Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer
We are living through a paradigm shift from trickle-down neoliberalism to middle-out economics — a new understanding of who gets what and why. Join zillionaire class-traitor Nick Hanauer and some of the world’s leading economic and political thinkers as they explore the latest thinking on how the economy actually works.
Episodes
Anti-Fascist Economics (with Isabella Weber)
What happens to democracy when people can no longer afford the basics of everyday life?
Economist Isabella Weber argues that the affordability crisis isn't just an economic problem—it's a threat to democracy itself. Drawing on her new book, Anti-Fascist Economics, she joins Nick and Goldy to explore how inflation, austerity, and corporate profiteering fuel the rise of the far right, and why prote
Housing Is a Market Power Problem (with Sandeep Vaheesan & Brian Callaci)
Housing is still ridiculously expensive, and building more housing is absolutely part of the solution. But supply alone won’t fix a system where landlords have the power to jack up rents with the assistance of algorithms, and developers make more money building for the wealthiest in the market, rather than building homes a typical family can afford.
In this 2024 conversation, Brian Callaci
Who Is Industrial Policy Really For? (with Isabel Estevez)
Industrial policy is back at the center of the economic debate. But tariffs, factories, and reshoring are only part of the story. In this 2023 conversation, development economist Isabel Estevez joins Nick and Goldy to argue that industrial policy is ultimately about choices: what we produce, how we produce it, and who benefits. She explains why a smart industrial strategy has to look beyond manufa
When Companies Run the Courts: How Corporate Power Becomes Legal Power (with Brendan Ballou)
We like to think that if a company cheats us, steals our wages, or breaks the law, we can take them to court. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance you’ve already signed that right away.
This week, Brendan Ballou returns to the podcast to explain how forced arbitration created what he calls America’s secret justice system—and why this is as much an economic story as a legal one. He joins Paul and
Gouged: How Big Tech Reinvented the Rip-Off (with Lindsay Owens)
For 150 years, the price tag made a simple and universal promise: the price you saw was the price everyone saw. Now, that promise is disappearing. This week, Lindsay Owens, President and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative returns to discuss her new book, Gouged: The End of a Fair Price — And What That Means for Your Wallet. She explains how corporations are using algorithms, personal data, and AI
Can We Build a Common Good Economy? (with Mariana Mazzucato)
Economics teaches us to think of markets as natural forces, and government as something that should only intervene when they fail. In her new book, The Common Good Economy: How to Make Capitalism Work for Us All, economist Mariana Mazzucato argues that story is backward. She joins Nick and Goldy to ask what changes when we recognize that markets are choices — shaped by rules, institutions, public
The $29 Trillion Social Security Crisis We Already Know How to Fix ( with Rey Fuentes)
Americans are told Social Security is in trouble because there are more retirees and fewer workers to support them. But that story leaves out a major part of the problem: how much income now sits outside the system that funds Social Security.
Roosevelt Institute’s Rey Fuentes joins Nick and Goldy to explain how rising inequality, stagnant wages, and an outdated payroll-tax structure helped create
Profit, Power, and the Crisis of the Common Good (with Sen. Chris Murphy)
Why do so many Americans feel powerless, lonely, and disconnected — and what does that have to do with our economy?
Senator Chris Murphy joins Nick and Goldy to discuss his new book, Crisis of the Common Good, which makes the case that America’s political crisis is inseparable from a deeper collapse of power, connection, and shared purpose.
They dig into the “cult of profit,” Market Humanism, AI
Chains of Command: How Franchising Turned Control Without Responsibility Into a Business Model (with Brian Callaci)
When you walk into a McDonald’s, it looks like one company. But legally, the person making your fries probably doesn’t work for McDonald’s at all. Brian Callaci, Chief Economist at the Open Markets Institute and author of Chains of Command, joins Nick and Goldy to explain how franchising became a blueprint for corporate control without responsibility — shifting risk, liability, and labor costs ont
The Joy of Money (with Carrie Joy Grimes)
Most personal finance advice starts with the same basic premise: you’re doing money wrong. But Carrie Joy Grimes, founder of WorkMoney and author of The Joy of Money, says that misses half the story.
