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)

What's behind a no. 1 summer hit

Jul 4, 2012
An up-tempo pop dance beat can't hurt, and neither can a star's viral video.

Microsoft takes write-down to make up for Internet losses

Jul 3, 2012
Bing is no boon, so Microsoft books a $6.2 billion charge and wipes out quarterly profit.

GlaxoSmithKline reaches $3 billion settlement for fraud

Jul 3, 2012
GlaxoSmithKline, the huge British drug maker, will pay $3 billion in fines and compensation to the U.S. government and the states. According to the Justice Department, it's the biggest settlement in a health-care fraud case in history.

European contraction impacts U.S. exports

Jul 2, 2012
Exports have been one of the few bright spots in the U.S. recovery, but they're slowing down.

Storms hit Amazon data center, Netflix and Instagram

Jul 2, 2012
Amazon's servers were hit by a storm in Virginia. Those data centers are also home to storage for other major websites like Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram.

Will health care law spur entrepreneurs?

Jun 29, 2012
Some say cheaper insurance could help startup owners focus on business.

Gas and oil fuel cities to rebound

Jun 27, 2012
Metros with high-tech, manufacturing and reviving housing sectors also recover faster.

Can more job training create more jobs?

Jun 27, 2012
Re-training the unemployed might just give some job seekers an edge over others.

Skilled factory workers hard to find

Jun 21, 2012
A report says more than half of American companies are having trouble finding enough skilled workers to hire. Why don’t employers train workers instead?

Can Nokia's freebies build brand loyalty?

Jun 15, 2012
Nokia puts giveaways to the test with free smartphones for first-year students at Seton Hall University.