Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Latest Episodes:

Consumers deserve an inflation rebate (with Congressman Ro Khanna) May 17, 2022

Show notes

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 Windfall Profits Tax, which he says will help curb profiteering while reducing gas prices.

Congressman Ro Khanna represents California’s 17th Congressional District. He’s the author of Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us.

Twitter: @RoKhanna

Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax would protect consumers from giant oil companies taking advantage of world events to jack up prices https://khanna.house.gov/media/press-releases/release-gasoline-prices-sky-high-khanna-whitehouse-announce-curb-big-oil

Dignity in a Digital Age https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dignity-in-a-Digital-Age/Ro-Khanna/9781982163341

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

How Biden’s budget proposal takes on corporate power (with Niko Lusiani) May 10, 2022

Show notes

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 Roosevelt Institute breaks down what’s inside Biden’s budget.

Niko Lusiani is the Director of Corporate Power at the Roosevelt Institute.

Twitter: @NikoLusiani

Budget of the U.S. Government https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/budget_fy2023.pdf

Roosevelt Institute Responds to Billionaire Minimum Income Tax Proposal in Biden Administration FY 2023 Budget https://rooseveltinstitute.org/2022/03/28/statement-roosevelt-institute-responds-to-billionaire-minimum-income-tax-proposal/

Starbucks Halts Stock Buybacks as Schultz Returnshttps://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2022-04-04/starbucks-halts-stock-buybacks-as-schultz-pivots-to-workers#:~:text=Starbucks%20announced%20late%20last%20year,the%20company%20announced%20in%202018

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Pirate equity (with Jim Baker) May 03, 2022

Show notes

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 Stakeholder Project, explains these Wall Street pirates’ risky business practices and shows how workers are paying the price.

Jim Baker is the Executive Director for the Private Equity Stakeholder Project

Twitter: @PEstakeholder

Pirate Equity: How Wall Street Firms are Pillaging American Retail https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Pirate-Equity-How-Wall-Street-Firms-are-Pillaging-American-Retail-July-2019.pdf

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Companies can't self-regulate their way to inclusive capitalism (with Katie Bach) Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

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. Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Katie Bach walks us through her new report examining the pandemic labor practices of 22 companies, spanning nearly every sector, and employing more than 7 million frontline workers.

Katie Bach is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute and the CBO of &pizza.

Twitter: @kathrynsbach

As shareholder wealth soared, workers were left behind https://www.brookings.edu/research/profits-and-the-pandemic-as-shareholder-wealth-soared-workers-were-left-behind

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Why your non-compete clause is probably illegal (with Attorney General Bob Ferguson) Apr 19, 2022

Show notes

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, limits employee mobility, and decreases competition. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson explains how non-competes and no-poach agreements violate the law in many states, what his team did to get hundreds of huge employers across the country to cease and desist, and why you should tell your state’s Attorney General if you know of any low- or middle-income workers who are being forced into signing these agreements.

This episode was originally recorded and released in May 2021.

Bob Ferguson is Washington State’s 18th Attorney General. As the state’s chief legal officer, Bob is committed to protecting the people of Washington against powerful interests that don’t play by the rules.

Twitter: @BobFergusonAG

Noncompete agreements have pushed U.S. wages even lower, says

a new Biden administration report: https://www.fastcompany.com/90729820/noncompete-agreements-have-pushed-u-s-wages-even-lower-says-a-new-biden-administration-report

Why aren’t paychecks growing? A burger-joint clause offers a clue: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/business/pay-growth-fast-food-hiring.html

Workers in Washington state win big under new non-compete law: https://www.emeryreddy.com/2019/09/workers-in-washington-state-win-big-under-new-non-compete-law/

Attorney General Bob Ferguson stops King County coffee shop’s practice requiring baristas to sign unfair non-compete agreements: https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/attorney-general-bob-ferguson-stops-king-county-coffee-shop-s-practice-requiring

AG Report: Ferguson’s initiative ends no-poach practices nationally at 237 corporate franchise chains: https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-report-ferguson-s-initiative-ends-no-poach-practices-nationally-237-corporate

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

How neoliberalism happened (with George Monbiot and Binyamin Appelbaum) Apr 12, 2022

Show notes

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 came from and how it took hold. This episode was originally recorded and released in October 2019.

George Monbiot writes a weekly column for The Guardian and is the author of a number of books, most recently ‘Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis’. As an investigative journalist and self-described “professional troublemaker,” George uncovers the complicated truths behind the world’s most persistent problems.

Twitter: @GeorgeMonbiot

Binyamin Appelbaum writes about economics and business for the editorial page of The New York Times. From 2010 to 2019, he was a Washington correspondent for the Times, covering economic policy in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. His new book, ‘The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society’ is a Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller.

Twitter: @BCAppelbaum

Further reading:

This is What Minimum Wage Would Be If It Kept Pace with Productivity https://cepr.net/this-is-what-minimum-wage-would-be-if-it-kept-pace-with-productivity/

Work Should Pay: A $15 an Hour Minimum Wage Is a Start

https://cepr.net/work-should-pay-a-15-an-hour-minimum-wage-is-a-start/

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Did corporate greed break the supply chain? (with Rakeen Mabud) Mar 22, 2022

Show notes

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 Chief Economist, Rakeen Mabud, wants you to know that the supply chain is working exactly as it was designed: for maximum profit, rather than reliably getting goods to people. And that’s the problem.

Rakeen Mabud is the Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research at the Groundwork Collaborative.

Twitter: @rakeen_mabud

How We Broke the Supply Chain https://prospect.org/economy/how-we-broke-the-supply-chain-intro/

Corporations Raise Prices as Consumers Spend ‘With a Vengeance’

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/27/business/economy/price-increases-inflation.html

Opinion: Larry Summers Shares the Blame for Inflation https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/opinion/larry-summers-inflation.html

Inflation causing financial strain for nearly half of U.S. households, poll finds

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/02/inflation-gallup-financial-hardship/

Stock Buybacks Beat Capital Spending for Many Big Companies

https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-buybacks-beat-capital-spending-for-many-big-companies-11631611802

The stock market is punishing Walmart and Target for keeping costs low while the rest of the corporate sector prioritizes profits and makes inflation worse

https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-keep-prices-low-corporations-prioritize-profits-inflation-worse-2021-11

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Free lunch thinking (with Tom Bergin) Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

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 the pod to explain how those theories wormed their way into dominant economic thinking, the evidence against them, and why he believes economists are finally starting to shift toward studying the world as it actually is.

Tom Bergin is an Investigative Financial Journalist for Reuters and the Author of Free Lunch Thinking: How Economics Ruins the Economy

Twitter: @tombergin_News