Yes, people need real tools to budget, save, pay down debt, and plan for the future. But no amount of discipline can fix an economy where wages are too low, costs are too high, and working people hav
What Happened to Liberal Democracy (with Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu)
Nobel Prize-winning MIT economist Daron Acemoglu joins Nick and Goldy to discuss his new book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy? Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity. They explore why so many people have lost faith in democracy, how inequality and weakened worker power have reshaped politics, and why democracy has to deliver in people’s daily lives. They also dig into AI, automation, and whe
What Happens When the Other Washington Stops Enforcing Antitrust? (with WA State Attorney General Nick Brown)
Paramount Skydance wants to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion deal that would put even more of Hollywood—and two major newsrooms—under one corporate roof.
Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown joins Nick and Goldy to explain why a coalition of states is suing to stop it, how they forced Paramount to pause the merger, and why state attorneys general are increasingly steppi
The Good Life Economy (with Elizabeth Wilkins)
What is the economy for — GDP, corporate profits, or people?
This week, Nick and Goldy talk with Elizabeth Wilkins, President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, about Roosevelt’s new Good Life Agenda and why so many old assumptions about markets, government, and growth are suddenly up for grabs. It’s a conversation about human flourishing, public power, and what democracy has to deliver if peopl
Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Productivity Doesn’t Trickle Down (with Preston Mui)
Some of the world’s richest executives are selling AI as the engine of a yet-to-be realized “historic” productivity boom — while warning that it will also eliminate millions of jobs. But if workers absorb the disruption while the gains flow upward, that isn’t shared prosperity. It’s trickle-down economics with better software.
In the final installment of Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics ar
Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Austerity Politics (with Clara Mattei)
This week, we’re continuing our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with the myth that austerity is responsible economic policy.
We’re revisiting this conversation now because the austerity playbook is still very much alive. The Trump administration and DOGE have cut federal agencies, pushed out public servants, and treated public infrastructure like waste — even though t
Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Zombie Economics (with Paul Krugman)
This week, we’re continuing our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with the myth that bad economic ideas die once the evidence proves them wrong.
They don’t. They come back as zombie ideas: tax cuts for the rich sold as growth policy, safety-net cuts sold as responsibility, and market fundamentalism sold as common sense. These ideas have failed again and again, but they
Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Shareholder Value (with William Lazonick and Lenore Palladino)
This week, we’re continuing our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with the myth that corporations exist to maximize shareholder value.
For decades, Americans were sold the idea that if corporations focused on boosting stock prices and rewarding shareholders, prosperity would trickle down to workers, consumers, and communities. Instead, shareholder primacy helped justify
Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Regulations Kill Growth (with Robert Reich)
This week, we’re kicking off our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with one of the most persistent myths in American politics: that regulation kills growth.
Corporate lobbyists and trickle-down evangelists have spent decades branding any rule that limits big business as a “job killer.” But what if good regulation isn’t the enemy of prosperity, but one of the things that
AI Job Loss Is Real. The Catastrophe Is Optional (with Kathryn Edwards)
AI doomsdayers want us to believe mass job loss would be unprecedented. But Kathryn Anne Edwards has a sharp reminder: In the first five weeks of the pandemic, the U.S. economy shed 22.5 million jobs—larger than any single AI job-loss estimate she has seen. The difference was policy. Unemployment support, direct cash to families, and a strong public response helped workers survive the shock and he
The Policy Choices That Suppressed American Wages (with Josh Bivens and Larry Mishel)
Why have wages for working Americans stagnated for decades—even as productivity, corporate profits, and the wealth of the people at the top continued to rise?
The mainstream explanations are familiar: automation, globalization, education, or simply the unavoidable forces of the market—but wage stagnation was not inevitable. It was the result of policy choices.
This week, we’re revisiting a conve
Market Humanism: A New Operating System for the Economy (with Nick Hanauer)
For the first time in Pitchfork Economics history, Nick Hanauer is on the other side of the mic.
