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Pitchfork Economics

@pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
2.2K followers 734 following 786 posts

A 🔥 podcast about who gets what and why in the economy with zillionaire class traitor Nick Hanauer. Listen (ad-free) wherever you get your podcasts. linktr.ee/pitchforkeconomics

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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Dollar Tree hiked its $1 prices by 25%, and now it's collected over $383M in tariff refunds while spending $605M on stock buybacks in the same quarter. No plans to cut prices or raise wages for workers. Just some charity donations & investments in "targeted pricing strategies." bit.ly/4e2F2MJ
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Dollar Tree Got Nearly $400 Million in Tariff Refunds After Shoppers Paid the Higher Prices
When courts ordered tariff refunds for importers, Dollar Tree collected a nine-figure check from Washington. Shoppers who funded those duties through higher shelf prices are wondering if any of it fin...
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Debt is consuming more of workers' wage gains. Since 2022, a typical household gained $109/month in real take-home income, while a typical worker’s debt payments rose by $57. 52¢ of every new dollar went to debt. New report from @tcfdotorg.bsky.social + Protect Borrowers: bit.ly/4hKntSH
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Tariffs are back, and so is industrial policy! We’re revisiting our 2023 conversation with development economist @isabelestevez.bsky.social on the central question behind both approaches: who is the economy being shaped to serve? 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4rR6JxT
This image contains a quote: "There is no such thing as a free market, and we have to be more thoughtful about the way that we shape the economy." The quote is attributed to Isabel Estevez, Co-Executive Director of i3T—Industry, Infrastructures and Innovation for Strategic Transformation. A small portrait photo of Isabel Estevez appears at the bottom right. The background is a textured mix of maroon and blue.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
On our latest episode, @brendanballou.bsky.social explains how the fine print in your job, credit card, or cell phone contract can quietly determine whether you ever get your day in court, and why ending forced arbitration could change how companies treat all of us. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4yt4Tpq
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Apparently, continuing to show up for work can count as agreeing to give up your right to take your employer to court. In some workplaces, simply staying on the job can be treated as agreeing to forced arbitration. That’s one hell of a definition of “consent.” 🎧 bit.ly/4yt4Tpq
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A lawsuit that showed the legal system working became an argument for weakening it. The real story behind the infamous McDonald’s coffee case is much darker than the joke most of us remember. @brendanballou.bsky.social breaks down what actually happened ⬇️ 🎧 bit.ly/4yt4Tpq
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
There’s a secret justice system hiding in the fine print—and you may have already agreed to it. No public courtroom. Almost no appeal. And the company you’re fighting may help pay the judge deciding your case. 🎧 This week on Pitchfork Economics: bit.ly/4yt4Tpq
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Corporate power doesn’t stop at the marketplace. It reaches into the rules that determine who gets justice, too. @brendanballou.bsky.social points out one of the quietest ways the legal system gets rigged to favor the powerful. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3TdDVmt
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Companies don’t need to steal a lot from you if they know you can’t fight back. @brendanballou.bsky.social explains how forced arbitration makes small-dollar ripoffs harder to challenge—and turns corporate power into legal power. 🎧 ➡️: bit.ly/3TdDVmt
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
America has a secret justice system—and it's shielding corporations from scamming and abusing customers and employees. Tomorrow, @brendanballou.bsky.social, founder of the Public Integrity Project, joins the pod to discuss the corrupting force of forced arbitration.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Nick joined @faiz.bsky.social and @moreperfectunion.bsky.social to talk about the outrageous reality of our current tax system and how we change it for their new series: Big Ideas.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Don't worry, we don't need to regulate surveillance pricing. They are only using it to give you discounts... From our excellent conversation with @lindsayowens.bsky.social on the many ways you are being gouged by corporations through pricing practices.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
