Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper

I am currently the managing editor at The American Prospect. I wrote a book called How Are You Going to Pay for That?: Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics.

📍 Philadelphia

Gun Control Works

Yet again we woke up to another mass shooting, yet again in Texas. I can't even muster the energy to try to describe how bleak it feels to barely even react to them now, but Luke O'Neil does a good job of that. Instead I'd like to emphasize that it's

The Matt Taibbi Story, Part II

Howdy folks, Ryan here. The last several days have produced an absolute wealth of material for a Matt Taibbi watcher like myself. Check out my previous video for the background on how he went from being a crusading Wall Street critic to a lickspittle toady for the richest person in

There and Back Again: The Glenn Greenwald Story

I recently finished a longish video about how Glenn Greenwald became a reactionary. But it occurs to me that people might like to simply read the script, so I'm posting that below. Howdy folks, Ryan here. So I’m a political journalist, and I am ashamed to admit that the

Glenn Greenwald's Trip Around the Political Spectrum

I've been chipping away at another video project for weeks and weeks, and it's finally finished: I enjoy the video stuff, but man is it a lot of work. The next one will probably be more off the cuff and less produced. On to some articles! Everyone should get a

The Senseless Post-2008 Lost Decade

Hello again! After the 2008 crisis, America suffered over a decade of high unemployment and weak growth. In my latest video project (delivered in an off-the-cuff live recording, which it turns out is dramatically easier to do), I explain how this could have been avoided: Last week at the Prospect

New Zealand Report

Apologies for radio silence, I've been on honeymoon for the last couple weeks in New Zealand. It's an interesting country, much more similar to the United States than I was expecting. There are big highways built right through the middle of Auckland (the largest city), which is also extremely sprawly.

The Crypto 2008 Speedrun

Howdy folks, I finally finished a video after taking many months off. (These things are fun to make but man they are a lot of work.) It's all about Sam Bankman-Fried, the ongoing crypto collapse, and how all these jokers have recapitulated the 2008 financial crisis in less than five

The Best Tax System on Earth Is in the Remote North Atlantic

Back in October I spent a week in the Faroe Islands reporting on their tax system, called TAKS. I interviewed the head of the tax authority, some government ministers, several academics, and a bunch of other folks. I discovered not only that TAKS keeps continuous track of all normal employment

RIP Twitter. What's Next?

I wondered what Elon Musk would do to that place, but to be honest I did not remotely expect that he would tank it as quickly as he appears to be doing. He's fired half the staff in one week, including many critical security and stability workers. Musk's fan base

On Policing

What do we do with the police? Despite efforts from both liberals and conservatives to bury the George Floyd movement, there's a new story of police brutality virtually every day, and the question keeps bubbling. I've been meaning to set down some basic thoughts on the question, and some tweets