Robert Reich

I’m spending my spare time these days debating supply-siders who are convinced that the record-breaking Dow proves the correctness of the Bush tax cuts. Yes, the Dow did reach a record high last week. But the Commerce Department also reported that economic growth slowed to its weakest pace in four years. How can investors do […]

How long can they hold on? Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank, embroiled in controversy over getting his girlfriend a sky-high paying job. Alberto Gonzales at Justice engulfed in allegations of firing eight U.S. attorneys because they wouldn’t help Republican candidates. Karl Rove once again under the gun, this time for some White House emails […]

In the United States, if you are seriously depressed, you can purchase anti-depressive drugs like Prozac, but only if you have a prescription from a doctor. Anti-depressants are enormously beneficial to millions of people but they are also potentially dangerous if used improperly. So you have to see a doctor and get an assessment before […]

The emerging scandal over college financial aid administrators that have cozy relationships with companies that lend students money to attend is only the tip of a much bigger scandalous iceberg. Take a close look at the whole system of federally-subsidized college loans and you’ll see a system designed to give banks and private lenders a […]

According to a new report from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, some 100,000 asteroids and comets routinely pass between the Sun and the Earth’s orbit. About 20,000 of these orbit close enough to us that they could one day hit the Earth and destroy a major city. But the really worrying news from NASA […]

China announced this week that it’s planning to increase military spending 18 percent this year this year — its largest military boost in almost a decade — to $45 billion. This makes China one of the largest defense spenders in the world. The sum isn’t much when compared to America’s military budget of more than […]

The Bush administration wants to renew the president’s authority to negotiate trade deals. This is giving House and Senate Democratic leaders an opportunity to win a long-sought Democratic goal — putting labor standards in future trade deals. But what sort of labor standards? If workers in developing nations were required to have the same — […]

When Bill Clinton was in the White House and the Republicans ran Congress, it was Republicans who demanded that the federal budget be balanced. That was because they wanted to cut federal spending. Now that George Bush is in the White House and Democrats run Congress, it’s Democrats who are outraged by what they consider […]