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 (2,024)

The FTC launches anti-trust probe over Google ads

Jun 23, 2011
The company's ad-search practices are at issue.

Google gets 1 billion 'unique' visitors

Jun 22, 2011
That's more than Facebook. But unique isn't always best.

Survey: VCs don't think there's enough in the IPO pipeline

Jun 22, 2011
Venture capitalists say that the financial markets are still too weak to support a lot of IPOs.

Dodd-Frank law tough to implement

Jun 14, 2011
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposes to delay rules governing the $600 trillion swaps market. Why is it so hard to put financial reform into action?

Kickstarting jobs tougher than you think

Jun 13, 2011
Some economists say it will take much more sweeping measures to create jobs, things like an even bigger round of stimulus. But they aren't likely to happen.

Job searching in a social media age

Jun 4, 2011
Job seekers these days can look to a number of social media tools to help find the right connections and be more selective in their search.

A surge in those out of work a long time

Jun 3, 2011
In a disappointing jobs report, the long-term unemployed made up nearly half of all those without work.

Latest crop problem: A late spring in the West

Jun 2, 2011
The West may be free of tornadoes and drought, but it has its own weather problems. A cool wet spring is damaging some crops, and delaying others.

Twitpic takes pictures, literally

May 24, 2011
Twitpic makes a deal to sell the pictures you post to Twitter.

Liberty Media bids for Barnes & Noble

May 20, 2011
The bookstore chain received a deal offer of $1 billion from Liberty Media Corp. Barnes & Noble began exploring a possible sale last year as competition increased.