Goldy and Paul sit down with Nick to discuss Market Humanism: the emerging economic paradigm he and Eric Beinhocker believe can replace the trickle-down ideas that have shaped American policymaking for the past 50 years.
Why have wages stagnated while inequality soared? Why does conventional economic
What Comes After Neoliberalism? (with Nick Hanauer & Eric Beinhocker)
This week, we’re sharing a special episode from Washington Monthly featuring Pitchfork Economics co-host Nick Hanauer and Oxford professor Eric Beinhocker in conversation with Anne Kim about Market Humanism.
For decades, American capitalism has been organized around efficiency, shareholder value, and the idea that prosperity naturally trickles down from the top. But as Nick and Eric explain, that
The Worker Power Missing From the Abundance Debate (with Kate Andrias and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez)
Everyone wants more housing, more clean energy, more transit, more care infrastructure, and more of the things people need to live good lives. But too much of the “abundance” debate treats workers, unions, environmental review, and community voice as obstacles to building — instead of asking who has power, who benefits, and who gets left out.
This week, Goldy and Paul talk with Columbia professor
How the AI Oligarchy Went Hyperscale (with Tim Murphy)
The AI “cloud” sounds weightless. But behind every chat bot, every prompt, and every promise of a coming AI revolution is a massive physical footprint: hyperscale data centers consuming enormous amounts of land, electricity, water, and public subsidies.
This week, Nick and Goldy talk with Tim Murphy, national correspondent at Mother Jones, about his cover story on how the American oligarchy went
Why Philanthropy [STILL] Isn’t the Answer with (with Anand Giridharadas)
Billionaires are shaping everything from elections to education to climate policy—and they want us to believe it's generosity.
That’s why we’re re-airing this conversation with Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All, on the power of elite philanthropy—and why it can’t fix the inequality it helps sustain.
Giridharadas breaks down how modern philanthropy allows the ultra-wealthy to “give b
Crypto, Cryptocurrency Scams, and the Illusion of Easy Money (with Ben McKenzie)
Crypto is back—new hype cycles, rising prices, and fresh promises that this time cryptocurrency is changing the financial system for good. But the questions haven’t changed: is this innovation or just another wave of speculation, scams, and financial fraud?
That’s why we’re revisiting this conversation with actor and author Ben McKenzie—whose bestselling book Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Ca
From Safety Net to Power Base: Reclaiming Economic Power for Working People (with Jamie Keene)
The social safety net wasn’t supposed to work like this.
Decades of neoliberal choices from politicians in both parties reshaped it—turning what was meant to support people into a system that often leaves them stuck.
This week, Jamie Keene, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and former Biden White House policy advisor, joins us to break down how we got here—and why today’s anti-poverty system c
The Second Estate: Where Billionaires Don’t Pay. You Do. (with Ray D. Madoff)
Would it be a surprise if we told you the rich don’t actually live in the same tax system as everyone else?
Tomorrow is Tax Day, when millions of Americans will be filing their taxes or applying for extensions, so Nick and Goldy sit down with Ray D. Madoff, Professor of Tax Law at Boston College, and author of The Second Estate, to pull back the curtain on how wealth really moves—and why so much
The Wage Standard: What’s Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It (with Arin Dube)
Corporate profits are booming. So why haven’t most workers gotten a raise?
For decades, we’ve been told a simple story: work harder, become more productive, and your wages will follow. But what if that story was never really true?
This week, Nick and Goldy talk to Arindrajit Dube—one of the most influential economists shaping how we understand wages, and author of a new book, The Wage Standard:
The Boomcession: Booming on Paper. Brutal in Real Life. (with Matt Stoller)
What happens when the economic data says one thing, but people’s lives say another?
This week, Nick and Goldy talk to Matt Stoller about what he calls a “Boomcession”—the disconnect between headline economic indicators and how the economy actually feels for most people.
They go straight at the disconnect: why the numbers say everything’s fine… and people say otherwise. If the economy is supposed
The $79 Trillion Price of Inequality (with Carter Price)
Over the last 50 years, nearly $79 trillion that could have gone to the bottom 90%…didn’t.
