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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 (1,997)

What your local coffee shop can tell you about U.S. productivity

Feb 7, 2013
Productivity fell at the end of last year at the fastest pace in two years -- about 2 percent.

View from a small business in a recovering economy

Feb 5, 2013
Boise burger-and-Idaho-fries entrepreneur expands his business as joblessness contracts.

How Boise beat the national unemployment rate

Feb 1, 2013
Boise, Idaho, has a diverse economy -- potatoes, chips (the high-tech kind) and wine.

Will jobs numbers follow GDP to show slower economy?

Feb 1, 2013
January unemployment numbers will help economists figure out which direction the economy is headed.

Will Armstrong interview enhance Oprah network's performance?

Jan 18, 2013
Lance Armstrong's tell-all doping confession could help Oprah Winfrey's struggling cable network, OWN.

Grounded Dreamliner could be Boeing's nightmare

Jan 17, 2013
Foreign regulators will follow the FAA's lead before letting new Boeing Dreamliners fly again.

JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs see earnings soar

Jan 16, 2013
Many of Wall Street's biggest banks are beating profit expectations as the mortgage business comes back.

Dell to go private?

Jan 15, 2013
There are multiple news reports Dell, once the biggest PC-maker on the planet, could be taken private in a buyout that might allow it to retool and reemerge a leaner, stronger company.

Debt ceiling stand-off? President challenges Republicans

Jan 14, 2013
In the final news conference of his first term, President Obama made a new pitch for "balance" as Washington approaches another fiscal deadline.

Detroit Auto Show: Big sales, new models

Jan 14, 2013
Facing ambitious new federal mileage standards, and higher gas prices, automakers are touting ‘fuel efficiency’ at the North American International Auto Show this week.