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The catalog/Background

Key Players

The people and organizations that matter on an issue, and how they line up.

2 credits·in-depth·about 2–4 min·12 domains

What it answers

The question Key Players is built for

Name the issue. It builds the roster of actors with the leverage each holds, records the alignments and the rivalries, reads the balance of power, and names who to watch and why.

Who reaches for it

The map before the argument: a lobbyist, a journalist, an analyst or a student who needs the cast of an issue.

What comes back

8 sections, on every run

These are the headings the result renders, read from the same promise the form makes before you spend a credit. A section that depends on what the record holds is rendered when it can be and never promised here.

01

The field

02

Brief

03

The Roster

04

Alignments

05

Rivalries

06

Balance of Power

07

Who to watch

08

Open Questions

What you give it

2 boxes, 1 required

Arena or subject to map the players of
required · up to 300 characters
Focus / scope
optional · up to 600 characters
Try it on: a subject you already hold an opinion about, so you can grade the result against what you know. Each one opens the form filled, in the General domain.
Who matters in the Arctic scramble
What it will not do

The lines it holds

A person appears only in a public role on the issue, and an alignment is on the map because a documented position puts it there, not because two actors are assumed to agree.

Every claim carries its grade

A claim the scan could not source is marked as such rather than dressed up. How the grades work →

Verified or grounded
Reported or attributed
Contested
Open question
Where it runs

Available in 12 domains

A domain may name it in its own words and price it on its own terms; each row is what that domain shows.

General2 creditsDefense2 creditsFinance2 creditsEnergy2 creditsHealth2 creditsPolicy2 creditsTechnology2 creditsClimate2 creditsLearning2 creditsSports2 creditsTravel2 creditsLifestyle2 credits
See one

Research already published as Key Players

Who Controls Federal Payment Sequencing in a Debt-Ceiling Default

Read the research →

If the US hits the debt ceiling with no cash left, the choice of which bills go unpaid falls to the Treasury office that runs the payment rails — and its systems were built to pay in the order received, not by rank.

Finance · September 9, 2026

Who Decides Where U.S. Hospitals Open and Close

Read the research →

Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, and other states are loosening or repealing CON rules as private-equity chains and REIT landlords consolidate hospitals those regulations were designed to oversee.

Health · September 8, 2026
Roles that lean on it

8 role guides suggest it

Lobbyist / advocacy consultantlead scanExecutive advisor / board advisorlead scanFreelance business writerlead scanCompetitive intelligence analystChief of staffFoundation programme officerFinancial newsletter writerFreelance researcher / analyst
Try it

Run Key Players on something you already know

The fastest way to judge the result is to pick a subject you know cold and read it against what you know. The scan names its credit cost before it runs.

Start with Key Players →Plans and credit packs
More in the catalog

Other research in background

ChronologyHow a situation developed, phase by phase, with the turning points marked.Follow the MoneyWho pays, who profits, and through what channels, with the total at stake.How It WorksHow a system or process actually works: the inputs, the steps, the parts, and where it breaks.By the NumbersThe key figures on a subject, sourced and dated, with the ones to read carefully marked.Why It ChangedWhy a published number actually moved, after checking whether the counting changed first.The whole catalog →