Where did it go—and what did that cost you?
Nick and Goldy are joined by Carter Price, senior mathematician at the RAND Corporation, to break down how rising inequality reshaped wages, growth, and even the federal budget—and why the economy feels so disconnected from everyday life. Because this isn’t just
Swiftynomics: Who’s Afraid of Women’s Economic Power? (with Misty Heggeness)
What Is Swiftynomics—and Why Does It Matter?
Taylor Swift didn’t just break records—she broke the way economists think about the economy. Because if one artist can reshape entire cities overnight, what else are we missing?
This week, economist Misty Heggeness uses the “Swift effect” to expose a bigger problem: the models we rely on weren’t built to see women’s power, unpaid care, or culture as r
Same Cart, Different Price: When the Invisible Hand Becomes an Algorithm (with Lindsay Owens)
The price you see online might not be the real price.
A new investigation found that Instacart was quietly running pricing experiments—charging different customers different prices for the same groceries at the same time.
This week, Paul and Goldy talk with Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Lindsay Owens about how companies are using AI and massive data sets to run experiments on consu
Should There Be a Limit to Wealth? (with Ingrid Robeyns)
Economic debates often focus on poverty — how to raise wages, strengthen safety nets, and ensure people don’t fall too far behind. But what if fairness also requires asking a different question: how much wealth is too much?
This week, we’re resharing our conversation with ethics professor Ingrid Robeyns about her idea of limitarianism — the argument that societies should place moral limits on ext
AI Won’t Decide the Future of Work—We Will (with David Autor)
Every wave of new technology has come with the same promise: productivity rises, and everyone benefits. That’s not how it usually plays out.
This week, we’re resharing our conversation with MIT economist David Autor, one of the world’s leading experts on how technological change reshapes labor markets. Autor challenges the familiar story that innovation inevitably destroys good jobs, arguing inst
LIVE FROM DC: The Magic Wand Question — Policy Pitches for Working People
If you could order a presidential administration to do one specific thing to improve the lives of working people — what would it be?
At Democracy Journal’s recent conference in Washington, DC, Nick and Goldy heard some of the country’s leading economic thinkers take their best shot at that magic-wand question: one idea, three minutes, no BS.
The result is a rapid-fire lineup of bold proposals —
LIVE FROM DC: Abundance and Social Democracy: Enemies or Allies?
Can we build an economy that delivers abundance without abandoning democratic accountability and economic equity?
Recorded live at Democracy Journal’s “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” conference, this episode features a wide-ranging panel discussion on one of the most consequential debates shaping today’s political economy: whether abundance and social democracy are in tension—or whether they’re mu
A Government Built to Stall—and What That Means for Democracy (with Hannah Garden-Monheit)
If democracy is going to survive, it has to deliver.This week, Goldy and Civic Ventures president Zach Silk are joined by Hannah Garden-Monheit, a former senior official in the Biden-Harris administration, for a conversation about one of the most urgent questions in American politics: why our government so often fails to produce visible results for working people—and what that means for what comes
Revisiting Reimagining Capitalism (with Rebecca Henderson)
As inequality deepens, democratic institutions strain, and climate risk accelerates, it’s becoming impossible to ignore a basic question: What is capitalism actually for?
This week, we revisit our conversation with Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Henderson who argues that today’s economic crises aren’t the result of isolated failures, but of an economic system designed around the wrong
Revisiting the Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order (with Gary Gerstle)
Every era runs on an economic story. For the last half-century, ours has been neoliberalism — the belief that if you free markets from constraints, prosperity will follow.
This week we revisit a bracing conversation with historian Gary Gerstle about how neoliberalism took hold, why it once felt inevitable, and why it’s now breaking down in plain sight. Drawing on his book The Rise and Fall of the
Revisiting How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers (with Elizabeth Anserson)
Americans have been told that working harder is the path to dignity, security, and success. But what if that promise was hijacked?
