Sitemap - 2023 - Robert Reich

Cartoon review of 2023

Are you terrified of 2024? If not, why not? Saturday coffee klatch

Why the hell is Trump rising in the polls? (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 6)

Trump is cast off the ballot in Maine, too.

Why can only the rich and powerful go bankrupt?

Office Hours: Are today’s campus protests against the war in Gaza as justified as were campus protests against the Vietnam War?

Why I’m so short

A holiday question: How old is too old?

Sunday caption contest: Ho ho ho!

Sunday caption contest: Ho ho ho!

Will Trump be off the ballot everywhere? Should he be? Saturday Coffee Klatch

The Pernicious Myth of Meritocracy (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 5)

A holiday wish

One way or the other, the Supreme Court will determine Trump’s (and America’s) fate

Office Hours: Will Republicans pay a price for giving Putin a victory in Ukraine?

Trump disqualified in Colorado

The awful, horrible, detestable year of 1968

What about Trump’s dementia?

Sunday caption contest: Why is Rudy still grinning?

Why are House Republicans so ready to impeach Biden with zero evidence, and unwilling to aid Ukraine? Saturday coffee klatch

Freedom and Power (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 4)

Finding moral clarity on campus about the Hamas-Israeli War

Office Hours: Should the U.S. put more pressure on Israel to protect innocent civilians in Gaza?

Who’s really behind the drive to impeach Joe Biden?

When wealthy donors oust university presidents over how they answer congressional questions

Sunday caption contest: Help!

Ukraine, Israel, Biden’s and Trump’s gaffes, and Norman Lear. The Saturday coffee klatch!

The Myth of the Market (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 3)

The GOP’s death cycle

Office Hours: What, if anything, should be done about Trump’s incendiary words?

America’s anxiety disorder

Personal history: Why CEO pay exploded

What we can do to stop out-of-control CEO pay

Sunday caption contest: Free fall

George Santos, Henry Kissinger, Sandra Day O’Connor, Gavin Newsom, and Ron DeSantis. It’s the Saturday Coffee Klatch!

What Really Happened to the American Dream? (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 2)

Henry Kissinger, 1923-2023. War criminal

Office Hours: Why are so many prepared to vote for unhinged traitor Trump?

My 1994 warning about Trumpism, and the crap I got from the White House for it

Four ways the mainstream media is quietly helping Trump and his Republican allies

Sunday caption contest: Infestation

Saturday coffee klatch!

Beyond Trump (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 1)

A time to give thanks and be reenergized for the fight ahead

What’s the real Frankenstein monster of AI?

Office Hours: Should advertisers shun Musk’s X?

The sexual revolution and me

Judge rules that Trump “incited an insurrection”

The connection between neofascism and capitalism (and happy birthday, Joe!)

Sunday caption contest: Muck

Republican political violence and other worries from the week: The Saturday Coffee Klatch

Why is American capitalism so rotten? (Announcing our next 10-part Friday series)

Why are so many people so down on Biden’s economy?

Office Hours: Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza?

Why the Supreme Court’s new ethics code is neither a code nor about ethics

Have they no sense of decency?

Sunday caption contest: breakdown

Electoral wins? Trump trials? CRs? Joe Manchin? The Saturday coffee klatch!

What is Trump planning if he gets a second term? Chaos and consolidation.

Whose life expectancy is dropping — and what this has to do with the rise of Trumpism

Beyond Trump (Why is American Capitalism so Rotten? Part 1)

Office Hours: Should Biden withdraw, for the good of the country?

Final update on today’s races

Trump v. Biden: How worried should we be?

The war is causing my students to fear each other.

Sunday caption contest: Johnson’s legacy

The war in Gaza, Sam Bankman-Fried’s comeuppance, Trump and the culture of hype, and the October jobs report

Putin, Trump, Netanyahu, Johnson: The neo-fascist spectrum

Trump the mob boss

How to deal with Mike Johnson — the most extremist speaker in living memory and Trump’s puppet?

The new UAW deal and the future of labor unions

An overwhelming tragedy

Sunday caption contest: Trick or treat

Help! How do we deal with all this?

