Josh Barro

Joshua A. Barro is an American journalist and creator of the newsletter and podcast Very Serious.[1] He previously hosted the weekly radio program Left, Right, & Center based at KCRW Los Angeles and served as a senior editor and columnist at Business Insider.[2][3]

Josh Barro
Born (1984-07-17) July 17, 1984
EducationHarvard University (BA)
OccupationJournalist
Employer(s)New York
The New York Times
Business Insider
Bloomberg L.P.
NBCUniversal
Comcast
Political partyRepublican (before 2016)
Democratic (since 2016)
SpouseZachary Allen
RelativesRobert Barro (father)

Early life

Barro is the son of Harvard University professor and macroeconomist Robert Barro.[4] After growing up in Massachusetts, Barro received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard University.[5] While in college, he spent a summer interning for Grover Norquist.[6]

Career

Barro previously worked as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research,[7] as a real estate banker for Wells Fargo,[8] as the lead writer for The Ticker (a defunct economics and politics blog hosted by Bloomberg L.P.), and as the politics editor at Business Insider.[9]

He appears regularly on Bloomberg Television and MSNBC and has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO[10] and on All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. He is the former host, moderator and center of the weekly political roundtable radio show Left, Right & Center, based at KCRW Los Angeles and heard on public radio stations across the U.S.

In early 2013, he was a prominent supporter of a potential trillion-dollar coin,[11] but by late 2013, he had changed his mind.[12]

Time named Barro's Twitter feed one of "The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013", one of ten in the Politics category.[13] In 2012, Forbes selected him as one of the "30 Under 30" media "brightest stars under the age of 30",[7] and David Brooks listed him as part of the "vibrant and increasingly influential center-right conversation."[14] A former aide to Barack Obama included Barro on a short list of Obama's favorite columnists.[15]

In 2014, Barro left Business Insider to join The New York Times' "The Upshot."[5][16] In 2016, Barro was rehired by Business Insider as a senior editor.[17] In 2018, he again left Business Insider to become a business columnist at New York magazine.[18] In 2020, he announced that he was rejoining Business Insider as a columnist covering politics, business, and the economy.[19][20]

In early 2022, Barro left Business Insider and stepped down as host of Left, Right & Center to pursue his newsletter and podcast Very Serious.[21] He is a co-podcaster with Los Angeles lawyer Kenneth White,[22] a/k/a Popehat, in a podcast about litigation, "Serious Trouble."[23]

Political views

Early in his career, Barro described himself as Republican but was critical of many of the party's policies.[24] He also identified as a neoliberal.[25] Barro has spoken out strongly against traditional Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality, stating that they "linger and oppress" and must be "stamped out ruthlessly".[26][27]

After the 2012 United States elections, Barro became increasingly critical of the Republican Party and wrote that "the party's economic agenda, as embodied in the latest Ryan budget, is simply terrible for the vast majority of Americans."[4] Barro called Congressional Republicans "crazy and awful".[6] Reactions by other conservatives in the media led The Atlantic to name Barro "the loneliest Republican".[6] Ezra Klein said that, based on Barro's views, "He doesn't come across as much of a Republican."[28]

On October 11, 2016, following the Republican Party's nomination of Donald Trump for president, Barro said he had left the Republican Party and registered as a Democrat.[29][30] Barro cited as reasons for his decision the "fact-free environment so many of its voters live in, and because of the anti-Democrat hysteria that had been willfully whipped up by so many of its politicians," which created a "vulnerability in our democracy."[29]

Hamburger problem

Barro argues that progressives in the United States have what he calls a hamburger problem, by which he means they sanctimoniously scold the public about a host of inconsequential personal choices, such as eating ground beef burgers (it is unhealthy, harms animals, and contributes to global warming, among others). They have become in his words a movement of "moralizing busybodies", which harms their political appeal. He said: "All this scolding—this messaging that you should feel guilty about aspects of your life that you didn't think were anyone else's business—leads to a weird outcome when you go to vote in November."[31][32][33][34]

Personal life

Barro lives in Manhattan and is openly gay. In 2017, he married Zachary Allen, chairman of TIPAH Consulting and a former Democratic National Committee official.[35] He is an atheist.[36]

