Why is Trump throwing money at the Argentine peso?

Marketplace

American Public Media

Business, News

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The U.S. just agreed to spend $20 billion on a currency exchange with Argentina. The hope? To put a lid on inflation before Javier Milei, an ally of President Trump, is up for re-election. How does that work? What’s in it for the U.S.? Later in this episode: AI firms juice the stock market, an economist explains Trump’s flavor of state capitalism, and sports betting sites push the boundary between state and federal regulation.

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Transcript

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0:31.7	One U.S. dollar day gets you 1,488 Argentine pesos should you want them.
0:40.4	I mentioned that because the White House clearly does.
0:44.2	From American public media.
0:46.5	This is Marketplace. In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzdahl.
0:59.9	It is Wednesday, today the 22nd of October.
1:02.9	Good as always to have you along, everybody.
1:05.4	You know, when we do stories about the foreign exchange markets, currency trading, in other words,
1:10.0	it's often about the euro.
1:11.7	Sometimes the Japanese yen or the British pound, much less frequently the Chinese yuan,
1:17.6	almost never the Argentine peso. Nevertheless, that is where we find ourselves today, as the Trump
1:24.2	administration tries to prop up President Javier Malay ahead of midterm elections down there this weekend.
1:29.7	The White House, President Trump says, wants to buy more Argentinian beef, for one example.
1:35.3	And the United States is putting as much as $40 billion on the line to prop up the peso, which has lost half of its value since the beginning of the year.
	...

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