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

  • Boeing machinists, the airline's largest union, decisively reject the contract. However, they agree to put a walkout on hold for 48 hours to give Boeing a chance to renegotiate. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Big grocery store chains, like Albertsons, had been stocking up for weeks to prepare for the return of evacuees from hurricane Gustav. Mitchell Hartman has the story.

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  • There's about a month left in Major League Baseball's regular season. But the minors have a long, hard season, too. To see what that world was all about, we went to Portland, Ore. to get the play-by-play. Last in a series.

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  • When Marie Osmunson received a huge order for her vegetarian burgers from one of the Northwest's most popular fast-food chains, she had a problem: How to deal with success. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • The July Consumer Price Index rose more than expected, as the average weekly earnings fell in the same month. But how does that mesh with plummeting home prices? Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Game enthusiasts are excited about chip company AMD's latest graphics card. And while the technology promises to thrill the eyes, the price tag is similarly mind-blowing. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Tech watchers are anticipating Dell's unveiling of a new laptop that's lighter and more compact — and more affordable. Mitchell Hartman reports on new "netbook" computers that make up for a lack of storage by being more convenient.

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  • With more Americans paying their credit card bills late or not at all, issuers are clamping down on credit lines. But that's hurting small businesses, which rely on credit to pay their bills. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Social networks like MySpace offer marketers the ability to target messages precisely, but many are still leery of the unpredictable content their ads will be seen alongside. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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  • Yahoo! holds its annual shareholder meeting today in San Jose, and the company's stock has been languishing. But despite losing the search engine wars to Google, Yahoo offers a lot of value. Mitchell Hartman reports.

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