Political Currents is the highly subscribed New York politics newsletter where readers these days are most likely to encounter Ross Barkan, if not in the New York Times Magazine, the New Statesman, or the host of other periodicals to which he is a frequent contributor. Written from the Left, the newsletter appeals not to the partisan, but instead has a gritty feel for the flow of power in the city and state that have refined politics into a Machiavellian art.