Robert Reich’s Blind Spots: The Elephant in the Progressive Left’s Room \ stacker news ~econ

pull down to refresh

Robert Reich’s Blind Spots: The Elephant in the Progressive Left’s Room mises.org/power-market/robert-reichs-blind-spots-elephant-progressive-lefts-room

214 sats \ 47 comments \ @kepford 1 Jul econ

if the progressive left really wanted to moderate income and wealth inequality, the answer is the same: end the Fed. The Cantillon effects of inflation may be summarized in progressive terms as “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.” The fact that progressives turn a blind eye to the Fed reveals either economic ignorance or political deceit. Maybe they don’t understand the economic effects of inflation. If they do, then their whole program is an evil scheme to help themselves and their cronies get rich at the expense of the classes they purport to champion.

By: Jonathan Newman

view all related items

42 sats \ 45 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

Instead of going through all that, I just want to point out two blind spots. Reich, along with other progressives like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, never address the root cause of what they correctly diagnose as excessive corporate power over politics. They also don’t see the elephant in the room: the Federal Reserve.

I appreciate a lot from Mises, but this opinion piece's premise is easily disproved by a simple search for examples of Robert Reich criticizing the Fed. He lumps the labor economist in with politicians, and then leads with a false premise. Being right-leaning and conservative does not need to include dishonest hit pieces.

61 sats \ 6 replies \ @kepford OP 2 Jul

Reich is a progressive. I've listened to his nonsense since he was under Clinton. I would be absolutely shocked if has corrected been critical of the Federal reserve. I'm sure he has been critical of them but I doubt for reasons we would agree on.

This article is about his video series with is full on bad information. Nothing new. Just the same old progressive tropes.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 2 Jul

Actually he is a communist but he lacks self awareness

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

Also, separate his research from his video and TV hustle. He pimps the system, but also does serious economic policy research.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

He's a fervent progressive. Never said he isnt. But if the arguments have no gray areas and were just saying Progressive Vs Austrian, you all are correct. I argue there is nuance being missed and intentionally excluded in this political climate. Reich is one of the few progressives that will critique both sides. But he's definitely pro poor people and argued for a different use of the Fed, as opposed to abolishing.

I think the devil is in the details.

40 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford OP 2 Jul

Yeah, I just don't see how this article is unfair to him. In the context of this topic he doesn't point to the problem with the Fed and the state. The writer points out where he is right. I do not think people are just right/wrong because of the camp they are in. Companies do seek to use the state to act in unfair ways.

I agree with you, the devil is in the details. I just don't think this article was unfair at all. Maybe the writer could have reworded it a bit. I don't see it as worth arguing about. Dude isn't all wrong but Reich's series on myths has been... disappointing to say the least.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 2 Jul

It’s not a hit piece unless criticism means hit piece

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

Perhaps it is my educated bias, but I obviously think lumping him with the others is political garbage. Although I don't have a problem Warren being lumped into this group.

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford OP 2 Jul

You might find this podcast I just shared interesting. I am not sure why Reich being lumped in with progressive politicians bothers you but he has long been associated with them and many of them use his content / ideas. I don't see any issue with the quote you pulled.

I would be shocked if Reich ever mentioned the Federal reserve in a way Austrian economists would agree with him on. Many progessives are critical of the fed. That isn't what the quote you cited says. Its that he doesn't correctly diagnose the feds role.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

I'm not saying there isn't much to critique. I'm saying in this article, I think that lumping is gross oversimplifying with a persuasive goal.

40 sats \ 35 replies \ @Undisciplined 2 Jul

Reich is not someone I follow closely. What's the nature of his criticism of the Fed? Is he saying that inflation inherently leads to wealth inequality?

I'm skeptical that he gets this, because I know he is not opposed to deficit spending in general. Also, I don't think he is actually an economist, labor or otherwise, not that that inherently discredits him.

40 sats \ 33 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

You don't have to follow him. Do the simple search I suggested. He has written much and is definitely an economist on the faculty at UC Berkeley. I was at Berkeley when he arrived from Brandeis. He did a visiting professorship for a year before joining the Goldman School of Public Policy. He is a pro labor, labor economist and is known political mainly because he was in Clinton's cabinet.

