Mitchell Hartman

Portland

Correspondent at Marketplace

Correspondent, Marketplace Radio

Articles

Matthew Knies has been the perfect Leafs playoffs player

1 week ago | editorinleaf.com | Mitchell Hartman

The Leafs are enjoying a 1-0 series lead over their rivals and the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers. Most Leafs are having solid playoff runs so far, but Matthew Knies has thrived in the postseason, becoming the perfect player for this team. The most popular storyline during this era of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been their inability to perform in the postseason.
Who the Toronto Maple Leafs' true MVP is so far

2 weeks ago | editorinleaf.com | Mitchell Hartman

The Leafs have had a successful season up to this point and find themselves up 2-0 in their first round matchup against the Ottawa Senators. For a team with as much star power as the Leafs, one player has gone unnoticed, and he may be their 2024-25 season MVP when it's all said and done. For the first time in the Matthews-Marner era, and the first time since 2002, the Toronto Maple Leafs are up 2-0 in a playoff series.
While the European Central Bank cuts interest rates, the Fed is stuck

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman

It’s pretty much central bank week: First, we had Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell’s comments Wednesday underlining all the uncertainty the Fed is dealing with. President Donald Trump’s tariffs will likely push inflation up and growth down, meaning monetary policymakers will likely sit on the sidelines and keep interest rates as is for now. Canada’s central bank held steady Wednesday after seven consecutive rate cuts.
Tariff anxiety turns fun splurges into stress purchases

4 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman |Savannah Peters |Kai Ryssdal |Sofia Terenzio

Apr 16, 2025Some Americans, worried that tariffs will make life’s little luxuries too expensive, are proactively buying them in bulk. Plus, a country club in Altadena, California, used by local nonprofits has a long, expensive road to rebuilding after the wildfire. Segments From This Episodeby Mitchell HartmanOn the surface, the numbers look contradictory, but the reasons they behaved as they did can tell us something about the tariff-era economy.
Industrial production declined in March, but manufacturing was up. What does that mean?

4 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman

We got one of those economic reports Wednesday morning that seems, on the face of it, to be bad. Dig down a little deeper, and key data points are actually pretty good. But underlying it all, there are signs of more bad stuff to come. Industrial Production, The Federal Reserve’s report for March, showed industrial activity in this country was down, by three-tenths of a percent, after an increase of eight-tenths of a percent the month before. That’s a pretty big pull-back.
Dollar joins stocks and consumer confidence on downward path

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman

This week has seen sharp, shocking tariff hikes — and then tariff flip-flops — as well as turmoil galore in the financial markets, with the major U.S. stock indexes plunging, rebounding and plunging again. Through all this, the dollar has fallen sharply against other major currencies. The U.S. dollar index was down more than 0.8% Friday, after sliding at one point below the 100 level, last hit in mid-2023.
With consumer credit and interest rates up, should we be worried?

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman

On Monday, we’ll get the Federal Reserve’s February report on consumer credit — that’s borrowing on all different kinds of loans, like mortgages, credit cards, auto and student loans. Consumer credit was up 4.3% in January, after rising by double that in December.
Is there a "negative wealth effect"? You may be feeling it.

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman

With the first three months of 2025 behind us, quarterly statements for 401(k)s, IRAs and other investment accounts will be arriving soon in mailboxes and inboxes across the country. They’ll be full of minus signs, showing how much investors have lost recently. Now, we often talk about a “wealth effect” — basically, when the value of assets like stocks and homes goes up, folks feel richer, at least on paper, and they spend more because of it. So, what about the opposite?
Why does the government have 6 unemployment rates?

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman

When the March jobs report comes out in early April, Marketplace will note the new unemployment rate at the top of our newscasts. And we’ll be quoting what the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes as the official unemployment rate — identified as U-3 in the jargon of the agency’s statisticians. The U-3 unemployment rate was 4.1% in February, up from 4% in January. But buried in the monthly jobs report are five more unemployment rates, labeled U-1 through U-6.
Consumer confidence and expectation measures are tumbling

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Mitchell Hartman

We got another — honestly — lousy sign for the consumer economy Tuesday. March’s consumer confidence index from The Conference Board fell again, for the fourth straight month. And it fell more than economists expected. The expectations index dropped even more sharply. Like the name says, it measures consumers’ economic hopes and fears for the future. It’s now at its lowest point in 12 years and sitting well below the threshold that signals a recession is coming, according to The Conference Board.