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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

  • Is Wall Street back to the big celebratory bashes? With the help of something called "WallStreetWikiLeaks," a few actors, and a magic key to the party, Mitchell Hartman has the "story."

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  • The jobs report released today was a huge — and surprising — disappointment: the economy only added 39,000 jobs and unemployment rose to 9.8 percent. Economists had predicted better results. But as Mitchell Hartman reports, we may have to get used to these numbers for a while.

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  • The Labor Department's November jobs report jobless rate defied analysts' predictions and revealed other economic problems. Mitchell Hartman offers an analysis.

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  • As of today, the government is no longer supplying money for unemployment benefits. Not only will this affect the millions of long-term unemployed, but the rest of the economy too, say economists. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Funding for unemployment benefits officially runs out today, although Democrats are pushing for a $12 billion extension. In the meantime, the two million long-term unemployed could find themselves cutting back drastically, and this could affect local businesses in a big way.

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  • Tess Vigeland talks to Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman about the choosing between cutting the deficit and extending unemployment benefits.

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  • It's a very good time for IPOs — GM and Booz Allen Hamilton just went public, HCA and Toys"R"Us are expected to follow soon. Many of the new IPOs come from companies that were taken private in deals with a lot of debt, and as Mitchell Hartman reports, they aren't being received well by investors.

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  • Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman takes a look at whether start-ups can help add jobs to the economy, especially in the face of outsourcing.

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  • The new GM enters the stock exchange today, but it's just one of many new IPOs coming from formerly private companies. As Mitchell Hartman reports, this may not be helping entrepreneurship or job creation.

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  • So far, state attorneys general have been taking the lead in investigating the current foreclosure paperwork crisis. But today, the Senate Banking Committee weighed in. The financial services industry is lobbying against more regulation of the mortgage business at the hands of Congress. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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Mitchell Hartman