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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 Goldy to unpack how corporations use economic power to weaken workers’ and consumers’ legal power, why the myth of the “voluntary contract” falls apart when every option comes with the same fine print, and how making corporate misconduct harder to challenge changes the incentives that shape the entire market. Brendan Ballou is the founder of the Public Integrity Project, a nonprofit anti-corruption law firm, and the author of When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America’s Secret Justice System. Further reading:  When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America’s Secret Justice System  Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America Pitchfork Economics: Stop the Steal: Revisiting Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America (with Brendan Ballou) Public Integrity Project  Social Media: @brendanballou.bsky.social Instagram: @brendanballou Substack: @brendanballou @brendanballou Ask Pitchfork: Have a question for Nick, Goldy, or the show? Leave it in the comments on YouTube or Spotify with #askpitchfork. Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch Nick’s Substack: NickHanauer.Substack.com

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 to figure out not what something costs, but how much you personally are willing to pay. From Instacart’s grocery experiments to the coming world of AI shopping agents, the conversation asks a basic question: If nobody knows what the real price is, can markets actually work the way we’re told they do?  Lindsay Owens, PhD, is the President and CEO of Groundwork Collaborative, an economic policy think tank focused on corporate power, prices, and an economy that works for workers and families. She is also the author of Gouged: The End of a Fair Price — And What That Means for Your Wallet. Social Media: @lindsayowens.bsky.social @groundwork.bsky.social @lindsayowensphd  @groundworkcollab @owenslindsay1 @Groundwork Further reading:  Gouged: The End of a Fair Price—and What That Means for Your Wallet “Same Cart, Different Price: Instacart’s Price Experiments Cost Families at Checkout” When the Invisible Hand Becomes An Algorithm with Lindsay Owens How Outsized Corporate Profits Raised Prices with Lindsay Owens Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch Nick’s Substack: NickHanauer.Substack.com

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 investment, and power — and what that means for the kind of economy we could build instead. If we designed this system, can we redesign it? Mariana Mazzucato is a Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL) and founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. She is the author of several acclaimed books, including The Entrepreneurial State, The Value of Everything, Mission Economy, The Big Con, and most recently, The Common Good Economy: How to Make Capitalism Work for Us All.  Social Media: @mazzucatom.bsky.social @MazzucatoM @mazzucatom Further reading:  The Common Good Economy: How to Make Capitalism Work for Us All UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose The Entrepreneurial State Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism The Big Con The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi A Mission-Oriented Approach to School Meals Mission-Oriented Public-Private Partnerships: Lessons from the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch Nick’s Substack: NickHanauer.Substack.com

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 Social Security’s looming shortfall — and why benefit cuts are far from inevitable. Plus, Nick puts forward a different way to think about fixing the system — one that starts with a basic question: why should some kinds of income count toward Social Security while others don’t? Rey Fuentes is Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Roosevelt Institute. The $29 trillion figure in this episode’s title refers to Social Security’s projected 75-year unfunded obligation. According to the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report, the combined retirement, survivor, and disability programs are projected to have a $29.3 trillion financing shortfall, measured in present-value dollars, between 2026 and 2100. That is not $29 trillion that comes due when the retirement trust fund is projected to deplete its reserves in 2032. Read the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report Summary Social Media: @rooseveltinstitute.org @rooseveltinst  @therooseveltinstitute Further reading:  Social Security Doesn’t Need Cuts. The Fiscal Panic Is Missing Where the Money Is 1983 v. 2032: The Economics of the Last and Next Social Security Reform What’s Actually Behind Social Security’s Trust Fund Shortfall “Will Social Security Run Out?” Is the Wrong Question: How Lawmakers Can Protect Beneficiaries and Strengthen OASI  “Sound, Needy, and Patriotic Legislation”: Preserving the Fundamental Promises of the Social Security System Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch Nick’s Substack: NickHanauer.Substack.com

