This originally appeared on Robert Reich’s blog:
Don’t be distracted by January’s fiscal cliff or looming budget deficits. The central problem of our economy is widening inequality.
Tag Archives | robert reich
What’s Black and White and Red All Over?
Pic: US Dept. of Labor (PD)
Turns out that on September 4, 2012 at least, the answer was the New York Times, which today published a startling demonstration by Robert Reich of the core Marxist principle of surplus value at work in the US economy:
Starting in the late 1970s, the middle class began to weaken. Although productivity continued to grow and the economy continued to expand, wages began flattening in the 1970s because new technologies — container ships, satellite communications, eventually computers and the Internet — started to undermine any American job that could be automated or done more cheaply abroad. The same technologies bestowed ever larger rewards on people who could use them to innovate and solve problems. Some were product entrepreneurs; a growing number were financial entrepreneurs. The pay of graduates of prestigious colleges and M.B.A. programs — the “talent” who reached the pinnacles of power in executive suites and on Wall Street — soared.
How Did Mitt Romney Get So Obscenely Rich?
We all know that Mitt Romney is obscenely wealthy, but how did he get that way? Robert Reich explains the magic trick behind Bain Capital’s profits:
Seven Big Economic Lies
Do tax cuts for the rich trickle down to the rest of us? And does taxing the rich hurt the economy? Is Social security a Ponzi scheme? Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, presents his list of seven popular-wisdom economic claims that are untrue. Feel free to debate.
