Internet reported that Nick Timiraos, a reporter for the "Fed's mouthpiece" and the Wall Street Journal, wrote on Thursday that a continuing government shutdown is exposing Fed officials to the possibility of making their next interest rate decision in the absence of key economic data that could have quieted the fierce debate about the extent and speed of interest rate cuts. The irony: Without the clear evidence of a sharp deterioration in the labor market that these reports can provide, efforts by Trump and his allies to seek deeper interest rates are likely to be in vain. The article said that the absence of new government data essentially locked in the prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points again at its next meeting in two weeks-the Federal Reserve just completed the same rate cut last month. Last month, concerns about a sharp decline in the job market overshadowed concerns about inflationary stickiness, and Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said this week that the balance of concerns had not changed during the recent data gap.