Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories
 

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

  • With Bank of America seeking more TARP money to ease acquisitions of smaller competitors, can we expect banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo to request more bailout funds as well? Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • The Commerce Department says business inventories were down for a third straight month in November. Businesses put orders on hold as sales continued a downward spiral. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • In a survey out by the National Small Business Association, many members expect deteriorating sales and job cuts. Still, there's an undercurrent of tenacious optimism. Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman explores why.

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  • The House is expected to pass a pair of civil rights bills today designed to give workers more power to sue over alleged pay discrimination. Mitchell Hartman explains why now is an important time for fairness law.

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  • Investors looking for opportunity in a distressed market can find it in cheap company debt. But buyer beware: Something put that company into trouble to begin with, and it's wise to understand what. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • None of the experts are doing a particularly good job of predicting how the economy is going to turn out next year. So we sent Mitchell Hartman to check out what astrology has to say about our economic fate.

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  • Companies may have thought buying back their own stock was a good idea a few years ago. But as Mitchell Hartman reports, those companies that used borrowed money to finance those buybacks are in trouble now.

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  • Hedge funds seem to make headlines when things go bad on a trading day. But what are these funds and how do they really affect the stock market? Mitchell Hartman explains the term in our latest Marketplace Decoder.

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  • While most retailers are experiencing a dismal holiday shopping season, Lego may see a record gain in U.S. sales this year. Mitchell Hartman explains why the construction toy company is building a profit.

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  • It's been a dismal holiday season for retailers. Consumer spending is down, and the bad weather isn't helping matters. Mitchell Hartman reports on how business owners in Portland are coping with a chilly holiday shopping season.

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