This week, we’re revisiting our episode with Professor Elizabeth Anderson, where she exposes how neoliberalism weaponized the “work ethic” — transforming a moral tradition that once honored workers into a system that blames them, exploits them, and rewards extraction
The Story That Built Today’s Economy (with George Monbiot and Binyamin Appelbaum)
Most people buy the fiction that markets are “natural,” inequality is inevitable, and government should step aside — but where did that idea come from?
In this episode from 2019, Nick and Goldy talk with English journalist George Monbiot and American journalist and author Binyamin Appelbaum about how neoliberalism was deliberately built and sold — not stumbled into.
They unpack how economists, f
How Economists Cause Harm Even as They Aspire to Do Good (with George DeMartino)
For more than a century, economists have told us they’re simply “describing the world as it is.” But what if their theories aren’t neutral — and are quietly doing enormous harm?
This week, we’re joined by economist George DeMartino, author of The Tragic Science, who makes a devastating case that modern economics has helped legitimize policies that shattered communities, fueled inequality, and eve
If America Is “Winning,” Why Does the Economy Feel Like This? (with Talmon Joseph Smith)
America has never been wealthier—so why does it feel so hard to get by?
New York Times economics reporter Talmon Joseph Smith joins Nick and Goldy this week to unpack the growing gap between economic headlines and the lived reality of most Americans. With nearly $200 trillion in national wealth and half the country holding just a sliver of it, they explore why GDP and aggregate growth keep telli
The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding (with Osita Nwanevu)
Extreme inequality and democratic decline aren’t separate crises—they’re the same crisis. This week, Osita Nwanevu joins Paul and Goldy to explain how America’s constitutional design, corporate power, and decades of upward redistribution have eroded both political and economic freedom. He outlines what real democratic governance would mean inside government and at work, why the concentration of we
From Abundance to Enshittification: 2025’s Must-Read Economics Books
This week, Paul and Goldy look back at the most notable economics books of the year. They discuss Ezra Klein and David Thompson’s Abundance, Cory Doctorow’s blistering Enshittification, Thomas Piketty’s new works on inequality, Diane Coyle’s fresh take on GDP, and the overlooked history behind the Garland Fund. Whether you’re hunting for a holiday gift for the wonk in the family or looking to unde
CORE Econ: Rewriting Econ 101 for the Real World (with Suresh Naidu and Wendy Carlin)
Econ 101 shapes how millions of people understand the economy—but what if the textbooks are teaching a worldview that’s outdated, oversimplified, and in some cases flat-out wrong?
This week, Nick and Goldy talk with economists Wendy Carlin and Suresh Naidu, leaders of CORE Econ, the global project rewriting introductory economics to reflect the real world. They explain why the old curriculum fai
The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America (with Mehrsa Baradaran)
Law professor Mehrsa Baradaran joins Nick and Goldy to reveal how neoliberalism wasn’t just a misguided economic theory—it was a “quiet coup” that rewired our laws, courts, and institutions to elevate capital above democracy. Drawing from her new book The Quiet Coup, Professor Baradaran explains how this ideology became like the air we breathe: a pervasive worldview that shapes our politics, our m
The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters (with Diane Coyle)
For nearly a century, GDP has been the world’s go-to measure of economic success—but what if it’s been telling us the wrong story? It treats cigarette sales and cancer treatments as equally “good” for the economy, while caring for your kids, volunteering, or creating art don’t count at all. This week, economist Diane Coyle joins Nick and Goldy to discuss her new book, The Measure of Progress, and
Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud (with Ben McKenzie)
Actor and author Ben McKenzie didn’t set out to become one of crypto’s fiercest critics—but when the pandemic hit and Hollywood shut down, his curiosity turned into a full-blown investigation. The result was the bestselling book, Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, a blistering exposé of the crypto craze as “casino capitalism” at its dumbest.