See also

References
  1. Barro, Josh. "This Is Very Serious". www.joshbarro.com. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  2. "Josh Barro - Insider". Business Insider. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  3. "Left, Right & Center | Political Discussion & News". KCRW. June 26, 2006.
  4. Chait, Jonathan (June 2013). "Josh Barro, the Loneliest Republican". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  5. Barro, Josh. "Josh Barro bio". The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  6. Eidelson, Josh (October 17, 2013). "GOP is "crazy and awful": The Josh Barro Republicans are displeased". Salon. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  7. Howard, Caroline; Noer, Michael (December 17, 2012). "30 Under 30 - Media". Forbes. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  8. Barro, Josh. "Josh Barro bio". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  9. Byers, Dylan (May 29, 2013). "Josh Barro to Business Insider". Politico. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  10. Feldman, Josh (February 9, 2013). "Bill Maher And Panel Take On Drones: Obama's A 'Swell Guy,' But He's Basically Just Like Bush". Mediaite. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  11. O'Brien, Matthew (January 8, 2013). "Everything You Need to Know About the Crazy Plan to Save the Economy With a Trillion-Dollar Coin". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  12. Josh Barro (August 27, 2013). "Republicans Are Full Of It, And There's No Threat Over The Debt Ceiling". Business Insider. Retrieved September 11, 2013.
  13. Sorensen, Adam (March 25, 2013). "The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013". Time. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  14. Brooks, David (November 19, 2012). "The Conservative Future". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  15. McMorris-Santoro, Evan (October 28, 2013). "Here Are Obama's Favorite Columnists". Buzzfeed. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  16. Byers, Dylan (February 24, 2014). "Josh Barro to join The New York Times". Politico. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  17. Gold, Hadas. "Josh Barro to return to Business Insider". POLITICO. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  18. Barro, Josh [@jbarro] (September 18, 2018). "I'm very excited to be joining New York magazine as their business columnist! I'll be writing for Intelligencer -- NYMag's expanded site about politics, business and tech -- about companies and the economy as they relate to government and society. t.co/KP2ElizeyS" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021 – via Twitter.
  19. Barro, Josh [@jbarro] (November 9, 2020). "Some personal news: I am excited to announce that next month, I will rejoin @businessinsider as a columnist focusing on politics, business and the economy. I will also be doing analytical writing on topics like why infrastructure is so expensive in the US" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 15, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021 – via Twitter.
  20. Barro, Josh [@jbarro] (December 8, 2020). "2020 has absolutely sucked. But we have lots of reasons to believe 2021 is going to be awesome, with rapid deployment of vaccines, a robust economic recovery, and a normal person as president. My first column back at Business Insider: t.co/JJUkaDJ1Hq" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021 – via Twitter.
  21. Barro, Josh. "This Is Very Serious". www.joshbarro.com. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  22. White, Kenneth (February 18, 2016). "Kenneth P. White". Brown White & Osborn LLP. Retrieved April 6, 2023.
  23. "Serious Trouble". Serious Trouble. Retrieved April 6, 2023.
  24. Salam, Reihan (November 21, 2012). "Josh Barro on Why Republicans Resist the Reformist Project". National Review Online. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  25. Sullivan, Andrew (June 5, 2013). "Ask Josh Barro Anything: The Recent Evolution Of Conservatism". The Dish. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  26. Barro, Josh [@jbarro] (July 24, 2014). "Anti-LGBT attitudes are terrible for people in all sorts of communities. They linger and oppress, and we need to stamp them out, ruthlessly" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 3, 2017 – via Twitter.
  27. Dreher, Rod (July 25, 2014). "Josh Barro wins the Wall Street Journal a New Subscriber". Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  28. Klein, Ezra. "Josh Barro didn't leave conservatism. Conservatism left Josh Barro". Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  29. Barro, Josh. "Why I left the Republican Party to become a Democrat". Business Insider. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  30. "Josh Barro Leaves GOP for Democratic Party: 'F--k It, I'm Out'". TheWrap. October 17, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  31. "Liberals can win again if they stop being so annoying and fix their 'hamburger problem'". Business Insider. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  32. Robberson, Tod. "Robberson: Red-meat Republicans have a point. Skip the 'venti' and give it to me straight". stltoday.com. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  33. "Hamburgers aren't the problem". Mother Jones. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  34. "The Left's 'Hamburger Problem' Is Not Going Away". National Review. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  35. "POLITICO Playbook, presented by BP – HAPPY FEC DAY -- LONGTIME BIDEN FRIEND takes Playbookers inside V.P.'s mind – NYT MAGAZINE cover questions government narrative about bin Laden killing – SPORTS FANTASY industry ramps up lobbying – B'DAY: Lis Smith". POLITICO. October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  36. Barro, Josh [@jbarro] (December 28, 2013). "Mentioning that I am an atheist seems to have led to a bunch of email trying to convince me of the existence of god" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2016 – via Twitter.
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