Marketplace®

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Mitchell Hartman

Correspondent

Mitchell’s most important job at Marketplace is to explain the economy in ways that non-expert, non-business people can understand. Michell thinks of his audience as anyone who works, whether for money or not, and lives in the economy . . . which is most people. Mitchell wants to understand, and help people understand, how the economy works, who it helps, who it hurts and why. Mitchell gets to cover what he thinks are some of the most interesting aspects of the economy: wages and inflation, consumer psychology, wealth inequality, economic theory and how it measures up to economic reality. Mitchell was a high school newspaper nerd and a college newspaper editor. He has worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer, WXPN-FM, WBAI-FM, KPFK-FM, Pacifica Radio, the CBC, the BBC, Monitor Radio, Cairo Today Magazine, The Jordan Times, The Middletown Press, The New Haven Register, Oregon Business Magazine, the Reed College Alumni Magazine, and Marketplace (twice — 1994-2001 & 2008-present). Mitchell has gone on strike (Newspaper Guild vs. Knight Ridder, Philadelphia, 1985) and helped organize a union (with SAG-AFTRA at Marketplace, 2021-23). Mitchell once interviewed Marcel Marceau and got him to talk.

Latest from Mitchell Hartman

  • Online shopping is up this year, so it seems like it'd be an easy thing to get into. But small startups say it's anything but. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Massachusetts has launched a program that lets home and business owners who generate their own power sell it back to the electric company for a nice price. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Without sophisticated inventory tracking and market research, smaller stores have to rely on their intuition to stock for the holidays. Mitchell Hartman talks to some retailers in Portland, Ore.

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  • Ten years after the anti-free trade protest known as the "Battle of Seattle," outsourcing has accelerated. But global free trade talks under the WTO are floundering. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Virtually the entire sugar beet crop in the United States is genetically engineered to protect it from herbicides. Now, a lawsuit claiming the biotech beets pose a risk to other varieties could threaten sugar production. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • The Treasury Department and Small Business Administration are working on ways to get money flowing to small businesses. SBA assistance could run into pitfalls as problems continue to loom. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Labor union activists are rallying in Washington, D.C. calling for Congress to enact tougher reforms on Wall Street, including limits on bank sizes and oversight of risky investments. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Best Buy has been test marketing electric bicycles, motorcycles and Segways in 19 stores on the West Coast. Mitchell Hartman cruised his local outlet in Portland, Ore. to explore whether the gear was a stretch for the electronics retailer.

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  • President Obama is on a trip to Asia, where one of the big topics on his agenda will be trade. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • October unemployment hit 10.2%, and 190,000 jobs were cut according to the latest Labor Department report. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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