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Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written twelve books, including "Aftershock," "The Work of Nations," "Locked in the Cabinet," and his most recent book, "Supercapitalism." His "Marketplace" commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes. He blogs at www.robertreich.org.
Monday, May 28, 2012 How to Avoid the Austerity Trap But Still Deal With the Budget Deficit
If recent history is any guide, a deal will be struck at the last moment -- during a lame-duck Congress, some time in late December. And it will only be to remove the January 1 trigger. Keep everything as it is, the Bush tax cuts as well as current spending, and kick the can down the road into 2013 and beyond.
Thursday, May 24, 2012 Obama Must Explain Why Fairness is Essential to Growth -- and Why Some Democrats Have to Stop Believing Otherwise (1 comments)
The Street has turned a significant part of the economy into a giant casino involving mammoth bets with other peoples' money. When the bets go well, the rich owners of the casino (Wall Street executives, traders, hedge-fund managers, private-equity managers) become even richer. When the bets go sour, the rest of us bear the costs.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 Why Obama Should Be Attacking Casino Capitalism -- Both Romney's Bain and JPMorgan (1 comments)
Obama has to come out swinging about JPMorgan. The JPMorgan Chase debacle would have been prevented if the Volcker Rule were sufficiently strict, prohibiting banks from using commercial deposits to make bets except very specific offsetting bets (hedges) on narrow classes of trades. Bain Capital and JPMorgan are parts of the same problem. The President should be leading the charge against both.
Friday, May 18, 2012 The Commencement Address That Won't Be Given (1 comments)
Outstanding student debt now totals over $1 trillion. That's more than the nation's total credit-card debt. The extraordinary rise in student debt is due to two related facts: the cost of a college education continues to increase faster than inflation, and state and local spending per college student continues to drop -- this year reaching a 25-year low.
Thursday, May 17, 2012 The Dog That Didn't Bark: Obama on JPMorgan (5 comments)
The dog that didn't bark this week, let alone bite, was the President's response to JP Morgan Chase's bombshell admission of losing more than $2 billion in risky derivative trades that should never have been made. Twenty years ago, the 10 largest banks on the Street held 10 percent of America's total bank assets. Now they hold over 70 percent.
Friday, May 11, 2012 How J.P. Morgan Chase Has Made the Case for Breaking Up The Big Banks and Resurrecting Glass-Steagall (2 comments)
Let's also stop hoping Wall Street will mend itself. What just happened at J.P. Morgan -- along with its leader's cavalier dismissal followed by lame reassurance -- reveals how fragile and opaque the banking system continues to be, why Glass-Steagall must be resurrected, and why the Dallas Fed's recent recommendation that Wall Street's giant banks be broken up should be heeded.
Monday, May 7, 2012 A Question of Timing: What America Can Learn from the Revolt in Europe (1 comments)
The first priority in America and in Europe must be growth and jobs. That means rejecting austerity economics for now, while at the same time demanding that corporations and the rich pay their fair share of the cost of keeping everyone else afloat. The proper sequence is for government to keep spending until jobs and growth are restored, and only then to take out the budget axe.
Friday, May 4, 2012 The Stall Has Arrived (5 comments)
We've still got a terrible cyclical problem -- we can't get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. There's no way to put the mask back on. We've got to face the truth. Obama and the Democrats have to explain to the American people why inequality isn't just unfair; it's also economically unsustainable.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 The Tinder-Box Society (1 comments)
Most of the gains from the productivity revolution are going to the owners of capital, while typical workers are either unemployed or underemployed, or else getting wages and benefits whose real value continues to drop. The portion of total income going to capital rather than labor is the highest since the 1920s. Increasingly, the world belongs to those collecting capital gains.
Friday, April 27, 2012 The GOP's Death Wish: Why Republicans Can't Stop Pissing Off Hispanics, Women, and Young People (4 comments)
How can a political party be so dumb as to piss off Hispanics, women, and young people? Because the core of its base is middle-aged white men -- and it doesn't seem to know how to satisfy its base without at the same time turning off everyone who's not white, male, and middle-aged.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Why Anyone Should Care that Bill O'Reilly Calls Me A Communist (3 comments)
Debate all over America is disappearing. All we're left with is a nasty residue. Democrats and Republicans no longer even talk. They just vent charges and counter-charges. Across the nation, conservatives right-wingers and liberal or progressive lefties have stopped debating their respective views, or even listening to anyone they disagree with. They just find broadcasters and bloggers who confirm their views.
