Does the EU even want a strong euro?
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We keep hearing how the U.S. dollar has been “weakening.” Put another way, the euro is getting stronger: It hit $1.20 earlier this week. But the language is a bit misleading — a stronger euro isn’t necesarily good news for people living in the European Union. In this episode, how currency fluctuation can mess with delicately balanced trade. Plus: Consumer confidence fell sharply among older Americans, the Federal Reserve held rates steady, and we checked in with a few businesses ahead of the Supreme Court decision on Trump’s tariffs.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What if Jay Powell's press conference today wasn't really about the economy? |
| 0:08.1 | I have nothing for you on that today. I can't comment on that. I'm not going to be getting into that. |
| 0:12.6 | I have nothing for you. Sorry. |
| 0:13.9 | From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. |
| 0:29.1 | In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzdahl. |
| 0:34.7 | It is Wednesday, today the 28th of January good, as it always is, everybody to have you along. |
| 0:38.8 | Okay, look, to be clear, Chair Powell's press conference today was really about the economy. |
| 0:42.0 | But given the Department of Justice subpoena |
| 0:44.1 | from a couple of weeks ago, |
| 0:45.3 | the possibility of a criminal investigation, |
| 0:47.3 | his video in response, |
| 0:48.4 | who the next person in the hot seat might be, |
| 0:50.1 | and whether Powell's going to stay |
| 0:52.4 | on the board of governors post-chairmanship, |
| 0:54.1 | as is his right, |
| 0:55.9 | there was, shall we say, a subtext to the proceedings. |
| 1:00.5 | All of them met firmly by various thesaurus alternatives to no comment. |
| 1:07.4 | Anyway, the economy. |
| 1:08.9 | The economy has once again surprised us with its strength. |
| 1:13.0 | Hence, no cut in interest rates. |
| 1:15.3 | Growth is on a solid footing, it looks like, and it's not just those things. |
| 1:19.6 | It's just the consumers, the consumer is filling out, you know, surveys that sound really |
... |
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