40 sats \ 32 replies \ @Undisciplined 2 Jul

Even his CV doesn't list what his areas of study were, so it's not as easy as you'd think. Generally speaking, an economist has a PhD in Economics, which he does not.

90 sats \ 11 replies \ @Bell_curve 2 Jul

No economic credentials

Not necessarily a dealbreaker. David Friedman taught law and economics at Santa Clara University for 25 years and all his degrees are in physics

BA history MA philosophy politics economics JD

He is a lawyer by training

He was appointed as secretary of labor by Bill Clinton because they were friends from law school and the labor department requires someone who has a legal background and some experience with labor law and antitrust laws and National Labor Relations Board etc

He has taught public policy but no economics courses

As labour secretary he clashed with Greenspan about the budget and spending and deficits

He has criticised the Fed for exacerbating inequality and focusing too much on inflation at the expense of “full” employment.

40 sats \ 10 replies \ @Undisciplined 2 Jul

Friedman is a good example of someone with no economics credentials, who nonetheless is an economist. He thinks like an economist and he has been employed as an economist.

Anyone who advocates Fed printing to curb unemployment has most likely not made the connection between inflation and inequality, which is the criticism we were talking about at the beginning.

21 sats \ 8 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

Where was my original point about inflation and inequality?

40 sats \ 7 replies \ @Undisciplined 2 Jul

The original post is about how progressives, like Reich, don't understand that the Fed creates inequality when it inflates the money supply.

view replies

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 2 Jul

His parents and uncle all had PhD in economics from U Chicago

Milton Friedman Rose Aaron Director

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 2 Jul

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2013/09/10/robert-reichs-f-minus-in-economics-false-facts-false-theories/

I am appalled by the economic illiteracy encountered in leading newspapers, business magazines, and prominent web sites (the news section of the Wall Street Journal is no exception). Robert Reich’s Higher Wages Can Save America’s Economy – and Its Democracy (Salon.com) is only one of many examples. As a teacher of economics for over forty years and a co-author of a best-selling 1980s economics 101 textbook, I would have given Reich’s paper a resounding F, if he had submitted it for my elementary economics class.

Reich’s elevated credentials point to an automatic A+. As a frequent TV pundit, author of 13 books, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley no less, and self-identified as “one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy,” many readers will automatically believe his economic nonsense. As a former Secretary of Labor, readers would be surprised to learn that Reich does not appear to understand how wages and labor markets work.

Reich’s resume raises one red flag: He is not an economist but a lawyer – a Yale Law School classmate of Hillary Clinton, who studied a smattering of economics for his PPE (politics, philosophy, and economics) degree at Oxford – a Rhodes Scholar no less. I am no formal credentials snob. Non PhD economists, such as Robert Samuelson, write very good economics. Robert Reich is not one of them.

My F grade is also not based on Reich’s politics, which are quite different from my own. I award it instead for Reich’s incorrect facts and his embarrassing misunderstanding of basic issues about which economists agree.

42 sats \ 17 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

If you have his cv you see a very long list of peer reviews publications of research in economics and public policy. But if you need a PhD in econ to satisfy you, you are right then.

I thought the work one does determined the profession, but I'm funny that way.

40 sats \ 16 replies \ @Undisciplined 2 Jul

I didn't have his CV at the outset. I had heard that he wasn't trained in economics, which is all my point was.

It's not about satisfying me. There are plenty of PhD Economists who stink at economics, too. There are also plenty of people with no formal training who think about economics really clearly.

Professional training shapes how people approach problems and from what I've seen Reich doesn't really think like an economist. I'd describe him as a political scientist who works on economic topics.

21 sats \ 15 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

You can't research public policy without economics. It is the foundation.

40 sats \ 14 replies \ @Undisciplined 2 Jul

You absolutely can and many do. These are distinct fields with distinct methodologies.

view replies

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 2 Jul

Powell doesn’t have a PhD in economics

Bill O’Reilly called Reich a communist. Then he interviewed him on the Factor and the interview was cordial. No shouting or mudslinging

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 2 Jul

What makes you say you don't think he is an economist? This is easily verifiable.

19 sats \ 0 replies \ @galt 2 Jul

At the deplorable level we are at economics education in universities these days, some training in economics is the exact reason why people would suck at it. Kind of interesting that while Reich and the Mises institute agree on the problems, they totally differ on the solutions, statism and heavy intervention for Reich and free markets for Mises