Europe looks to step back from U.S. Big Tech
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Is Europe's reliance on U.S. tech a vulnerability?
What is J-PAL thinking now? From Marketplace, I'm Nancy Marshall-Genzer, in for David Boncaccio. The Federal Reserve's two-day meeting on interest rates starts tomorrow, so let's take a look at some key economic data we got last week and what it could mean for the path of rates. For more, we're joined by Julia Coronado. She's founder and president of Macro Policy Perspectives and a professor at the University of Texas, Austin. Good morning, Julia. Good morning. So last week, we got the official government estimate of how fast the economy grew in the last three months of 2025. Fourth quarter growth was cut in half. How significant will that be for the Fed? Well, right now that is looking in the rearview mirror.
And so in a moment where we have a big shock in the form of an oil shock and an uncertain war, it will be more important for the Fed to look forward. And even then, it's an uncertain outlook. So I think the Fed is going to be sounding a calm tone and saying that they're going to wait and see and gather more information. Okay, so no interest rate cut this week, probably.
What impact do buy now, pay later services have on new homeowners?
And none anytime soon. The Fed is still looking at conflicting tensions with still high inflation that's going to go higher with oil prices. And that's one of their mandates. But also an economy that's okay, but certainly not booming. A labor market that looks a little wobbly, but okay. You know, these are competing influences on interest rates. And so for now, it's a wait and see. Julia Coronado, founder and president of Macro Policy Perspectives. Buy now, pay later products are now a common way for Americans to buy things. And recent data out from the JPMorgan Chase Institute found that these services are becoming increasingly important during and after the home buying process. Marketplace's Kimberly Adams has more.
Owning a home is the American dream, right? So people tend to try to get their credit in order before they do it. Right before especially frequent users of BNPL buy a home, we see their credit card balances come down by like 12, 13 percent, something like that. Chris Wheat is president of the JPMorgan Chase Institute.
How are European governments addressing digital sovereignty?
And then after they buy a home, you see things like their BNPL usage really, really go up quite a bit more. That's because owning a home for the first time comes with lots of new expenses. Rohit Chopra is the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We do see that people do borrow quite a bit when it comes to furnishing their home. And many sellers of appliances and furniture are now using buy now, pay later as a key way to pay. Ed DeHaan, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, says this data reflects a larger trend. BNPL isn't just 18-year-olds who've never had a credit card. It's really come into the mainstream. And even people who can afford a house are now using BNPL as part of their digital wallets.
And that comes with its own set of risks. According to JPMorgan Chase Institute's research, first-time homebuyers who are frequent users of buy-now-pay-later services have an over 8% higher chance of missing a payment within a year of their purchases compared to people who rely on other methods to cover their shopping. In Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams for Marketplace.
Around Europe, governments and institutions are looking to reduce their reliance on U.S. big tech. They're worried there could come a day when America cuts off digital access to foreign institutions.
What are the risks of using open-source alternatives to U.S. tech?
We saw a version of this last year when several international criminal court officials got sanctioned and couldn't access things like their email. The BBC's Elizabeth Hudson reports on the push for so-called digital sovereignty. At the start of February, senior French politician David Amiel announced on his ex-account that Zoom would be replaced by a French open-source alternative called Vizio. In case you missed it, we're rolling out Vizio, the 100% French video conferencing tool to all government employees. Nick Rayners, Senior Geotechnology Analyst at the Eurasia Group, says geopolitical tensions are fuelling decisions like these.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Is Europe's reliance on U.S. tech a vulnerability?
0:01–1:10
2
What impact do buy now, pay later services have on new homeowners?
1:10–2:16
3
How are European governments addressing digital sovereignty?
2:16–3:52
4
What are the risks of using open-source alternatives to U.S. tech?
3:52–5:10
5
How do geopolitical tensions influence technology decisions in Europe?
5:10–6:14
6
What challenges do governments face in transitioning away from big tech?
6:14–6:37