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PODCAST

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.

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All Episodes

32:52

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/11/11

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, McKenzie joins Nick and Goldy to explain how the industry turned hype and libertarian fantasy into a

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39:42

Stock Buybacks and the Trillion Dollar Heist (with...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/11/04

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 spree.This week, we’re resharing our 2019 conversation with Senator Cory Booker, who explains how stock

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40:38

Competing Visions on Trade: A Race to the Bottom Vs....

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/10/28

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 suppressed wages overseas and undercut American workers at home. She also makes the case that

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30:44

South of the Border: A Mexican Perspective on the...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/10/21

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 United States — even as political rhetoric in the U.S. grew more hostile toward Mexican workers

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30:42

North of the Border: A Canadian Perspective on the...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/10/14

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 fueled inequality and deindustrialization—eroding the livelihoods of working people. He argues for a new

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49:28

Trade Wars Are Class Wars (with Matthew C. Klein)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/10/07

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” or “losing”—it’s about how elites hoard profits while workers everywhere pay the price. From China’s

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41:51

You Can't Tariff Knowledge (with César Hidalgo)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/09/30

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 belongs to countries that invest in research, strategy, and human talent.César Hidalgo is the director

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41:18

How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/09/23

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 misleading model fueled globalization, masked exploitation, and locked nations into centuries of stagnation

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47:52

Trade Wars, Class Wars & Globalization: Unpacking The...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/09/16

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 hollowed-out communities, this episode sets the stage for exploring a fresh way to think about trade—one

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39:02

Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers (with Mark...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/09/09

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 what smarter, more equitable policies could look like in the future.Mark Blyth is a political economist

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32:34

Back to Basics Series: Homo Economicus Must Die (with...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/09/02

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 cooperation, community, and ethics. If we're hoping to reclaim our society from greed-driven oligarchs and

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42:47

Back to Basics Series: Is the American Dream a Lie?...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/08/26

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, their conversation exposes how the American Dream has always been selectively granted and

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31:58

Back to Basics Series: How Monopolies Feed Plutocracy...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/08/19

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 political control, fueling authoritarianism and undermining citizen power.This is more than an economics

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50:51

Back to Basics Series: Does the Market Really Pay You...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/08/12

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 to excuse wage stagnation, justify corporate power, and erode worker bargaining rights. Jayaraman shows

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42:30

Back to Basics Series: The Velocity of Money (with...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/08/05

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 circulation generates up to 70% less economic activity than it did just ten years ago, so it's not being

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35:57

Back to Basics Series: Is Economics Moral? (with...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/07/29

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 racial division has been weaponized to undermine collective action, why “structural racism” can’t be

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46:51

Back to Basics Series: Where does economic growth...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/07/22

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 economic growth. Once we understand that, it changes how we think about investing in people and shaping the

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39:29

Back to Basics Series: Is Econ 101 a Lie? (with Eric...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/07/15

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 what it really is: not a science, but a simplistic story used to justify inequality and defend the status

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14:48

Back to Basics Series: What the hell are they talking...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/07/08

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 jargon so you can focus on what really matters: understanding how the economy works—and who it works

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33:16

Back to Basics Series: Why do we call it Pitchfork...

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer ·

2025/07/01

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 groundwork for everything that followed. We revisit the urgent warning that launched the show, explore

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402 results

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