The other war affecting fuel prices

The Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes revealed more internal division than the unanimous rate decision suggested, and the central bank’s new chairman, Kevin Warsh, is already reshaping how the institution operates. Meanwhile, a different kind of war—Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries—is tightening global fuel supplies and boosting profits for U.S. refiners. And new data shows that data centers, often blamed for rising electricity bills, have actually lowered residential rates in some states, though that dynamic is starting to shift.

The Fed’s internal divide and Warsh’s early moves

The Federal Open Market Committee’s June meeting minutes showed unanimity on holding rates steady, but the discussion behind that decision was more contentious than the headline suggested. Marketplace host Kai Rizdahl and Bloomberg’s David Gurr pushed back against a reading from Brookings’ Robin Brooks, who had argued the minutes were less hawkish than markets assumed. Gurr said the minutes revealed “some division among policymakers” and that inflation, already above the Fed’s target, “was proving to be a persistent problem, is bleeding beyond just energy and other parts of the economy.” Rizdahl agreed, calling it “roiling concern.”