Robert Reich

Professor Robert Reich

Robert B. Reich (born June 24, 1946) is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three U.S. presidential administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written numerous books, including The Work of Nations; best-sellers Aftershock and Saving Capitalism; and most recently The Common Good. His commentary has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Reich is a co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, where he writes weekly articles. He also contributes to the economic radio program Marketplace.

News and Controversy

Criticisms of Trump

Reich has been a frequent critic of Donald Trump, calling him an "authoritarian", a "sociopath", and "a clear and present danger to us all". He has also accused Trump of failing to uphold his "fundamental responsibility... to protect our system of government" and undermining the "core values of our democracy".

Reich has also called for Trump's impeachment several times, beginning fewer than three months after he assumed office in 2017.

He has also criticized the economy under Trump, calling the stock market gains following the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act a "sugar high" and worrying Trump's China tariffs "could put us into a recession". Despite strong economic growth and unemployment numbers during much of Trump's first term, Reich has pointed out, "almost 80% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck", "the costs of education, childcare, housing, and healthcare are soaring", and many Americans face hurdles such as stuck wages, being stuck in part-time employment, and being overqualified for their jobs. Reich also mocked Trump's National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow in an MSNBC interview, claiming he had made "quite a lot of money" from betting on the opposite outcome of Kudlow's economic predictions.

Inequality Media

In 2014, Reich co-founded Inequality Media, which he described as "a kind of institution that would enable us to do videos and frame the issues correctly, get the right information, understand public policies, understand politics." Reich hoped to create videos to counteract the trend of lies and misleading statements, saying "There is so much mythology... false statements... so much confusion that people want and desperately need to know the truth." He hopes to use this video platform to "inform and engage the public about the realities and impacts of inequality and imbalance of power in America."

As of September 2019, Inequality Media has produced over 200 videos, about half focused on understanding the economy and democracy. Reich has also interviewed progressive politicians Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren on this channel.

Theater Production

In 2005, Reich released a political satire play called Public Exposure, which featured a rightwing talk show host as the main character.

Tobacco Issues

On March 25, 1994, as U.S. Secretary of Labor, Reich proposed that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enact sweeping rules to dramatically improve the quality of indoor air for American workers, including reducing workers' exposure to secondhand smoke on the job.

The indoor air quality provisions of the proposed rule were to apply to over 4-1/2 million work sites, and the environmental tobacco smoke provisions of this proposed rule would have applied to the over 6 million work sites that are under OSHA's jurisdiction. The proposal would require affected employers to develop and implement indoor air quality compliance plans which would include measures such as inspection and maintenance. For buildings where smoking was not already prohibited by employers or by local requirements, the proposal would require designated smoking areas which are separate and which have outside exhaust systems. The rules were proposed to protect America's working men and women from heart disease,lung cancer,pulmonary tract infections and countless other diseases and illnesses all linked to poor indoor air quality and environmental tobacco smoke, according to the transcript of the press conference where the rules were announced.[1]

The tobacco industry immediately started organizing opposition to Occupational Safety and Health Administration provisions to regulate environmental tobacco smoke.[2]

Education

• B.A. Dartmouth College, summa cum laude
• M.A. in politics, economics and philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar
• J.D. from Yale Law School, editor of Yale Law Journal, classmates with Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Clarence Thomas

Career

Reich has been a faculty member at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and at Brandeis University.

• Founder or Advisor, Campaign for America's Future
• National Advisory Board, Roosevelt Institution
• Director, Center for Progressive Leadership
• Editorial Committee, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
• Advisory Board, Truthout

As the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor, Reich implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act, led a national fight against sweatshops in the U.S. and illegal child labor around the world, headed the administration’s successful effort to raise the minimum wage, secured worker’s pensions, and launched job-training programs, one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives. Under his leadership, the Department of Labor won more than 30 awards for innovation. A 1996 poll of cabinet experts conducted by the Hearst newspapers rated him the most effective cabinet secretary during the Clinton administration.

Criticism

From the Hoover Institution

Members of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace have criticized Reich's book Saving Capitalism and a written article in Salon, where he called for higher wages.

Other

In Harvard Business Review, Reich's book Supercapitalism met criticism for its assertion that the government, rather than corporations, should be responsible for solving social problems.

Books

• The Common Good(2018, Knopf Publishing Group) ISBN 052552049X
• Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few(2015, Knopf) ISBN 0385350570
• Inequality for All(2013, Vintage) ISBN 0345807227
• Beyond Outrage: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it(2012, Knopf) ISBN 0307961826
• Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future(2010, Knopf) ISBN 0307592812
• Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life(2007, Knopf) ISBN 0307265617
• Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America(2004, Vintage) ISBN 1400076609
• I'll Be Short: Essentials for a Decent Working Society(2002, Beacon Press) ISBN 0807043419
• The Future of Success: Working and Living in the New Economy(2002, Vintage) ISBN 0375725121
• The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism(1991, Vintage) ISBN 0679736158
• The Resurgent Liberal and Other Unfashionable Prophecies(1989, Vintage) ISBN 0679731520
• Tales of a New America(1987, Vintage) ISBN 0812916247
• The Next American Frontier(1983, Crown) ISBN 0812910672

Awards

In 2003, Reich was awarded the Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97 Prize for his pioneering work in economic and social thought.

In 2008, Time Magazine named Reich among its "Top 10 Best Cabinet Members".

Contact Information

Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, U.C. Berkeley
Phone (Assistant Aarin Walker): (510) 642-0560
Website: robertreich.org
Facebook: /RBReich
Twitter: @RBReich

Resources and articles

External links

• Inequality Media website