Why is big business so enthusiastic about another Bush term? Yes, corporations have gotten a few fat tax breaks and regulatory rollbacks, and more face time with the president than do White House security guards. But on the issues that count, the current administration and its allies are undermining the foundations of American business. Consider […]
Robert Reich
Robert B. Reich, a co-founder of The American Prospect, is a professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, one of the books featured in the Prospect’s High School Essay Contest.
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Bankruptcy: The Real Story
Normally, when you slide deep into debt, you reach a point where your IOU’s become worthless because nobody believes you’ll repay them. That’s why so many consumers these days have lousy credit ratings. And also why, given America’s huge budget and trade deficits, the U.S. dollar has been dropping relative to foreign currencies. The other […]
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The Truth About the Job Numbers
Last Friday’s household survey showed the unemployment rate dipping to 5.4 percent in August, which isn’t bad by historic standards. But last Friday’s payroll survey showed that employers created only 144,000 payroll jobs in August, which is pretty awful given that the economy needs at least 150,000 just to keep up with new workers coming […]
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What Ownership Society?
You haven’t heard much at the Republican Convention about jobs and wages, because job growth has stalled and wages are stagnant. But you will hear about something Republicans are now calling the “Ownership Society.” The notion is to expand private ownership through more tax cuts on capital investments, tax credits for saving, and privatized Social […]
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Who Pays and How
Two stark facts have become apparent about how our government now finances itself. The first is about who’s paying taxes. There used to be a graduated system in which the rich paid a much larger proportion than the poor. But that’s changed. None other than the Congressional Budget Office — which, incidentally, works for a […]
Posted inSpecial Report
The Politics of One America
To the extent that there’s a social contract in America, it centers on work. If polls are to be believed, most Americans think that all full-time workers should be paid enough to keep themselves and their families out of poverty, that all Americans should have an opportunity to make the most of their talents and […]
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Government as Insurer
Are we on the edge of another savings and loan debacle? That one, in the late 1980s, cost taxpayers an estimated 150 to 200 billion dollars. It happened because too many of the nation’s savings and loan banks, knowing that their depositors were insured, took big risks with their depositor’s money — investing in all […]
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The Jobs Number
Marketplace, August 4, 2004 Heads up. This Friday’s July jobs report will be among the three most important economic reports issued during the presidential campaign. That’s because there are only three jobs reports left before Election Day. These monthly reports — especially the payroll survey, which shows how many new jobs were created during the […]
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The Massachusetts Liberal?
Here I am in so-called “liberal” Massachusetts — the state with a Republican governor who wants to restore the death penalty, ban abortions, and prevent gay marriages, and a legislature that’s among the most conservative Democratic legislatures in America. And here I am at a convention that’s about to nominate a so-called “Massachusetts liberal” for […]
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Greenspan’s Preemptive Strike
Congratulations, Alan. Inflation has slowed. You and your colleagues at the Fed seem to have made a preemptive strike against rising prices. But Alan, I’ve got to tell you: Jobs and wages are slowing, too. The jobs recovery barely got off the ground before it fizzled. Only 112,000 payroll jobs were created in June — […]
