Pitchfork Economics Podcast

28/11/2025

Traveling for the holidays? Here’s something to keep in mind while you’re trapped in an airport eating $18 pretzels:

The Trump Administration just killed a Biden-era rule that would have required airlines to pay passengers up to $775 in cash when flights are delayed or canceled for reasons within the airline’s control.

Meaning: if the plane is late because they scheduled too tightly, didn’t staff properly, or messed up their operations—you would’ve gotten real compensation. Actual money. Not a flight credit you’ll never use.

Airlines hated the rule. So Trump killed it.

Now, they keep the profits. You keep the inconvenience.

Corporate power wins again. And the rest of us get to spend the holidays sleeping on the airport floor.
https://buff.ly/kSunVEV

26/11/2025

As people head out to shop for Thanksgiving, there’s a misleading headline floating around: “Turkey prices are down!”
True—but look at the rest of the cart. Sweet potatoes are up 37%. Veggie trays up 61%. Ground beef has been skyrocketing for years.

In response, the Trump Administration just cut a batch of food tariffs to ease grocery prices—after years of insisting tariffs don’t raise consumer costs. Even Trump’s own advisers now admit they do.

But here’s the bigger problem: even if every tariff disappeared tomorrow, families would still be hurting.

Why? Because corporations raised prices far above their rising costs during the pandemic—greedflation—and decades of monopoly power and deregulation under trickle-down economics have left Americans with flat real incomes and fewer competitive markets.

This isn’t a problem you solve by “tweaking the dials.” It requires rethinking the entire model of who our economy is built to serve. And right now, it’s not the families staring at higher grocery bills this Thanksgiving.

25/11/2025

Neoliberalism didn’t just change our economy—it quietly reshaped our democracy.

In our latest episode, law professor Mehrsa Baradaran explains how a decades-long “quiet coup” embedded market ideology into our courts, government agencies, and institutions, elevating capital above the public good.

It’s one of our most fascinating conversations yet—about power, law, inequality, and how we break free from an ideology so pervasive we mistake it for reality.

🎧 Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://buff.ly/2S2AkiD

23/11/2025

America is long overdue for a tax system that actually works for working people.

A new EPI report shows that if we simply made the ultrarich and big corporations pay what they owe, we could raise over $1 trillion every year—money that could go toward things like universal pre-K, affordable child care, modern schools, safer roads, clean energy jobs, and better unemployment benefits.

We don’t have to cut essential services. We don’t have to squeeze the poor and middle classes.

We just need to stop letting billionaires and giant corporations skip out on the bill.

Summary The public has supported raising taxes on the ultrarich and corporations for years, but policymakers have not responded. Small increases in taxes on the rich that were instituted during times of Democratic control of Congress and the White House have been consistently swamped by larger tax c...

18/11/2025

GDP treats cigarette sales and cancer treatments as “good” for the economy—while caring for your kids, volunteering, or creating art doesn’t count at all. 🤯

Economist Diane Coyle joins Nick and Goldy to explain why GDP no longer reflects modern life—and how we can measure real progress instead.

🎧 Listen at the following link or wherever you get your podcasts: https://buff.ly/7HrQ3Wi

17/11/2025

A new Harvard Kennedy School report offers the first direct, large-scale comparison of working conditions for delivery drivers at Amazon, UPS, and FedEx—and it’s a striking real-world lesson in what unions do for workers.

At Amazon, drivers earn about $19/hour, face high turnover, and have almost no opportunities for advancement.

At UPS—where drivers are unionized—they start around $35/hour, see consistent wage growth over time, and build long-term careers.

This is what worker power looks like in data form. When employees can bargain collectively, they don’t just survive—they thrive.

📊 Read the full report: https://buff.ly/WrNTw1d

11/11/2025

Actor and author Ben McKenzie didn’t set out to become one of crypto’s fiercest critics—but when Hollywood shut down during the pandemic, his curiosity turned into a full-blown investigation.

The result was the bestselling book he co-authored with journalist Jacob Silverman, Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud—a sharp exposé of the crypto craze as “casino capitalism” at its dumbest.

This week, Ben joins Nick and Goldy to talk about how crypto became a trillion-dollar bubble, why true believers won’t let go, and how fake “innovation” is corrupting politics and finance alike.

🎧Listen at the following link or wherever you get your podcasts: https://buff.ly/HNdCUcE

05/11/2025

It's Corporate America’s favorite trick: fire workers, boost the stock price. Giants like Google, Citigroup & UPS have laid off thousands of workers while spending billions buying back their own stock.

Read the comic that exposes this heist: https://buff.ly/E8ewYjI

05/11/2025

Back in 2019, Senator Cory Booker joined Pitchfork Economics to break down one of the most destructive forces in our economy: corporate stock buybacks.

Six years later, corporations are on track to spend $1.3 trillion on buybacks, putting money in the pockets of super-rich investors that otherwise could have gone to higher wages, innovation, or community investment.

We’re re-sharing that powerful 2019 conversation paired with our new comic, The Trillion Dollar Heist, which follows Marta, a janitor who interrupts a corporate board meeting just as executives plan their next billion-dollar buyback spree.

🎧 Listen to the episode: https://buff.ly/pMmuuDT

📖 Read the comic: https://bindings.app/read/7mINYO2H

03/11/2025

Recent pod guest, Thea Lee, nails it: when exploitation is profitable, even the good companies lose. That’s why it’s on governments to build markets that don’t profit from abuse and exploitation.

🎧 Listen to how smarter trade policy can level the playing field—and make decency a competitive advantage.
➡️ https://buff.ly/WiTrMxA

03/11/2025

Building a pro-worker economy shouldn’t be partisan. Investing in clean energy and good jobs should be a red, white, and blue issue—but for today’s GOP, nothing matters more than cutting taxes for the rich.

🎧➡️ https://buff.ly/WiTrMxA

01/11/2025

When companies outsource and subcontract their supply chains, they also outsource accountability.

🎧 Hear former Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs, Thea Lee, explain why enforcing labor rights across global supply chains isn’t just moral—it’s economic common sense.
➡️ https://buff.ly/WiTrMxA