{"id":18614,"date":"2023-04-25T17:22:47","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T00:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=18614"},"modified":"2023-04-25T18:06:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T01:06:18","slug":"reich-speaks-writes-and-cartoons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/04\/25\/reich-speaks-writes-and-cartoons\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Reich Speaks, Writes, and Cartoons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More about Robert Reich&#8217;s appearance at UC Berkeley last night; and summary notes about his book <b>Economics in Wonderland<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/reicheiw_800x967.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/reicheiw_800x967-248x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->I&#8217;m not deep into economics; I follow it only about as well as I need to to understand the different positions of the right and the left. Yet I&#8217;ve followed two economists for a number of years. First, Paul Krugman, because he&#8217;s written a column for the <i>New York Times<\/i> for a couple decades. I cite his columns here frequently. More recently, Robert Reich, because for the past several years he&#8217;s been doing videos on various platforms to illustrate and pace his little talks about basic economic principles and current issues of the day. Also, Reich has long been an establishment at UC Berkeley, up the road from us in Oakland.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s one thing reading a writer&#8217;s books, or seeing him or her in online videos, and it&#8217;s another seeing them in person. And so seeing Reich I observed 1) he&#8217;s quite short, maybe 5&#8217;4&#8243;, and 2) he pronounces his name rye-sh, with the ch pronounced like an sh, not the like guttural ch as it would be pronounced in German.<\/p>\n<p>The event Monday evening was a casual interview between Reich and a colleague, Arlie Hochschild, also at Cal (the official nickname of UC Berkeley, does everyone know this?), both seated in easy chairs, she asking prepared questions plus some previously-submitted audience questions. The theme was in part Reich&#8217;s impending retirement. What will he do next? Hochschild cheekily had asked ChatGPT for some suggestions, and the results were perfectly reasonable and perfectly obvious. The evening, barely an hour long, concluded with some senior Cal staff (of the Goldman School, specifically, I think), presenting Reich with some special honor.<\/p>\n<p>Zellerbach Hall (see when you say Zellerbach the ch is pronounced like a k) was about 3\/4 full, and you could tell they were virtually all Reich fans. Lots of applause, some whoops. At the end the award presenter asked members of the School to stand, then members of the Cal staff, then students, then alumni, and 80% of the audience must have stood. (I&#8217;m a UCLA alumnus, so I didn&#8217;t stand.)<\/p>\n<p>The event was interesting, but again intended mostly for fans; if you knew nothing about Reich, you wouldn&#8217;t come away with much of a broad overview of his ideas. He did touch on some familiar themes &#8212; inequality, raising taxes on the wealthy, and oh by the way how Trump is a traitor who shouldn&#8217;t be *allowed* to run for office again and how that&#8217;s a decision for the attorneys general in the 50 states to make, about whether he should be put on the ballot. The last was almost an aside; he didn&#8217;t dwell on Trump, nor did he mention current political news about Fox or Tucker Carlson (just that day).<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example of a Robert Reich video, with cartoons, though not on a topic in the book summarized below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"This One Thing Would Increase Wages By $300 Billion | Robert Reich\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xtKoXuRxNI8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>So meanwhile I read the one Reich book I have, called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Economics-Wonderland-Robert-Cartoon-Political\/dp\/1683960602\/\"><b>Economics in Wonderland: A Cartoon Guide to a Political World Gone Mad and Mean<\/b><\/a>, published in November 2017, about a year after the 2016 election that Trump won. So Trump had been in office 10 months or so. The book is a compilation of the cartoon videos Reich had been doing, I gather, with the cartoons displayed along brief page or less passages of text. The book is only about 115 pages long, and each &#8216;chapter&#8217; is 2 or 4 pages. I took brief notes, and I will polish them up here so as to provide a decent take on what Reich sees (or saw in 2017) as economic issues and his takes on them. [[ with some comments of my own ]]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Section 1: Big Money<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Page 4, What\u2019s the Fed? How it affects you.