The inhumanity of humans toward other humans

Do billionaires have a right to exist?

Office hours: A deathly decision

The real reason Biden isn’t getting credit

Thirty years later

Sunday caption contest: Beware

What should be done?

A final word about the common good

The last adult in the room

Office Hours: Should employers refuse to hire students who blame Israel?

Update: Do you have to be a thug to be speaker or president?

The corrosiveness of hate

Sunday caption contest: Anatomy lesson

Trying to make sense out of tragedy and dysfunction

The disaster of Jim Jordan

Moral clarity

The horrible price of lies, paranoia, and distrust

Office Hours: Is Elon Musk stifling honest debate over what’s happening in Gaza and Israel?

The disgrace and danger of RFK Jr.

The rubbish you’re hearing about long-term interest rates

Trump’s Chaos Agenda

Sunday caption contest: Puppeteer

Sorry, friends (and apologies to Heather): No coffee klatch today

Truth as a Common Good

Capital vs. labor under Biden

Office Hours: What shall we call them?

Kevin McCarthy is gone! What's next?

Clarence Thomas must recuse himself from today’s CFPB case.

Is the Trump fever starting to break?

Sunday caption contest: Almost closed

A shutdown is averted, but the Republican clown show continues (updated Saturday evening)

Is Kevin McCarthy toast? Kudos to the courts! Joe Biden should not bow out!

Resurrecting the Common Good: A Civic Education for All

The House Republican wrecking-ballers are about to shutter the U.S. government

When Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, phoned me

Office Hours: The worst of all the media’s false equivalences

When the Klan murdered my protector

Mr. President, joining the picket line is a good start

Sunday caption contest: Strike

Why Trump wants a chaotic government shutdown, a crippling auto strike, and no more money for Ukraine

Resurrecting the Common Good: Honor and Shame

Two years today, with my profound thanks

Office Hours: Why did NBC debut its new “Meet the Press” with Trump?

Why labor activism is good for America

America needs a new sane Republican Party, and here’s who should lead it

Sunday caption contest: Fish

My fault there’s no coffee klatch today

Resurrecting the Common Good: A New (and Very Old) Conception of Leadership

Five big reasons the UAW will go on strike tonight against the Big Three

New proof that poverty is a policy choice

The axis of authoritarianism

Office Hours: Will the Republicans’ effort to impeach Biden cause a backlash against the GOP?

Who’s most responsible for the monopolization of America?

How old is too old?

50 years ago: Henry Kissinger and the death of democracy in Chile

Sunday caption contest: Astronomy

What do polls mean anyway?

Why Have So Many Americans Succumbed to Trumpism?

No Labels, no fables, no third-party betrayals

Office Hours: What to do about the Supreme Court’s ethical cesspools of Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas?

The terrifying road ahead

My father and the SOBs

Sunday caption contest: Sunset

Labor Day weekend, Bob’s bad cold, Trump’s bad defense strategy, the House’s bad GOP, and Heather’s son’s bad worries.

Jack Welch and the End of Stakeholder Capitalism

Trump’s bonkers plan to impeach Biden

Office Hours: Who the hell is Vivek Ramaswamy, and why is he surging in the polls?

Globaloney: Why the Democrats’ love affair with “free trade” is over

The March on Washington, 60 years ago today

Sunday caption contest: Mug Shop

Trump sucks the oxygen out of the week: His arrest, mug shot, and absence from the GOP debate

Trump’s debate response: The fascist who doesn’t want America to think

From Nixon to Trump: The Decline of the Common Good in American Politics

The GOP and the crises of climate change and democracy

The extraordinary bipartisan support for banning legacy admissions

Office Hours: Why are Republican voters more willing to believe every sort of lie?

The four phases of Trump’s attempted coup

Rich Men North of Richmond

Sunday caption contest: Republicans debate

Trump, the upcoming Republican primary debate on Fox News, and Bill O’Reilly

Samuel Bankman-Fried and the Perversion of Civic Virtue

How private equity is destroying the labors of love

Office Hours: How to prevent Trump Indictment Fatigue Syndrome?

