for Jerome Powell once his term ends up. And the betting markets kind of gave us some insight based off of how the meeting went. And on Kalshi, Chris Waller, who's been leading for a while as a potential Fed replacement, he actually saw his odds as Trump's pick fall from 29 % to 18%, while Mirren rose from 10 % to 15 % because Mirren was kind of putting out that 50-point cut, which is what Trump wants. He wants rates to come down quicker. But then you look over at Polymarket, and Waller's still the frontrunner at around 32%.

12:36So it was interesting that Mirren's dissent drastically boosted his odds of becoming the next Jerome Powell, even though necessarily this is still just betting markets doing their thing. But just an interesting subtext to keep your eye on going forwards. Moving on, Apple may have a liquid glass, but Meta has real glasses, and it thinks they're going to become the next iPhone. At its Meta Connect event yesterday, Zuck unveiled a long-anticipated upgrade to its smart glasses, adding an in-lens display in what is a big step up from its existing Ray-Ban and Oakley lineup. Whereas previous Meta glasses were mainly for recording video with some light AI and music listening capabilities, these new glasses, which cost$799 and are called the Meta Ray-Ban display, can overlay turn-by-turn walking directions, translate text in real time, and project on-lens notifications.

13:27The device also introduces a totally new input method. A wrist strap lets users write words and navigate interfaces out in empty space, no controllers or touchscreens necessary. Due to that rather chunky price tag, which actually came in lower than a lot of estimates, the Ray-Ban display probably isn't a mass-consumer product yet, But it's another instance of Zuck making the case that glasses are the successor to the smartphone era and the one best suited to AI as well. Zooming out, Zuck has long bristled at the way Apple and Google control distribution through their iOS and Android platforms.

14:02So these glasses represent an escape hatch and a chance to build a new operating system that bypasses app stores altogether. Neil, last night was another glimpse into that future. How did it look? Yeah, the thing you need to know about Mark Zuckerberg is that on the list of things that he hates, it's probably number one, the social network. And number two is Apple because he hates the fact that Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp all live on Apple device. And he's been looking for years to find the next form factor that people will keep in their pockets or necessarily wear on their heads. And he's been so bullish on glasses that he thinks glasses will be the next phone.

14:38So he's lost$70 billion on this Reality Labs unit that's in charge of building hardware devices. It's an amount of money you can't even wrap your mind around. And he's starting to think that they can actually start making money from all this hardware that they poured all this financing into. And he thinks glasses could be the key. And this particular$800 glass is their first attempt at getting a lot of people hooked on wearing things on their face. A lot of people loved what they saw with these glasses, though. They said that the resolution is actually higher than the Vision Pro. The neural wristband got a lot of fans because it's pretty mind-blowing tech.

15:15You wear this thing, a strap around your wrist, essentially, and then you can slide your thumb over your index finger, and it acts as a four-way, multi-dimensional touchpad without there actually being a touchpad there. Also, you don't necessarily have to talk out loud anymore. Before, on these glasses, you had to say, hey, Meta, to prompt their AI agent. Now you can just double tap your thumb in this very small micro gesture that isn't an annoying wake word anymore. And it all just feels a little bit more effortless. You don't have to take your phone out of your pocket now to get those WhatsApp notifications.

15:45You can change your music while just looking at your eyes. You don't have to look at your phone if you're navigating directions. So again, people are kind of opening up to this idea that, yeah, obviously the Google Glass, you know, a decade ago was a little bit ahead of its time and it was a little creepy. But these are a much nicer form factor. They look like Ray-Bans. They perform pretty seamlessly. And they come in at the same price as the Apple Watch Ultra, the exact same price as the Apple Watch Ultra. So rather than replacing your phone, maybe it's replacing that pricey smartwatch on your wrist.

16:14All right, let's go to break and come back with Neil's Numbers. Just like you have regular visits at the doctor, your company's supply chain needs checkups too. Thankfully, it takes less than a minute to do it with Supply Chain Health Vitals Checkup from SPS Commerce. It's a free, non-intimidating way to understand your current position and access practical steps for improvement. SPS Commerce created this checkup to give you a way to benchmark your supply chain against industry standards and identify your biggest opportunities for growth. You don't even have to carve out a full minute to get a fast, efficient assessment of your supply chain's current health and receive a personalized guide with practical recommendations for improvement.

16:55From there, SPS Commerce can work alongside you and your suppliers to ensure everyone is equipped to meet shared goals. Head to sbscommerce.com slash morningbrew to get your supply chain checkup. That's sbscommerce.com slash morningbrew. One of the hardest parts about B2B marketing is reaching the right audience. I remember when I bought a coffee maker and then months later kept getting served ads for a coffee maker after I'd already cozied up to my new one. Don't send your marketing materials into the ether where they might end up in front of the wrong audience or an audience who already has a coffee maker.

17:30When you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over one billion professionals. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, company revenue. You get the picture. LinkedIn will even give you an extra$250 credit on your next campaign so you can try it for yourself. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash MBD to learn more. That's linkedin.com slash MBD. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. Welcome to Neil's Numbers, the segment where I share three stats from the week's news that will make you feel smarter than Russell Crowe in a beautiful mind.

