A dark cloud of illegitimacy hangs over the pending presidency of Donald Trump. Consider:
- The CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the election in order to help Trump become president....
- Trump has close business ties to Russian oligarchs, friends of Putin, who have financed his projects and, presumably, also lent billions of dollars to Trump’s enterprises – which may explain why Trump won’t disclose his tax returns, which would show evidence of these deals.
- Several of Trump’s key campaign aides – including his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort – have close ties to Russia....
- During the campaign, Trump said he admired Putin, questioned whether the U.S. should continue to support NATO, and argued that Putin was justified in moving into Crimea.…
- Trump is expected to pick as his Secretary of State ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who is also close to Putin.…
- Trump was defeated in the actual voting by a startling—and still growing—2,676,670 votes.
The dark cloud of illegitimacy continues to grow darker....
Before the Electors submit their ballots for president next week, Trump must release his tax returns and the CIA must make public its report on Russia’s intervention in the U.S. elections in support of Trump.
But Reich has no intention of bludgeoning his audience with bleak statistics and grim predictions. “As you can see, the economy has worn me down,” says the 4-foot-11-inch Reich, pausing as laughter spreads across the room. “Really, before the Great Recession I was, you know, 6 foot 2.”
Moments earlier, when I met Reich in an empty banquet room and asked if he preferred to be called “Professor” or “Bob,” he answered in a deadpan voice: “‘Your Highness.’” I had traveled from Los Angeles to trail Reich for a couple of days to better understand the man who has become at once the most visible, and most entertaining, critic of the nation’s unequal economy.
In an era dominated by polarizing blowhard commentators, Reich is an anomaly: The avuncular scholar who prefers to disarm rather than denigrate.…Reich's core message is:
“Anybody who thinks that the answer is found in policy has not been paying attention,” he said, revealing a major shift in thinking for a man who has championed his share of policy prescriptions. “Good policies are a dime a dozen. The real issue now is a matter of power. How in the world do you get good policies enacted and enforced?”Moyers & Co
This past Sunday, Stirling Newberry noted that the latest New York Review of Books includes a review by Paul Krugman of Robert Reich’s new book, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few. It is an excellent review of what promises to be a seminal book on crucial issues of political economy. Remarkably, Krugman review is entitled, simply, Challenging the Oligarchy. Read on if you’re wondering why that title is so remarkable.
Both Reich and Krugman are generally regarded as liberal stalwarts, but the fact is that both were dangerously neo-liberal in their beliefs in the 1990s and early 2000s. I think the multiple failures of the Dubya administration, especially the 2007-2008 financial crash, caused them to rethink some basic beliefs and assumptions. But what especially forced them to rethink their economics was the brutal and shameless way Bush and the neo-cons used their political power to drive us into the Iraq War. They seemed to have had nagging doubts regarding the issue of how political power impacts economics, but by the end of the Bush Jr. regime, both Reich and Krugman were openly discussing how political power was shaping economic results.…real economics
Now we have to point out that there is a wee problem with Reich’s list, which is that the tacit assumption is rising income disparity is primarily the result of American workers being insufficiently productive by world standards. This chart shows what has really happened....
The big culprit is that companies no longer share the benefits of productivity gains with workers....
Now you can say that Reich does acknowledge that problem; for instance, he speaks of how companies don’t see their fate as linked to that of worker, and he derides their rampant short-termism. But his policy remedies tell you what problems he’s trying to fix, as opposed to give lip service to. His proposals are simply way too milquetoast to address the huge power imbalance between workers and corporations. If you are going to talk pie in the sky ideas like child care for all and free or close to free college education, something like Randy Wray’s job guarantee is much more on target.
But more important, did you notice what is missing from Reich’s list? Trade policy. Reich is explicit that he believes that Americans can’t fight the march of more globalization.Naked Capitalism
A small group of extremely wealthy people are systematically destroying the US government.AlterNet
| "As long as the rest of the world is willing to lend us their savings so cheaply, we'd be wise to use it to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and our schools and parks - and thereby put more Americans back to work - rather try to cut the deficit too much and too soon." |
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