John Ydstie
John Ydstie has covered the economy, Wall Street, and the Federal Reserve at NPR for nearly three decades. Over the years, NPR has also employed Ydstie's reporting skills to cover major stories like the aftermath of Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He was a lead reporter in NPR's coverage of the global financial crisis and the Great Recession, as well as the network's coverage of President Trump's economic policies. Ydstie has also been a guest host on the NPR news programs Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Ydstie stepped back from full-time reporting in late 2018, but plans to continue to contribute to NPR through part-time assignments and work on special projects.
During 1991 and 1992, Ydstie was NPR's bureau chief in London. He traveled throughout Europe covering, among other things, the breakup of the Soviet Union and attempts to move Europe toward closer political and economic union. He accompanied U.S. businessmen exploring investment opportunities in Russia as the Soviet Union was crumbling. He was on the scene in The Netherlands when European leaders approved the Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union.
In August 1990, Ydstie was one of the first reporters on the scene after Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army invaded Kuwait. He accompanied U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia as a member of the Pentagon press pool sent to cover the Iraqi invasion for U.S. media outlets.
Ydstie has been with NPR since 1979. For two years, he was an associate producer responsible for Midwest coverage. In 1982, he became senior editor on NPR's Washington Desk, overseeing coverage of the federal government, American politics, and economics. In 1984, Ydstie joined Morning Edition as the show's senior editor, and later was promoted to the position of executive producer. In 1988, he became NPR's economics correspondent.
During his tenure with NPR, Ydstie has won numerous awards. He was a member of the NPR team that received the George Foster Peabody Award for its coverage of Sept. 11. Ydstie's reporting from Saudi Arabia helped NPR win the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 1991 for coverage of the Gulf War. In 2016, Ydstie received a Gerald Loeb Award for financial reporting for his contributions to an NPR series on financial planning.
Prior to joining NPR, Ydstie was a reporter and producer at Minnesota Public Radio. Ydstie is a graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where he is now on the Board of Regents. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, with a major in English literature and a minor in speech communications. Ydstie was born in Minneapolis and grew up in rural North Dakota.
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The U.S. economy gained momentum in the second quarter as consumers and businesses picked up their spending. Gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent.
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As expected, the Federal Reserve says it will hold interest rates in a range between 1 percent and 1.25 percent, while noting job gains have been solid and the labor market continues to strengthen.
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All major stock indexes — including the Dow — are in record territory, even though the Trump administration has failed to deliver on key legislative promises. But other factors are at play.
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Central bank policymakers provided little guidance on the timing of a rate hike. They said slow growth in the first quarter it is likely transitory and that inflation is close to a goal of 2 percent.
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President Trump has suggested an import tax of up to 45 percent on goods made by U.S. firms overseas. But it's illegal to single out individual companies and it's unclear what form the tax would take.
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During the financial crisis Steve Mnuchin was working to make profits from the ruins of the housing bust. He assembled investors who bought IndyMac, a failed bank that had been taken over by the FDIC.
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The jobs report released Friday morning came in a little weaker than expected, but there was one very big positive. Wages are growing at a respectable clip again, and that's the first time that's happened on an annual basis since the recession.
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Two-thirds of the sum will be set aside to compensate U.S. owners of nearly 500,000 VW diesel cars. The company will also pay $2.7 billion into an environmental remediation fund.
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Job growth was at a crawl in May, according to the government's monthly report released Friday; only 38,000 new jobs were added to payrolls. But unemployment fell to it's lowest level since 2007.
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On Friday, the Labor Department releases May's jobs report. It's the final report before the Federal Open Market Committee's next meeting, at which some expect the federal funds rate will be raised.