Pitchfork Economics

Cooperation, reciprocity, and morality are the foundations of human success. So why is mainstream economic theory built on the assumption that we’re all selfish, amoral individuals?

🎧 Check out the full episode here: buff.ly/jiUHvp2

Right‑wing politicians push a lie: that we’re all competing in a zero‑sum game.

In our latest back-to-basics episode, Heather McGhee breaks down how this "zero-sum" story is designed to divide us and protect those in power.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: buff.ly/jiUHvp2

Orthodox economics taught us that greed = growth. But that’s a lie the powerful use to divide us. In this Back to Basics episode, Heather McGhee explains why morality must be at the center of economics if we want real prosperity: buff.ly/jiUHvp2

Inclusion isn’t charity—it’s strategy. Economies thrive when everyone can fully participate—as consumers, innovators, and civic leaders. The more people you empower to participate, the stronger the economy becomes. It’s that simple.

Innovation isn’t a solo sport. It takes networks of people with the right know‑how.

Cesar Hidalgo explains why knowledge and hands‑on experience drive real progress in our latest back-to-basics episode: buff.ly/a1BBH2F

A low-trust society is a low-growth society. A lack of trust fragments networks, slows collaboration, and stifles innovation. That’s not just bad economics—it’s a self-fulfilling death spiral.

What if everything we were taught about growth, change, and innovation… wasn’t included in mainstream economic models?

W. Brian Arthur explains how neoclassical economics overlooks the dynamic aspects of the economy on our latest back-to-basics episode: buff.ly/a1BBH2F

Economic growth isn’t just about money and trade. It’s about knowledge, innovation, and human know-how.

🎧 Listen to the latest Back to Basics episode with W. Brian Arthur + Cesar Hidalgo on why investing in people—not capital—is what drives prosperity: buff.ly/t5tHadV

If prosperity comes from cooperation, reciprocity, and morality…why do economists still optimize for greed?

@nickhanauer.bsky.social calls out the broken assumptions in mainstream economics.

Competition didn’t build human prosperity. Justice did—because justice creates trust, trust enables cooperation, and cooperation fuels prosperity.

Listen to the latest episode in our Back to Basics series at the following link or wherever you get your podcasts: buff.ly/lwxHmhs

Lobbying organizations like the Chamber of Commerce don’t want you to know who’s actually threatened by rising wages. That's why they keep pretending it’s about helping workers.

Listen to the full episode at the following link or wherever you get your podcasts: buff.ly/lwxHmhs

Neoliberalism: the economic theory that says your paycheck defines your worth, your only freedom is “freedom from constraint,” and corporations exist only to serve shareholders.

Here’s what it really means—and how it rigged our economy.

Instead of raising wages or investing in innovation, companies are spending over a trillion dollars to inflate their stock prices and enrich CEOs and shareholders. How?

Stock Buybacks.

Listen to host @nickhanauer.bsky.social explain exactly how stock buybacks work.

So, what is neoclassical economics?

Ever listen to Pitchfork Economics and think: “Wait…what’s a monopsony?”

We got you. This week @nickhanauer.bsky.social & @goldyha.bsky.social break down econ jargon—neoliberalism, stock buybacks, monopsony, heterodoxy, and more.

🎧Our Back-to-Basics series continues: buff.ly/2wF5kVf

You’ve been lied to about how the economy works.

It’s broken on purpose—and the story we’ve been told is part of the con.

But we can rewrite the rules to make the economy work for everyone.

Learn how on Pitchfork Economics with @nickhanauer.bsky.social!

We’ve been here before: runaway wealth, outsized corporate power, democracy on the ropes.

Today’s inequality isn’t new; it’s a reboot of the Gilded Age, and just like last time, we can fight back with bold, progressive solutions: buff.ly/jrWvock

No middle class, no democracy.
Extreme inequality doesn’t just break the economy—it breaks everything.

Listen to the very first episode of our podcast, which we're re-airing as part of our Back to Basics Summer Series, at the following link or wherever you get your podcasts: buff.ly/6PxXiF7

You’re right to be angry. The system’s been rigged against you, and it’s been ripping you off for over 40 years. The real fix?

Rewriting the rules of the economy—not handing the keys to wannabe dictators.

Learn how we can change the rules on Pitchfork Economics: buff.ly/6PxXiF7

This is a great podcast with basic economic explainers that illustrate how we got into this cluster mess in this country. Give it a try!

In 2014, @nickhanauer.bsky.social‬ warned that if inequality continued to grow, the pitchforks would come. Then 2016 happened.

Our very first episode lays the groundwork for everything that followed—and what we can do about it.

🎧Our Back-to-Basics Series starts now: buff.ly/jrWvock

This summer, we’re taking a blowtorch to bad economic ideas!

Our Back-to-Basics series re-airs foundational episodes of Pitchfork Economics—so you can understand why trickle-down is BS, why raising wages doesn’t kill jobs & why inequality isn’t inevitable.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

yes, those medicaid recipients should just inherit their father's business and then sell it for a fortune, like sen. mullin did

This is because right wing politics is marketed exclusively as an expression of grievance. The closest it ever comes to explaining a prosperous vision is the "tax cuts create economic growth" trope that's been objectively and demonstrably wrong for nearly 40 years now.

Bernie Sanders Slams GOP Budget as Worst Bill in Modern U.S. History The Vermont senator warned that Republicans’ budget bill is a “death sentence.”

“If you are in the top one percent, you and the class you represent will receive a $975 billion tax break—$975 billion tax break—at a time when the richest people in this country have never ever had it so good."

https://trib.al/QbKdf19

In this podcast they address the effect general immigration chaos has on public opinion. It’s not immigration or immigrants people dislike— it’s the lack of a coherent process.
bsky.app/profile/pitc...

What happens when a city’s workforce grows by 8% nearly overnight?

Economists thought they knew: wages would fall.

Instead, it became one of the most surprising natural experiments in labor and immigration economics.

Immigrants don’t take jobs—they create them.

What if everything you’ve been told about immigration and jobs is…just bad economics?

🎧 Get the truth about Immigration and the American Worker at the following link or wherever you get your podcasts: buff.ly/MOpD7gW

The economy doesn’t grow despite inclusion—it grows because of it.

Host @nickhanauer.bsky.social breaks down why bringing more people into the economy is the key to shared prosperity.

Listen to our whole conversation with Rogé Karma (ad-free) here or wherever you get your podcasts: buff.ly/MOpD7gW