I see this dynamic the same as it was during the Bush years. Then I felt the mantra for the GOP was, “No CEO left behind.”
But now the situation is even worse, with Trump, and all manner of manufactured hatred as cover while the new GOP mantra is, “Move all the money to us!“
They’ve just managed to create yet another cruel method of extraction: phantom inflation in need of no cure, but the Fed will raise rates anyway to choke a flush economy in mid stride.
Part of the problem is that we have a country full of people who have no idea what is going on with corporate greed. They blame Biden for the increase in food prices and everything else. As long as people are willing to pay high prices, the prices will go up. I watch people at the grocery still buying potato chips, sodas, candy, sugar loaded cereal...things that are not necessary and are extremely overpriced. I would love to see what would happen if everyone stopped buying these items. The prices would go down. But no one listens or understands. I could go on and on but my blood pressure rises and as an older person, probably not a good idea. I don't see much hope for change. I would like to think things will get better but I don't see any evidence of people getting any smarter.
Education. We need to educate the voting (and especially future-voting) public on how the today's financial system works. I do appreciate the suggestions of not allowing monopolies and obvious price gauging, but those are just band-aids and can be easily manipulated to sound like government over-reach. What's really needed is to change the Corporate law to benefit the public as well as the shareholders. And to change the law, we need the voting public to elect reps that will indeed help the public. That's why we need to educate people. Unfortunately, we keep on sidestepping great teaching opportunities. For example, how many people really understand what happened leading up to 2008 crash? That affected a majority of the world's population, and yet, not many understand why it happened...other than blaming borrowers who couldn't afford their homes. I wish I had the money to blast the TV channels with infomercials explaining to people what happened.
Mr. Robert Reich, and others, please checkout what DeJoy and the USPS have done to the wages of Rural mail carriers in this country. They have butchered the pay of over 80,000 (66%) rural carriers. Blaming it on the reduction of mail volumes. How many in needless management positions, making over $100K, that rarely touch a piece of mail took a pay cut....... NONE HAVE.
Fix inflation with fewer jobs and lower wages? This is infuriating. Just who then will be the ones without jobs? And the ones trying to subsist on lower wages?
I’m sure it won’t be the CEOs. It’ll be poor people of course. It’s always the poor who suffer because they don’t have any power.
I used to be what would be considered upper middle class. We had a home, a401K, savings and good credit. My husband worked in
advertising. When the recession hit in 2008, advertising was hit hard. Advertising was like the canary in the mine, it was always the first to go.
My husband worked freelance so we no longer qualified for group insurance. We had COBRA for two years but when that ran out we had to get private insurance. It’s the same insurance as employee insurance, same coverage, same deductibles, but it cost quite a bit more. $5500 per month for our family of three.
We didn’t live a lavish life, we went on maybe three vacations ever before the recession.
We bought cars that were used, his was two years old, mine had only 2500 miles, it was repossessed. I’m still driving his car, a 1995 BMW, (the little one.) My Jeep, was a 1997, but the transmission collapsed a couple of years ago, fortunately I have my husband’s car. My husband died 8 years ago.
After years of paying inflated insurance premiums, which came out of our savings, then our 401K, we sold our house. We had some equity but it went to insurance. Our insurance was almost twice our mortgage. When we tried to cut costs we never even considered dropping our insurance it was a must have. We did drop my husbands life insurance because it was more important to keep him alive than to make sure my daughter and I were provided for.
Anyhow, now we are poor. We were homeless but we were fortunate to have friends that let us sleep at their house. Days were weird we didn’t want to impose on the people who let us stay in their homes so we’d go out having nowhere to go. There was that feeling of not belonging anywhere, just trying to let the day pass without breaking down.
We finally got an apartment with help from a local agency. I have Social Security and my daughter gets survivors benefits, she is autistic. Combined income we just get through the month. I’m grateful for that income but now I fear we may lose it even though we paid for it for over 40 years.
We are living on the edge. We are one emergency from a financial disaster. If our Social Security is delayed or cut, we won’t make it. If the car breaks down, I can’t afford to get it fixed. There is no wiggle room for us. And we aren’t alone. Our neighborhood is primarily made up of poor people. So what I want to know is this: How is making the poor poorer going to combat inflation? We don’t spend any money that we don’t have to, and what we have isn’t all that much, so how are we driving up prices?
But thank god trump gave the ultra wealthy and their corporations tax breaks.
You have done an incredible job of explaining to the world all the factors which have contributed to the mess we are in now. I am so grateful that you have shared your knowledge via your 14-week class and through these sub-stack articles. You are an American HERO! Thank you!
I especially like the direction of THIS article because it invigorates the urgency of our situation.
1. You spell out the solution almost step-by-step for how to arrive at the desired outcome.
2. Yes, it would be nice to have to have a voting populace that prized truth over the garbage that the Trump / Fox system spews, but that doesn't seem to be happening spontaneously.
3. Even my many friends, colleagues and family (who are fervently NOT in the Trump camp) are not willing to spend the time educating themselves at the level of detail available from Robert Reich.
