The cost of a shutdown
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the first time in nearly seven years, federal operations have been drastically curtailed as the US government shuts down.
As it enters a second week, we look in detail at how the collapse in funding for government services is affecting America at large - from the Federal worker fearing for his job, to the wider concerns of slowing growth and rising inflation.
What does this say about the state of the world’s largest economy?
Produced and presented by Ed Butler
(Image: "Closed" signage in front of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, US, on 5 October 20205. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.2 | Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. |
| 0:08.1 | Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.0 | Today, as the politicians argue, how are Americans coping with the freeze in all kinds of federal government funding? |
| 0:19.9 | And how are federal workers feeling about it? |
| 0:22.7 | Grocery prices are up, gas prices are up. So people struggle day to day to just make ends meet |
| 0:28.6 | and then to be faced with an unknown shutdown. It's causing a lot of anxiety for people. |
| 0:34.4 | This could be an hour. This could be months. |
| 0:37.4 | The U.S. shutdown. It's hurting federal workers and the wider economy. And now even the |
| 0:43.2 | government's economic data isn't being produced. So how does the Federal Reserve respond? |
| 0:49.9 | The metaphor in my mind is, you know, the economy is a plane. The Fed is the pilot. |
| 0:57.4 | Pilots got all these instruments in front of them to try to guide the plane. |
| 1:02.4 | And now all the instrumentation is out and they're flying the plane in a storm. |
| 1:04.0 | So that doesn't auger well. The economics of the shutdown. |
| 1:06.4 | That's Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:16.9 | Like other essential services, |
| 1:21.0 | federal firefighters are required by law to go to work. |
| 1:23.7 | But right now, they're not being paid for it. |
| 1:24.9 | My name's William. |
| 1:27.1 | I am 38 years old, and I am a federal firefighter for the United States |
| 1:30.3 | Department of Defense. William didn't want me to publish his surname for fear of reprisal from his |
| 1:36.3 | employers. He works on a military base in Washington State. I'm proud to be a firefighter and I'm proud |
... |
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