In this episod
Stock Buybacks and the Trillion Dollar Heist (with Senator Cory Booker)
Corporations are on track to spend more than $1.3 trillion on stock buybacks this year—money that could have gone toward higher wages, innovation, or community investment. That’s the real-life Trillion Dollar Heist at the center of our new comic from Civic Ventures, which follows Marta, a janitor who interrupts a corporate board meeting just as executives plot their next billion-dollar buyback spr
Competing Visions on Trade: A Race to the Bottom Vs. Building the Middle Class (with Thea Lee featuring Todd Tucker)
In the final episode of our Trade series, Nick and Goldy talk with Thea Lee, former Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, to challenge the core assumption behind decades of U.S. trade policy: That trade is about efficiency, not power.
Lee explains how past trade deals were written to protect capital while ignoring worker exploitation abroad—a model that
South of the Border: A Mexican Perspective on the Free Trade Era (with Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid)
In the sixth episode of our trade series, Pitchfork Economics producer Freddy Doss talks with Mexican economist Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid about how NAFTA — and now the USMCA — reshaped Mexico’s economy in ways that those of us north of the Rio Grande almost never hear about. Yes, exports skyrocketed. But wages stagnated, domestic industry hollowed out, and Mexico became structurally dependent on the
North of the Border: A Canadian Perspective on the Free Trade Era (with Luke Savage)
In the fifth episode of our series on trade, journalist and author Luke Savage joins Pitchfork Economics Producer Freddy Doss to unpack how decades of “free trade” between the U.S. and Canada have reshaped both economies—entrenching corporate power, hollowing out manufacturing, and weakening democratic control over economic policy. Savage traces how policies sold as mutually beneficial instead fue
Trade Wars Are Class Wars (with Matthew C. Klein)
What if global trade isn’t really a fight between nations—but between classes? In the fourth episode of our Trade series, Nick and Goldy talk with economist and writer Matthew C. Klein, co-author of Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace. Klein argues that the real story behind trade imbalances isn’t about countries “winning”
You Can't Tariff Knowledge (with César Hidalgo)
Tariffs won’t save America’s economy—but knowledge might. In the third episode of our Trade series, Nick and Goldy sit down with physicist César Hidalgo to explore how prosperity really grows—not through tariffs or trickle-down promises, but through the accumulation of knowledge and know-how. Hidalgo explains why digital exports don’t show up in trade data, why tariffs fail, and why the future bel
How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray (with Nat Dyer)
In the second episode of our Trade series, Nick and Goldy talk with author Nat Dyer about his book Ricardo’s Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray. Dyer reveals how David Ricardo’s famous theory of comparative advantage—long touted as proof that free trade is always a win-win—was built on unrealistic assumptions and a false history.
They trace how this elegant but misleadi
Trade Wars, Class Wars & Globalization: Unpacking The Truth About Trade (featuring David Autor & Marc Palen)
In this kickoff to our special series on trade, Nick and Goldy unpack why trade policy isn’t just about tariffs and treaties—it’s about people, power, and priorities. For decades, the prevailing narrative has been that trade benefits everyone by lowering prices. But the real question is: who does it help, and who does it hurt? From the false promises of globalization to the overlooked damage in ho
Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers (with Mark Blyth)
Political economist Mark Blyth joins Nick and Goldy to unpack the myths and realities of rising prices, from pandemic supply shocks and corporate profiteering to central-bank missteps and decades of bad economic theory. Drawing from his new book Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers, Blyth explains why some narratives fall flat, why others reveal deeper truths about power and inequality, and wha
Back to Basics Series: Homo Economicus Must Die (with Samuel Bowles)
What if the relentless drive to maximize personal gain isn't human nature, but just a flawed model we built? In this Back-to-Basics episode, behavioral economist Samuel Bowles helps us lay homo economicus—the myth of the perfectly rational, self-interested actor—six feet under. He shows how this caricature not only misrepresents human behavior, but underpins an economic system that ignores coopera
Back to Basics Series: Is the American Dream a Lie? (with Christian Cooper and Khiara Bridges)
The promise of the American Dream—work hard, play by the rules, and you’ll get ahead—is unraveling before our eyes.