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s the Federal Reserve. They decide how high interest rates are going to be. Lower rates increases demand, thus labor, and more jobs. Higher rates make borrowing most costly. But the Fed is also supposed to prevent inflation. It\u2019s a balancing act. Currently (as of 2017) unemployment is high, wages are stuck, no sign of inflation. [[ Now it\u2019s quite different ]]<\/p>\n<p>P6, Saving Capitalism for the many, not the few.<br \/>\nThe idea that the free market is natural and neutral is dangerously deceptive. There\u2019s no such thing in nature. A free market is a set of rules enforced by the government. They can change. Examples about bankruptcy, trade agreements, bail-outs. Monopolies vs. unions. As inequality grows, the rules tend to favor the wealthy.<\/p>\n<p>P10, The reality of free trade deals<br \/>\nEconomists think trade benefits most Americans, but most Americans don\u2019t agree. Inequality; safety nets; median pay drops. The winners aren\u2019t compensating the losers. Income insurance would be nice.<\/p>\n<p>P12, Putting a lid on tax expenditures<br \/>\nThese are benefits to the wealthy that allows them to deduce from their incomes what they spend on healthcare, retirement savings, and mortgage interest. The rich don\u2019t need these as incentives, any more. They cost hundreds of billions a year. Limit these to say $25,000. [[ Limits were put in place, in fact, at least in California; thus now TurboTax tells me all I need is the &#8216;standard&#8217; deduction, because my mortgage deduction doesn&#8217;t count for much anymore. ]]<\/p>\n<p>P14, Corporate tax desertion<br \/>\nCorporations leave America for lower tax rates in other countries. The answer isn\u2019t to lower rates in the US; that\u2019s would lead to an endless downward cycle. The answer is to remove their advantages to being American: no more contributions to political campaigns; they can\u2019t apply for government contracts; their assets shouldn\u2019t be protected by the US government.<\/p>\n<p>P16, Power: who has it, who doesn\u2019t<br \/>\nMost people don\u2019t; companies and corporations and banks do. Fewer workers are unionized; CEOs make far more compared to average workers. Now a handful of giant banks run the economy, \u2018too big to fail.\u2019 Big money has driven down tax rates, once 90%, now below 30%.<\/p>\n<p>P18, The investments of the 158<br \/>\nHalf the money contributed to presidential candidates by 2015 came from 158 families, who are older, white, and rich, who live in exclusive neighborhoods that don\u2019t depend on government services, and who invest in politicians to further advantage themselves. We must get big money out of politics, repeal Citizens United.<\/p>\n<p>P20, Why the Koch Machine is a threat to democracy<br \/>\nThey are the 5th and 6th richest people in the world. They work through political front groups; giant advertising campaigns; a network of think tanks; campaigns to suppress the votes of minorities; efforts to bust unions; working to unravel campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Section 2: Shams, Scams, and Flim-Flams<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>P24, Paul Ryan\u2019s Seven Terrible Ideas<br \/>\nCutting income and corporate taxes; slash spending on domestic programs; turn medical programs into block grants to states; raise retirement age for social security; let the minimum wage decline as inflation eats it away.<\/p>\n<p>P26, \u201cRight-to-Work\u201d is wrong for workers<br \/>\nThey s\/b called \u201cright to work for less\u201d; such laws don\u2019t benefit workers. They undermine unions, by reducing their funds. Such laws lead to lower pay, and only attracts businesses that don\u2019t invest in their workers.<\/p>\n<p>P30, Voter suppression (and how it works)<br \/>\nIn 2013 the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. States have begun passing more laws to depress voting\u2014various requirements; gerrymandering. Example maps.<\/p>\n<p>P32, The Republican Tax Sham<br \/>\nRe the \u201cborder adjustment tax.\u201d It would penalize companies that import goods, as if to encourage \u2018made in the US.\u2019 This plan would mostly hurt the poor and middle class. Thus it\u2019s another redistribution scheme to benefit the wealthy.