The Fourth Indictment, and Trump’s willful refusal to stop intimidating witnesses

Is Trump a fascist?

Sunday caption contest: Welcome to Florida

The walls closing in on Trump

Donald Trump, Samuel Bankman-Fried, and the rule of law

Donald Trump and Ayn Rand

My whopping failures (or noble experiments?)

If bosses are raking it in, shouldn’t employees, too?

Office Hours: How to fight Big Oil’s plan to destroy the planet?

Why Biden isn’t getting more credit for everything that’s going right

Will Trump go to jail before his trial even begins?

Sunday caption contest: In the air

Trump, Jobs, and Musk

Rudy Giuliani and Broken Windows

Here’s how Trump will try to avoid jail

Biden's New Industrial Policy

Office Hours: Will holding Trump accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election lead to civil war or begin to lance the boil?

Trump indicted: The big one

X Marks the Hate

Why Bidenomics will get Joe another term and give the Democrats control over Congress

Sunday caption contest: Panic!

Heather and I debut before a live audience!

Introduction to The Common Good

The freeze

Office Hours: Beware the Cornel West factor

UPS and the summer of our labor discontent

Hello? You can’t be president if you’ve tried to overthrow the U.S. government

Let the final battle begin

Sunday caption contest: Running from jail

The pending Trump indictment: Where will it end?

My recipe for a just society

Trump’s path to dictatorship

Office Hours: Trump’s last stand

The larger meaning of the Hollywood strike

I knew Robert F. Kennedy, and you’re no Robert F. Kennedy

Sunday caption contest: Zoo

This isn’t just about Trump

Congratulations on graduating from my “Wealth and Poverty” course!

Why does white Christian nationalism now define the Republican Party?

It’s time to declare victory in the inflation fight

Office Hours: Are these the best we can do?

Why I’m so short

This is how Biden shows whose side he’s on

Sunday caption contest: Warning

Trump is getting Trumpier and Biden, more Bidenish

My last “Wealth and Poverty” class! Forever! :(

The truth about the economy that you’re not hearing

Competence isn’t enough. Biden must also confront America’s economic bullies.

True patriotism is the opposite of Trump’s White Christian Nationalism

The Supreme Court’s worst new ruling you never heard of

Sunday caption contest: Tilt

Why are teachers paid so little and Wall Street traders paid so much?

Beyond affirmative action: The shame of education and widening inequality — Class 13

Why I’m not running for president (or anything else, thank you)

Wednesday Office Hours: Why are consumers still splurging on high-priced services?

Who needs a civil war? America is already splitting

Putin, Trump, and the privatization of tyranny

Sunday caption contest

Trump, Big Tech, and the depths of inequality

Three reforms to restore trust in the Supreme Court

How climate change worsens inequality — Class 12

Winkin’, Blinken, and Musk: America, China, and the “decoupling” myth

The warping of the American mind

Office Hours: Will the Republicans’ bogus claim of a “double standard” of justice stick?

The “paid what you’re worth” myth

Trump’s plan to turn the Justice Department into his personal vendetta machine

Sunday caption contest: sleep disorder

So sorry

Could we really elect a president who’s in prison? Yes.

Why we have the most expensive and least effective health care system in the world — Class 11

The five elements of fascism

Office Hours: Gratitude to the guardians of the rule of law

George Takei posed 5 important questions to me. Here are my answers

Will we go to civil war over Trump?

Sunday caption contest: Convict

Is this finally the end of Trump?

The “deserving” poor: Who should get public assistance? — class 10

Felon Trump (updated again!)

The subtle morality of kissing the as*es of rich as*holes

Goodbye, CNN’s Chris Licht. But what’s the lesson?

Should we be worried about RFK Jr.?

The demise of CNN

Five things the debt deal tells us about the future

Sunday caption contest: boating

The political and the personal: Bob and Heather reveal where they got their political values

The shameful legacy of systemic racism and inequality — Class 9

It’s greedflation, stupid

Office Hours: Who’s the worst demagogue running for president?

