Robert Reich

Robert Reich has worked in a lot of big white buildings -- in the Senate, as an intern to Robert F. Kennedy; in the office of then-Solicitor General Robert Bork; in the Ford and Carter administrations; and as labor secretary to President Clinton. Now the political economist works in another set of big white buildings, teaching at UC Berkeley, where his "Wealth and Poverty" class is as overbooked as a bargain flight to Paris, and where he dotes on his 3-year-old granddaughter, to whom he dedicated his latest book, "Aftershock": "To Ella Reich-Sharpe, and her generation.

The workplace is changing as many companies, looking to increase productivity, ask employees for more while giving them less, according to a Los Angeles Times series. That's difficult for individuals at work - but it might also have a profound impact on the economy in the long-term. If workers feel that they have little job security and could be replaced at any time, they're unlikely to spend a lot of money on the big ticket items that fuel consumer spending and, thus, the GDP. With professional development opportunities disappearing, promotions are harder to come by, restricting access to the middle class.

There are two kinds of people who think about economics. The most common and least interesting are called economists; these are the folks who regularly publish unreadable articles in obscure magazines, and who issue periodic forecasts, usually wrong, about what the economy is getting ready to do. The second, more interesting kind of economic thinkers are called "political economists."

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Sept. 2 - 8 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning Julie Chen; Sharon Osbourne; Democratic National Convention. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Demi Lovato. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America CMA Awards nominees with Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly Meredith Vieira; Demi Lovato; NBA player Amar'e Stoudemire.

Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under President Clinton and Al Gore, is endorsing the vice president's rival for the Democratic nomination, two senior party officials said Sunday night. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Reich was telling fellow Democrats that he would endorse former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley today in New Hampshire. Reich headed the Department of Labor during Clinton's first term.

Help Close Income Gap, Reich Urges Business: Labor Secretary Robert Reich is urging private business to help correct the widening income gap between rich and poor, saying the disparity threatens to "rip our society apart." Speaking to a meeting of the Financial Women's Assn. of New York, Reich said that since 1978 "almost all the increase in average family income . . . has gone to the top fifth" of the U.S. population.

The workplace is changing as many companies, looking to increase productivity, ask employees for more while giving them less, according to a Los Angeles Times series. That's difficult for individuals at work - but it might also have a profound impact on the economy in the long-term. If workers feel that they have little job security and could be replaced at any time, they're unlikely to spend a lot of money on the big ticket items that fuel consumer spending and, thus, the GDP. With professional development opportunities disappearing, promotions are harder to come by, restricting access to the middle class.

When letters written to a friend by a college-aged Hillary Rodham resurfaced in the news a few weeks ago, her mention of a certain "Dartmouth boy" with whom she spent an evening in 1966 piqued notable interest. But last week, the New York Times reported that the mystery date was none other than Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton.

Call them Robert's Rules--the five things you need to know to find and hold a job. With an estimated 3.2 million high school and college students having graduated in the last few months, Labor Secretary Robert Reich has issued five basic rules for new graduates to help them find work and keep up with the workplace of the future. They are: * Born to be wired. Whether you work in an office or manage the crew that cleans it, you've got to be computer-literate.

You knew it would be a rough week for President Obama when one of the sharpest attacks began, not in the familiar precincts on the right, but in the New York Times' Sunday Review section, where an extra-long cover piece bemoaned the president's lack of leadership, fire and philosophical core. Psychologist and Democratic advisor Drew Westen railed about our economic crisis and how Obama allegedly has tried to appease his way to a solution. The 3,000-word essay depicted the president as a rudderless politician who "seems … compelled to take both sides of every issue.

Robert Reich has worked in a lot of big white buildings -- in the Senate, as an intern to Robert F. Kennedy; in the office of then-Solicitor General Robert Bork; in the Ford and Carter administrations; and as labor secretary to President Clinton. Now the political economist works in another set of big white buildings, teaching at UC Berkeley, where his "Wealth and Poverty" class is as overbooked as a bargain flight to Paris, and where he dotes on his 3-year-old granddaughter, to whom he dedicated his latest book, "Aftershock": "To Ella Reich-Sharpe, and her generation.

You knew it would be a rough week for President Obama when one of the sharpest attacks began, not in the familiar precincts on the right, but in the New York Times' Sunday Review section, where an extra-long cover piece bemoaned the president's lack of leadership, fire and philosophical core. Psychologist and Democratic advisor Drew Westen railed about our economic crisis and how Obama allegedly has tried to appease his way to a solution. The 3,000-word essay depicted the president as a rudderless politician who "seems … compelled to take both sides of every issue.

The gig: Reich, who was Labor secretary under President Clinton, is a nationally known economist and political commentator. Much of his work focuses on America's rising income inequality. Reich's belief that too much of the nation's wealth is going to the rich at the expense of the middle class and poor has made him a bestselling author while inflaming his critics. Reich, 64, now teaches public policy at UC Berkeley. Not short on ambition: Reich grew up in South Salem, N.Y., near the working-class town of Peekskill, where his father owned a women's clothing store.

When letters written to a friend by a college-aged Hillary Rodham resurfaced in the news a few weeks ago, her mention of a certain "Dartmouth boy" with whom she spent an evening in 1966 piqued notable interest. But last week, the New York Times reported that the mystery date was none other than Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton.

Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under President Clinton and Al Gore, is endorsing the vice president's rival for the Democratic nomination, two senior party officials said Sunday night. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Reich was telling fellow Democrats that he would endorse former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley today in New Hampshire. Reich headed the Department of Labor during Clinton's first term.

Economic policymakers have been fighting the last war so long, they can't see they're entering a different battle on the opposite front. The old war was against inflation. It shaped the fears of those who watched it get out of control in the 1970s. These are the same people who now run the central banks, ministries and international lending institutions. Yet the inflation war is over. The new enemy approaches from the opposite direction: spiraling deflation.

Re the Opinion interview, July 30: Labor Secretary Robert Reich is right on! The fundamental problems is jobs, jobs, jobs. Unless we begin to deal constructively with the seeming inability of our newly internationalized economy to provide decent jobs for the less-skilled in our society, we run the risk of a class war as those at the bottom find all other roads closed. Unfortunately the current Republican vision of an "opportunity society" seems to stress the freedom for those at the bottom to starve gracefully while pursuing minuscule opportunity at sub-minimum wage.

What a difference a couple of days make! In "Column Left" (April 29), Robert Scheer praises former Labor Secretary Robert Reich's new book, "Locked in the Cabinet," as being "written without rancor and through the eyes of one who attempted to find the best in the president and the political system he served." Two days later in "Column Right" by James P. Pinkerton (May 1), Reich is accused of seeking power and being short, much like "Napoleon" and "Attila the Hun." To Pinkerton, he represents "Reich-types in the Clinton administration . . . bent on a comeback for 1960s-style overbearing government."

Robert Reich's account of his days in the Clinton administration is as damning an indictment of the sad state of politics in this republic as can be found anywhere. The more so because it is written without rancor and through the eyes of one who attempted to find the best in the president and the political system he served.