If they want to tighten the economy, why not raise the Federal minimum wage so workers get more money rather than raise interest rates where the banks get more money?
We really need to stop pretending as if our officials and institutions make decisions for their publicly stated reason. The Fed and Federal Government do what rich lobbyists and companies want them to do. The "news" focuses on clicks and views, not accountability or truth. Elected officials do represent, but it's their wealthiest donors and whatever perspective will keep them in power that day. Education strives to inform, as long as it also indoctrinates. We're never going to rebuild based on truth unless we all stop holding onto and propping up the lies that got us here.
In some industries, the problem is a lack of qualified workers to fill the "good" jobs that are available. This is particularly true for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) jobs, and skilled tradesmen jobs (plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc.). We have plenty of talented people in this country who could qualify for these jobs with the proper training, but for some reason we are failing miserably to train them. Why isn't addressing this problem a priority for those in Washington (like the Department of Labor?).
Professor, When, a few days ago, I advocated for an Explainer-in-Chief, I did so with the understanding that we have but a small window to affect the mood of the country if, next fall, we’re to have a shot at retaining both the House and the Senate. As much as I, fellow subscribers, and your students benefit from your perceptive and accessible calls for public accountability for institutions that have a disproportionate amount of wealth, power, and influence, I would take heart from knowing you had a broader reach that actually could contribute to bridging the unseemly gap between those who own and control and those who do not.
Sorry, professor Reich, but no one in power is listening. Nothing will fix the economy until we clean out our political system. And you know what the chances of that happening are....
Agree with every fiber of my being. For me, the key next question is: What can we do? What action-oriented, practical thing can I do to help change this? (Other than sit and worry and think “we are all so f-ed?”
Wholeheartedly agree. However need to pitch in the additional corkscrew that training of the general population, both before & during their working years, in this country, to impolitely put it, "sucks."
I also lament the lack of a more traditional European educational model & the common, more thorough "training" of the general community as citizens in general with the addition of their higher cultural standards with higher regard for developing expertise in any category of work.
Harvey Graff who posted here brings up an interesting point for discussion: this idea that the phrase "the workers" is outdated. I respect the term in good measure due to its roots in the dissection of capitalism by Marx & Engels along with the 1930's generations that were willing to fight for exploration of these lines of thinking & support the construction of unions. However when I hear the term now I think of "worker bees" in a hive "subservient" to human "kings & queens." Think there is something to uncovering a less divisive & more power infusing term -- currently the classist implication of the term, while accurate, is backfiring . . .
The Fed has never understood the intersection of politics and economics. And it reflects historically the poverty of both fields in the modern American university and the polity. The UK, by contrast, has esp. at Oxford and Cambridge a distinguished major called PPE: Politics Philosophy Economics. More leading scholars, political and other leaders than you can count graduated from those programs. Our problems, as usual, are cultural, social, political and economic.
The Fed fails most Americans, not just the "workers." Pls let's talk about "almost" ALL AMERICANS. the language "the workers" largely expired after WWII and certainly by the 1950s. Even Bernie knows this.
On yesterday's thread about unions, I want to add: since the 1950s most (not all) US unions have hurt themselves by turning inward and overfocussing on $ for themselves and losing sight of their broader historical roles and losing interest not only in broader social and political issues but also in organizing their brothers and sisters. At this point, I'll before criticizing robert's and my fellow academics for our wholesale failures to help students and staff organize or to unionize ourselves in most states.
Your news letters are always so damn depressing because there is absolutely nothing more that I can personally do to change the direction this country has been going since Ronald Reagan was President. Corporate fascism is on our door step with its steal toed boot wedged against our ability to stop it.
I need a new car and was looking at maybe getting an actual “new” car for once. The quote ended up being +$5k over MSRP because the dealership knows there’s a shortage of new cars. They call it “market pricing”, not even trying to hide that they are jacking up the pricing because of supply bottlenecks and because they can.
I understand they’re selling fewer cars and making less profit which sucks for the individual dealership lenders, but why isn’t the CEO of Honda marching down to DC to demand a fix to the supply bottlenecks? (could it be: because it doesn’t affect their compensation?)