Five fake crises

Memorial Day and seditious conspiracy against the United States

Sunday caption contest: Republican industry

The deal: The only question that counts right now is whether McCarthy and Biden can get the count

This week’s truths

Inequality and the macroeconomic mess — Class 8

The debt ceiling debacle is NOT a “partisan standoff”

The anti-worker robber baron and the anti-woke presidential candidate

Oops.

What unites the anti-woke culture warrior and the anti-worker robber baron?

Please stop congratulating me on my retirement

Office Hours: The Republican Party becomes the Christian Nationalist Party

How DeSantis and other GOP lawmakers are killing LGBTQ young people

Biden should IGNORE the debt ceiling: Don’t declare an X-date. Keep paying the bills. Don’t default.

Sunday caption contest: de fault

Where have all the heroes gone?

How to make America fairer? From pre-distribution to redistribution — Class 7

What’s the opposite of Republican “law and order?”

Office Hours: Calamity around the corner! What should Biden do about the debt ceiling?

Meeting Justin Jones

The danger is now

Sunday caption contest: Hunt

Trump, Santos, Kevin McCarthy, and other loathsome people

The Vicious Cycle of Wealth and Political Power — Class 6

Why did CNN do it?

The economic message that will get Biden reelected and give Dems a majority in both Houses of Congress

Office Hours: What do you think of CNN giving Trump a full hour of prime-time TV tonight?

Dianne Feinstein must resign if she can no longer perform her duties

Why a new progressive era in America is likely — in about 20 years

Sunday caption contest: major GOP candidates

King Charles III

What are you planning for fun (if anything)?

Power: Why corporations have so much and workers have so little. Class 5

What the hell should I do with my Cabinet chair?

Office hours: What should Democrats do to regain working-class voters?

The Republican threat to our children

Advice to Biden on how to handle House Republicans’ demands for raising the debt ceiling

Sunday caption contest: What's next for him?

The rise of Republican fascism

Why your income increasingly depends on where you live — Class 4

What’s really behind Republicans’ mounting transphobia?

Office hours: Will Biden be reelected?

The real reason Social Security is going broke

Warning (if you needed it): Trump is nuts, and he’ll do anything — anything — to win

Sunday caption contest: Deal

Guns, climate change, systemic racism, democracy: How to be hopeful nonetheless?

Class 3: Globalization, technological change, and you

My upcoming “retirement.”

The Fox News settlement: “Accountability” is just another cost of doing business

Office Hours: Does DeSantis stand a chance?

Disinformation about the debt ceiling

What’s the perfect punishment for Fox News?

Sunday caption contest: Justice

Is the GOP turning into an anti-democracy movement?

Class 2 of Wealth and Poverty! The investor’s view

P.S.: When I had to send a personal check to Bill Gates, for lunch

How to become one of Clarence and Ginni’s dearest friends

Office Hours: Will Fox be detoxed?

Why Republican lawmakers are obsessed about sex

Is the GOP becoming the American fascist party?

Sunday caption contest: boot

What happened to accountability?

First class! The problem of widening inequality (Wealth & Poverty class 1)

The Trump Curse

Office Hours: The bizarre “60 Minutes” interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene

Why what’s happening today in Wisconsin is as important to the future of American democracy as what’s happening in Manhattan

The Great Comeuppance?

Sunday caption contest: hair

Trump’s April fools?

My course “Wealth and Poverty” right here

Trump is indicted: Three criticisms that will be raised against it, and why they’re wrong

He's indicted. What does this mean? What the media doesn’t understand about Trump’s third presidential campaign

Office Hours: What to do about Starbucks?

The lives of our children or the greed of gun manufacturers?

“Morning Joe” and the banking crisis

Sunday caption contest: hole

How concerned should we be?

Distinguishing between a Chinese challenge and a Chinese enemy

What connects Trump’s likely arrest with the bank bailouts?

Office Hours: Trump’s new war against Blue America

Trump’s campaign strategy revealed

The undeserving rich

Sunday caption contest: Inmates

Is the banking system safe?

Are we witnessing a financial meltdown?

Who’s raking in the most from the banking mess?

Office Hours: Is “woke capitalism” the new Republican racist dog whistle?

