DeepSeek's no deepfake

Welcome to The Money, where we break down financial news and provide the TL;DR version of how decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you.

Chinese startup DeepSeek turned the U.S. tech sector upside down this week after it said it developed an AI model that rivals OpenAI and ChatGPT on a shoestring budget of less than $6 million. That threw into question the U.S. model for building AI that has required a war chest of billions of dollars.

President Donald Trump said DeepSeek should serve as a "wakeup call" for U.S. tech firms.

Fed's on extended pause

The Federal Reserve paused its interest rate cutting campaign Wednesday and gave no signal it plans to lower rates again in the near term amid uncertainty spawned by inflation and President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

Inflation broadly has eased since a pandemic-related surge but stayed elevated in recent months. The economy and job market have been remarkably resilient, though hiring has slowed substantially. And it’s unclear to what extent Trump will slap certain imports with tariffs and deport millions of immigrants who lack permanent legal status, and what the effects will be on the economy and inflation.

Patience is a virtue for some Social Security recipients

Retired Middlebury, Connecticut, school teacher Bill Callahan waited 40 years for Congress to pass a bill to eliminate the reduction in Social Security benefits he receives because he also has a pension.

Now, the Social Security Administration (SSA) says Callahan and about 3 million other affected public sector workers will have to wait a year or more before seeing any money the Social Security Fairness Act promised to bring. The?Social Security Fairness Act?eliminates the?Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP)?and the?Government Pension Offset (GPO), which reduce Social Security benefits for certain retirees who also receive pension income. Together, WEP and GPO affect nearly 3 million Americans including police officers, firefighters, postal workers and public school teachers.

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