Thursday, April 19, 2012 Why "We're on the Right Track" Isn't Enough, and What Obama's Plan Should Be For Boosting the Economy
Obama should make clear the underlying problem is widening inequality. With so much of the nation's disposable income and wealth going to the top, the vast middle class doesn't have the purchasing power it needs to fire up the economy. He should remind voters that congressional Republicans prevented him from doing all that was needed in the first term, and they must not be allowed to do so again.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 The Significance of Citigroup's Shareholder Revolt
The real news here is new-found activism among institutional investors -- especially the managers of pension funds and mutual funds. They're the ones who fired the warning shot Tuesday. Institutional investors are catching on to a truth they should have understood years ago: When executive pay goes through the roof, there's less money left for everyone else who owns shares of the company.
Sunday, April 15, 2012 Why a Fair Economy is Not Incompatible with Growth but Essential to It (2 comments)
What we should have learned over the last half century is that growth doesn't trickle down from the top. It percolates upward from working people who are adequately educated, healthy, sufficiently rewarded, and who feel they have a fair chance to make it in America. Fairness isn't incompatible with growth. It's necessary for it.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Beyond Outrage: The General Election of 2012 Starts Today (4 comments)
Nothing good happens in Washington unless good people outside Washington become mobilized, organized, and energized to make it happen. Nothing worth changing in America will actually change unless you and others like you are committed to achieving that change.
Saturday, April 7, 2012 America's hall of mirrors recovery (4 comments)
We'll avoid a double dip, but the most likely scenario in coming months is a continuation of the same -- an anemic jobs recovery. President Obama will claim the economy is improving -- and, technically, it is. Growth has probably slowed to around 2%, but that's still growth. The problem is that most Americans aren't feeling it in their paychecks.
Thursday, April 5, 2012 The Fable of the Century (3 comments)
Imagine the candidacy of the private equity manager (and all the money he and his friends use to try to sell their lies) has the opposite effect. It awakens the citizens of the country to what is happening to their economy and their democracy. It ignites a movement among the citizens to take it all back. Just a fable, of course. But the ending is up to you.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 The Choice in 2012: Social Darwinism or a Decent Society (15 comments)
The Republican budget plan is the most radical reverse-Robin Hood proposal propounded by any political party in modern America. It would save millionaires at least $150,000 a year in taxes while gutting Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps, transportation, child nutrition, college aid, and almost everything else average and lower-income Americans depend on.
Monday, April 2, 2012 Turning America Into a Giant Casino
In December, the Department of Justice announced it was reversing its position that all Internet gambling was illegal. That decision is about to create a boom in online gambling. Expect high-stakes poker to be available on every work desk and mobile phone.
Sunday, April 1, 2012 Whose Recovery?
Republicans would rather not talk about widening inequality to begin with. The reverse-Robin Hood budget plan just announced by Paul Ryan and House Republicans (and endorsed by Mitt Romney) would make the lopsidedness far worse -- dramatically cutting taxes on the rich and slashing public services everyone else depends on.
Thursday, March 29, 2012 Break Up The Big Banks, Says the Dallas Fed (2 comments)
As Republicans make the repeal of "Obamacare" their primary objective (and Alito, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and perhaps Kennedy sharpen their knives) another drama is taking place at the Fed. The question is whether Bernanke and company in Washington will heed the warnings coming from its Dallas branch, and amplify the message.
Monday, March 26, 2012 Healthcare Jujitsu (2 comments)
Compared to private insurance, Medicare is a great deal. Its administrative costs are only around 3 percent, while the administrative costs of private insurers eat up 30 to 40 percent of premiums. So why not Medicare for all? Because Republicans have mastered the art of political jujitsu. Their strategy has been to demonize government and privatize everything that might otherwise be a public program financed by tax dollars.
