What does Fed rate cut mean for consumers?

President Trump has openly criticized Powell for months. At the White House earlier today, he said the Federal Reserve should have gone a step further. Interest rates are going down. Except with him, not too much. He did a rather-- I would say a rather small number that could have been doubled-- at least doubled. And he was interviewing candidates for that top job today. Let's bring in CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger. Jill, good to see you. We miss you in Studio 57, but good to see you nonetheless via Zoom. So let's consider this rate cut and the last two rate cuts. What does this mean for people? If you're a borrower, you'll see slightly lower interest rates. But listen, gang, I understand it really doesn't feel like a lot if you're paying 21% or 22% for a credit-card balance, and all of a sudden you have a slightly lower rate. Maybe it's 20 and 1/2%. So it's tough to really see a lot of progress when rates are that high. And we'll see small help with an auto loan or a personal loan. And you mentioned mortgage rates. Now, that's a little bit different. Although the Fed doesn't directly impact the home-loan market, it sort of indirectly does, and we have seen mortgage rates drift lower to around 6.2%. I think that for borrowers, though, they still feel that pang of, gosh, I wish I could get back to where we were during the pandemic. Interest rates were so much lower. But to put that in perspective, we had an economy that was frozen solid. That's why interest rates were so low. As you heard Chairman Powell say, these are more normal interest rates for an economy that continues to grow.

Can you help me understand what Powell means by we're in the high end of the range of neutral? I was so sad that someone picked that soundbite because it sounds like wah, wah, wah, and I understand that. OK, so what he's really trying to say is the Fed is trying to figure out, what is the right level of interest rates so that the economy can be in balance? And what is that balance? It's a balance between growing enough to create jobs for anyone who wants one but not growing by so much that you create inflation, this neutral pace. Now, by the way, this is not prescriptive. It's sort of by feel and touch. And so what he's trying to say is, we're doing our best. We don't know what that is. We think we're kind of close there. We think we're in balance, But we will not understand whether we're right or wrong until more economic data start to pour in. Remember, the Fed didn't get any economic data when we didn't get any economic data. That was when the government was shut down. Jill Schlesinger, thanks for the long day. I know you were on Mornings. Appreciate you. Sure. Thank you.