Robert Reich

Unemployment will almost certainly be in double-digits next year — and may remain there for some time. And for every person who shows up as unemployed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey, you can bet there’s another either too discouraged to look for work or working part time who’d rather have a full-time […]

So how can the Dow be flirting with 10,000 when consumers, who make up 70 percent of the economy, have had to cut way back on buying because they have no money? Jobs continue to disappear. One out of six Americans is either unemployed or underemployed. Homes can no longer function as piggy banks because […]

As he attempted to do with health-care reform last week, the president is trying to breathe new life into financial reform. He’s using the anniversary of the death of Lehman Brothers and the near-death experience of the rest of the Street, culminating with a $600 billion taxpayer financed bailout, to summon the political will for […]

The real political race for health care has just begun. The significance of the president’s speech to Washington insiders was its signal about where the White House is placing its bets and its support. More on this in a moment. First, let’s be clear about who’s racing and why. Think of the speech as the […]

I was just on the phone talking with a reporter for a national media outlet who referred to Sen. Olympia Snowe‘s idea for a public option “trigger” as the “centrist position.” Whoa. When the mainstream media start naming something as “centrist” the game is almost over because just about everyone with any authority in our […]

With Congress returning from recess to consider health care legislation and the president set to deliver a major address on the subject to both houses of Congress tomorrow, a bit of history may be in order. An excellent starting place David Blumenthal‘s and James Marone‘s The Heart of Power , which I reviewed for The […]

Why aren’t we hearing more about the worst job and wage situation since the Great Depression? The latest employment figures (released this morning) show job losses continuing to grow. According to the payroll survey, job losses are increasing more slowly than in previous months. According to the household survey, they’re accelerating — from 9.4 percent […]

What we learned in August is something we’ve long known but keep forgetting: The most important difference between America’s Democratic left and Republican right is that the left has ideas and the right has discipline. Obama and progressive supporters of health care were outmaneuvered in August — not because the right had any better idea […]

I would have preferred a single-payer system like Medicare but became convinced earlier this year that a public, Medicare-like optional plan was just about as much as was politically possible. Now the White House is stepping back even from the public option, with the president saying it’s “not the entirety of health-care reform,” the White […]

Citigroup — the giant Wall Street bank still on life-support courtesy of $45 billion from American taxpayers — wants to pay its 25 top executives an average of $10 million each this year, and award its best trader $100 million. Whaaat? Second only to health-care reform as a test of Obama‘s toughness and resolve is […]