Robert Reich

Robert Reich
22nd United States Secretary of LaborIn office
1993 – 1997President Bill ClintonPreceded by Lynn Morley MartinSucceeded by Alexis HermanBorn June 24, 1946(1946-06-24) (age 61)
Political party DemocraticSpouse Clare Dalton Profession Academic, commentator

Robert Bernard Reich (born June 24, 1946) is an American politician, academic, and political commentator. He served as the twenty-second United States Secretary of Labor, serving under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. Reich is a former Harvard University professor and the former Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He is currently a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Reich is also on the board of directors of Tutor.com He is a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security. He is an occasional political commentator, notably on Hardball with Chris Matthews, This Week with George Stephanopoulos and CNBC's Kudlow & Company.

1 Biography
2 After the Clinton administration
3 Political and Philosophical Stance
4 Trivia
5 Books
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Biography

Reich attended John Jay High School in Cross River, New York. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1968 and winning a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford.[1]

A longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, going back to their days together at the University of Oxford and Yale Law School respectively, he was invited to head Clinton's economic transition team. He later joined the administration as Secretary of Labor. During his tenure, he implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), fought sweatshops, successfully promoted increasing the minimum wage, improved workplace safety, successfully lobbied to pass the Pension Protection Act and the School-to-Work Jobs Act, and launched a number of job training programs.

At the same time, he lobbied Clinton to address bigger societal issues, and pushed for improvement of conditions for those in poverty. He had moderate success until the 1996 presidential campaign began, when Clinton, heeding the advice of political advisor Dick Morris, shifted right[citation needed] and promoted policies designed to appeal to the suburban swing voter as understood by Morris.

In addition, Reich used the office as a platform for focusing the nation's attention on the need for American workers to adapt to the new economy. He advocated that the country provide more opportunities for workers to learn more technology, and predicted the shrinkage of the middle class due to a gap between unskilled and highly skilled workers.

After the Clinton administration

In 1996, between Clinton's re-election and second innauguration, Reich decided to leave the department to spend more time with his sons, then in their teen years. He published his experiences working for the Clinton administration in Locked in the Cabinet. The memoir was criticized for factual inaccuracies and was revised in the paperback edition. (See links below.)

Reich became a professor at Brandeis University, teaching courses for undergraduates as well as in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. In 2003, he was elected the Professor of the Year by the undergraduate student body.

In 2002, he ran for Governor of Massachusetts. He also published an associated campaign book, I'll Be Short. Reich was the first Democratic candidate for a major political office to support same-sex marriage. He also pledged support for abortion rights, and strongly condemned capital punishment. His campaign staff was largely made up of his Brandeis students. Although his campaign had little funding, he surprised many and came in second in the Democratic primary with 25% of the vote.

In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97 Prize, by the former Czech president, for his writings in economics and politics.[2]

In 2004, he published Reason, a handbook on how liberals can forcefully argue for their position in a country increasingly dominated by what he calls "radcons", or radical conservatives.

In addition to his professorial role, he is a weekly contributor to the American Public Media public radio program Marketplace, and a regular columnist for the American Prospect.

In early 2005, there was speculation that Reich would once again seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. He instead became one of the earliest endorsers of the then-little-known candidacy of Deval Patrick, who has previously served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration. Patrick would go on to take the state party's endorsement, win the three-way primary with nearly 50% of the vote, and be elected Governor in a landslide in November 2006.

In September 2005 Reich testified against John Roberts at his confirmation hearings for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Reich recently published an article that was extremely critical of the Clintons, referring to Bill Clinton's attacks on Barack Obama as "ill-tempered and ill-founded," and accusing the Clintons of waging "a smear campaign against Obama that employs some of the worst aspects of the old politics." [3]

On April 18, 2008 Reich endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.[4]

Political and Philosophical Stance

Robert Reich holds a liberal political stance. In an interview with The New York Times, "I don’t believe in redistribution of wealth for the sake of redistributing wealth. But I am concerned about how we can afford to pay for what we as a nation need to do.."[1]

He also displayed socialistic ideals later in the interview in response to a question as to what to recommend to the incoming president to implement a fair and sustainable income and wealth distribution ,"Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit — a wage supplement for lower-income people, and finance it with a higher marginal income tax on the top five percent. For the longer term, invest in education for lower income communities, starting with early-childhood education and extending all the way up to better access to post-secondary education."[2]

The suggestion of expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit comes into conflict with the Capitalist economy in place in the United States currently. He holds an altruistic stance with regards to financial risks,"So let’s help families stay in their homes and continue to pay mortgages that are refinanced so they can afford to pay them. And let’s have better financial oversight so the next time money is cheap, mortgage lenders don’t shove it into the hands of people who don’t know what they’re getting into."[3]

Reich repudiates [[Lassiez-faire]] capitalism in favor of a more Protectionist economic system.[4] The Protectionist economic policy is in opposition to the more traditional Capitalism used in the United States. Coincidentally, the herald of Objectivism, Ayn Rand, holds similar opinions on the state of Capitalism versus Comunism in the 1940's to 1950's. Namely the economic benefits of embracing a Capitilistic sociecty during the prominence of oligopolies, (i.e, General Motors, Ford Motor, Pepsico, Boeing)

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouragedunder Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integratingrelevant items and removing inappropriateones.

He played himself as a detective in a skit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien; they amusingly contrasted each other in height, as Conan is 6'4" and Reich is 4'10".

A selection from his book Locked in the Cabinet is featured in The Lanahan Readings in the American Polity, Fourth Edition

Reich is frequently a contributor to CNBC's Kudlow & Company and occasionally On the Money.

He made his first video blog (vblog) debut on Vimeo.com on March 7, 2007 where he revealed he dated Hillary Clinton while in college.

His son Sam Reich runs CollegeHumor's CHTV portion of the website and is part of the web video comedy group Dutch West.

Books

2007: Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life ISBN 0-307-26561-7
2004: Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America ISBN 1-4000-7660-9
2002: I'll Be Short: Essentials for a Decent Working Society ISBN 0-8070-4340-0
2000: The Future of Success: Working and Living in the New Economy ISBN 0-375-72512-1
1997: Locked in the Cabinet ISBN 0-375-70061-7
1991: The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism ISBN 0-679-73615-8

probably his most important work, it has been translated into at least 22 languages
1990: Public Management in a Democratic Society ISBN 0-13-738881-0
1988: The Power of Public Ideas (editor) ISBN 0-674-69590-9
1989: The Resurgent Liberal: And Other Unfashionable Prophecies ISBN 0-8129-1833-9
1987: Tales of a New America: The Anxious Liberal's Guide to the Future ISBN 0-394-75706-8
1985: New Deals: The Chrysler Revival and the American System (with John Donahue) ISBN 0-14-008983-7
1983: The Next American Frontier ISBN 0-8129-1067-2
1982: Minding America's Business: The Decline and Rise of the American Economy (with Ira Magaziner) ISBN 0-394-71538-1