<\/p>\n<p>P34, Austerity 101: the three reasons republican deficit hawks are wrong<br \/>\n1, Deficit and debt numbers are meaningless on their own; they matter as a percent of the national economy. 2, America needs to run larger deficits when lots of people are unemployed; government spending helps create jobs. Cutting spending can lead to disaster. 3, Deficit spending on investments like education and infrastructure is different, because the benefit will likely exceed the investment.<\/p>\n<p>P36, The real reason republicans want to pull the plug on Obamacare<br \/>\nThey never did find a replacement; repealing it would leave millions without insurance. That would benefit the wealthy.<\/p>\n<p>P38, Hands off my medicare!<br \/>\nRe Paul Ryan\u2019s plan to replace medicare with vouchers. His claims about it are false.<\/p>\n<p>P40, The cost of war<br \/>\nCompare the Iraq war with the diplomacy with Iran. Diplomacy should always come first. Wars are expensive. The Iraq war cost some 3 trillion dollars. Over half of the US discretionary spending is for the military.<\/p>\n<p>P42, Climate and inequality<br \/>\nClimate change widens inequality. The poor are more exposed to flooding, droughts, failures in infrastructure. Reversing climate change will lead to more jobs, as we transition to renewables. Trump and Republicans fear clean energy will put power back into the hands of people, away from corporations.<\/p>\n<p>P44, The facts about immigration<br \/>\nMyths: immigrants take away jobs; we don\u2019t need any more; they\u2019re a drain on public budgets (in fact they pay taxes!); it\u2019s increasing.<\/p>\n<p>P46, Word of the year: xenophobia<br \/>\nIt was for 2016. It\u2019s a reaction to globalization. Not just in the US, but around the world. In the US it&#8217;s been about native Americans; African slaves; Chinese workers; immigrants from Italy and Ireland the Poland. Fear always remains. It\u2019s a sentiment to be fought.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Section 3: Solutions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>P50, The five principles of patriotism<br \/>\n1, It\u2019s not just about waving the American flag. 2, It isn\u2019t cheap (willingness to pay taxes, voting, being politically active). 3, It\u2019s about preserving and protecting our democracy. 4, It\u2019s not about hating the government of the US. 5, It\u2019s not about pandering to divisiveness.<\/p>\n<p>P52, Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour<br \/>\n[[ It is now in CA ]]<br \/>\n1, The current $10.10 needs to be adjusted for inflation. 2, It\u2019s not enough to raise people out of poverty. 3, Some employers don\u2019t pay better wages. 4, Yes some jobs may be lost but many more people will be lifted out of poverty. 5, A wage increase will likely come out of profits (not costs passed on to consumers). 6, Republicans can be counted on to argue for a minimal increase or none at all. 7, It\u2019s the right things to do in a country where 95% of economic gains are going to the top 1%.<\/p>\n<p>P54, Why liberal states won American\u2019s tax experiment<br \/>\nRepublicans insist the economy depends on low taxes, few regulations, and low wages. Compare Kansas and Texas, at one end, and California, at the other. In 2015, the Kansas economy actually shrank, and Texas isn\u2019t doing well. While California leads the nation in economic growth\u2014more than twice the national average. Why? Taxes enable investments. CA has a diverse population, it protects public health and its own natural beauty. Texas suffered the oil bust and didn\u2019t diversify. Yes CA still has problems\u2026<\/p>\n<p>P58, Why the sharing economy is harming workers\u2014and what must be done.<br \/>\nThis involves independent contractors, free agents, the self-employed. 1099s instead of W2s. It\u2019s growing. [[ This has become much more an issue with the &#8216;gig&#8217; economy of Uber and its like. ]] It\u2019s more risky. Gone are minimum wage, worker safety, medical leave, overtime, social security etc etc. We should aim for simplicity&#8211;\u2026 we should move away from unemployment insurance to income insurance.<\/p>\n<p>P60, Four steps to solving student debt.<br \/>\n1, Allow graduates to refinance. 2, Allow graduates to reorganize those loans via bankruptcy. 3, Tie loan payments to how much a graduate earns. 4, Move toward free tuition at public colleges and universities. Remember the GI Bill; it worked.<\/p>\n<p>P62, What is the racial wealth gap?