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, scarcity, corruption, and the limits of an economy organized around efficiency and extraction. It’s a conversation about what happens when profit becomes the highest measure of success, and what it would mean to build an economy rooted in dignity, connection, and the common good. Senator Chris Murphy is the junior United States Senator for Connecticut Social Media: @chrismurphyct.bsky.social @ChrisMurphyCT Further reading:  Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America Watch Nick Debate Obama Admin Economist Jason Furman: NickHanauer.Substack.com  Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch Nick’s Substack: NickHanauer.Substack.com

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 onto franchisees and workers while profits flow upward. Brian Callaci is the chief economist at the Open Markets Institute and author of Chains of Command: The Rise and Cruel Reign of the Franchise Economy.  Social Media: @briancallaci.bsky.social @brian_callaci briancallaci.com Further reading:  Chains of Command: The Rise and Cruel Reign of the Franchise Economy Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain Sectoral bargaining FAQ: Collective bargaining, sectoral wage and standards boards, and worker power The Founder (2016) Continental T.V., Inc. v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 433 U.S. 36 (1977) Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust & Monopoly Hearing on Distribution problems affecting small business. Part 1: franchising agreements, March (1965) Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 have lost power over the rules that shape their lives. This week, Nick and Goldy talk with Grimes about why money is “math and feelings,” how shame keeps people stuck, why so much financial advice is written for people who already have money, and why the best thing we can do is not teach people to be better at being poor — but build an economy where fewer people are poor in the first place. Carrie Joy Grimes is the founder and CEO of WorkMoney and author of The Joy of Money. Before founding WorkMoney, she spent two decades as a union organizer fighting for higher wages, better benefits, and stronger worker power. Social Media: Carrie Joy Grimes Instagram TikTok YouTube Work Money Instagram TikTok YouTube Twitter Further reading:  The Joy of Money: How to Do More With and Feel Better About Your Money—No Matter How Much You Have WorkMoney - Provides free tools, tips, and resources to help people lower their living costs, find financial assistance, and increase their overall income. MoneyFinder - A bill-negotiation service launched by WorkMoney. Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 whether new technology will concentrate even more wealth and power — or help build a more prosperous, democratic future. Daron Acemoglu is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Institute Professor at MIT. He is one of the world’s leading thinkers on political economy, institutions, inequality, technology, and the relationship between democracy and shared prosperity. His books include Why Nations Fail, The Narrow Corridor, and Power and Progress. His new book is What Happened to Liberal Democracy? Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity. Social Media: @dacemoglumit.bsky.social @DAcemogluMIT Further reading:  What Happened to Liberal Democracy? Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity New York Times - Nearly 200 Economists and Tech Leaders Warn of A.I. Threats NBER - Automation and Repression Check out THE BILLIONAIRE AGE on IDEAS  Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 stepping in as the federal government retreats from antitrust enforcement. They also discuss the successful fights against Live Nation–Ticketmaster and Kroger–Albertsons—and what happens when corporations become powerful enough to escape competition. Nick Brown is the Attorney General of Washington State Social Media: @atg.wa.gov @AGOWA Further reading:  Washington Post - Washington state is suing Paramount. Here’s why. Washington State Office of the Attorney General Check out THE BILLIONAIRE AGE on IDEAS  Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 people are going to believe in it again. Elizabeth Wilkins is the President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute.She previously served as Chief of Staff to the Chair and Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. She has also held senior roles in the White House and the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, clerked for Justice Elena Kagan and then-Judge Merrick Garland. She began her career as a labor organizer with SEIU 32BJ. She is one of the authors of Roosevelt’s new report, The Good Life: An Agenda for Fuller Lives, a Stronger Economy, and Renewed Trust. Social Media: @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social @ewwilkins Further reading:  The Good Life: An Agenda for Fuller Lives, a Stronger Economy, and Renewed Trust. Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 archive miniseries, we’re returning to Nick and Goldy’s conversation with economist Preston Mui about why productivity is a policy choice. Mui explains how full employment, sustained public investment, resilient supply chains, and affordable essentials create the conditions for workers and businesses to produce more value. Technology may help us build a more productive economy. Policy will determine who benefits from it. This episode originally aired April 2, 2024.  Preston Mui is a senior economist at Employ America specializing in macroeconomics, labor economics, productivity, and Federal Reserve policy. Social Media: @prestonmui.bsky.social @PrestonMui Further reading:  Post-ECI note: The Supply-side May Spoil Warsh's Productivity Story The Dream of the 90s is Slipping Away in 2025 Early Estimates of the Impact of AI Within BEA’s Industry Economic Accounts Our Mission In An Age Of Turbulence: Creating A New Economic Policy Toolkit Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 those are the systems we need most during a crisis. And if the economy turns downward, politicians will almost certainly reach for the same old answer: slash public support, make working people pay the price, and call it responsibility. Nick and Goldy talk with professor and political economist Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism, about how austerity became one of the most powerful myths of modern capitalism, how economists helped sell it as common sense, and why it has always been about more than budgets. Clara Mattei is a professor of economics at the University of Tulsa, Founding President of FREE: Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, and author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism and Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention. This episode originally aired on December 12, 2023.  Social Media: @claraemattei Further reading:  The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism U.S. Treasury: The U.S. Economic Recovery in International Context CBPP: Robust COVID Relief Bolstered Economy and Reduced Hardship for Millions GAO: Federal Agency Workforce Changes Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 keep returning because they still serve the people and institutions with the most power. In this episode, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman joins Nick and Goldy to explain why zombie economics refuses to die, how bad assumptions infected mainstream economic thinking, and why defeating trickle-down economics requires more than better evidence — it requires naming the myths that keep shaping our politics. This episode originally aired on March 31, 2020. Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, professor, author, and former New York Times columnist. His book Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future examines the failed economic ideas that continue to dominate American policy debates. Social Media: @pkrugman.bsky.social Paul Krugman on Substack Further reading:  Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future CBO: Estimated Distributional Effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act KFF: Tracking Implementation of the 2025 Reconciliation Law: Medicaid Work Requirements CBPP: The 2017 Trump Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver EPI: Setting High Standards for a Federal Minimum Wage Tax Foundation: Who Pays Tariffs? Americans Will Bear the Costs of Tariffs Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 stock buybacks, wage suppression, layoffs, and underinvestment — extracting wealth from the real economy and funneling it upward. In this episode, Nick and Goldy talk with William Lazonick and Lenore Palladino about how shareholder value became one of the core myths of trickle-down economics, why it has caused so much damage, and what it would mean to build corporations around workers, consumers, communities, and long-term prosperity instead. This episode originally aired on February 19, 2019. Lenore Palladino is associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and author of Good Company: Economic Policy After Shareholder Primacy. William Lazonick is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and co-founder and president of the Academic-Industry Research Network. Social Media: @lenorepalladino.bsky.social @Lazonick Further reading:  Good Company: Economic Policy After Shareholder Primacy Washington Center for Equitable Growth - To restore democracy, end shareholder primacy at U.S. corporations and on Wall Street  Roosevelt Institute - Regulating Stock Buybacks: The $6.3 Trillion Question Roosevelt Institute - Ending Shareholder Primacy in Corporate Governance Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch

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 makes prosperity possible? Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich joined Nick and Paul back in 2019 to explain why we should stop calling these rules “regulations” and start calling them what they really are: protections. Because the economy always has rules. The real question is who they’re written to protect. This episode originally aired on February 5, 2019. Robert Reich is the former U.S. Secretary of Labor, co-founder of Inequality Media, and author of Saving Capitalism. Social Media: @rbreich.bsky.social @RBReich @rbreich @rbreich Further reading:  Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch