Good Company: Ending the Era of Shareholder Supremacy (with Lenore Palladino)
What makes a company good—and who gets to decide? Economist Lenore Palladino joins Nick and Goldy to dismantle the myth of shareholder primacy and explain how our current system of corporate governance has warped innovation, deepened inequality, and undermined democracy. Drawing from her new book Good Company: Economic Policy after Shareholder Primacy, Palladino outlines a bold vision for how we can redesign the rules of the game—so corporations serve workers, communities, and the public good, not just wealthy shareholders.
Lenore Palladino is an assistant professor of economics and public policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a senior fellow of the Roosevelt Institute, and a research associate at the Political Economy Research Institute.
Social Media:
@lenorepalladino.bsky.social
@lenorepalladino
Further reading:
Good Company: Economic Policy after Shareholder Primacy
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Substack: The Pitch
--------
37:21
The Empire Strikes Back—With More Billionaire Tax Breaks (with Samantha Jacoby)
With Trump’s second major tax bill clearing committee and heading to the House floor—packed, as promised, with massive giveaways to the ultra-wealthy—we’re revisiting our timely conversation with Samantha Jacoby of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Originally recorded before Trump’s reelection, this episode breaks down the real impact of the tax bill that Trump signed into law back in 2017: trillions added to the deficit, corporations and billionaires cashing in, and working families left behind.
Spoiler alert: the rich get richer, and everybody else gets screwed. As Congress considers doubling down on the same failed policies, this conversation couldn’t be more relevant.
Samantha Jacoby is the Deputy Director of Federal Tax Policy with the Center’s Federal Fiscal Policy division. Samantha focuses on U.S. federal income tax issues, including corporate and business taxation, individual income taxation, and climate tax policy.
This episode originally aired March 19, 2024.
Social Media:
@centeronbudget.bsky.social
@jacsamoby
@CenterOnBudget
Further reading:
Ten Questions on House Republicans’ Upcoming Tax Bill
The 2017 Trump Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver on Its Promises
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Substack: The Pitch
--------
35:40
Greedflation 2.0: How Tariffs Could Become an Excuse for Corporate Price Gouging (with Hal Singer)
During COVID, corporations blamed supply chain shocks for rising prices while quietly raising prices higher than costs, thereby boosting their profits to record levels. We know they did this because they bragged about doing it on corporate earnings calls. Economist Hal Singer warns that Trump’s proposed tariffs could spark a repeat, giving corporations another “golden opportunity” to jack up prices under the guise of higher costs. He explains why tools like antitrust enforcement and interest rate hikes aren’t enough to stop price gouging—and why failing to curb greedflation could carry a steep political price.
Hal Singer is an economist, antitrust expert, and Managing Director at Econ One Research, where he specializes in competition policy, regulatory economics, and consumer protection. He’s a professor at the University of Utah and a leading voice on market power, price gouging, and the intersection of antitrust and inequality.
Social Media:
@halsinger.bsky.social
@HalSinger
Further reading:
Hal’s Twitter thread on the potential for companies to exploit Trump’s tariffs to raise prices higher than their costs.
Hal’s recent OpEd in The Sling: Progressives Need a New Toolkit to Fight Inflation
How Corporations “Get Away With Murder” to Inflate Prices on Rent, Food, and Electricity
How Trump Is Helping Price Gougers Exploit His Tariffs
President John F. Kennedy News Conference on April 11, 1962
Antitrust Policy for the Conservative
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Substack: The Pitch
--------
44:43
Why Democracy Needs a New Operating System (with K. Sabeel Rahman)
Decades of trickle-down thinking hollowed out our government—and now the anti-democracy crowd is finishing the job. This week, legal scholar and former Biden advisor K. Sabeel Rahman joins Nick and Goldy to talk about what happens when the rule of law becomes optional, what the Biden administration got right (and what it didn’t,) and why simply restoring the old system isn’t enough. If we want a real democracy—one that can stand up to corporate power and actually deliver for people—we need to stop playing by outdated rules and start constructing a government that's faster, fairer, and fit for the modern world.
K. Sabeel Rahman is a legal scholar, policy expert, and former senior advisor in the Biden administration, where he served as Associate Administrator at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. A leading voice on democracy, governance, and economic justice, he is Demos's former president and a law professor at Cornell University.
Social Media:
@ksabeelrahman.bsky.social
@ksabeelrahman
Further reading:
Civic Power: Rebuilding American Democracy in an Era of Crisis
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Substack: The Pitch
--------
44:39
Democracy in Chains (with Nancy MacLean)
This week, we’re revisiting a critical conversation we had back in 2020 with author and historian Nancy MacLean, in which she exposes how today’s threats to democracy were decades in the making. Based on her groundbreaking book Democracy in Chains, MacLean traces how Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan worked with billionaire donors to rig the rules of government to expand corporate power and protect extreme wealth. From public choice theory to voter suppression, this episode reveals the coordinated strategy to undermine democracy—and explains why understanding it is essential to fighting back.
Nancy MacLean is an award-winning historian and the William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University. Her book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
This episode originally aired on July 21, 2020.
Social Media:
@nancymaclean.bsky.social
@NancyMacLean5
Further reading:
Democracy in Chains
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Substack: The Pitch
We are living through a paradigm shift from trickle-down neoliberalism to middle-out economics — a new understanding of who gets what and why. Join zillionaire class-traitor Nick Hanauer and some of the world’s leading economic and political thinkers as they explore the latest thinking on how the economy actually works.
New Zealand