Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 189
Navigating the Nonsense
“In the 1970s, Hamburger Helper became a staple on American dinner tables as families, strained by inflation and soaring beef prices, looked to turn a pound of ground beef into an entire meal,” the New York Times reports.
“These days, those same pressures are why the flavored pasta mix is coming to the rescue again.”
“While most food companies are seeing declines in consumer demand for their products, sales of Hamburger Helper are up 14.5 percent in the year through August.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.