NEWS
February 22, 2013
If Robert Reich is looking for "baloney" in the debate over minimum wage hikes, he should start with his recent commentary in The Sun ("The minimum wage and the meaning of a decent society," Feb. 20). Contrary to Mr. Reich's claim, the academic and economic consensus that wage hikes lead to job losses is overwhelming and based on far more than just vague claims. A nonpartisan review conducted by David Neumark (UC-Irvine) and William Wascher (Federal Reserve) concluded that 85 percent of credible economic studies on minimum wage increases from the last two decades point to job loss following a wage hike.
NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | June 6, 2012
However one looks at last Friday's jobs report, it's a stunning reminder of how anemic the recovery has been -- and how perilously close America is to falling into another recession. Not only has the unemployment rate risen for the first time in almost a year, to 8.2 percent, but, more ominously, May's payroll survey showed that employers created only 69,000 net new jobs. The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised its March and April reports downward. Only 96,000 new jobs have been created, on average, over the last three months.
NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | February 19, 2014
America has a serious "we" problem -- as in, "Why should we pay for them ?" The question is popping up all over the place. It underlies the debate over extending unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed and providing food stamps to the poor. It's found in the resistance of some young and healthy people to being required to buy health insurance in order to help pay for people with pre-existing health problems. It can be heard among the residents of upscale neighborhoods who don't want their tax dollars going to the inhabitants of poorer neighborhoods nearby.
NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | May 16, 2012
Some want the 2012 election to be about regulating America's bedrooms. But it really ought to be about regulating the nation's boardrooms. The bedroom regulators are on the move. Republicans don't want same-sex marriage. Mitt Romney says he's against it, as are the voters of North Carolina, who just approved a Republican-proposed amendment to the state constitution banning it. Twenty-nine other states have similar bans. President Barack Obama supports same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, Republicans have introduced more than 400 bills in state legislatures banning abortions, requiring women seeking abortions to have invasive ultrasound tests beforehand, and limiting the use of contraceptives.
NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | June 3, 2014
I spent several days in New York last week with students from around the country who were preparing to head into the heartland to help organize Walmart workers for better jobs and wages. (Full familial disclosure: My son Adam is one of the leaders.) Almost exactly 50 years ago, a similar group headed to Mississippi to register African-Americans to vote, in what came to be known as Freedom Summer. Call this Freedom Summer II. The current struggle of low-wage workers across America echoes the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | November 7, 2012
The vitriol is worse than I ever recall. Worse than the Palin-induced smarm of 2008. Worse than the Swift-boat lies of 2004. Worse, even, than the anything-goes craziness of 2000 and its ensuing bitterness. It's almost a civil war. I know families in which close relatives are no longer speaking. A dating service says Democrats won't even consider going out with Republicans, and vice versa. My email and Twitter feeds contain messages from strangers I wouldn't share with my granddaughter.