Dylan Jason Ratigan (born April 19, 1972) is an American businessman, author, film producer, former host of MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show and political commentator for The Young Turks. He was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 21st Congressional District.

Ratigan was formerly Global Managing Editor for Corporate Finance at Bloomberg News. Ratigan has developed and launched CNBC's Fast Money and Closing Bell, as well as DylanRatigan.com, which hosts his podcast, Greedy Bastards Antidote.

From 2009 to 2012, Ratigan hosted The Dylan Ratigan Show, the highest-rated non-prime time show on MSNBC, aimed at critiquing what Ratigan described as an unholy alliance between big business and government.

His first book, Greedy Bastards, was released in 2012, and spent five consecutive weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers List.

In 2017, he joined The Young Turks as a political commentator. From 2011 to 2017, he was a contributor to HuffPost.

In 2018, Ratigan was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the United States House of Representatives in , which he lost to Tedra Cobb.

Early life

Ratigan was born in the village of Saranac Lake, in upstate New York, the son of Adrienne (née Dodge), a psychotherapist, and John Ratigan. His grandfather, Frank Ratigan, was mayor of Saranac Lake from 1957 to 1961.

Ratigan is of Irish (father), Hungarian Jewish (maternal grandfather) and Italian (maternal grandmother) descent. He was raised by his single mother. He was a contributor to ABC News and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and Chicago Tribune.

Morning Meeting launched June 29, 2009. Ratigan also contributes to other NBC News programs. Ratigan described the show's imperative as "to discuss any and all political issues with no directive other than to provide compelling content." The show was the second ever on the network to air in HD, as the network launched their programming in that format.

On May 27, 2010, Ratigan appeared as a guest host on the daily internet news and opinion show, The Young Turks. Cenk Uygur, regular host of The Young Turks was a frequent guest on The Dylan Ratigan Show.

thumb|Ratigan at MSNBC

On January 9, 2012, he appeared as a guest on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, discussing the premise of his book, Greedy Bastards, viz. the swindling and robbing of America by "government corruption and corporate communism, incensed by banksters shaking down taxpayers, and despairing of an ailing health care system, an age-old dependency on foreign oil, and a failing educational system".

The final episode of The Dylan Ratigan Show was on June 22, 2012.

In 2008, Ratigan appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the 2008 financial crisis. In 2010, he appeared on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Reporting

Ratigan won the Gerald Loeb Award for 2004 coverage of the Enron scandal.

2011 speech

On the August 10, 2011, broadcast of The Dylan Ratigan Show, in a round table discussion of a sharp stock market drop following the Budget Control Act of 2011, Ratigan made a two-minute-long speech against what he perceived to be the state of politics in the United States government, saying:

The video of his impassioned speech went viral TV Newser wrote that it was "a powerful, emotional editorial on the economy and Washington".

Post-television career

Since leaving MSNBC, Ratigan has become involved with hydroponic farming. He is the founder of Helical Holdings.

In 2013, he made appearances on The Daily Show and Charlie Rose to discuss his hydroponic farming project employing military veterans.

In 2018, Ratigan unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Elise Stefanik in . Ratigan said that he has never voted in an election, claiming a "disgust" with "two choices that are available to" him. Ratigan lost the Democratic primary election, to Tedra Cobb, but won a write-in campaign for the Women's Equality Party nomination in the same district by getting two votes (two other write-in candidates got one vote each). The chair of the Women's Equality Party, Susan Zimet, announced efforts to stop Ratigan from running on the party's ballot line to prevent the party from being a spoiler.

Since January 2022, Ratigan has co-hosted a weekly podcast with Tom Sosnoff titled “Truth or Skepticism” focusing on finance and macroeconomics.

References

  • Dylan Ratigan biography on MSNBC
  • Dylan Ratigan's articles in HuffPost
  • Daily Beast profile of Dylan Ratigan
  • From CNBC Business Journalist to Critic of Bankers on MSNBC from The New York Times