How to stop playing whack-a-mole with the banks

The real story behind the Silicon Valley Bank debacle

Sunday caption contest: 2024 campaign begins

Want the good news or the bad news re: the economy?

Why I love Bernie Sanders

Get ready: Two big upcoming theatrical performances

Office Hours: The Republicans’ sexual obsession

Psst! An urgent message for Jerome Powell

Why Warren Buffett is wrong and Joe Biden is right about stock buybacks

Sunday caption contest: cantina

Murdaugh, Murdoch, and Trump’s loutishness

Republicans are right about E.S.G., but for the wrong reason

Greed needs guardrails!

Office Hours: Musk’s racism

Worse than hypocrisy: Ray Dalio and the heart of darkest capitalism

AI’s biggest impact?

Sunday caption contest: Worst?

What’s Kevin McCarthy’s deal with Tucker Carlson?

A second attempted coup?

Two notable presidential conversations with Zelensky

Office Hours: A national divorce?

Yikes! More drivel over the national debt!

Jimmy Carter and the end of democratic capitalism

Sunday caption contest: driverless?

Saturday coffee klatch: Bad actors

American capitalism returns to the Gilded Age

Don’t let Republicans claim the mantle of patriotism

Office Hours: Fake brand competition, monopoly power, and inflation

The death of shame

How do we get democracy back into presidential elections?

Sunday caption contest: Super Bowl

The stadium scam

Saturday coffee klatch: Axe throwing

Why America forgot about economic power

My mother was wrong

Office Hours: Why the discrepancy between what Biden has achieved and what Americans think about him?

Biden’s State of the Union, and the paradox at the center of his presidency

The shame of Harvard Law School

The state of Joe Biden’s union: The return to democratic capitalism

Sunday caption contest: Balloon

Saturday coffee klatch: Waiting for the other shoe to drop

Today’s jobs report may spook the Fed (but it shouldn’t)

10 reasons you shouldn't believe Kevin McCarthy when he promises Republicans won't seek cuts in Social Security and Medicare

Thirty years ago today, the Family and Medical Leave Act. Now it's time for paid leave.

Today's Biden-McCarthy meeting: A "framing" victory for McCarthy and the GOP

Today’s Office Hours: What is the Republican strategy?

The biggest story you've never heard about today's federal debt

To be "Borked": My odd friendship with Robert Bork

Sunday caption contest: DeSantis’s class

Saturday coffee klatch: Oy

Should Trump get back his giant megaphones?

When Fox entered the hen house

Office Hours: Again and again and again and again and again. Our national shame of mass shootings.

Five truths about the pending debt-ceiling fight that the mainstream media doesn't want you to know

Should Joe Biden run again? Really? Take a closer look.

Sunday caption contest: The House

Saturday coffee klatch: Hitting our heads on the debt ceiling and other lowlights of the past week

Psst: You want to know who leaked the Supreme Court's Dobbs opinion?

What will the House Oversight Committee do?

What to do about Russian money poisoning US elections?

Back to another horrible, hellish, horrendous, totally absurd battle over the debt ceiling

The media's remarkable silence on the cause of California's tragic storms

Sunday caption contest: Santos

The basics: How we actually spend our days

False equivalence

What to do about America's "labor shortage?" Easy. Pay people more.

Office Hours: Has the failure to hold Trump accountable encouraged the global anti-democracy movement?

While you weren't looking, the Biden administration ended involuntary servitude

The Trump coalition of MAGAs and Oligarchs lives on, as dangerous as ever

Sunday caption contest: fish

Not to interrupt our Saturday coffee klatch, but here's why the GOP that made McCarthy Speaker is more dangerous than ever

Saturday coffee klatch: Work and life, or work OR life?

Today's job and wage numbers show the Fed is winning, big corporations are doing great, and workers are losing ground

How not to mark the 2nd anniversary of the day American democracy almost died

The last exit ramp for non-MAGA Republicans

Office Hours: The 118th Congress is already a mess and it hasn't even begun

The Party's Over: RIP, GOP

For Speaker of the House: David Joyce. Who?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! And the one just ended in drawings