Donate today and get a Marketplace mug — perfect for all your liquid assets! Donate now

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 (1,998)

Low bond yields may buy spending time

Aug 31, 2010
The government is borrowing more money than ever and it's turning out to be cheaper than ever for taxpayers, too. That's because yields -- the interest that investors are paid on government bonds -- are at record lows. Mitchell Hartman reports.

Groupon can be too much of a good thing

Aug 26, 2010
Groupon, a popular discount website, is a way to get a business lots of exposure fast. But the attention can be too much to handle for small businesses.

July existing home sales lowest in 15 years

Aug 24, 2010
Home prices are way way down and mortgage rates are at record lows, but people still aren't buying. Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman reports.

Debating the future of Fannie, Freddie

Aug 20, 2010
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were on the hot seat this week, as government officials debated their future. Reporter Mitchell Hartman talks with Tess Vigeland about what Republicans and Democrats want to see happen to the mortgage giants.

The future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Aug 17, 2010
Fannie and Freddie have significantly improved their practices since the government took over the then-dysfunctional mortgage lenders two years ago. So much so, that 90 percent of mortgages now carry some sort of government insurance. Now some are calling for reeling Fannie and Freddie in.

Tiger Woods may be losing his mojo

Aug 10, 2010
The PGA championship starts Thursday, and for the first time in years, Tiger Woods is struggling with his game.

Fannie posts smallest loss in three years, requests $1.5B bailout

Aug 6, 2010
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae's twelfth quarterly loss in a row is smaller than others the company has suffered in the last 36 months.

$26B bill would save 300,000 government worker jobs

Aug 5, 2010
Democrats have eked out a victory on a bill that would send $26 billion in aid to the states and fund the jobs of 300,000 teachers, cops, firefighters and health care workers.

Google, Verizon deal could change net neutrality

Aug 5, 2010
A deal between Google and Verizon could set the stage for big companies to pay for the privilege of speeding up delivery of their own content to consumers.

Intel antitrust settlement will change how it prices, markets chips

Aug 4, 2010
Intel has settled a major antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission which could lead to lower prices and more innovation going forward.