4. Americans (in general) either don't have the bandwidth or aren't willing to take the time to understand our predicament, its causes and the solution.
5. Therefore, I believe the target audience for this message in all its detail must be the current administration.
Do these same price-gouging corporations funnel a bit of their extra profit to the reelection campaigns of political parties and candidates so those (their?) politicians will blame inflation on the usual suspects of supply-chain issues and energy costs? How do we expose this truth? That's the proverbial dog biting the hand that feeds it! Would enacting 'Citizens United' make all this more transparent?
IF Biden announces an intent to pursue such a course of action -- make businesses responsible for fighting inflation), you can be ABSOLUTELY certain that Big Business (owned by the Wealthy) will be willing to invest _billions_ to be certain Biden loses in 2024. And while not every election is won by whoever spends the most, **most** of the time that's the case. [At least that seems to be the belief of every activist organization that comes panhandling for donations "because our opponents are outspending us X-to-Y!"] And as backup to making a point of defeating the Dem candidate, hundreds of millions more will go to GOP candidates running for Congress.
Threaten Big Business' Profits, and you can be sure they WILL treat it as an existential threat.
I'm with you all the way on this. Do you think it's possible? What will it take? How does Biden go about doing it? What is the best avenue for success?
Totally agree w/analysis of the economic problems w/todays system of corporate hogging the pie & crumbs. As far as the CNN circus last night, CNN just dug it’s graveyard hole, in my eyes. Although never a CNN fan, now they made a better choice for me to not view in future. Cable news is dead in my opinion. I hate reality shows anyhow 🤪
I’m in no way an economist, but do have enough knowledge to totally agree: corporations are the culprit! They absolutely need to be controlled, but as you say, Republicans will not go along with controlling one of their favorite agenda items. The public is caught because essentials have to be purchased - corporations know this. Clearly a good thought to have the Democrats spell out this situation when campaigning. In fact there is much the Democrats have to educate the public on regarding Republicans behavior and intentions that are and have been a disaster for America!
Professor, you NAILED it! You are good! This piece is so accurate it’s got to be posted everywhere and sent directly to the White House and Congress. The logic and sense of it all is enough to make all Republicans squirm and (should make) all Dems on board with the best solution never thought of. (Well… thought of, but swept under the carpet unless ReThugs benefit somehow, and thought of but unable to pass without Pelosi at the helm anymore… *sigh*)
I’ll put it another way that I’ve turned into a bumper sticker:
Vote Blue for Your Children’s Children
Vote Republican for Your Boss’s Boss
Whenever I read this Substack I think to myself: I hope someone in the White House is paying attention.
I see this dynamic the same as it was during the Bush years. Then I felt the mantra for the GOP was, “No CEO left behind.”
But now the situation is even worse, with Trump, and all manner of manufactured hatred as cover while the new GOP mantra is, “Move all the money to us!“
They’ve just managed to create yet another cruel method of extraction: phantom inflation in need of no cure, but the Fed will raise rates anyway to choke a flush economy in mid stride.
Part of the problem is that we have a country full of people who have no idea what is going on with corporate greed. They blame Biden for the increase in food prices and everything else. As long as people are willing to pay high prices, the prices will go up. I watch people at the grocery still buying potato chips, sodas, candy, sugar loaded cereal...things that are not necessary and are extremely overpriced. I would love to see what would happen if everyone stopped buying these items. The prices would go down. But no one listens or understands. I could go on and on but my blood pressure rises and as an older person, probably not a good idea. I don't see much hope for change. I would like to think things will get better but I don't see any evidence of people getting any smarter.
Precisely what is needed. Especially the windfall profits tax. That will make those CEOs come back to earth!
Education. We need to educate the voting (and especially future-voting) public on how the today's financial system works. I do appreciate the suggestions of not allowing monopolies and obvious price gauging, but those are just band-aids and can be easily manipulated to sound like government over-reach. What's really needed is to change the Corporate law to benefit the public as well as the shareholders. And to change the law, we need the voting public to elect reps that will indeed help the public. That's why we need to educate people. Unfortunately, we keep on sidestepping great teaching opportunities. For example, how many people really understand what happened leading up to 2008 crash? That affected a majority of the world's population, and yet, not many understand why it happened...other than blaming borrowers who couldn't afford their homes. I wish I had the money to blast the TV channels with infomercials explaining to people what happened.
Mr. Robert Reich, and others, please checkout what DeJoy and the USPS have done to the wages of Rural mail carriers in this country. They have butchered the pay of over 80,000 (66%) rural carriers. Blaming it on the reduction of mail volumes. How many in needless management positions, making over $100K, that rarely touch a piece of mail took a pay cut....... NONE HAVE.
Fix inflation with fewer jobs and lower wages? This is infuriating. Just who then will be the ones without jobs? And the ones trying to subsist on lower wages?
I’m sure it won’t be the CEOs. It’ll be poor people of course. It’s always the poor who suffer because they don’t have any power.
I used to be what would be considered upper middle class. We had a home, a401K, savings and good credit. My husband worked in
advertising. When the recession hit in 2008, advertising was hit hard. Advertising was like the canary in the mine, it was always the first to go.
