The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory.

The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked.

But what's the alternative?

Middle-out economics is the answer.

Because the middle class is the source of growth, not its consequence.

That's right.

This is pitchfork economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.

Welcome to the show.

Zach, oh my God, I get to talk to you in the office once in a while, but it's been a long time

since I've talked to you on the podcast. Yeah, it has been a while. My name is Zach Silk, and I am the president

of civic ventures. That means that I am Goldie's boss, technically, although no one's really the

boss of you. That's right. I am what's known as unmanageable. That's absolutely true. And I'm

excited for the conversation today. this is an area of real

personal interest to me and to really when this report came out which we'll unpack a little bit

more in a second I actually said hey I would love to interview this lead this lead writer this

is one of the more interesting reports we've seen come out this year.

Yeah, and let's be clear. We'll start with the title of the report. It's called building a more

effective, responsive government, lessons learned from the Biden-Harris administration. You can see

why we might be interested in this based on everything we do at

Civic Ventures, but also in this moment when, in fact, the current administration is intent on

creating a less effective non-responsive government. That's the lesson from the Trump administration.

Also, you know, you, you in particular, me less so, civic ventures in general, policy and implementation is something we actually are concerned with? Yeah, very concerned with. In fact, our long run here, we've been engaged with both the Obama years at the end of his term and then through all the preparation for the Biden years. And then

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