Maybe it’s wishful thinking to declare the pandemic over in the US, and presumptuous to conclude what lessons we’ve learned from it. So consider this list is a first draft. Continue reading
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Author Archives: Robert Reich
The secret tax loophole making the rich even richer
How do we prevent America from becoming an aristocracy, while also funding the programs that Americans desperately need? Continue reading
Democrats are running out of time
The political window of opportunity for Joe Biden and Democrats to deliver on their promises to the American people and pass the legislation the country needs, could close at any time. Continue reading
We cannot afford to forget the death and damage Trump has caused
Trump's big lie and all that it has provoked are still with us. If we forget what has occurred the trauma will return, perhaps in even more terrifying form.
America prefers to look forward rather than back. We’re a land of second acts. We move on. Continue reading
The Republican rebrand, exposed
The Republican Party is trying to rebrand itself as the party of the working class. Continue reading
Biden’s first 100 days and the GOP’s first 100 days without Trump
By almost any measure, Joe Biden’s first 100 days have been hugely successful. Getting millions of Americans inoculated against COVID-19 and beginning to revive the economy are central to that success. Continue reading
How to stop Republicans from stealing elections
Republican-controlled state legislatures have introduced over 361 voter suppression bills in 47 states, and some states, like Georgia, have already enacted them into law. Continue reading
Musk’s and Bezos’s great escape
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos want to colonize outer space to save humanity, but they couldn’t care less about protecting the rights of workers here on earth. Continue reading
The basic deal between Corporate America and the GOP is alive and well
For four decades, the basic deal between big American corporations and politicians has been simple. Corporations provide campaign funds. Politicians reciprocate by lowering corporate taxes and doing whatever else corporations need to boost profits. Continue reading
Biden’s industrial policy
America is about to revive an idea that was left for dead decades ago. It’s called industrial policy, and it’s at the heart of Joe Biden’s plans to restructure the U.S. economy. Continue reading
Mr. Fix-It
Joe Biden is embarking on the biggest government initiative in more than a half century, “unlike anything we have seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades go,” he says. Continue reading
The freedom to freeze
Texas’s prevailing social Darwinism was expressed most succinctly last week by the mayor of Colorado City, who accused his constituents—trapped in near sub-zero temperatures and complaining about lack of heat, electricity, and drinkable water—of being the “lazy” products of a “socialist government,” adding “I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!” and predicting “only the strong will survive and the weak will perish.” Continue reading
Unrigging the GOP’s minority rule
The Republican Party is shrinking. It’s lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight Presidential elections. Since Trump’s attempted coup, more Americans are abandoning it every day. Continue reading
No compromising with the GOP cult
I keep hearing that Joe Biden has to govern from the “center.” He has no choice, they say, because he has razor-thin majorities in Congress and the Republican Party has moved to the right. Continue reading
Trump is history. It’s Joe Biden who’s changing America
While most of official Washington has been consumed with the Senate impeachment trial, another part of Washington is preparing the most far-ranging changes in American social policy in a generation. Continue reading
Cancel perks for the worst US president in history
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? Continue reading
Biden must not surrender
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. Continue reading
The sedition that nobody’s talking about
The sudden lurch from Trump to Biden is generating vertigo all over Washington, including the so-called fourth branch of government—CEOs and their army of lobbyists. Continue reading
CEOs’ newfound concern for democracy is bunk
The sudden lurch from Trump to Biden is generating vertigo all over Washington, including the so-called fourth branch of government—CEOs and their army of lobbyists. Continue reading
10 bold moves Biden can make without Congress
We did it. We took control of the Senate from Mitch McConnell. Even so, Republicans may still be able to block key parts of Joe Biden’s agenda. But there are plenty of critical policies he can and must enact without them. Continue reading
Why Biden can’t govern from the center
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. Continue reading
Accountability for the attempted coup
Call me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup. Continue reading
Good riddance to a terrible year
About the only good thing that can be said about 2020 is that it’s over. It was an annus horribilis. Continue reading
Trump’s vilest legacy
Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to reelect Donald Trump—46.8 percent of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election—don’t hold Trump accountable for what he’s done to America. Continue reading
Trickle-down economics doesn’t work but build-up does—is Biden listening?
How should the huge financial costs of the pandemic be paid for, as well as the other deferred needs of society after this annus horribilis? Continue reading
Bezos, McConnell, and COVID capitalism
As a former secretary of labor, I often receive mail from workers with job complaints, who apparently believe I still have some authority. But the email I received a few days ago from a worker at Amazon’s Whole Foods delivery warehouse in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York, was particularly distressing. Continue reading
Joe Biden’s biggest challenge
“Life is going to return to normal,” Joe Biden promised in a recent address to the nation. He was talking about life after COVID, but he might as well have been making a promise about life after Trump. Continue reading
Biden says he’ll take on inequality. Good! You need to hold him to it
“It’s time we address the structural inequalities in our economy that the pandemic has laid bare,” President-elect Joe Biden said last week, as he introduced his economic team. Continue reading
Trump’s final days: Who stood up to him?
We always knew Trump would contest the election results. He’s spreading wilder and wilder conspiracy theories about non-existent voter fraud. Of course, these claims haven’t held up in court because there’s zero evidence. But the integrity of thousands of people responsible for maintaining American democracy is being tested as never before. Continue reading
The dangerous seduction of “going back to normal”
“Life is going to return to normal,” Joe Biden promised Thursday in a Thanksgiving address to the nation. He was talking about life after Covid-13, but you could be forgiven if you thought he was also making a promise about life after Trump. Continue reading
How Mitch McConnell’s do-nothing Republicans are killing you
The Senate adjourned and left town without even trying to pass a COVID disaster relief bill. By the time they return today, based on current trends, an additional estimated 16,000 Americans will have died from COVID-19. Continue reading
The danger of collective amnesia
Posted on May 27, 2021 by Robert Reich
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 do, we’re inviting greater tragedies in the future. Continue reading →