While I follow that inflation is being caused by worldwide bottlenecks and market concentration of big corporations, I do not follow why raising interest rates necessarily slows the economy. Is it simply that most people carry so much credit card debt, that any interest rate increase jumps their minimum monthly payments and they have even less money to buy the things they need? Or people with some money shift some of it into savings instead of having to put it by necessity into the stock market? If so, what does really say about the state of our economy to begin with. I'm no economist, and I certainly don't understand a lot of the nuances that are background for today's newsletter, but, as I've mentioned before, I haven't seen any basic improvement in the US economy or the well-being of our citizens since the late 70's. Sure, we have a lot more gadgets, but the basics like education, infrastructure, healthcare and other measures of our standard of living have not improved much, if at all, and in some cases, are worse for many of us. The economic meltdown and political fiascos of 2008 exposed it, and now the pandemic has shown how our economy does not work at all for our marginalized and poorer communities. Just my two cents here.
There is a reason that the birth rate is lowering. Young people are putting off having children until they get 'on their feet'. But the prize of a home is getting further from their reach.
We can’t be in an eternal super low interest rate either. The flip side is no money savings incentives. And retired people should be able to earn a little bit for their savings to help out. It seem, Robert Reich, you’re looking at the debt side. But what about savings? I’m sick and tired of earning 10 cents a month on thousands of dollars. People must have some incentive to save. Most people have the bulk of retirement funds in the stock market. That needs to change too.
I think part of what's behind what Dr. Reich describes as a "shortage of good jobs" is the changing of our technologies and the attempt to wean off those things relating to climate change. If we phase out use of fossil fuels, for example, that's a whole industry of jobs to be lost. COVID does contribute to the problem in many ways, but I think changing technologies is a larger, farther-reaching reason. Training people for jobs in these new technologies should be part of a "Green New Deal." Though I am retired, I feel overwhelmed just using this computer and the internet!
If they want to tighten the economy, why not raise the Federal minimum wage so workers get more money rather than raise interest rates where the banks get more money?
We really need to stop pretending as if our officials and institutions make decisions for their publicly stated reason. The Fed and Federal Government do what rich lobbyists and companies want them to do. The "news" focuses on clicks and views, not accountability or truth. Elected officials do represent, but it's their wealthiest donors and whatever perspective will keep them in power that day. Education strives to inform, as long as it also indoctrinates. We're never going to rebuild based on truth unless we all stop holding onto and propping up the lies that got us here.
In some industries, the problem is a lack of qualified workers to fill the "good" jobs that are available. This is particularly true for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) jobs, and skilled tradesmen jobs (plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc.). We have plenty of talented people in this country who could qualify for these jobs with the proper training, but for some reason we are failing miserably to train them. Why isn't addressing this problem a priority for those in Washington (like the Department of Labor?).
Professor, When, a few days ago, I advocated for an Explainer-in-Chief, I did so with the understanding that we have but a small window to affect the mood of the country if, next fall, we’re to have a shot at retaining both the House and the Senate. As much as I, fellow subscribers, and your students benefit from your perceptive and accessible calls for public accountability for institutions that have a disproportionate amount of wealth, power, and influence, I would take heart from knowing you had a broader reach that actually could contribute to bridging the unseemly gap between those who own and control and those who do not.
Sorry, professor Reich, but no one in power is listening. Nothing will fix the economy until we clean out our political system. And you know what the chances of that happening are....
You hit the nail on the head - but god forbid billionaire companies pay a decent living wage.
Agree with every fiber of my being. For me, the key next question is: What can we do? What action-oriented, practical thing can I do to help change this? (Other than sit and worry and think “we are all so f-ed?”
Wholeheartedly agree. However need to pitch in the additional corkscrew that training of the general population, both before & during their working years, in this country, to impolitely put it, "sucks."
I also lament the lack of a more traditional European educational model & the common, more thorough "training" of the general community as citizens in general with the addition of their higher cultural standards with higher regard for developing expertise in any category of work.