<br \/>\nWhy is this widening? Many Americans have almost no savings, so little wealth. Especially true of low-incomes families of color. What to do? 1, Reform the tax system to tax capital gains like ordinary income. 2, Limit mortgage deductions; use gains to establish savings accounts for newborn children. 3, Allow families receiving public benefits to save.<\/p>\n<p>P64, The women\u2019s wealth gap.<br \/>\nConversation with Elena Chavez Quezada [[ who just received some high-level appointment from CA governor Gavin Newsom ]]. Women earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. Their wealth is even less. Assets vs debts. Various reasons. What can we do? 1, Expand women\u2019s access to retirement accounts. 2, Ask \u2018who benefits?\u2019 as we debate tax reforms.<\/p>\n<p>P68, End mass incarceration now<br \/>\nIt\u2019s wrong, and racist, and it\u2019s bad for the economy. Lots of reasons why this rate ballooned over recent decades. 1, Enact smarter sentencing laws. 2, Stop militarizing the police [[ this is what &#8216;defund the police&#8217; has meant, not disbanding them]]. 3, Stop building new jails. 4, Ban the \u2018box\u2019 i.e. questions on job applications about being convicted of a felony.<\/p>\n<p>P70, Why a tax on wall street trades is an even better idea that you know<br \/>\nA good idea from Bernie Sanders. It would reduce incentives toward risky trading, generate revenue, and be fair. The arguments against it \u2013 it would drive stock trades overseas; it would unduly burden small investors \u2013 are wrong for various reasons.<\/p>\n<p>P72, Why we\u2019ll need a universal basic income<br \/>\nImagine an iEverything that does everything, so no one has jobs, and therefore no one can buy it. Good take. [[ Reich used this example in his talk last night ]] We\u2019re headed toward that; examples. People will have more free time, not having to earn a living. Thus the need for UBIs. The idea has been around. Interest is surging; conservative worries haven\u2019t panned out. [[ Again, Harari and others have discussed this in some detail. If it seems counter-intuitive, well, the poor, even those who don&#8217;t pay taxes, still use public roads, use public libraries, and can count on the fire department responding to their emergencies. As productivity increases through technology, the same principle about the general welfare of society might just as well apply to cash payouts. ]]<\/p>\n<p>P76, Bernie Sanders\u2019s seven legacies<br \/>\n1, He helped open eyes to how big money is corrupting our democracy. 2, It\u2019s possible to win elections without big money. 3, He educated Americans about the need for a single-payer healthcare system. 4, He brought younger people into politics. 5, He pushed the Democratic party to be more progressive. 6, He taught Americans how undemocratic the system for picking candidates is. 7, He spotlighted that possibility that if the Democratic party doesn\u2019t do these various things, it will be irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Section 4, Trumponomics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>P82, Seven signs of Tyranny<br \/>\nThey 1, Exaggerate their mandate to govern; 2, Turn the public against journalists and media outlets that criticize them; 3, Repeatedly lie to the public, even when confronted with the facts; 4, Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities; 5, Attack the motives of anyone who opposes them, including judges; 6, Appoint family members to high positions of authority; 7, Keep their personal finances secret, and draw no distinction between personal property and public property.<\/p>\n<p>P84, An orgy of unnecessary cruelty<br \/>\nThis is the theme of Trump\u2019s initiatives so far [as of 2017]: 1, His budget comes down especially hard on the poor (in order to hike military spending); 2, He plans to repeal and \u2018replace\u2019 the Affordable Care Act (to provide tax breaks to the wealthy); 3, He\u2019s banned Syrian refugees (for nothing to do with terrorist attacks); 4, He&#8217;s done a helter-skelter roundup of undocumented immigrants (for no particular reason). This is all morally repugnant.<\/p>\n<p>P86, Trump\u2019s bonkers budget<br \/>\nDespite what he promised, Trump\u2019s budget is great for big corporations, not ordinary people. It increases military spending by 10%; he plans to cut the corporate tax rate; he\u2019ll pay for this by cutting the budget for environment protection agency; he\u2019ll have to cut programs like food stamps and Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p>P88, Tearing down the wall between church and state<br \/>\nHow Trump is doing so. 1, His travel ban targets Muslims and exempts Christians; 2, His secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, considers her work to \u2018advance God\u2019s kingdom\u2019; 3, His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, dismisses the \u2018separation\u2019 of church and state; and so on, re family planning, Ben Carson, Mike Pence, Tom Price.