01 / Prices & the Fed
Prices jumped.
The Fed is expected to raise rates.
Consumer prices rose 0.4% in August — four times July’s pace. Futures now price better-than-80% odds of a Sept. 16 hike, the first since July 2023.
That quarter point is roughly $65 more a month on a $400,000 mortgage.
September 12, 2026 · Five stories, illustrated
Monthly price change
Odds of a Sept. 16 hike
Over 80% of rate futures
A quarter-point move would set the target at 3.75%–4.00% and add roughly $65 a month — about $24,000 over the life — to a $400,000 30-year mortgage near 6.5%. A market price, not a decision.
Two days
to a decision.
Two-day meeting opens
Rate decision due
Core slowed to 2.4% over the year; all prices ran 3.4%.
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The Houthis take
the strait’s edge.
Houthi forces captured Mokha and Perim island at the 28-kilometer Bab el-Mandeb — a 130-kilometer gain, the largest since the 2022 truce. The strait is the Red Sea’s southern gate for ships bound for Suez.
Saudi Arabia shut its 7-million-barrel-a-day East-West pipeline after drone strikes from Iraq. Trump declined a Saudi request for air strikes, offering intelligence and targeting help; 200 U.S. troops serve nearby in a non-combat role.
Keep it running, said DOE.
No authority, said the court.
A unanimous D.C. Circuit panel ruled the Energy Department’s emergency power cannot override an orderly retirement. Michigan’s 64-year-old J.H. Campbell plant has cost ratepayers $259 million since regulators approved its May 2025 retirement.
Regulators approve the retirement
A 3-0 panel voids the DOE order
A follow-up 90-day order runs out
Costs land on local bills; the ~$1B covers every federal directive, not Campbell alone.
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Seventy-one warnings,
made public.
The CIA declassified 71 presidential briefings warning Clinton and Bush of al Qaeda hijackings. Seventy predate the attacks; one is dated Sept. 12.
70 written before the attacks
One dated Sept. 12
No set dates or targets — Sept. 1998 raised a bomb-packed plane flown into a U.S. city; Dec. 1998 flagged an airport test run.
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Keep the 2024 files,
30 jurisdictions are told.
Preservation notices went to 29 states and D.C. as federal lawsuits seek statewide voter files. One warned Utah’s lieutenant governor she is under investigation; Justice calls them standard litigation holds.
Utah — its lieutenant governor is under investigation
What federal suits seek
- Addresses
- Birth dates
- Driver’s-license numbers
- Partial Social Security digits
Ignoring the notices carries potential civil or criminal penalties.