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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Six banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, will pay regulators more than $4 billion to settle charges they manipulated the currency exchange market to boost profits.
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The economy added 214,000 jobs in October, less than the 248,000 produced in September, but just enough to continue pushing the unemployment rate down.
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The U.S. is now the world's largest oil producer, and some worry that falling prices could mean an industry slowdown. But with production costs also falling, drillers are unlikely to cut back soon. -
The U.S. jobless rate dropped below 6 percent in September, the lowest it's been since July 2008. And employers added 248,000 new jobs to their payrolls, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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It has been a year since Obamacare launched with a difficult start. Now, supporters are confident about the program's future. But critics say it's too early to gauge its success. -
Companies like Anheuser-Busch pay hundreds of millions to be identified with the NFL's aura. The last thing they want is to be associated with scandal, but it might be financially tough to walk away. -
Conflict in oil-producing regions usually sends oil prices higher. But the cost of oil has actually dropped, despite turmoil in the Middle East. Economists say it's a matter of supply and demand. -
The latest labor report indicates a slowdown in job growth, but many economists aren't buying it. They say other data paint a stronger picture, but the jobs numbers may delay higher interest rates. -
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 142,000 jobs were added to the economy in August, far below expectations. So the view that the Fed won't likely hike interest rates until mid-2015 remains intact.
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A Class A share of Berkshire Hathaway is now worth more than $200,000. Warren Buffett created the conglomerate about 50 years ago, and he has refused to split Berkshire's shares.
