Robert Reich

The outcome of the “stress tests” will be that the banks needing extra capital will get it from the Treasury. But where will the money come from, now that the TARP fund is almost exhausted and Congress is dead set against providing more bank bailout money? The Treasury will simply swap debt for equity – […]

I keep hearing the White House staff describe the president as a pragmatist. David Axelrod, a chief adviser whom I admire enormously, recently called him a “ruthless pragmatist.” Soon, I expect, he’ll be called a “take-no-prisoners pragmatist,” or perhaps a “remorseless, merciless, and unrelenting pragmatist.” I’m relieved the president is a pragmatist, but that doesn’t […]

Why, one may ask, is Barack Obama taking on yet another huge fight by taking aim at foreign tax havens? Yes, it’s unfair that multinationals pay an average tax rate of only 2 percent on their foreign revenues, and it’s unfair that some wealthy Americans are avoiding taxes altogether by parking their fortunes abroad. But, […]

General Motors just announced it was laying of 21,000 more workers, as a means of assuring the Treasury Department that the company is worthy of more bailout money. A Treasury official was quoted as saying approvingly that the goal is a “slimmed down” GM. What? Having GM or Chrysler cut tens of thousands of jobs […]

I don’t know whether Bank of America shareholders will oust Ken Lewis from his chairmanship this week. I don’t know if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will eventually do it, either. What really worries me is I don’t know who would actually be responsible for doing the deed, or by what criteria. When it comes to […]

Before Inauguration Day, Barack Obama said he wanted to hit the ground running. Instead, he hit the ground sprinting and hasn’t stopped. Consider: A $787 billion stimulus package. A 10-year budget including universal health insurance and a cap-and-trade system to combat global warming. Subsidies to help distressed homeowners stay in their homes. Public-private partnerships to […]

The next front in the banking wars will be over credit cards. Some of the nation’s biggest bankers — including representatives of Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and other recipients of billions of taxpayer dollars — are meeting today with the president to ask him to back off of his move to reform credit-card lending practices. […]

The administration is coming up to that magical 100-day mark, at which point measures are taken of how a new president is doing. As a university professor, I’m accustomed to giving grades. So here’s my report card on Obamanomics so far: The 10-year budget gets an A. It’s an extraordinary vision of what America can […]

It’s no accident that as Congress returns this week from its two-week recess and begins debate on the $3.5 trillion budget plans for the fiscal year starting in October — which may or may not include a provision that fast-tracks Obama‘s health-care proposal by allowing it to pass the Senate with a mere majority — […]

No one likes to pay taxes, so April 15 typically attracts a range of right-wing Republicans, kooks, and demagogues — all of whom tell us how awful we have it. Herewith a short citizen’s guide (that is, a citizen’s guide that’s short rather than a guide for short citizens) responding to the predictable charges: 1. […]