Thursday, March 22, 2012 Why Mitt Won't Be Able to Hide From His Primary Self (We're No Longer In An Etch-A-Sketch World) (3 comments)
Ever since Mitt left the governor's office, he's been twisting the right knob, moving downward into the muck of regressive Republicanism in pursuit of the Republican nomination. It won't be nearly as easy for Mitt to "shake it up and start all over again" for the general election of 2012, should he get the nomination. Try as he might, Romney won't be able to twist the knobs and create a brand new picture.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 The Republican's Social-Darwinist Budget Plan (1 comments)
Cuts would come out of food stamps, Pell grants to offset the college tuition of kids from poor families, and scores of other programs that now help middle-income and the poor. The plan also calls for repealing Obama's health-care overhaul, thereby eliminating healthcare for 30 million Americans and allowing insurers to discriminate against (and drop from coverage) people with pre-existing conditions.
Saturday, March 17, 2012 If You Took the Greed Out of Wall Street, All You'd Have Left Is Pavement: Why Greg Smith's Critique is Way Too Narrow (1 comments)
If Mr. Smith believes his experience at Goldman is something new, he doesn't know history. In 1928, Goldman Sachs and Company created the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation, which promptly went on a speculative binge, luring innocent investors along the way. In the Great Crash of 1929, Goldman's investors lost their shirts but Goldman kept its hefty fees.
Friday, March 16, 2012 Why Republicans Aren't Mentioning the Real Cause of Rising Prices at the Gas Pump (3 comments)
Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices in the future -- and that betting is causing prices to rise. The Street is laying odds that unrest in Syria will spill over into other countries or that tensions with Iran will affect the Persian Gulf, and that global demand will pick up as American consumers bounce back to life.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 The Difference Between Private and Public Morality
There is moral rot in America but it's not found in the private behavior of ordinary people. It's located in the public behavior of people who control our economy and are turning our democracy into a financial slush pump. It's found in Wall Street fraud, exorbitant pay of top executives, financial conflicts of interest, insider trading, and the outright bribery of public officials through unlimited campaign "donations."
Saturday, March 10, 2012 The Precarious Jobs Recovery (1 comments)
How can consumers be sufficiently better off when their major asset has shrunk so much and when so few of the economic gains are going to them? This is the central paradox at the heart of the American economy today. If it's not resolved, the jobs recovery will stall, as it did last spring.
Friday, March 2, 2012 Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution
Many of the gains are distributed narrowly in the form of profits to owners, and fat compensation packages to the "talent." The share of the gains going to everyone else in the form of wages and salaries has been shrinking. It's now the smallest since the government began keeping track in 1947. If the trend continues, inequality will become ever more extreme.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 Stop Starving Public Universities and Shrinking the Middle Class (2 comments)
Over just the last year, 41 states have cut spending for public higher education. That's on top of deep cuts in 2009 and 2010. Some public universities have lost over 40 percent of their state funding; the University of Washington, 26 percent; Florida's public university system, 25 percent. The children of middle and lower-income families are hardest hit.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 No Longer Home Sweet Home: The Ongoing Housing Crisis and the End of an Era (1 comments)
The biggest continuing problem for most Americans is their homes. Houses are the major assets of the American middle class. Most Americans are therefore far poorer than they were six years ago. Almost one out of three homeowners with a mortgage is now "underwater," owing more to the banks than their homes are worth on the market.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 Corporations Don't Need a Tax Cut, So Why Is Obama Proposing One? (12 comments)
he federal budget deficit is ballooning, and in less than a year, major cuts are scheduled to slice everything from prenatal care to Medicare. So this would seem to be the ideal time to raise corporate taxes -- or at the very least close corporate tax loopholes without lowering corporate rates.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 The Gas Wars (3 comments)
Nothing drives voter sentiment like the price of gas -- now averaging $3.56 a gallon, up 30 cents from the start of the year. It's already hit $4 in some places. The last time gas topped $4 was 2008. And nothing energizes Republicans like rising energy prices. Last week House Speaker John Boehner told Republicans to take advantage of voters' looming anger over prices at the pump.
