Robert Reich

Broadcast August 24, 2001 The butcher metaphors of modern management are back: cutting out the fat, slicing to the bone, getting leaner and meaner. Well, all this butchering may slow the slide of stock prices, but it’s not a way to build long-term competitive strengths. The fact is, the key competitive assets of most companies […]

In Washington, a “gaffe” occurs when a high-level official accidentally says what he means. The Bush administration has been remarkably gaffe-free so far, with almost everyone sticking to the same bland script. All except Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, that is, whose gaffes offer a glimpse into the real philosophy of the Bush corporation that now […]

Broadcast Oct 5, 2001 Alan Greenspan is pushing on a wet noodle. The Fed has repeatedly cut interest rates since January and nothing’s happened which means that we shouldn’t expect this week’s half percent rate cut to have much impact either. Even figuring in the normal time lag between a rate cut and response, the […]

The New Republic Last week the Congressional Budget Office confirmed what every semiconscious observer of the budget process had known for months: that proposed spending by President Bush and Congress would force the government to take $9 billion from the ostensibly sacrosanct Social Security surplus. And over the following three years, CBO projected, the government […]

Broadcast September 27, 2001 Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has told Congress to wait and see what happens before enacting a stimulus package. Congress is heeding his advice. It shouldn’t. A stimulus is needed right away. Even before the September 11th terrorist attack, American consumers were in a deep funk. Personal savings rates were nearing […]

Broadcast June 7, 2001 Presidents are lucky if they accomplish one big thing in a term of office. The American political system is designed to make even one big thing difficult to get done, especially if there’s no economic or foreign crisis to coral public support. President Bush has already got done one very big […]

The Washington Post The Great American Debate about how to use the largest budget surplus in history has come to a choice between the giant $1.2 trillion tax cut recently passed by the Senate and the gargantuan $1.6 trillion cut passed by the House. This week House-Senate conferees begin picking a figure between these two. […]

The Financial Times Like generals preparing to fight the old war, the world’s central bankers are still obsessed with inflation. They should be looking forward to the real enemy: deflation. Look around the world and what you see are identical policies in favour of trimming public spending, cutting debt, raising interest rates and squeezing money […]

The Washington Post The economy is slowing, yet the surplus keeps growing. President-elect W. wants to use both to justify a big tax cut. How should the Democrats respond? (A) Warn once again that a big tax cut will jeopardize Social Security and that a better use for the surplus is to pay down the […]

The Wall Street Journal The Congressional Budget Office, in a report released yesterday, says the government will be forced to take $9 billion from the so-called Social Security surplus in fiscal year 2001 to make ends meet. The news undoubtedly will elicit a new round of fancy-dance explanations from the Bush administration for how it […]