Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

By Civic Ventures

Business

What's Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer about?

Any society that allows itself to become radically unequal eventually collapses into an uprising or a police state—or both. Join venture capitalist Nick Hanauer and some of the world’s leading economic and political thinkers in an exploration of who gets what and why. Turns out, everything you learned about economics is wrong. And if we don’t do something about rising inequality, the pitchforks are coming.

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Measuring long Covid's impa...

09.20.2022

Millions of Americans are being kept out of the workforce due to the lingering effects of Covid, resulting in billions of dollars in lost wages and productivity. How is this affecting our economy? Returning guest Katie Bach shares the findings ...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer episodes:

09.20.2022 Measuring long Covid's impact on the labor market (with Katie Bach) Millions of Americans are being kept out of the workforce due to the lingering effects of Covid, resulting in billions of dollars in lost wages and productivity. How is this affecting our economy? Returning guest Katie Bach shares the findings ...
09.13.2022 We need to fix overtime pay in America (with Marcus Baram) If you're a salaried worker, chances are you're no longer eligible for the overtime pay that you would have received 40 years ago. A robust federal overtime standard used to serve as a kind of minimum wage for the middle ...
09.06.2022 How the Inflation Reduction Act benefits the middle class (with Rose Khattar) The Inflation Reduction Act may be smaller than the original Build Back Better plan, but it still represents a huge leap forward in middle-out economic thinking. The IRA addresses out-of-control healthcare costs, it helps build a fairer tax code, and ...
08.30.2022 The limits of the market (with Joseph Stiglitz) One of the central theories of classical economics is that markets respond quickly and efficiently to changes in demand. But the supply chain disruptions that left store shelves empty for much of the pandemic demonstrate that the markets aren’t the ...
08.23.2022 Why essential work is essentially forced labor (with Suresh Naidu) What became known as “essential work” during the pandemic was really just forced labor, according to labor market economist Suresh Naidu. He shares employers' secret tricks for manipulating the labor market and explains how powerless most workers have become as ...
08.16.2022 How inequality cost workers $50 trillion (with Carter Price) Did you know that since 1975 a staggering $50 trillion has been diverted from the paychecks of working Americans to the pockets of the wealthiest 1%? That shocking number was discovered in a groundbreaking study done by the RAND Corporation ...
08.09.2022 Reclaiming conservative economics (with Oren Cass) These days "conservative economics" can mean anything from strict libertarianism to formless Trumpism. But what were the foundations of American conservatism? According to Oren Cass, the executive director of a think tank called American Compass, the answer is simple: family, ...
08.02.2022 Mission Economy (with Mariana Mazzucato) What do the internet and COVID vaccines have in common? Neither would be possible without the work of DARPA, a mission-focused federal agency responsible for funding research and development. Professor Mariana Mazzucato explains that our economy would be better off ...
07.26.2022 How American tax policy fosters racial inequality (with Dorothy A. Brown) While most Americans know that our tax system advantages wealthy white families, not as many people realize how much it also actively disadvantages Black families. Tax law professor Dorothy Brown breaks down how racial inequality is built into U.S. tax ...
07.19.2022 We can redefine worker power (with Elizabeth Anderson) What are the ethical limits of the market? How do we shift the balances of power back towards workers? What does true freedom really look like? Nick and Goldy explore these questions and more in a fascinating conversation with Philosophy ...
07.12.2022 Can corporations help repair society? (with Ben & Jerry) Business leaders can use their power and resources to make meaningful change, but should they? Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of iconic ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s, have navigated the landscape between business and activism since the ...
07.05.2022 Ask Nick Anything Nick and Goldy answer more of your questions! What’s the deal with cryptocurrency? How are people still saying that inflation was caused by the stimulus? Is capitalism better than market socialism? Plus some summer reading recommendations and an important podcast ...
06.28.2022 Has Chile defeated neoliberalism? (with Marcelo Casals) Chile has a proud tradition of protests, but the unrest of 2019 was different. More than a million people took to the streets to protest their nation’s vast inequality. The uprising made international news, unseated a neoliberal dictatorship, and led ...
06.21.2022 Marshall Plan for Moms (with Reshma Saujani) Millions of Americans lost their jobs because of the pandemic. While men have returned to their pre-pandemic level of employment, a million women are still missing from the workforce. Without access to paid maternity leave and affordable child care, women ...
06.14.2022 The inequality of progress (with Oded Galor) What can the history of human progress teach us about modern inequality? In his new book, ‘The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality,’ economist Oded Galor explores that question, as well as why human progress was stagnant ...