Friday, February 17, 2012 Manufacturing Illusions (3 comments)
In the 1950s, more than a third of American workers were represented by a union. Now, fewer than 7 percent of private-sector workers have a union behind them. If there's a single reason why the median wage has dropped dramatically for non-college workers over the past three and a half decades, it's the decline of unions.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 The Sad Spectacle of Obama's Super PAC
It has been said there is no high ground in American politics since any politician who claims it is likely to be gunned down by those firing from the trenches. That's how the Obama team justifies its decision to endorse a super PAC that can raise and spend unlimited sums for his campaign.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 The Downward Mobility of the American Middle Class, and Why Mitt Romney Doesn't Know (1 comments)
Romney and other Republicans have cause and effect backwards. The reason for the rise in benefits is Americans got clobbered in 2008 and many are still sinking. They and their families need whatever help they can get.
Saturday, February 4, 2012 America's Jobs Deficit, and Why It's Still More Important than the Budget Deficit
When they're not blaming Obama for a bad economy, Republicans are decrying the federal budget deficit and demanding more cuts. But America's jobs deficit continues to be a much larger problem than the budget deficit.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 The Republican Myth of Obama's "Entitlement Society" (3 comments)
One of the few things Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich agree on is that President Obama is turning America into a "European-style welfare culture." Regressive Republicans pretend they're about opportunity. In reality they're back at what they've been doing for years -- promoting Social Darwinism.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 The Biggest Risk to the Economy in 2012, and What's the Economy For Anyway? (4 comments)
onsumers and investers are doing increasingly well but job insecurity is on the rise, inequality is widening, communities are becoming less stable, and climate change is worsening. None of this is sustainable over the long term.
Thursday, January 26, 2012 Why No Responsible Democrat Should Want Newt Gingrich to Get the GOP Nomination (2 comments)
Republicans are worried sick about Newt Gingrich's ascendance, while Democrats are tickled pink. Yet no responsible Democrat should be pleased at the prospect that Gingrich could get the GOP nomination. The future of America is too important to accept even a small risk of a Gingrich presidency.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 Free Enterprise on Trial (2 comments)
Obama and the Democrats shouldn't allow Romney and the Republicans to act as defenders of risk-taking free enterprise. Americans need to know the truth. The only way the economy can thrive is if we have more risk-taking at the top, and more economic security below.
Thursday, January 12, 2012 The Youthful Magic of Ron Paul (9 comments)
The young are flocking to Ron Paul because he wants to slice military spending, bring our troops home, stop government from spying on American citizens, and legalize pot.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 The Bain of Capitalism
None of these Republican candidates has exactly distinguished himself with new ideas for giving Americans more economic security. To the contrary -- until the assault on Romney and Bain Capital -- every one of them has been a cheerleader for financial capitalism of the most brutal sort.
Monday, January 9, 2012 How a Little Bit of Good Economic News Can Be Bad for the President
If all the potential workers who have dropped out of the job market over the past two years were counted, today's unemployment rate wouldn't be 8.5 percent. It would be 9.5 percent. That's only a bit down from the 9.9 percent unemployment rate two years ago. This will be bad for the President because it will look as though the trend is in the wrong direction again.
Friday, January 6, 2012 Mitt, Son of "Citizen's United" (2 comments)
Romney and Citizens United were made for each other. Other candidates have quietly set up Super PACs of their own, and President Obama has his Super PAC already busily tapping into whatever reservoirs of big money it can find. But Mitt's unique ties to the biggest money pits enable him to take unique advantage of the Court's scurrilous invitation.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 The Decline of the Public Good (7 comments)
Wall Street's entitlement is the biggest offered by the federal government, even though it doesn't show up in the budget. And it's not even a public good. It's just private gain. We have private goods available to the very rich, supported by the rest of us. Even Lady Thatcher would have been appalled.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 The GOP Ticket in 2012: Romney-Rubio (2 comments)
You can forget the caucuses and early primaries. Mitt Romney will be the nominee. Republicans may be stupid but the GOP isn't about to commit suicide. The other candidates are all weighed down by enough baggage to keep a 747 on the tarmac indefinitely.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 My Political Prediction for 2012: It's Obama-Clinton (1 comments)
My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State -- a position he's apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 Why the Republican Crackup is Bad For America (7 comments)
America has had a long history of white Southern radicals who will stop at nothing to get their way -- seceding from the Union in 1861, refusing to obey Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s, shutting the government in 1995, and risking the full faith and credit of the United States in 2010. Gingrich's recent assertion that public officials aren't bound to follow the decisions of federal courts derives from the same tradition.
