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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

  • August housing numbers were released — and the number of housing starts, home completions and apartment building construction is up. But permits for single-family homes were down What does this mean for the housing market and the recovery?

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  • A report from the National Bureau of Economic Research said that the recession ended over a year ago — but as Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman reports, just because the recession ended, doesn't mean people are feeling good.

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  • Unemployment claims at the state level dropped, perhaps indicating a small recovery. Another sign of the recovery? Increasing competition for top-level managerial positions, which may trickle down to lower-level jobs too.

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  • So, turns out being fat and out of shape isn't just bad for your heart and your medical bills. It's bad for the whole economy — costing hundreds of billions of dollars a year, according to a new study on America's growing obesity epidemic. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Republicans are pushing an amendment to repeal a provision of the Obama health care reform law that adds new tax reporting requirements for business owners. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell 27,000 from last week to 451,000 — a two-month low. Is this a sign that the economy is recovering?

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  • The Obama Administration announced several proposals to stimulate the economy, including tax break extensions. Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman sees how tax breaks could influence business growth and if it'll result in job creation.

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  • Regardless of economic climate, government offices continue to pay pensions. But the Great Recession is making governments re-think future employee pensions and how to deal with the pensions they're currently doling out.

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  • Some economists are predicting an increase in unemployment over July's numbers when we get the jobs report for August. Could we be in for persistently high unemployment for the long haul? Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • A report from a liberal think-tank concludes: if you're the CEO, it's a good deal to slash jobs. And the executives who laid off the most workers? They ended up with the fattest paychecks. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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Mitchell Hartman