Robert Reich

My father’s recitations

Friends, I’m going to depart today from our normal political economic fare and talk about my father, Ed Reich, whom I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Ed owned a women’s clothing shop. It would be more accurate to say he owned a series of women’s clothing shops over the course of his working life. He kept closing ones that lost money and open…

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Office Hours: If Trump is found guilty, should Biden emphasize the guilty verdict or focus on abortion and democracy instead?

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The dangerous anti-democracy coalition

Friends, Elon Musk and entrepreneur and investor David Sacks reportedly held a secret billionaire dinner party in Hollywood last month. Its purpose: to defeat Joe Biden and reinstall Donald Trump in the White House. The guest list included Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken, Travis Kalanick, and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury secretary.

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The true meaning of Memorial Day, and the upcoming election

Friends, On this Memorial Day, it’s fitting and proper that we honor Americans who made the supreme sacrifice for this nation, and express our humble gratitude to them and to their survivors. It is also fitting and proper that we confirm what it is they sacrificed for, and why their sacrifices were and still are worth it.

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My message to the graduating class

Friends, Today large numbers of young people are graduating colleges and universities and heading out into the wide world. So I thought it appropriate to share with you my message to new graduates, which I gave a few years ago but believe is still relevant.

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Sunday caption contest: Signage

Friends, Please submit your caption in the Comments section. Winners will be announced next Sunday. For consideration, please post your caption by Monday at 9 pm PT, 12 midnight ET. Last week’s winner:

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The Common Good vs. Trumpism | The Coffee Klatch, Saturday, May 25, 2024

Friends, Today, in honor of Memorial Day weekend, we take a deep dive into the common good versus its antithesis — Trumpism. We look at what’s happened to the common good, why Trumpism is attractive to so many these days, and how the common good can be resurrected.

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Podcast duration: 32.8 minutes

Announcing our “Debunk” series, starting this Friday!

Friends, I’m SO pleased to announce a special ten-part series debunking the ten biggest political-economic myths, starting this Friday, May 31, and running for the next 10 Fridays — right here on this Substack. Economics has become so confusing to many people that they believe anything the gonzo Trumpers put out. People are vulnerable to such rubbish beca…

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The Supreme Court’s Republican Partisan Hacks

Friends, Sorry to bother you with a second letter today, but the Supreme Court decision just announced in Alexander vs. State Conference of the South Carolina NAACP — written by Samuel Alito, and joined by the five other Republican appointees on the court — is so disturbing that you need to know what happened.

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When I got the political bends

Friends, When I left the president’s Cabinet in early 1997 after over four years as secretary of labor, I felt enormous relief. I couldn’t wait to be back home with my family. But I soon suffered from a sudden decompression, analogous to what happens to deep-sea divers who come up too fast for air.

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