Monday, December 19, 2011 The Defining Issue: Not Government's Size, but Who It's For (4 comments)
If we want to get our democracy back we've got to get big money out of politics. We need real campaign finance reform. And a constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Court's bizarre rulings that under the First Amendment money is speech and corporations are people.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 An Offer to the President (7 comments)
So here's the deal: We'll reelect you. We'll stand behind you. We'll give you a mandate to do all this -- and more -- in your second term. As long as you stand behind us.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Newt's Tax Plan, and Why His Polls Rise the More Outrageous He Becomes (4 comments)
Most forecasts of the budget deficit cover 10 years. The elusive goal of the White House and many on both sides of the aisle in Congress is to reduce that 10-year deficit by 3 to 4 trillion dollars. Newt goes in the other direction, with gusto. Increasing the deficit by $850 billion in a single year is beyond the wildest imaginings of the least responsible budget mavens within a radius of three thousand miles from Washington.
Sunday, December 11, 2011 The Remarkable Political Stupidity of the Street (3 comments)
Wall Street is its own worst enemy. It should have welcomed new financial regulation as a means of restoring public trust. Instead, it's busily shredding new regulations and making the public more distrustful than ever.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 The Most Important Economic Speech of His Presidency (12 comments)
Here, finally, is the Barack Obama many of us thought we had elected in 2008. Hopefully Obama will carry this message through 2012 -- and in his second term will take on the growing inequities and game-rigging practices that have been undermining the American economy and American democracy for years.
Saturday, December 3, 2011 The Jobs Report: Don't Break Out the Champagne (6 comments)
If Congress refuses to extend the payroll tax cut and/or unemployment benefits by December 30, it will create another drag on the economy. When people ask me what Congress is likely to do I always say the same thing: The odds are in favor of nothing. So while today's jobs report is in the right direction, it's way too early to break out the champagne.
Thursday, December 1, 2011 The Rebirth of Social Darwinism (8 comments)
Social Darwinism offered a moral justification for the wild inequities and social cruelties of the late nineteenth century. If one of the current crop of Republican hopefuls becomes president, and if regressive Republicans take over the House or Senate, or both, Social Darwinism is back.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Restore the Basic Bargain (2 comments)
Corporate profits are up right now largely because pay is down and companies aren't hiring. But this is a losing game even for corporations over the long term. Without enough American consumers, their profitable days are numbered. The only way out of it is to put more money into the pockets of average Americans. That means extending the payroll tax cut. And extending unemployment benefits.
Saturday, November 26, 2011 A Thanksgiving Reflection: Looking Beyond Election Day (1 comments)
oth parties are doing remarkably little given the gravity of the continuing jobs depression and the widening gap of income and wealth. Taming the budget deficit is the only significant issue anyone in Washington seems willing to raise, yet Congress seems incapable of achieving any significant progress on this. Political elites show scant understanding of what these growing anti-establishment forces signify.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 The First Amendment Upside Down. Why We Must Occupy Democracy (1 comments)
When the freedom of speech goes to the highest bidder, moneyed interests have a disproportionate say. Now more than ever, the First Amendment needs to be put right side up. Nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake.
Friday, November 18, 2011 Stop the Austerity Train Wreck! (3 comments)
The biggest question right now on Planet Washington is whether the congressional supercommittee will reach an agreement. That's the wrong question. Agreement or not, Washington is on the road to making budget cuts that will slow the economy, increase unemployment, and impose additional hardship on millions of Americans. The real question is how to stop this austerity train wreck.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 Occupiers Occupied: The Hijacking of the First Amendment (2 comments)
This tsunami of big money into politics is the real public nuisance. It's making it almost impossible for the voices of average Americans to be heard because most of us don't have the dough to break through.
Sunday, November 13, 2011 Why We May Be In Store for a Passionless Presidential Race (5 comments)
Mitt Romney will surely be the Republican presidential candidate -- and Romney inspires as little enthusiasm among Republicans as Obama does among Democrats. The GOP will support Romney because, frankly, he's the only major Republican primary candidate who does not appear to the broader public to be nuts.