What happened to a fair price? @lindsayowens.bsky.social has a simple answer: Big Tech. On this week's pod, we talk to Lindsay about her new book, "Gouged" and the reinvention of the rip off. You don't want to miss this one.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The invisible hand has gotten an upgrade. Corporations gave it your data, an algorithm, and a pretty good idea of just how much it can squeeze out of you. @lindsayowens.bsky.social joins us this week to unpack what that means for your wallet. 🎧➡️ bit.ly/4d1X0P8
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Worried you're being gouged by surveillance pricing and other schemes? Tomorrow's episode with @lindsayowens.bsky.social is for you.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Public money helps create breakthroughs. Collective knowledge makes them possible. So why are the rewards automatically private? @mazzucatom.bsky.social explains why innovation needs a different social contract. One where access, knowledge, and rewards are built in from the start. 🎧 bit.ly/4xvrUqu
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A lot of what gets called “market forces” is really just policy, power, and choices with the fingerprints wiped off. @mazzucatom.bsky.social makes the case for treating the economy as something we can shape and for testing how we could design it differently. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4xvrUqu
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If “stakeholder capitalism” still ends with shareholders first, workers last, and a little philanthropy on the side… is it really stakeholder capitalism? @mazzucatom.bsky.social had some thoughts on that in this week’s conversation on the pod ⬇️ 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4xvrUqu
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
An economy without direction still goes somewhere. The question is who gets to choose where. @mazzucatom.bsky.social joins Nick & Goldy this week to discuss how we can move beyond correcting market failures and build an economy with purpose. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4xvrUqu
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
What if the problem with our economy isn’t all the market failures — but the theory that keeps producing them? @mazzucatom.bsky.social challenges the idea that progressive policy can fix the economy without rethinking the economics underneath it. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4xvrUqu
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
If government can mobilize entire industries, invent new technologies, and reshape the economy for war, why pretend it’s powerless everywhere else? @mazzucatom.bsky.social says that’s not an economic constraint. It’s a choice. Watch this space. New episode drops tomorrow!
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Social Security benefits don’t just sit in a retiree's bank account. They spend them on rent, groceries, restaurants, and everything else that keeps local economies moving. So why would cutting benefits be the fix? Rey Fuentes from @rooseveltinstitute.org explains. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3UIuf3B
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
You couldn’t even buy what Social Security provides on the private market. So why do we keep talking about the people who rely on it like they’re a drain on the system? Rey Fuentes from @rooseveltinstitute.org explains ⬇️ 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3UIuf3B
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In 1983, Social Security taxes captured about 90% of wages. So what changed? 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3UIuf3B
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Why is the answer always cutting benefits? Rey Fuentes from @rooseveltinstitute.org joins us to unpack what’s really driving Social Security’s looming shortfall — and how we can fix it without cutting benefits. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3UIuf3B
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Too many retirees. Not enough money. Cut benefits. That’s the story we’re told about Social Security. @rooseveltinstitute.org's Rey Fuentes says we should ask a different question: How did we get here? 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3UIuf3B
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Earning a living wage matters. But people also need power, belonging, community, and some reason to believe the system isn’t just built for people with private jets. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The problem isn’t that profit exists. The problem is when profit becomes the boss of things that should serve people first: health care, public safety, childhood, community. What parts of life should not be built around extracting the absolute most money possible?