06.07.2022 How thinking like economists holds us back (with Elizabeth Popp Berman) When it comes to crafting economic policy, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, choice, and competition have reigned supreme among policymakers for decades. Sociologist Elizabeth Popp Berman says that this style of economic reasoning—prioritizing efficiency above all else—makes good ideas seem like bad policy. ...
05.31.2022 Exploring global solutions to inequality (with Faiza Shaheen) Reducing inequality is not only possible, but it’s actually happening all across the globe. Faiza Shaheen, the Inequality Program Lead at NYU, has been researching the conditions and policies that can lower inequality for years. She shares which countries have ...
05.24.2022 Inclusion is an economic necessity (with john a. powell) john a. powell, the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, explains why the concept of belonging is so important for a healthy community and why inclusion is the key to a thriving economy. john a. powell is the Director ...
05.17.2022 Consumers deserve an inflation rebate (with Congressman Ro Khanna) Gas prices have reached record highs in the United States. Is inflation actually to blame, or is it the greed of Big Oil, which is enjoying record profits? Congressman Ro Khanna walks us through his proposal for a Big Oil ...
05.10.2022 How Biden’s budget proposal takes on corporate power (with Niko Lusiani) The Biden Administration’s 2023 budget proposal includes a Billionaire Minimum Income Tax and a rewrite of stock buyback practices. Will these changes actually take effect? If so, will they do enough to curb runaway corporate power? Niko Lusiani from the ...
05.03.2022 Pirate equity (with Jim Baker) The idea behind private equity firms—to buy failing companies and turn them around for a profit—is not inherently bad. So why is private equity such a major driver of economic inequality? Jim Baker, the Executive Director for the Private Equity ...
04.26.2022 Companies can't self-regulate their way to inclusive capitalism (with Katie Bach) In 2019, a group of business leaders signed a high-profile pledge promising that they would voluntarily move toward a more inclusive stakeholder-focused version of capitalism. But throughout the pandemic, those same companies reported record profits while workers were left behind. ...
04.19.2022 Why your non-compete clause is probably illegal (with Attorney General Bob Ferguson) Non-compete clauses, and the lesser-known no-poach agreements between franchises, are shockingly common for low-wage workers. Although these contracts were originally intended to protect trade secrets among high-level executives, they have spiraled into an unfair labor practice that keeps wages low, ...
04.12.2022 How neoliberalism happened (with George Monbiot and Binyamin Appelbaum) It’s trendy to mock the malicious pervasiveness of neoliberalism now, but have you ever wondered what its origins are? This week, George Monbiot and Binyamin Appelbaum join the show to uncover just where the dominant economic theory of our time ...
04.05.2022 The economics of mass incarceration (with Robynn Cox) What role does the criminal justice system play in economic inequality? How does economic inequality cause mass incarceration? And how do we tease those two questions apart? Robynn Cox, an expert in the economics of mass incarceration, talks about her ...
03.29.2022 Why a $15 minimum wage is no longer enough (with Dean Baker) Ever wondered what the minimum wage would be if it had kept pace with inflation and productivity like it used to? Here’s a hint: $7.25, and even $15.00, don’t come close. Economist Dean Baker has been crunching the numbers on ...
03.22.2022 Did corporate greed break the supply chain? (with Rakeen Mabud) While many Americans struggle to make ends meet, corporate America’s 2021 profits were higher than ever. So why are corporations making more money while supply chain issues are still driving up inflation for the rest of us? The Groundwork Collaborative’s ...
03.15.2022 Free lunch thinking (with Tom Bergin) Investigative financial analyst Tom Bergin cut his teeth investigating corporate wrongdoing. When he turned his attention to the economics profession, he learned that eight major economic theories—used by experts to shape policy across the globe—entirely lack factual basis. He joins ...
03.08.2022 Congress looks to the CBO for economic expertise. Is that a mistake? (with Mark Paul) The Congressional Budget Office, the institution that furnishes cost-benefit analyses for federal legislation under consideration by Congress, has a really hard job. But some of the assumptions they rely on to predict economic consequences are just plain weird. Economist Mark ...
03.01.2022 How Davos Man devours the world (with Peter Goodman) Billionaires have looted economies, hidden from tax bills, and destabilized democracies for decades. But the subset of billionaires who make a show of pretending to be good citizens have to be the worst among them. They’re called “Davos Man'' and ...
02.22.2022 The economics of abortion (with Caitlin Myers) We often discuss abortion as an issue of bodily autonomy, personal rights, and reproductive justice. Of course it’s all of those things, but it’s also an economic issue. Access (or lack thereof) to an abortion profoundly affects women’s lives by ...
02.15.2022 Ask Nick Anything Nick and Goldy answer your questions! How is any form of union busting legal? Why can’t America be more like the Nordic countries? Is taxing unrealized capital gains a good idea? And more! Thanks to Brad from Pennsylvania, Larry from ...
