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

  • T-Mobile has released the G-1 phone, a smart phone powered by Google technology. Will its lower price and touchscreen sensibility make it competition for AT&T and iPhone? Mitchell Hartman rings up this report.

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  • Construction of new homes was expected to drop in September, but not to the lowest number in seven years. With builders and buyers unable to get loans easily, the decline is expected to continue. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • At $4 a gallon, gas prices are a sting for truckers. So what do they feel the government should do about it? Mitchell Hartman pulled into a truck stop in Portland, Oregon to pick the brain of independent truckers.

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  • Money for loans is available; it's just that it costs a lot of money to borrow it. So, for many businesses, the credit crunch is very real. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • A new report says these days we're seeing fewer start-ups go public. Mitchell Hartman looks into what's causing the lack of willing venture capitalists and why they're not backing up IPOs.

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  • Melamine, the industrial chemical that was added to Chinese milk and baby formula, has now been found in food outside China. Mitchell Hartman reports on whether this is another Chinese product safety scare about to go global and land in the U.S.

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  • Today GM executives will announce a new $359 million auto plant opening in distressed Flint, Mich. Workers there will build fuel-efficient engines for the Volt and Cruze models. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Sovereign wealth funds were investing heavily in distressed U.S. banks. Mitchell Hartman learns that, like the Abu Dhabi group that bought Manchester's soccer team Friday, these funds could now be looking elsewhere.

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  • After all the screaming headlines and doom and gloom of the last few days, we got to wondering whether the government's bailout plans have made people feel better. Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman went to find out.

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  • Wall Street is in the headlines, but the financial crisis affects businesses everywhere. Mitchell Hartman took a walk around Portland, Ore., to find out how business owners there are faring.

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