Mitchell Hartman

Correspondent

SHORT BIO

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 Stories (1,996)

At DNC, lobbyists do more schmoozing than check writing

Sep 4, 2012
Lobbyists are working behind the scenes to make their mark at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, this week.

What makes a summer hit song?

Sep 3, 2012
Sometimes a little tweet is all it takes to catapult a relatively unknown artist to the top of the charts.

Whoever wins, Dodd-Frank is not likely to go away

Aug 31, 2012
Banks like some of the financial law's provisions, they'd just prefer the actual regulations be more in their favor.

Whose economy is it? Obama's or Romney's?

Aug 30, 2012
Will the economy we have today elect the next president? If so, what does it look like?

Home prices up for first time since 2010

Aug 28, 2012
News that the S&P/Case Shiller home price index is up from last year may be the first solid sign of a long-awaited housing market recovery.

The latest Olympic star: Kinesio tape

Aug 13, 2012
Olympic athletes helped increase sales of colorful therapeutic tape.

The costs of a U.S. intervention in Syria

Aug 9, 2012
When fighting in Libya spread, U.S. and NATO planes were soon flying sorties to help out the rebel side -- and it was costly. How a similar intervention in Syria might cost us.

In Oregon, health reform is welcome

Aug 8, 2012
Oregon will take federal money to expand Medicaid, and try to cut costs too.

American Airlines employees await decisions

Aug 8, 2012
Union workers at the bankrupt airline could be facing layoffs in the thousands, or deep cuts to wages and benefits.

The economy makes do with five million fewer jobs

Aug 3, 2012
The nation's output of goods and services is back to the level it was before the recession began in 2007. But five million fewer people are working. Who got left out of the economy?