18:05My first number is the hottest sector in commercial real estate, parking lots, or rather really big parking lots for storing stuff. Industrial Outdoor Storage, or IOS, is experiencing a surge in investment from Wall Street because these types of spaces are integral to the AI data center boom. Since 2021, institutional investors have spent$4.7 billion on the sector, compared to less than$600 million from 2015 to 2020, according to the New York Times. And the biggest names you know are hopping on the trend. JP Morgan formed a joint venture to buy$700 million worth of properties across the country, while Blackstone committed up$189 to buy nearly 50 iOS sites.

18:45So what is industrial outdoor storage exactly, and why is it so hot right now? It's pretty much exactly like it sounds. Large plots of asphalt or gravel, where you can stash heavy machinery, tractors, trailers, generators, and other bulky tools in strategic locations. And as AI data centers spring up across the country, these spaces have emerged as crucial staging areas for construction companies working on data center site nearby. Toby, they ain't pretty to look at, but industrial grade parking lots print money for their owners. Yeah, they used to be this very niche asset class because basically what would happen is you would have this big space and you would rent it out in the meantime while you looked around for a more profitable thing to put there, maybe like a shopping center, maybe a manufacturing plant.

19:28But all of a sudden, you need these wide open spaces because everyone is chasing AI profits wherever they can find them. Obviously, data centers themselves is a big asset class, but now also you can invest in the construction firms building them. You can invest in the power plants supplying electricity, and you can invest in the literal space where all of those companies do to store their stuff. So it's AI all the way down, and you end up at literally a blank spot of asphalt or gravel, which are suddenly charging elevated rents. Rents are up 123 % since 2024. literally wide open space. And that's because while there's 1.4 million acres, equivalent to the size of Delaware of this parking space, the vacancy rate is just around 5%.

20:14And Toby, you saying wide open space makes me think of that great chick song. So I'm going to cue that up after the show. Okay, my next number is a city that's dotted with cranes, humming with the noise and activity of construction crews, and enjoying a revival in tourism. It's Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's population has ballooned by 20 million since the American invasion, and nowhere is that growth felt more than in the capital. Calmer from a security perspective than it has been in decades, Baghdad is the world's surprise boomtown, according to The Economist. Foreign investors have been pouring money into Baghdad as a surge in construction is modernizing the skyline.

20:50Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister, talks up some of his accomplishments since taking office three years ago, 20 new bridges and overpasses in Baghdad, at least four new hospitals, including the country's first dedicated cancer center, and half a dozen fancy hotels to handle the increasing number of visitors. Many challenges remain, such as confronting Iran-backed militias that have large influence over the economy, and the civil service remains a major money sink. More than 10 million Iraqis get their paychecks from the government, one of the highest rates in the world. Still, with a young, growing population, a steady peace, and an influx in foreign investment.

21:25Baghdad's heading into 2026 with a lot of momentum. Yeah, and a lot of the digitization of their government and financial services has been part of this transformation as well. One thing that The Economist article pointed out is in that Al-Sudani kind of brags about is that the passport office can now issue a travel document in 45 minutes, which officials say is the fastest in the world. And I know someone who's had to renew their passport recently has said, 45 minutes, that sounds pretty nice to me. But it's also moved from this mostly cash-based society to one that uses bank cards. It used to be that a lot of payments for services can only be made in cash.

22:01Now they can only be made in a bank card. So that transformation in really under five years has absolutely pushed it into more of the 21st century. It's leapfrogged cash and gone straight to a digital economy. So that's been another big part of why Baghdad has seen this just massive resurgence. For my final number, the Great Lakes are more dangerous for ships than you might expect. This week, searchers discovered a 19th century shipwreck in Lake Michigan after 50 years of looking. The F.J. King, which sank in a storm in 1886 carrying iron ore to Chicago, was thought to have been lost forever and earned the nickname Ghost Ship.

22:38But it's just one of many, many ships the Great Lakes have claimed over the centuries. The National Museum of the Great Lakes estimates that 6 ,000 to 10 ,000 ships have been lost in the five lakes, and they're not just old rickety sailboats, but also modern steamers and gigantic freighters. One of the most recent shipwrecks was in 1975 when the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing 29 people. It's a reminder that these bodies of water are not really inland lakes, but inland seas with wetter patterns as unpredictable as the oceans. Located smack dab in the middle of the continent, the Great Lakes are subject to hurricane-force winds and powerful storms, which can pose a challenge to the most technologically advanced vessels.

23:18Yeah. And one of the reasons why these are quote unquote inland seas are more dangerous than the oceans is the temperature difference that can happen between the air and the water. When warm over the summer months, the water warms up, but then the Canadian air, as we go into the fall and winter months, descends over them. And the temperature difference can sometimes be up to 40 degrees. That never happens out in the open ocean. The air temperature and the water temperature are usually within a range of each other. But given that temperature difference, it can create these massive, you know, waves, hurricane strength, winds, and whatnot.

23:49So again, when you think of the Great Lakes, sometimes I associate them with like a docile summer vacation, but they are anything but docile and they do lead to a lot of these wrecks. And also, the ice is a play too. You don't, the ocean doesn't freeze over. There's not a lot of ice out in the open ocean. In the Great Lakes and Erie and Huron and whatnot, you definitely have the freshwater angle. It freezes faster, so ships ice over more quickly, which just makes it even more dangerous. Yeah, it definitely does not feel like homes for these ships. Still, it's a speck in the quote-unquote ocean for the overall shipwrecks.