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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. His website can be found here and his blog can be found here.

Recent Articles

Kushner's Unconscionable Conflicts

Robert ReichMar 06, 2018
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
AP Photo/Alex Brandon President Donald Trump speaks with White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner as he departs the East Room of the White House B efore I turn to Jared Kushner, let me ask: Do you believe the U.S. government does the right thing all or most of the time? The Gallup organization started asking this question in 1963, when over 70 percent of Americans said they did. Since then, the percent has steadily declined. By 2016, before Trump became president, only 16 percent of Americans agreed. Why the decline? Surely various disappointments and scandals played a part—Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra, “weapons of mass destruction,” the Wall Street bailout. But the largest factor by far has been the rise of big money in politics. Most people no longer believe their voices count. That view is backed by solid research. Princeton professor Martin Gilens and Professor Benjamin Page of Northwestern University analyzed 1,799 policy issues that came before Congress, and found “the...

The Moral Movement Against Violence

Robert ReichFeb 27, 2018
AP Photo/David Goldman Representative John Lewis addresses a rally protesting the National Rifle Association's annual convention a few blocks away in Atlanta J oin the Ku Klux Klan and get 10 percent off on your next Fed Ex shipment! Okay, the National Rifle Association isn’t quite the Klan. But it’s getting closer. For years, big corporations had welcomed the opportunity to accumulate more customers by giving discounts to NRA members, even if they pack assault rifles. Yet in the aftermath of the shootings in Parkland, Florida, and the activism of high school students, corporations are bailing out of their deals with the NRA. As we’ve seen with the corporate firings of sleazebag movie moguls and predatory television personalities, nothing concentrates the minds of CEOs like a moral protest that’s gaining traction. As I said, the NRA isn’t the Klan, but since Trump became president it’s behaved like a subsidiary of the alt-right. At last week’s CPAC conference, NRA president Wayne...

The Meaning of America

Robert ReichFeb 20, 2018
Alex Edelman/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
Alex Edelman/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images Supporters hold campaign signs during a Make American Great Rally at Atlantic Aviation in Moon Township, Pennsylvania W hen Trump and his followers refer to “America,” what do they mean? Some see a country of white English-speaking Christians. Others want a land inhabited by self-seeking individuals free to accumulate as much money and power as possible, who pay taxes only to protect their assets from criminals and foreign aggressors. Others think mainly about flags, national anthems, pledges of allegiance, military parades, and secure borders. Trump encourages a combination of all three—tribalism, libertarianism, and loyalty. But the core of our national identity has not been any of this. It has been found in the ideals we share—political equality, equal opportunity, freedom of speech and of the press, a dedication to open inquiry and truth, and to democracy and the rule of law. We are not a race. We are not a creed. We are a conviction –...

Trump’s Big Buyback Bamboozle

Robert ReichFeb 13, 2018
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
AP Photo/Evan Vucci President Donald Trump walks to the Oval Office T rump’s promise that corporations will use his giant new tax cut to make new investments and raise workers’ wages is proving to be about as truthful as his promise to release his tax returns. The results are coming in, and guess what? Almost all the extra money is going into stock buybacks. Since the tax cut became law, buy-backs have surged to $88.6 billion. That’s more than double the amount of buybacks in the same period last year, according to data provided by Birinyi Associates. Compare this to the paltry $2.5 billion of employee bonuses corporations say they’ll dispense in response to the tax law, and you see the bonuses for what they are—a small fig leaf to disguise the big buybacks. If anything, the current tumult in the stock market will fuel even more buybacks. Stock buybacks are corporate purchases of their own shares of stock. Corporations do this to artificially prop up their share prices. Buybacks are...

Trump's Divide-and-Conquer Strategy

Robert ReichFeb 06, 2018
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
AP Photo/Evan Vucci President Donald Trump talking with reporters in the Oval Office I f Robert Mueller finds that Trump colluded with Russia to fix the 2016 election, or even if Trump fires Mueller before he makes such a finding, Trump’s supporters will protect Trump from any political fallout. Trump’s base will stand by him not because they believe Trump is on their side, but because they define themselves as being on his side. Trump has intentionally cleaved America into two warring camps: pro-Trump and anti-Trump. And he has convinced the pro-Trumps that his enemy is their enemy. Most Americans are not passionate conservatives or liberals, Republicans or Democrats. But they have become impassioned Trump supporters or Trump haters. Polls say 37 percent of Americans approve of him, and most disapprove. These numbers are the tips of two vast icebergs of intensity. Trump has forced all of us to take sides, and to despise those on the other. There’s no middle ground. The Republican...

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