Ryan Cooper
Ryan Cooper writes about how economic power, corporate behavior, and government policy collide, with a focus on the costs of misrule in the Trump era and the possibilities for democratic reform. He is a senior editor at The American Prospect, where his work on business, economic policy, and political power ranges from financial markets and technology to climate, war, and social insurance. His commentary and analysis also appear in magazines such as The Nation, The New Republic, and Current Affairs, following earlier work as a national correspondent for The Week.
Money, Politics, and Power
Cooper’s business coverage is rooted in the political economy of debt, taxation, and social insurance rather than in market minutiae.
He writes recurring columns on issues such as Trump’s debt load, the personal financial toll of Trump-era governance, and how modest tax increases and competent staffing could resolve looming fiscal crises. In pieces like “Tax Day Could Be a Breeze” and “Private Investors Can’t Stop America From Borrowing Money,” he treats administrative reform and bond-market turmoil as questions of democratic accountability, not just technical market signals.
He also tracks efforts to erode or defend Social Security and Medicare, presenting these programs as central terrain in the fight over economic security and political power.
Corporate Profits and Big Tech
Cooper frequently interrogates corporate strategies in technology and automotive industries, emphasizing monopolistic structures, financial engineering, and their consequences for ordinary investors.
Articles on Elon Musk’s plans for retirement savings, Meta’s market dominance, and Tesla’s “Wile E. Coyote moment” frame corporate hype and governance gimmicks as public risks rather than purely shareholder stories. He connects data centers, AI infrastructure, and Silicon Valley culture to broader questions of democratic resilience, arguing in work such as “Here’s a Way to Stop Silicon Valley Megalomania” and “Big Tech Crashes Headlong Into American Democracy” that platform power has direct political and economic fallout.
Across these pieces, business coverage serves as a lens on how cutting-edge industries and concentrated capital shape markets, workers’ prospects, and the health of democratic institutions.
Climate, War, and Fossil Fuels
Energy and climate policy form another consistent strand of Cooper’s reporting, linking environmental risk to war, national security, and household finances. In work ranging from “Trump Has Created a Climate Opportunity” to “Drain Lake Powell” and “The Strongest El Niño in History Is Coming.
Get Ready,” he highlights the economic stakes of climate disruption and the potential gains from aggressive decarbonization and reform of Western water policy. He ties oil-company windfalls, Middle East conflicts, and the American-Israeli alliance to the structural role of fossil fuels in global power, arguing in columns on war in Iran, the state of the U.S. military, and the case for ending the American-Israeli alliance that energy business decisions are inseparable from geopolitical risk. In “The Climate Transition Will Do Wonders for National Security,” he frames the clean-energy shift as both a macroeconomic opportunity and a way to reduce vulnerability to petrostate aggression and market shocks.
Aftermath and Left Anchor
Beyond standalone columns, Cooper uses formats like the “Aftermath” series and the “Left Anchor” podcast to trace the downstream effects of policy choices and crises over time.
“Aftermath” pieces dissect the military, financial, and corporate consequences of Trump’s actions, including a new “forever war” in Iran, the wrecking of the U.S. military, and the thrill oil executives take in higher wartime profits. “Left Anchor” episodes revisit Occupy Wall Street, assess the record of Biden-era climate legislation, and even review cultural works such as Christopher Nolan’s films, using long-form discussion to develop arguments about economic power, organizing, and strategy.
Across these formats, Cooper blends historical context, sharp language, and attention to material outcomes, treating business and economic stories as part of a larger narrative about how decisions in Washington and corporate boardrooms reverberate through markets, workplaces, and international conflict.
4 more business journalists.
Aaron Karp
Aaron Karp is distinct for connecting airline networks, airport infrastructure, air cargo and policy. He is a senior editor at Air Transport World and has covered aviation since 1999. He has also worked as an editor for cargo-focused and daily aviation publications. His real beat is how airlines and airports respond to growth, regulation, trade conditions, sustainability pressures and technology changes. He covers route planning, network development, airport capacity, infrastructure, cargo flows, trade lanes, safety, air traffic control and future technology. He reports through news, features, opinion pieces, briefings and podcasts. He uses data, executive insight and industry conference reporting to explain market changes. His work links cargo metrics and trade policy to carrier strategy, and connects infrastructure and sustainability decisions to resilience, costs and long-term growth.
Adrienne Roberts
Adrienne Roberts is a business journalist at the Detroit Free Press who covers how policy, regulation and corporate decisions affect Michigan’s cannabis market, jobs, universities and health systems. She has a sustained focus on cannabis taxes, licensing, sales, product rules, consumer safety and local tax revenue. She also reports on unemployment, worker protections, corporate settlements, hiring, higher education, student safety, housing, data centers, health care access and economic forecasts. Roberts joined the Detroit Free Press in 2020 after covering automotive retail, dealers and labor issues for The Wall Street Journal. She explains complex business and regulatory changes with data, legal detail and on-the-ground voices. Her stories focus on practical effects for workers, students, consumers and communities, showing both the numbers and the people behind them.
Alex Bronzini-Vender
Alex Bronzini-Vender is a business reporter who focuses on how economic forces and corporate decisions shape specific communities and industries. He covers business for the Washington Monthly, writing reported pieces at the intersection of commerce and public life. His work reflects the magazine’s emphasis on linking markets and money to power, policy, and everyday experience. He treats business not as balance sheets and deals but as choices that affect local realities. In “Fear and Loathing in Palo Alto,” he uses a city tied to the tech sector to examine how a powerful industry influences a community. He grounds his business beat in on-the-ground consequences rather than treating corporate and financial developments in isolation.
Alex DeMarban
Alex DeMarban stands out for tracking major energy projects over time while showing how economic shifts affect local businesses. He reports for the Anchorage Daily News on business, oil and gas, and general assignments. His coverage focuses on Alaska LNG, long-haul energy projects, mining, ports, transportation infrastructure, and the everyday businesses that keep the state running. He examines financing, tax legislation, labor agreements, regulatory approvals, timelines and costs, and connects government and corporate decisions to workers, communities and consumers. He also reports on restaurant closures, grocery stores, breweries, meaderies, parking and trade disputes. His past coverage includes an open-pit mine near the proposed Ambler road, federal port grants and competitive elections. He reports through dollar figures, project details, public records, business owners and affected workers, showing how policy and resource development play out on the ground.