Spire’s ex-CEO: fired ➜ $2.4M severance. Workers: laid off ➜ unemployment line. You get fired, you lose your paycheck. Unless you’re a CEO — then you get a million-dollar consolation prize. Same economy. Very different rules.

Minimum wages have gone up, and the sky didn't fall! Seattle now leads large U.S. cities at $21.30/hr. 18 states + DC are at $15+. When workers have more money, they spend it locally — and local businesses grow. That’s how jobs are created.

Americans have been “thrown on the mercy of the marketplace.” This week, we’re revisiting a 2019 episode with georgemonbiot.bsky.social and bcappelbaum.bsky.social that explains how a 50-year economic experiment rewrote our laws, wages, and power. 🎧: buff.ly/P4yhaOa

By the end of 2027, AT&T will have paid out $147+ BILLION to shareholders via dividends and buybacks since Trump’s tax cuts — while laying off tens of thousands of workers. That’s not capitalism. That’s the Trillion Dollar Heist in real life. ⬇️

🎉 Kicking off the new year with our #1 episode of 2025:
Where Does Economic Growth Come From? Spoiler: not billionaire tax cuts.
Real growth comes from people, demand, and rules that reward building value—not extracting it. 🎧 buff.ly/pL9BUXe

The 2nd most popular episode this year was "The Velocity of Money" (with Ann Pettifor), from our Back-to-Basics Series this summer. When money moves through working people, economies grow. When it pools at the top, everything slows—and breaks. 🎧 buff.ly/0fMz3Q5

What if economics needs a wider lens — one that leads with humility, centers communities, and plans for uncertainty instead of pretending the future is predictable? This week, economist George DeMartino lays out what a more honest economics could look like. 🎧 buff.ly/pvMmAd1

Who decides what counts as “good economics”? And what happens when the gatekeepers get it wrong? Find the answers to these questions in our 3rd most popular episode of the year, Breaking Up Big Econ (with David Deming) 🎧 buff.ly/qQX5TFo

Extreme wealth isn’t a sign the system is working—it’s evidence the rules were written to benefit the few, which is likely why “The Rise of the Billionaire Oligarchy," from our Back-to-Basics Series, landed the spot of 4th most popular episode of 2025! 🎧: buff.ly/QWOk2uB

The Gilded Age of White-Collar Crime from our Back-to-Basics Series really resonated with listeners. It was our 5th most popular episode this year! Markets don’t self-police. Rules matter—or else the powerful loot with impunity. 🎧 buff.ly/X1Kr3ht

What resonated most with Pitchfork Economics listeners in 2025? Over the last few days of the year, we’re going to share our most-listened-to episodes—where questions about power, growth, morality, and neoliberalism met real economic reality. We’ll still be dropping a spicy new episode on Tuesday!

America is “winning” on paper. So why does the economy feel so broken in real life? We talk with @talsmith.bsky.social about the two different economies Americans are living in—and why dismissing people’s frustration as a misunderstanding is a serious mistake. 🎧 New episode: buff.ly/0svfhQn

Decades of evidence show that when you trust people with cash, they make smart choices—often smarter than top-down aid programs. That’s why Pitchfork Economics supports @GiveDirectly’s #PodsFightPoverty. 🎧 Listen to the episode: buff.ly/TvoKVrT 💸 Support the cause: buff.ly/BrqGZoe

Democracy is an ongoing project—not a finished product. Osita Nwanevu joins us this week to explain why minority rule, concentrated wealth, and authoritarian workplaces are undermining democracy—and what it would take to build a system that actually serves people. 🎧 Listen here: buff.ly/3XUZJn7

Tyson Foods spent $196M juicing its stock. Later, it announced 3,200 layoffs in a town of 11,000. This is the Trillion Dollar Heist in real life. ⬇️

ADP data shows private sector job losses accelerating—but only at small businesses. Big firms are using their power to crush competition through price dominance while small businesses drown in tariffs, bankruptcies, & debt. #UNFTR for @meidastouch.com. Watch the full video: youtu.be/4vcrkx5n4Hs

Do the next time someone complains about laws and regulations, feed them this. Without rules to prrotect the public good, companies will take whatever they can get.

Today tip economy still creates wage instability, perpetuates racial + gender inequality, and shifts burden of fair pay from rich af employers to customers, many of whom are modest income themselves. Yet folks would rather try to shame each other into tipping bigger than outlaw this bs altogether.

I am sick of everything.

This is the result of what happens when developers have never heard the phrase "were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" And its also the result when senior leadership has no ethics.

That's why I stopped working for Instacart. You're being underpaid and overworked to death, and you're destroying your own car for free. The gig game hasn't been gigging for some time now. It's hard out there to make a decent living, but it's harder to leave knowing that you're in a rigged system.

I priced out the exact same basket of goods from Costco on Instacart and on Costco Same Day. The price difference? $40 more on Instacart. On a $180 order. It was bonkers. There’s a NYC app, ChowNow, for ordering out—fixed prices, no vague fees. Totals are consistently $5-7 less than Instacart.

There has never been a more clear example of the notion that consumers are viewed as nothing more than money nodes to be extracted from than "dynamic pricing" schema. This isn't Instacart trying to "optimize service rendered" It's Instacart, others maximizing their income by any means necessary.

We used to have an agency dedicated to… consumer protection

There is much wickedness in the world, but I really think dynamic pricing's wickedness is under discussed.