In this Back-to-Basics episode, Christian H. Cooper and law professor Khiara Bridges join Nick and Goldy to posit whether economic mobility has ever truly existed, or if the system was rigged from the start. As wages stagnate, homeownership drifts out of reach, and inequality worsen
Back to Basics Series: How Monopolies Feed Plutocracy (with Matt Stoller)
When a few giants dominate the economy, democracy is the first to go. In this back-to-basics episode, author and anti-monopoly expert Matt Stoller unpacks how concentrated corporate power doesn’t just warp markets—it tilts the political playing field toward plutocracy. Drawing from his book Goliath, Stoller shows how corporate giants from banks to Big Tech leverage economic dominance into politica
Back to Basics Series: Does the Market Really Pay You What You’re Worth? (with Marshall Steinbaum and Saru Jayaraman)
We’ve all heard the story: In a fair market, workers are paid exactly what they’re worth. Economists even have a name for it—marginal productivity theory. It’s neat, simple…and completely wrong.
In this Back-to-Basics episode, economist Marshall Steinbaum and labor leader Saru Jayaraman dismantle the myth that the market fairly rewards labor. Steinbaum reveals how this theory has been weaponized
Back to Basics Series: The Velocity of Money (with Ann Pettifor)
If you’ve ever wondered why the economy feels stuck, even when it seems like there's a lot more money in the system, this episode will blow your mind.
Political economist Ann Pettifor joins Nick and Goldy to explain why money isn't flowing like it used to, and why that matters. Over the last century, the velocity of money (how quickly a dollar circulates) has plummeted. Today, each dollar in circ
Back to Basics Series: Is Economics Moral? (with Heather McGhee)
For decades, orthodox economics has treated morality as irrelevant—as if economic decisions happen in a vacuum, separate from our values and social bonds. But that approach has failed spectacularly, giving cover to policies that divide and exploit us.
In this episode, Heather McGhee joins Nick and Paul to argue that morality must be central to how we think about the economy. They explore how raci
Back to Basics Series: Where does economic growth really come from? (with W. Brian Arthur and Cesar Hidalgo)
Is economic growth just about money, trade, and GDP? Or is something deeper at play?
In this episode, economist W. Brian Arthur and physicist Cesar Hidalgo join Nick and Goldy to reveal the real drivers of rising prosperity: human knowledge, know‑how, and innovation. They challenge the old assumptions of growth and argue that innovation isn't a byproduct of a strong economy—it's a cause of econom
Back to Basics Series: Is Econ 101 a Lie? (with Eric Beinhocker and James Kwak)
Trickle-downers love to pretend that "Econ 101" is a convincing argument against policies like the minimum wage that invest in working Americans. But the truth is that mainstream economists are terrible at predicting how the economy will behave in the future…Is Econ 101 broken?
In this key foundational episode for the podcast, we dismantle the myths of orthodox economics and expose Econ 101 for w
Back to Basics Series: What the hell are they talking about? Econ terms explained! (with Nick and Goldy)
Ever find yourself halfway through a Pitchfork Economics episode thinking, “Wait… what’s a monopsony?” You’re not alone.
In this listener-favorite episode, Nick and Goldy break down some of the most important—and most misunderstood—economic terms we use on the show. From ‘neoclassical’ and ‘neoliberal’ to ‘monopoly’, ‘monopsony,’ ‘stock buybacks,’ and ‘heterodox economics,’ we cut through the jar
Back to Basics Series: Why do we call it Pitchfork Economics? (with Ganesh Sitaraman & Walter Scheidel)
In 2014, Nick Hanauer sounded the alarm: if economic inequality kept growing, the pitchforks would come—for him, and for the rest of America’s wealthy elite. Then 2016 happened. Donald Trump was elected president on a wave of economic populism that correctly identified massive inequality as a problem, but which offered all the wrong solutions.
