Robert Reich

Broadcast July 5, 2001 In previous slowdowns, unemployment has reached 7, 8, 9 percent. But we’re nowhere near those levels, and we’re not likely to be even if this slowdown slides into a full-fledged recession. So what’s going on? Here’s a hint. In the old days–that is, before 1990–most Americans held steady jobs with steady […]

Broadcast Oct 25, 2001 It’s one thing for the government to give the airline industry $5 billion without strings. More than the market value of the five major airlines put together, and $10 billion in guaranteed loans. The bailout makes almost no economic sense. I mean, even if an airline went bankrupt, the planes and […]

The Washington Post A growing chorus is telling Americans that one of the best ways to demonstrate that the nation won’t be cowed by terrorism is to continue to buy shares of stock and retail goods. Vice President Cheney said he hoped Americans would “stick their thumb in the eye of the terrorists and . […]

Broadcast December 14, 2001 One of the things we’re hearing a lot these days from political leaders is “We need to try to get our lives back to normal.” None of us can go back to exactly what we were doing before September 11th, of course, and no one’s suggesting we should stop grieving for […]

Broadcast November 16, 2001 We hear a lot about a stimulus package coming out of Congress, eventually. Regardless of what combination of tax cuts and spending increases finally emerges, almost everyone agrees that the government has to spur the economy right now. Alan Greenspan and company can’t do it alone. Cuts in short-term rates are […]

Broadcast December 6, 2001 For years now, many management gurus have been urging companies to give their employees a larger share of the profits. The thinking was that workers who invested in their own company would work harder because there’d be a direct connection between effort and reward. This idea came just at a time […]

Financial Times Americans are turning against free trade. To halt the protectionist tide, government must minimise the hardship and dislocation caused by foreign competition. In a recent poll, 58 per cent of Americans agreed with the statement that foreign trade was “bad for the US economy because cheap imports hurt wages”. Only 32 per cent […]

The Washington Post Suddenly, there’s a new conversation among the country’s movers and shakers, and several ambitious plans for helping the bottom half share in the nation’s prosperity: Give them, literally, a share in America. Spread capitalism by spreading capital. Consider President Clinton’s proposed “Universal Savings Accounts.” Families earning less than $40,000 would get an […]

The Wall Street Journal If you want to make a dent in the real problems of poor people around the world, don’t fund another panel of experts to do a major report on global hunger, overpopulation, global poverty, global illiteracy, child labor or ethnic strife. Don’t create a program, institute or project staffed by earnest […]