<\/p>\n<p>P90, Trump\u2019s attack on the freedom of the press<br \/>\nFour traditional techniques: 1, Berate the media and turn the public against it; 2, Limit media access; 3, Threaten the media; 4, Bypass the media and communicate directly with the public (his tweets).<\/p>\n<p>P92, Trump\u2019s ten steps for turning lies into half-truths<br \/>\n1, he lies;<br \/>\n2, experts contradict him;<br \/>\n3, he blasts the experts;<br \/>\n4, he repeats the lie;<br \/>\n5, the mainstream media describe the lie as a \u2018disputed fact\u2019;<br \/>\n6, he repeats the lie; his surrogates repeat it;<br \/>\n7, the mainstream media call it a \u2018controversy\u2019;<br \/>\n8, polls show a growing number believe his lie to be true;<br \/>\n9, the media now say \u2018a claim that reflects a partisan divide\u2019 or is \u2018found true by many\u2019;<br \/>\n10, the public is confused about what the facts are; he wins.<\/p>\n<p>P94, Trumpcare<br \/>\nEight promises Trump made about healthcare that never came true.<\/p>\n<p>P96, Trump\u2019s infrastructure scam<br \/>\nWhat he promises is 1, a public subsidy to developers and investors; 2, he\u2019s turning public roads over to private corporations that would then charge us tolls; 3, he\u2019d emphasize big infrastructure that would make lots of money and ignore the many smaller issues in rural communities.<\/p>\n<p>P98, Trumps big bet on coal<br \/>\nHe promised to put people back to work, especially in coal, but there just aren\u2019t that many jobs in coal anymore. There are now more jobs in wind and solar energy.<\/p>\n<p>P100, The wall<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s a dumb and racist idea, because 1, It would cost $25 billion; 2, He says Mexico will pay for it; 3, There\u2019s no need because undocumented immigration has sharply declined; 4, Anyway they\u2019re not taking jobs away from Americans (they take different jobs).<\/p>\n<p>P102, Trump\u2019s corporate tax cuts<br \/>\nHis proposal is nonsensical for 7 reasons: 1, companies already pay that little, through loopholes etc; 2, it would bust the federal budget; 3, it\u2019s supply-side, trickle-down nonsense (that didn\u2019t work for Reagan or Bush either); 4, it creates a new loophole\u2026; 5, would create an international race to the bottom on corporate taxes that the US can\u2019t win; 6, they don\u2019t need a tax cut; 7, their claim they\u2019ll use extra profits to invest is rubbish.<\/p>\n<p>P106, Trump and big banks want to repeal Dodd-Frank<br \/>\nThat\u2019s the bank regulations passed after the 2008 crisis. Getting rid of it would triple the odds of another financial crisis.<\/p>\n<p>P108, Four reasons why Trump\u2019s plan to strip the IRS is incredibly dumb<br \/>\n1, It won\u2019t save money; 2, It worsens the deficit; 3, It would widen inequality; 4, The IRS is already understaffed.<\/p>\n<p>P110, The four dangerous syndromes of coping with Trump<br \/>\n1, Normalizer syndrome: he\u2019s just another president;<br \/>\n2, Outrage numbness syndrome: you\u2019ve gone numb, even stopped reading the news;<br \/>\n3, Cynical syndrome: the whole system is rigged, give up;<br \/>\n4, Helpless syndrome: there\u2019s nothing to be done.<br \/>\nDon\u2019t fall prey to any of these. There are always things to be done.<\/p>\n<p>P112, Impeachment: A how-to explainer<br \/>\nTen steps for how it would work. [[ Of course this did eventually happen. ]]<\/p>\n<p>P114, Four (and maybe five) grounds to impeach Trump<br \/>\n1, He took an oath and is failing to execute it; 2, He\u2019s making money off deals with other nations; 3, His travel ban violates the first amendment; 4, His war on the media also violates it; 5, Evidence might show treason in colluding with the Russians in 2016. [[ And this was before his incitement of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. ]]<\/p>\n<p>P116, Glossary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More about Robert Reich&#8217;s appearance at UC Berkeley last night; and summary notes about his book Economics in Wonderland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-notes","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18614"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18625,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18614\/revisions\/18625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}