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A nine-year-old’s hockey game should not be an extraction opportunity. @chrismurphyct.bsky.social on what happens when even your kid’s hockey game gets turned into a subscription model. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
At some point, “innovation” became a nicer word for finding new things to monetize. Not everything that can be monetized should be monetized. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
ICYMI: @chrismurphyct.bsky.social remembers when Nick took the case for higher wages to the Senate — and proved the skeptics wrong. This week on Pitchfork Economics! 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
We built an economy obsessed with GDP, profit, and efficiency — then acted shocked when people ended up lonely, powerless, and miserable. @chrismurphyct.bsky.social explains why happiness, dignity, and connection belong at the center of how we judge an economy. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
If all AI manages to do is replace workers, further concentrate wealth, and make people feel more powerless, then calling it “successful” tells us everything wrong with our economy. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The economy is built by rules. And when those rules are written for the wealthy, powerful, and well-connected, the result is exactly what we’re living through. @chrismurphyct.bsky.social joins Nick and Goldy this week to talk about the Crisis of the Common Good. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The choice isn’t between profit-obsessed capitalism and socialism. @chrismurphyct.bsky.social argues that there is another path: a vibrant capitalist economy with a higher floor, less exploitation, more competition, and more dignity for working people. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4qMnwlf
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
We built an economy that treats profit as the highest good. Now we’re living with the politics it produces. Tomorrow, @chrismurphyct.bsky.social joins the pod to talk about the Crisis of the Common Good — and what it would take to build an economy around dignity, power, and shared purpose instead.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
There’s a big difference between knowing a deal is bad… and having the power to negotiate a better one. @briancallaci.bsky.social explains why that distinction matters in the franchise economy. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4irWGwn
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Corporations can control how work gets done while insisting they’re not the employer. Joint-employer rules challenge that loophole by letting workers bargain with the company that actually calls the shots. @briancallaci.bsky.social explains why the franchise industry fought so hard to stop them.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If corporate decides the prices, the suppliers, the hours, and the rules... What's left for the franchise owner to control? Workers. @briancallaci.bsky.social explains why that matters in our latest episode ⬇️ 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4irWGwn
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Franchising is sold as the American dream: own your business, be your own boss. @briancallaci.bsky.social says the reality is often much darker: corporate control, worker exploitation, and responsibility pushed onto someone else. 🎧 This week on Pitchfork Economics: bit.ly/4irWGwn
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Your paycheck isn’t just the product of supply and demand. It also reflects what you have the power to negotiate for. So what happens when that power shifts away from workers and toward employers? 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3ShiaRV
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Our host, @nickhanauer.bsky.social, is a proud, unapologetic capitalist. He also thinks capitalism is broken. In a few minutes, he’ll debate former Obama administration chief economist @jasonfurman.bsky.social, who says it isn’t. Is capitalism broken? Watch LIVE. ⬇️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=471f...
youtube.com
Live Debate: Is Capitalism Broken? With Nick Hanauer & Jason Furman
YouTube video by Open to Debate
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
What if the biggest question about AI isn’t what the technology can do, but who gets to decide what it’s used for? 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3ShiaRV
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Does anyone else laugh at the sheer amount of money billionaires are willing to spend defeating tax proposals rather than simply paying their fair share or advocating for a more equitable progressive income tax?
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Carrie Joy Grimes, founder and CEO of @workmoney.bsky.social, joins Nick and Goldy this week to explain why money stress isn’t a personal failure and why working people need more power to demand an economy where hard work actually buys a good life. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/3ShiaRV
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Budgeting advice is easy when there’s always room in the budget. But when the numbers just don’t work, where do you turn for advice you can actually trust? Carrie Joy Grimes of WorkMoney talks about the gap most financial advice ignores. ⬇️ bit.ly/3ShiaRV
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Decades of economic insecurity and rising inequality lit the fuse for America’s political backlash. But what finally made it explode? 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4wimPRP
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
What would it actually take to renew liberal democracy? Start with high-paying jobs, stronger communities, real self-government, and shared prosperity. Then build AI that makes workers more powerful—not more disposable. Daron Acemoglu explains ⬇️
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Peter Thiel and Elon Musk's vision for society is incompatible with liberal democracy. In his new book, "What Happened to Liberal Democracy?", Daron Acemoglu lays out a new path forward that could deliver shared prosperity — and with it a more resilient democracy.
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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
How would Daron Acemoglu create pro-worker AI in the US? 1. Change the tax code to benefit labor over capital 2. Create data property rights 3. Create an AI agency similar to NIH What do you think? Is pro-worker AI possible?
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