Barro previously worked as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, as a real estate banker for Wells Fargo, as the lead writer for The Ticker, and as the politics editor at Business Insider. He appears regularly on Bloomberg Television and MSNBC and has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO and on All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. He is currently the host and moderator of the weekly political roundtable radio showLeft, 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, but by late 2013, he had changed his mind. Time named Barro's Twitter feed one of "The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013," one of ten in the Politics category. In 2012, Forbes selected him as one of the "30 Under 30" media "brightest stars under the age of 30," and David Brooks listed him as part of the "vibrant and increasingly influential center-right conversation." A former aide to Barack Obama included Barro on a short list of Obama's favorite columnists. In 2014, Barro left Business Insider to join The New York Times "The Upshot." In 2016, Barro was again hired by Business Insider as a senior editor. In 2018, he left Business Insider again to become a business columnist at New York magazine.
Political views
Early in his career, Barro described himself as Republican but criticized many policies. He also identified as a neoliberal. Barro has been opposed to traditional Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality, stating that they "linger and oppress" and must be "stamped out ruthlessly". 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." Barro called Congressional Republicans "crazy and awful". Reactions by other conservatives in the media led The Atlantic to name Barro "the loneliest Republican." Ezra Klein said that based on Barro's views, "He doesn't come across as much of a Republican." 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. 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."
Hamburger problem
Barro used the term hamburger problem to criticize the perceived tendency of some progressives in the United States to hassle people on their personal choices. For example, eating meat hamburgers can be criticized based on the arguments that it is harmful for animals, it contributes to global warming and it is unhealthy.