Harvey Graff who posted here brings up an interesting point for discussion: this idea that the phrase "the workers" is outdated. I respect the term in good measure due to its roots in the dissection of capitalism by Marx & Engels along with the 1930's generations that were willing to fight for exploration of these lines of thinking & support the construction of unions. However when I hear the term now I think of "worker bees" in a hive "subservient" to human "kings & queens." Think there is something to uncovering a less divisive & more power infusing term -- currently the classist implication of the term, while accurate, is backfiring . . .
The Fed has never understood the intersection of politics and economics. And it reflects historically the poverty of both fields in the modern American university and the polity. The UK, by contrast, has esp. at Oxford and Cambridge a distinguished major called PPE: Politics Philosophy Economics. More leading scholars, political and other leaders than you can count graduated from those programs. Our problems, as usual, are cultural, social, political and economic.
The Fed fails most Americans, not just the "workers." Pls let's talk about "almost" ALL AMERICANS. the language "the workers" largely expired after WWII and certainly by the 1950s. Even Bernie knows this.
On yesterday's thread about unions, I want to add: since the 1950s most (not all) US unions have hurt themselves by turning inward and overfocussing on $ for themselves and losing sight of their broader historical roles and losing interest not only in broader social and political issues but also in organizing their brothers and sisters. At this point, I'll before criticizing robert's and my fellow academics for our wholesale failures to help students and staff organize or to unionize ourselves in most states.
Your news letters are always so damn depressing because there is absolutely nothing more that I can personally do to change the direction this country has been going since Ronald Reagan was President. Corporate fascism is on our door step with its steal toed boot wedged against our ability to stop it.
I need a new car and was looking at maybe getting an actual “new” car for once. The quote ended up being +$5k over MSRP because the dealership knows there’s a shortage of new cars. They call it “market pricing”, not even trying to hide that they are jacking up the pricing because of supply bottlenecks and because they can.
I understand they’re selling fewer cars and making less profit which sucks for the individual dealership lenders, but why isn’t the CEO of Honda marching down to DC to demand a fix to the supply bottlenecks? (could it be: because it doesn’t affect their compensation?)
While I follow that inflation is being caused by worldwide bottlenecks and market concentration of big corporations, I do not follow why raising interest rates necessarily slows the economy. Is it simply that most people carry so much credit card debt, that any interest rate increase jumps their minimum monthly payments and they have even less money to buy the things they need? Or people with some money shift some of it into savings instead of having to put it by necessity into the stock market? If so, what does really say about the state of our economy to begin with. I'm no economist, and I certainly don't understand a lot of the nuances that are background for today's newsletter, but, as I've mentioned before, I haven't seen any basic improvement in the US economy or the well-being of our citizens since the late 70's. Sure, we have a lot more gadgets, but the basics like education, infrastructure, healthcare and other measures of our standard of living have not improved much, if at all, and in some cases, are worse for many of us. The economic meltdown and political fiascos of 2008 exposed it, and now the pandemic has shown how our economy does not work at all for our marginalized and poorer communities. Just my two cents here.
There is a reason that the birth rate is lowering. Young people are putting off having children until they get 'on their feet'. But the prize of a home is getting further from their reach.
The biggest problem is that corporations and executives owning politicians. End Citizens United and get money out of politics.
We can’t be in an eternal super low interest rate either. The flip side is no money savings incentives. And retired people should be able to earn a little bit for their savings to help out. It seem, Robert Reich, you’re looking at the debt side. But what about savings? I’m sick and tired of earning 10 cents a month on thousands of dollars. People must have some incentive to save. Most people have the bulk of retirement funds in the stock market. That needs to change too.
I think part of what's behind what Dr. Reich describes as a "shortage of good jobs" is the changing of our technologies and the attempt to wean off those things relating to climate change. If we phase out use of fossil fuels, for example, that's a whole industry of jobs to be lost. COVID does contribute to the problem in many ways, but I think changing technologies is a larger, farther-reaching reason. Training people for jobs in these new technologies should be part of a "Green New Deal." Though I am retired, I feel overwhelmed just using this computer and the internet!