My husband worked freelance so we no longer qualified for group insurance. We had COBRA for two years but when that ran out we had to get private insurance. It’s the same insurance as employee insurance, same coverage, same deductibles, but it cost quite a bit more. $5500 per month for our family of three.
We didn’t live a lavish life, we went on maybe three vacations ever before the recession.
We bought cars that were used, his was two years old, mine had only 2500 miles, it was repossessed. I’m still driving his car, a 1995 BMW, (the little one.) My Jeep, was a 1997, but the transmission collapsed a couple of years ago, fortunately I have my husband’s car. My husband died 8 years ago.
After years of paying inflated insurance premiums, which came out of our savings, then our 401K, we sold our house. We had some equity but it went to insurance. Our insurance was almost twice our mortgage. When we tried to cut costs we never even considered dropping our insurance it was a must have. We did drop my husbands life insurance because it was more important to keep him alive than to make sure my daughter and I were provided for.
Anyhow, now we are poor. We were homeless but we were fortunate to have friends that let us sleep at their house. Days were weird we didn’t want to impose on the people who let us stay in their homes so we’d go out having nowhere to go. There was that feeling of not belonging anywhere, just trying to let the day pass without breaking down.
We finally got an apartment with help from a local agency. I have Social Security and my daughter gets survivors benefits, she is autistic. Combined income we just get through the month. I’m grateful for that income but now I fear we may lose it even though we paid for it for over 40 years.
We are living on the edge. We are one emergency from a financial disaster. If our Social Security is delayed or cut, we won’t make it. If the car breaks down, I can’t afford to get it fixed. There is no wiggle room for us. And we aren’t alone. Our neighborhood is primarily made up of poor people. So what I want to know is this: How is making the poor poorer going to combat inflation? We don’t spend any money that we don’t have to, and what we have isn’t all that much, so how are we driving up prices?
But thank god trump gave the ultra wealthy and their corporations tax breaks.
Robert-
You have done an incredible job of explaining to the world all the factors which have contributed to the mess we are in now. I am so grateful that you have shared your knowledge via your 14-week class and through these sub-stack articles. You are an American HERO! Thank you!
I especially like the direction of THIS article because it invigorates the urgency of our situation.
1. You spell out the solution almost step-by-step for how to arrive at the desired outcome.
2. Yes, it would be nice to have to have a voting populace that prized truth over the garbage that the Trump / Fox system spews, but that doesn't seem to be happening spontaneously.
3. Even my many friends, colleagues and family (who are fervently NOT in the Trump camp) are not willing to spend the time educating themselves at the level of detail available from Robert Reich.
4. Americans (in general) either don't have the bandwidth or aren't willing to take the time to understand our predicament, its causes and the solution.
5. Therefore, I believe the target audience for this message in all its detail must be the current administration.
The Fed only cares about corporations ($$), not people.
Do these same price-gouging corporations funnel a bit of their extra profit to the reelection campaigns of political parties and candidates so those (their?) politicians will blame inflation on the usual suspects of supply-chain issues and energy costs? How do we expose this truth? That's the proverbial dog biting the hand that feeds it! Would enacting 'Citizens United' make all this more transparent?
IF Biden announces an intent to pursue such a course of action -- make businesses responsible for fighting inflation), you can be ABSOLUTELY certain that Big Business (owned by the Wealthy) will be willing to invest _billions_ to be certain Biden loses in 2024. And while not every election is won by whoever spends the most, **most** of the time that's the case. [At least that seems to be the belief of every activist organization that comes panhandling for donations "because our opponents are outspending us X-to-Y!"] And as backup to making a point of defeating the Dem candidate, hundreds of millions more will go to GOP candidates running for Congress.
Threaten Big Business' Profits, and you can be sure they WILL treat it as an existential threat.
I'm with you all the way on this. Do you think it's possible? What will it take? How does Biden go about doing it? What is the best avenue for success?
Totally agree w/analysis of the economic problems w/todays system of corporate hogging the pie & crumbs. As far as the CNN circus last night, CNN just dug it’s graveyard hole, in my eyes. Although never a CNN fan, now they made a better choice for me to not view in future. Cable news is dead in my opinion. I hate reality shows anyhow 🤪
I’m in no way an economist, but do have enough knowledge to totally agree: corporations are the culprit! They absolutely need to be controlled, but as you say, Republicans will not go along with controlling one of their favorite agenda items. The public is caught because essentials have to be purchased - corporations know this. Clearly a good thought to have the Democrats spell out this situation when campaigning. In fact there is much the Democrats have to educate the public on regarding Republicans behavior and intentions that are and have been a disaster for America!
Professor, you NAILED it! You are good! This piece is so accurate it’s got to be posted everywhere and sent directly to the White House and Congress. The logic and sense of it all is enough to make all Republicans squirm and (should make) all Dems on board with the best solution never thought of. (Well… thought of, but swept under the carpet unless ReThugs benefit somehow, and thought of but unable to pass without Pelosi at the helm anymore… *sigh*)
All my best as ever,
Anne in MD 🌻