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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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. -
Donald Trump says he will double the U.S. growth rate; that requires getting more people into the workforce. The president-elect also plans to limit immigration, the biggest source of new workers. -
Mnuchin is a hedge fund CEO and longtime Wall Street banker. His involvement in the spike in foreclosures following the housing market's crash could complicate his confirmation. -
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. -
A big part of Donald Trump's proposed tax cut would go to corporations. The president-elect says that will fuel investment and growth; critics say the plan would explode the federal budget deficit. -
The plan laid out by the president-elect is detailed — but different from what he promised during the campaign. His economic team says it will boost the middle class; several experts beg to differ. -
Fed Chair Janet Yellen says that although job growth is rebounding, she sees no inflation threat and no hurry to raise rates. The Fed is not likely to do so before the presidential election. -
The Justice Department and a number of states filed suit today to block two big mergers in the health insurance industry. Anthem was planning to acquire Cigna, and Aetna sought to buy Humana. Justice Department officials said they had no doubt the mergers would reduce competition and hurt consumers.
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Fueled by customers' unquenchable thirst for the next great flavor note, the craft beer industry has exploded like a poorly fermented bottle of home brew. -
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.