02.08.2022 Debunking deficit myths (with Stephanie Kelton) Modern Monetary Theory is an attempt to accurately describe how government debt and complex financial systems actually work and it can help us responsibly use our resources. No one is more knowledgeable on the subject than returning guest, Professor Stephanie ...
02.01.2022 The economic case for universal health care (with CA Assemblymember Ash Kalra) The United States spends far more on healthcare costs than other industrialized countries, yet we continue to have wider gaps of coverage and report worse health outcomes. California Assemblymember Ash Kalra is paving the way for a better system in ...
01.25.2022 Why privatizing public goods is bad for democracy (with Donald Cohen) Even in the middle of a pandemic, trickle-down politicians still love to claim that the free market is the best way to resolve human problems and that the government can't be trusted to serve the public good. But when we ...
01.18.2022 Ending the tipped minimum wage (with Saru Jayaraman) In most states, tipped workers are not subject to the minimum wage. Why? Because it’s legal to pay tipped workers a subminimum wage as low as the federal minimum of $2.13 per hour. As long as any worker in the ...
01.11.2022 Did the Federal Reserve’s policies make inequality worse? (with Christopher Leonard) When the Federal Reserve makes money, where does it go? Turns out, the Fed’s hands are tied—it can’t do anything other than assume that the new money will trickle down into the hands of ordinary Americans through Wall Street’s coffers. ...
01.04.2022 How the radical right weaponized ideology (with Nancy MacLean) If it seems to you like the ultimate goal of the most extreme conservatives is to undermine democracy and cripple democratic institutions—well, according to historian Nancy MacLean, you’re right. This week, MacLean unpacks the meteoric rise in popularity of the ...
12.28.2021 How opportunity zones create windfalls for the uber-rich (with David Wessel) The 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act included a little-known provision establishing something called opportunity zones. The plan, which was lauded as a way to direct investments into under-developed communities in the U.S., created 8,764 tax havens that were almost ...
12.21.2021 Are you in the 9.9 percent? (with Matthew Stewart) In the U.S., inequality is often framed as the 99% versus the wealthiest 1%. But that’s not quite the right matchup. While the bottom 90% has done dramatically worse over the last several decades and the top 0.1% has done ...
12.14.2021 Moving beyond racial liberalism (with Kyle Strickland) How can we center the role of race in our economic policy and in our politics in a way that will drive real change? Kyle Strickland, the deputy director of race and democracy at the Roosevelt Institute, explains how our ...
12.07.2021 The hidden costs of banking while poor (with Mehrsa Baradaran and Cate Blackford) The average family earning $25,000 a year in the U.S. spends about $2,400 on financial transactions. Whether it’s the astronomical interest rates of a payday loan or the costs that come with being unbanked, the extractive practices of the financial ...
11.30.2021 Make the clean stuff cheap (with Eric Beinhocker & Doyne Farmer) Until very recently, the prevailing wisdom cautioned that transitioning to a clean energy economy would be extremely expensive, and therefore only possible if undertaken slowly. New research upends that thinking—when it comes to going green, the faster we go, the ...
11.23.2021 Why can’t we talk about homelessness? (with Josephine Ensign) The number of unhoused Americans is at a historically high rate right now. This podcast is produced in Seattle, a city with the third highest homeless population in the U.S. Though many Seattleites identify as progressive, we can’t reach a ...
11.16.2021 How taxpayers subsidize corporate profits (with Rana Foroohar and David Dayen) Every company you can think of has benefitted from a public investment. Whether it’s direct handouts through the tax code, government research efforts, or employee reliance on programs like EITC or TANF, taxpayers are subsidizing wildly profitable companies. David Dayen, ...
11.09.2021 How the tax system impoverishes Black Americans (with Dorothy A. Brown) We know that the tax system is set up to advantage people with money. And we know that in the U.S., people with money are disproportionately white. But what many people don’t realize is that the tax system actively advantages ...
11.02.2021 The free market economics of synthetic opioids (with Sam Quinones) The opioid crisis in the United States is a textbook example of free market economics. The powerful lie, manipulate, and skirt regulations to make buckets of money, while innocent people suffer. Journalist Sam Quinones joins Goldy and Paul to unpack ...
10.26.2021 How to stand up for voting rights (with Andrea Hailey) Behind every aspect of the voting system that makes it harder to vote, there’s a policy that made it that way. Andrea Hailey, the CEO of Vote.org, joins Nick and Goldy to explain how voter suppression happens, and what reforms ...
10.19.2021 Thanks to unemployment insurance, poverty declined last year (with Amy Goldstein and Elliott Morris) It’s been a little over a month since the unemployment benefits programs that were established by the CARES Act expired, so we’re taking a look at how well they worked. Washington Post writer Amy Goldstein and Elliott Morris, a data ...
10.12.2021 How corporate concentration hurts the economy (with Stacy Mitchell) Anti-monopoly and pro-local advocate Stacy Mitchell joins the show to talk about small business, big business, and decentralizing economic power. Stacy Mitchell is the co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. She directs ILSR’s Independent Business Initiative, which produces research ...

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