Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

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 o...

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, fun...

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 even...

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 tellin...

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...

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...

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 fail...

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...

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...

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 episode...

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...

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 s...

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...

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...

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”...

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...

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 misleadin...

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...

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...

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...

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 worsens...

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...

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 t...

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 circu...

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 racia...