The Strange World of Robert Reich

When the Greek Prime Minister announced a referendum on the debt plan, Robert Reich cheered. What matter if the world economy crashed? At least the people would get a say. And the evil bankers who were going to forgive 50% of the Greek debt would be foiled from their dastardly plot. He then went on to complain about the American bailouts and the TARP. His complaint was that Bush, and later Obama, said that it had to be paid and Congress voted the money. The people had no say.

Reich ignores that fact that there is no provision for a referendum in the Constitution. Funny thing about that since he swore to uphold the Constitution when he was sworn in as Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration.

But that's small potatoes compared to his recent explanation for the Great Recession. Most people see it as a result of the housing bubble bursting and taking a couple of trillion of national wealth with it. But in Reich's version the problem is that the rich have stolen all of our money so that there is nothing left for the rest of us to spend.

He also strongly opposes any attempt at introducing fiscal sanity, anywhere. The Greeks borrowed so much money that they cannot make interest payments on the loans. Spain is close to that point and the US will be there in less than a decade at current trends. The rich just don't have enough money to make up the difference. The only serious solution to this is to cut spending.

Reich does not see this. He sees the need for more government redistribution and spending. He even marched with the Oakland occupiers as they closed down one of the nation's busiest ports - an action sure to hurt the average worker.