Robert Reich

March 13, 2023 – On Friday, bank regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California. Its failure was the second largest in U.S. history and the largest since the financial crisis of 2008. On Sunday, regulators closed New York-based Signature Bank. As they rushed to contain fallout, officials at the Federal Reserve, Treasury, […]

Cheney lost yesterday’s primary to Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, who received 65.8 percent of the vote to Cheney’s 29.5 percent. The Trump Republican Party continues its purge of honest Republican lawmakers who refuse to go along with Trump’s Big Lie — the most dangerous lie in American history in terms of its consequences for Americans’ confidence […]

What rights will be stripped away next? Contraception. Same-sex marriage. Consensual same-sex sexual activity. Clarence Thomas said it himself: the Supreme Court is coming for your right to privacy. www.robertreich.org

May 11 2022 – These Senators just voted against abortion rights. And they’re all up for re-election in 2022. Robert Reich’s writes at robertreich.substack.com. His latest book is “THE SYSTEM: Who Rigged It, How To Fix It.” He is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at […]

Your life could get a lot more dangerous. Republican appointees on the Supreme Court seem poised to strip away basic safety standards for our workplaces, our food, our air and water. Congress gives federal agencies the authority to enact regulations that protect us in our daily lives. Congress defines the goals, but leaves it up […]

Members of Congress use privileged information to make money on the stock market, while they’re supposed to be working for you. Make no mistake, it’s legalized corruption. There’s no good reason for elected officials to trade individual stocks at all. Unless you have special insider knowledge, buying and selling individual stocks is a terrible way to get […]

October 19, 2021 – Excuse me but I have to vent. Three House Democrats and one Democratic senator are now blocking a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Medicare is such a big purchaser of drugs that it has the bargaining leverage to cut drug prices for everyone — if allowed to do so. […]

October 8, 2021 – The U.S. added just 194,000 jobs in September, down from the 366,000 added in August and far below the million-plus in July (before the Delta variant took hold). This is being described in the media as a disappointment or a problem, but a closer look reveals something quite different.  We’re still […]

Remember when Jeff Bezos was showered with praise for donating $100 million to food banks last year? That may seem like a lot, and it is. But once you consider all that Bezos has raked in during the pandemic – including making $13 billion in a single day in 2020 – it’s a few hours […]

As the highly contagious Delta variant surges, public health officials are trying to keep the focus on the urgent need for more vaccinations. But with increasing vehemence, Trump Republicans are falling back on their old game of deflecting attention by blaming immigrants crossing the southern border. Last week, Trump issued a characteristic charge: “ICYMI: “Thousands of COVID-positive migrants […]

At the risk of being the skunk at the picnic, I feel compelled to warn you that if we forget and move on from the tragedies of this past year, we’re setting ourselves on a dangerous path. Of course I understand the desire to forget all the unpleasantness and start a new chapter. But if we […]

April 6, 2021 – The most dramatic change in the system over the last half-century has been the emergence of corporate giants like Amazon and the shrinkage of labor unions. The resulting power imbalance has spawned near-record inequalities of income and wealth, corruption of democracy by big money, and the abandonment of the working class. […]

March 15, 2021 – A quarter century ago, I and other members of Bill Clinton’s cabinet urged him to reject the Republican’s proposal to end welfare. It was too punitive, we said, subjecting poor Americans to deep and abiding poverty. But Clinton’s political advisers warned that unless he went along, he jeopardized his reelection. That […]

February 10, 2021 – How should the nation respond to an ex-president who has incited an insurrection, brought our democracy to the brink of destruction, and left so much pain and suffering in his wake? In addition to being convicted in the Senate, which could bar him from running for office again, he shouldn’t be […]

February 3, 2021 – Ten Senate Republican have proposed a COVID relief bill of about $600 billion. That’s less than a third of Biden’s plan. They promise “bipartisan support” if he agrees. Their proposal isn’t a compromise. It would be a total surrender. It trims direct payments and unemployment aid that Americans desperately need. Biden […]

I keep hearing that Joe Biden will govern from the “center.” He has no choice, they say, because he’ll have razor-thin majorities in Congress and the Republican party has moved to the right. Rubbish. I’ve served several Democratic presidents who have needed Republican votes. But the Republicans now in Congress are nothing like those I’ve […]