Jon Talton is the economics columnist for the Seattle Times. He has covered business and finance for the past 30 years, specializing in banking, urban economies, energy, real estate and economics and public policy.

Jon has been a columnist for the Arizona Republic, Charlotte Observer and Rocky Mountain News, and his columns have appeared in newspapers throughout North America on the New York Times News Service and others.  Jon served as business editor for several newspapers, including the Dayton Daily News, Rocky Mountain News, Cincinnati Enquirer and Charlotte Observer. His stories include the landmark Texaco-Pennzoil trial; the troubles of General Motors and the American auto industry; Charlie Keating and the S&L scandal; the historic bank mergers of the ‘90s; America’s downtown renaissance; and the Great Recession.

Before journalism, Jon worked for four years as an ambulance medic in the inner city of Phoenix. A fourth-generation Arizonan, he was educated at Arizona State University and Miami University of Ohio. Jon is the author of 12 novels, including the David Mapstone Mysteries and the Cincinnati Casebooks, and one non-fiction history of Phoenix.