The inaugural episode of Pitchfork Economics lays the
The Truth About Immigration and the American Worker (with Rogé Karma)
Conventional wisdom says immigration drives down wages and takes jobs from American workers. But what if that story is fueled by bad economics? Journalist Rogé Karma joins Nick and Goldy to challenge the Econ 101 logic that supercharges anti-immigrant rhetoric—and to explain what the data actually shows. Drawing on research from the U.S., Denmark, and beyond, Karma makes the case that immigrants d
America Adrift: Inequality, Power, and the Fight to Fix It (with Scott Galloway)
With inequality rising, housing out of reach, and young Americans falling further behind, some argue the American Dream is dead. But NYU professor Scott Galloway has a different take: America hasn’t fallen—it’s adrift. Originally recorded in late 2022, this episode features a candid conversation about what’s really hollowed out the middle class: generational wealth hoarding, runaway corporate cons
From Reagan to Reality: The Case Against Tax Cuts for the Rich (with Bruce Bartlett)
As Republicans work at break-neck speed to push another round of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit our 2019 conversation with Bruce Bartlett, a Reagan policy adviser and key architect of the 1981 tax cuts. Bartlett explains how the trickle-down logic he once championed turned out to be economic snake oil, because tax breaks for the wealthy don’t grow t
Why Gutting SNAP Makes the Economy Worse for Everyone (with Lily Roberts)
The GOP’s new tax bill isn’t just a massive giveaway to the rich—it’s an all-out assault on SNAP, one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the U.S. That’s because SNAP is more than just a program designed to end hunger. It’s also a powerful economic engine, stabilizing local economies as well as supporting retailers and farmers. Lily Roberts from the Center for American Progress joins us
Good Company: Ending the Era of Shareholder Supremacy (with Lenore Palladino)
What makes a company good—and who gets to decide? Economist Lenore Palladino joins Nick and Goldy to dismantle the myth of shareholder primacy and explain how our current system of corporate governance has warped innovation, deepened inequality, and undermined democracy. Drawing from her new book Good Company: Economic Policy after Shareholder Primacy, Palladino outlines a bold vision for how we c
The Empire Strikes Back—With More Billionaire Tax Breaks (with Samantha Jacoby)
With Trump’s second major tax bill clearing committee and heading to the House floor—packed, as promised, with massive giveaways to the ultra-wealthy—we’re revisiting our timely conversation with Samantha Jacoby of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Originally recorded before Trump’s reelection, this episode breaks down the real impact of the tax bill that Trump signed into law back in 20
Greedflation 2.0: How Tariffs Could Become an Excuse for Corporate Price Gouging (with Hal Singer)
During COVID, corporations blamed supply chain shocks for rising prices while quietly raising prices higher than costs, thereby boosting their profits to record levels. We know they did this because they bragged about doing it on corporate earnings calls. Economist Hal Singer warns that Trump’s proposed tariffs could spark a repeat, giving corporations another “golden opportunity” to jack up price
Why Democracy Needs a New Operating System (with K. Sabeel Rahman)
Decades of trickle-down thinking hollowed out our government—and now the anti-democracy crowd is finishing the job. This week, legal scholar and former Biden advisor K. Sabeel Rahman joins Nick and Goldy to talk about what happens when the rule of law becomes optional, what the Biden administration got right (and what it didn’t,) and why simply restoring the old system isn’t enough. If we want a r
Democracy in Chains (with Nancy MacLean)
This week, we’re revisiting a critical conversation we had back in 2020 with author and historian Nancy MacLean, in which she exposes how today’s threats to democracy were decades in the making. Based on her groundbreaking book Democracy in Chains, MacLean traces how Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan worked with billionaire donors to rig the rules of government to expand corporate power
The Abundance Doctrine (with Mike Konczal)
What does “abundance” actually mean—and who is it really for? In this episode, Goldy and Paul welcome back economic policy expert Mike Konczal to unpack the big new idea dominating political discourse: abundance. They dive into the buzz around Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book “Abundance,” and Konczal’s sharp critique of its deregulatory leanings, missed opportunities, and neoliberal undertones
Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back (with Marc Dunkelman)
Why does it feel like we can’t build anything anymore? In this episode, Nick and Goldy talk with author Mark Dunkelman about his new book Why Nothing Works, which examines how well-intentioned progressive reforms created a “vetocracy” that makes major public projects nearly impossible. From Seattle’s decades-long waterfront rebuild to the dysfunction of Penn Station, they explore the messy trade-o
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