Now we need transparency laws on algorithms.

Remember that guy who argued with me for half a day that poor people in food deserts would be fine just using Walmart delivery? Anyway.

Can we say it again. Harris proposed a plan to investigate the food supply industry among these areas as well & punish those who severely inflated costs. This administration seems to encourage it all while claiming its really not that bad & prices are coming down. Put clown in charge you get circus

Instacart got caught running real-time price experiments on shoppers — same groceries, different prices. Workers know this game well: Instacart’s algorithm does the same thing to their pay. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...

“America doesn’t build anymore.” “Everything suddenly got worse.” “Equality is a struggle.” This year’s economic books captured the forces reshaping our economic lives. We explore the ideas behind Abundance, Enshittification, and Piketty’s newest works. 🎧 New episode out now: buff.ly/K7vtVqq

Josh Hawley’s “health care plan” is pure trickle-down: families pay $25,000 a year in medical bills (a third of their income!) and get a $3,000 tax break later. This isn't a plan—it's a coupon handed out too late to actually provide relief from the high cost of health insurance. buff.ly/loIhdkD

Everyone talks about high prices. Almost no one talks about the real issue: paychecks that haven’t kept up with the rest of the economy. As @hshierholz.bsky.social lays out, wage suppression — not inflation — is the core of the affordability crisis. Want affordability? Raise wages. buff.ly/4uYPvmg

On Black Friday, Costco sued the Trump administration to recover the billions it paid under illegal tariffs. The results of Trump’s tariff chaos: – Prices up ~5% – Families out ~$1,100 – Jobs not reshored – Courts say the tariffs were illegal A fake emergency with real costs.

The DOJ’s RealPage settlement doesn’t deliver justice. No fines, no admission of wrongdoing & no ban on algorithmic rent-setting — the very tool landlords used to coordinate price hikes. State attorneys general refused to sign on because renters deserve real accountability.

this is from 2 months ago, but now on Velshi, he's explaining how our country is turning into a nation of young people who will never own their own houses, due to the high prices of them, until MAYBE, if they're lucky will be able to invest in their 40's....💔💔💔

Hear @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social discuss her latest book, The Measure of Progress, & explain why GDP increasingly fails to capture the reality of modern economies—& how we can measure real progress instead. 🎧Listen: buff.ly/7HrQ3Wi

Most people take an economics class that teaches oversimplified stories about efficient markets & rational actors. This week, Wendy Carlin & Suresh Naidu from the CORE Econ Project join us to explain how they’re reinventing Econ 101 for the real world. 🎧 New episode out now: buff.ly/lt49Hjc

The Republican tax bill rewards you more the richer you are. If you’re wealthy, you get a permanent multi-thousand-dollar tax cut. If you’re working class or poor, you get losses, slashed aid, and higher health costs. This isn’t “pro-growth.” It’s governing for the rich. buff.ly/GzhMPpV

Traveling for the holidays? If your flight gets delayed, canceled, or rerouted because the airline messed up, remember: the Trump Administration just killed the Biden-era rule that would've required airlines to pay passengers up to $775 in cash. buff.ly/kSunVEV

🚨NEWS: A tech giant has filed a lawsuit asking federal courts to grant artificial intelligence algorithms a First Amendment right for to help landlords raise rent prices. What stage of capitalism is this?

Turkey deals can’t hide the bigger problem this Thanksgiving: grocery prices for staples like veggies & ground beef are still surging. The Trump Admin cut tariffs to cool prices—while admitting they do raise costs for consumers. But tariffs aren’t the real story. Greedflation and monopoly power are.

What if the biggest threat to democracy wasn’t a politician, but an ideology so pervasive we barely notice it? @mehrsab.bsky.social joins Nick & Goldy this week to explain how neoliberalism became a “quiet coup” shaping our laws, markets, and lives. 🎧 New episode out now: buff.ly/2S2AkiD

If we raised taxes on huge fortunes and big corporations, we could generate massive funding for things working families actually need—universal pre-K, child care, better infrastructure, clean energy & more. We’re not broke. We’re just letting the richest people in America opt out. buff.ly/Z2Ysaq7

GDP treats cigarette sales & cancer treatments as “good,” but caring for your kids or creating art doesn’t count at all. @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social joins Nick & Goldy to explain why GDP no longer reflects the real economy—and how we can measure true progress instead. 🎧Listen here: buff.ly/7HrQ3Wi

A new Harvard study—the first large-scale comparison of Amazon, UPS & FedEx drivers—shows what worker power really means: 🔴 Amazon: ~$19/hr, no raises, high turnover. 🟢 UPS (union): ~$35/hr, steady wage growth, long careers. Same job. Different power. Full study → buff.ly/rpn6H5E

This week, @benmckenzie.bsky.social joins Nick & Goldy to talk about the book he co-authored with journalist Jacob Silverman, Easy Money, which exposes the trillion-dollar scam that’s rotting our financial system from the inside. 🎧 Listen here: buff.ly/HNdCUcE

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: buff.ly/E8ewYjI

Corporations are on track to spend $1.3 trillion on stock buybacks this year, so we’re re-sharing our 2019 episode with @corybooker.com on how buybacks became legal market manipulation & how to stop this Trillion Dollar Heist. 🎧 Listen: buff.ly/pMmuuDT 📖 Read the comic: bindings.app/read/7mINYO2H

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