Thursday, November 10, 2011 Trigger Happy: Why Deficit Cuts Should Be Triggered Only When Unemployment Reaches 5 Percent (1 comments)
We need to do more spending now in order to bring back jobs and growth, then do less spending in the future -- after the economy is once again generating jobs and growth. That's why it make more sense for Democrats to propose a deficit reduction plan that goes into effect only when jobs are back. The trigger should be the rate of unemployment -- and a 5 percent rate would signal we're back on track.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 The Corporate Pledge of Allegiance (5 comments)
By flooding our democracy with their shareholders' money, big corporations are violating their shareholders' First Amendment rights because shareholders aren't consulted. They're simultaneously suppressing the First Amendment rights of the rest of us because, given how much money they're throwing around, we don't have enough money to be heard.
Friday, November 4, 2011 Washington Pre-Occupied (3 comments)
Diffident Democrats on the Supercommittee have already signaled a willingness to cut Medicare, Social Security, and much else that Americans depend on. The deal is being held up by Regressive Republicans who won't raise taxes on the rich -- not even a tiny bit.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 Greece's Choice -- And Ours: Democracy Or Finance? (11 comments)
Wall Street has prospered but the rest of the nation hasn't. One out of four homeowners is underwater, owing more on their homes than the homes are worth. So which is it? Rule by democracy or by financial markets? Based on what's happened in America, I'd choose the former.
Monday, October 31, 2011 The Occupiers' Responsive Chord (8 comments)
A combination of police crackdowns and bad weather are testing the young Occupy movement. But rumors of its demise are premature, to say the least. Although numbers are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests the movement is growing. As importantly, the movement has already changed the public debate in America.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Wall Street Is Still Out Of Control, And Why Obama Should Call For Glass-Steagall And A Breakup Of Big Banks (3 comments)
I doubt the President will be condemning the Street's antics, or calling for a resurrection of Glass-Steagall and a breakup of the biggest banks. Democrats are still too dependent on the Street's campaign money. That's too bad. You don't have to be an occupier of Wall Street to conclude the Street is still out of control. And that's dangerous for all of us.
Monday, October 24, 2011 Why We Shouldn't Be Selling The Right To Live In America (10 comments)
Rather than have the big banks carry all those non-performing mortgage loans on their books or be forced to write them down, we'll just goose the housing market by selling off the right to live in America. And the measure wouldn't allow in the world's riff-raff, because buyers would have to be rich enough to pay cash, and live here six months a year without working.
Saturday, October 22, 2011 The Flat-Tax Fraud, And The Necessity Of A Truly Progressive Tax (12 comments)
Regressives are pushing the flat tax as a smokescreen. They'd rather not have anyone talk about the unfairness and fiscal absurdity of the current system. Rather than merely oppose the flat tax, sensible people should push for a truly progressive tax -- starting with a top rate of 70 percent on that portion of anyone's income exceeding $5 million, from whatever source.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 The Austerity Death-Trap (7 comments)
The only way out of this vicious cycle is for the government -- the spender of last resort -- to boost the economy. The regressives are all calling for the opposite. And if you think 2011 is bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Monday, October 17, 2011 The Rise of the Regressive Right and the Reawakening of America (2 comments)
The great arc of American history reveals an unmistakable pattern. Whenever privilege and power conspire to pull us backward, the nation eventually rallies and moves forward. Sometimes it takes an economic shock like the bursting of a giant speculative bubble; sometimes we just reach a tipping point where the frustrations of average Americans turn into action.
Saturday, October 15, 2011 The Untimely Death of Long-Term Health Insurance (2 comments)
Why, oh why, didn't the Obama administration make life easy for itself and for Americans by choosing the simplest and most efficient system for both primary and long-term health insurance -- Medicare for all? It didn't because it wanted to get Republican votes. It got almost none. And now the Republicans are enjoying the prospect of the law being dismembered piece by piece, starting today.
Friday, October 14, 2011 The Triumph of Dogma, and a Sad Goodbye to David Frum (2 comments)
The Republican Party has become so extreme that it's more and more difficult for anyone to rationally "represent" its views. As Frum put in in a post on his website, FrumForum, "Under the pressure of the current crisis -- intoxicated by anti-Obama feelings and incited by talk radio and Fox -- Republicans have staked out an extreme position on the role of government."
