Robert Reich

President Obama‘s new budget is, well, audacious — not just because it includes several big, audacious initiatives (universally affordable health care, and a cap-and-trade system for coping with global warming, for starters) but also because it represents the biggest redistribution of income from the wealthy to the middle class and poor this nation has seen […]

The President’s message on fiscal responsibility — that he’ll cut the current budget by half by the end of his first term — is smart politics right now, but it may be dumb politics by November of 2012, and it doesn’t make much economic sense regardless. We’re in a deepening recession, in case you hadn’t […]

The stock market reached a six-year low Thursday. Why? Some blame loose talk (including that of former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan) about nationalizing the nation’s banks. Others blame Obama’s new plan for helping homeowners who may not be able to pay their mortgages. But the real culprit is the accelerating decline in aggregate demand — […]

The two most important features of the administration’s plan to help homeowners are (1) its support for amending bankruptcy laws to allow judges to modify mortgages, which will give homeowners bargaining leverage with mortgage servicers (and give the servicers more leverage with securitized creditors on up the line) to get better terms; and (2) a […]

Do not confuse American companies with American jobs. The new stimulus bill, for example, requires that the money be used for production in the United States. Foreign governments, along with large U.S. multinationals concerned about possible foreign retaliation, charge this favors American-based companies. That’s not quite true. Foreign companies are eligible to receive stimulus money […]

The only way to make sense of Tim Geithner’s “stress test” for banks is to assume a kind of triage. Banks that are reasonably healthy right now — whose assets are fully adequate to fund their liabilities, and can make new loans — don’t need a bailout. And banks that are too far gone to […]

In a time like this, when tempers are riding high and many Americans are close to panic about their jobs and finances, you have a special responsibility to consider the accuracy of what you say and the consequences of inflammatory and erroneous statements. In the last few days, manifestly distorting my words and pulling them […]

America has embraced Lemon Socialism. The federal government — that is, you and I and every other taxpayer — has taken ownership of giant home mortgagors Fannie and Freddie, which are by now basket cases. We’ve also put hundreds of millions into Wall Street banks, which are still flowing red ink and seem everyday to […]

The banking crisis is worsening as the economy continues to sink. It’s not just that bank balance sheets are still stuffed with “toxic” assets probably worth far less than what they’re listed for — subprime loans mixed up with all sorts of other things. It’s because more and more individuals and businesses that had been […]

Almost every economist will tell you the stimulus has to be massive to have any real impact. Even Marty Feldstein, who headed Ronald Reagan‘s Council of Economic Advisors, told Congress it had to be $800 billion. But a price tag like that scares Republicans and so-called “Blue-Dog” Democrats who worry about government debt. So here’s […]