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 THE SEVEN BIGGEST ECONOMIC LIES (7 comments)
Demagogues through history have known that big lies, repeated often enough, start being believed -- unless they're rebutted. These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth -- and spread it on.
Saturday, October 8, 2011 The Wall Street Occupiers and the Democratic Party (5 comments)
The modern Democratic Party is not likely to embrace left-wing populism the way the GOP has embraced -- or, more accurately, been forced to embrace -- right-wing populism. Just follow the money, and remember history.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Follow the Money: Behind Europe's Debt Crisis Lurks Another Giant Bailout of Wall Street (9 comments)
Regulators still don't know what's happening on the Street. They have no clear picture of the derivatives exposure of giant U.S. financial institutions. Which is why Washington officials are terrified -- and why Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner keeps begging European officials to bail out Greece and the other deeply-indebted European nations.
Saturday, October 1, 2011 The American Jobs Depression, and How to Get Out of It (4 comments)
Any long-term strategy for rescuing the American economy must therefore seek to reverse the widening gap in income and wealth. It would be better for President Obama to assume that he will get no Republican support this year and next, and build his 2012 election campaign around a bold plan to revive jobs and the American middle class -- and end the American Jobs Depression.
Thursday, September 29, 2011 The Moral Question (2 comments)
We're in the worst economy since the Great Depression -- with lower-income families and kids are bearing the worst of it -- and what are Republicans doing? Cutting programs Americans desperately need to get through it.
Saturday, September 24, 2011 When Will Wall Street Call for More Federal Spending? (2 comments)
The crack in the Republican Party between its establishment and Tea Party wings is viewed politically as a contest between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. But in reality it's a brewing fight between economic pragmatists and right-wing ideologues.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 A Good Fight (5 comments)
The President has vowed to veto any plan to tame the debt that doesn't increase taxes on the rich. The Republicans have vowed to oppose any tax increases on the rich. It's a good fight to have.
Sunday, September 18, 2011 Taxing the Rich, the Obama Way (7 comments)
When the President refers to his new initiative to raise taxes on millionaires as the "Buffett rule" we might expect he'd start the bargaining from a tough position. But this is Barack Obama, whose idea of negotiating is to give away half the house before he's even asked the other side for the bathroom sink.
Saturday, September 17, 2011 The Election of 2012: Why the Most Important Issues May Be Off the Table (But Should Be On It) (4 comments)
The presidential race isn't the only one occurring in 2012. More than a third of Senate seats and every House seat will be decided on, as well as numerous governorships and state races. Making a ruckus about these issues could push some candidates in this direction -- particularly since, as polls show, much of the public agrees.
Friday, September 16, 2011 The Republican Weapon of Mass Cynicism (4 comments)
The GOP has pioneered new ways to circumvent campaign finance laws, blocked all attempts at reform, and appointed and confirmed Supreme Court justices who believe corporations have First Amendment rights to spend whatever they want to corrupt our politics.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 How to Create More Jobs By Lowering Wages: Texas and America (11 comments)
Conservative economists say Americans have priced themselves out of the global high-tech labor market. That's baloney. The productivity of American workers continues to soar. The problem is fewer and fewer Americans are sharing the gains. The ratio of corporate profits to wages is the highest it's been since before the Great Depression.
Monday, September 12, 2011 The Oddness of the President's Upcoming Deficit-Reduction Plan (2 comments)
If the President wants to show his creds on deficit reduction, at least put in a trigger that begins to lower the deficit only when unemployment falls to 6 percent. Our national crisis is joblessness and low wages, not the deficit.
Friday, September 9, 2011 Two Cheers and One Jeer for the American Jobs Act (2 comments)
Why did the President include so many tax cuts, and why didn't he make his proposal sufficiently large to make a real impact on jobs and growth? Because he crafted it in order to appeal to Republicans. To get it enacted, he needs their votes. The President would have done better with a plan that was big enough to make a real difference. And then, when Republicans rejected it, campaign on it.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 Tonight's Republican Debate: The 19th Century or the Stone Age? (1 comments)
Some Democrats are quietly rooting for Perry or Bachmann, on the theory that they're so extreme that they'll bolster Obama's chances for a second term and make it easier for congressional Democrats to scare Independents into voting for a Democratic House and maybe even Senate. I understand the logic but I'd rather not take the chance.
Sunday, September 4, 2011 Why Inequality is the Real Cause of Our Ongoing Terrible Economy (1 comments)
The rich are now being bitten by their own success. Those at the top would be better off with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy than a large share of one that's almost dead in the water.
Friday, September 2, 2011 The Zero Economy (1 comments)
Why don't Republicans get it? Either they're knaves--they want the economy to stay awful through next Election Day so Obama gets the boot. Or they're fools--they've bought the lie that reducing the deficit creates more jobs. Every time you hear anyone say we're "broke" or "can't afford to spend more," tell them we'll be in worse shape if we don't. If the economy remains dead, the ratio of public debt to GDP balloons.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 Obama's Jobs Plan: Will it be Policy Miniatures or Give em Hell? (3 comments)
At exactly the same time the President is laying out his jobs plan next Wednesday night, Republican presidential hopefuls will be holding their first big debate. The winner will be the one who comes off as the toughest fighter for average Americans. And the winner of the 2012 presidential election will be the person who comes off as the toughest fighter for average Americans.
Thursday, August 25, 2011 This Labor Day We Need Protest Marches Rather than Parades (4 comments)
Washington is paralyzed, the President seems unwilling or unable to take on labor-bashing Republicans, and several Republican governors are mounting direct assaults on organized labor. So let's bag the picnics and parades this Labor Day. American workers should march in protest. They're getting the worst deal they've had since before Labor Day was invented -- and the economy is suffering as a result.
Saturday, August 20, 2011 Stock Tip: Be Worried. Workers are Consumers. (2 comments)
We're slouching toward a double dip, and the stock market is imploding, because consumers -- whose spending is 70 percent of the economy -- have reached their limit.
Thursday, August 18, 2011 The President's Bold Jobs Bill (Maybe) (5 comments)
Faster growth means a more manageable debt in the long term. Which means the President could tie this (or any other jobs bill of similar magnitude) to an even more ambitious long-term debt-reduction plan than he's already proposed. A bold jobs bill is good politics and good policy.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 How Austerity Is Ushering in a Global Recession (4 comments)
When growth is slowing so dramatically and unemployment is already high, monetary policy can't possibly do it alone. Fiscal austerity is the wrong medicine at the wrong time.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Why the New Healthcare Law Should Have Been Based on Medicare (And What Democrats Should Have Learned By Now) (32 comments)
What do Obama and the Democrats do if the individual mandate in the new health-care law gets struck down by the Supreme Court? Immediately propose what they should have proposed right from the start -- universal health care based on Medicare for all, financed by payroll taxes. The public will be behind them, as will the courts.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 Why the President Doesn't Present a Bold Plan to Create Jobs and Jumpstart the Economy (6 comments)
he President is being badly advised. The magnitude of the current jobs and growth crisis demands a boldness and urgency that's utterly lacking. As the President continues to wallow in the quagmire of long-term debt reduction, Congress is on summer recess and the rest of Washington is asleep.
Monday, August 8, 2011 Slouching Toward a Double Dip, For No Good Reason (1 comments)
The most important aspect of policy making is getting the problem right. We are slouching toward a double dip because we're getting the problem wrong. Despite what Standard & Poor's says, notwithstanding what's occurring in Europe, and regardless of U.S. budget projections years from now -- our current crisis is jobs, wages, and growth. We do not now have a debt crisis.
Saturday, August 6, 2011 Why S&P Has No Business Downgrading the U.S. (23 comments)
Pardon me for asking, but who gave Standard & Poor's the authority to tell America how much debt it has to shed, and how? If we pay our bills, we're a good credit risk. If we don't, or aren't likely to, we're a bad credit risk. When, how, and by how much we bring down the long term debt--or, more accurately, the ratio of debt to GDP--is none of S&P's business.
Friday, August 5, 2011 The Republican's Double-Dip, and What Must Be Done (10 comments)
We need a bold jobs bill to restart the economy. Give employers tax credits for net new jobs. Extend unemployment insurance. Provide partial unemployment benefits to people who have lost part-time jobs. Start an infrastructure bank. The jobs bill should be number one on the nation's agenda. It should have been all along.
