Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 129

Romney's Regressivism

Fine to nail Romney with Bain Capitalism. But let’s not forget Romney’s budget proposal,...

Obama has to Explain Why Fairness is Essential to Growth (and Why Some Democrats Have to Stop Believing Otherwise)

The Cory Booker imbroglio has ignited a silly but potentially pernicious debate in the Democratic...

Why Obama Should Be Attacking Casino Capitalism -- Both Romney's Bain and JPMorgan

I wish President Obama would draw the obvious connection between Bain Capital and JPMorgan...

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The Commencement Address That Won't Be Given

Members of the Class of 2012,
As a former secretary of labor and current professor, I feel I owe it...

How Odd that Mitt's Smitten With Clinton

Mitt Romney is full of praise for Bill Clinton even as he heaps scorn on Obama.
“Almost a...

The Dog That Didn't Bark: Obama on JPMorgan

The dog that didn’t bark this week, let alone bite, was the President’s response to JP Morgan...

ROMNEY HAS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MORALITY UPSIDE DOWN Mitt...

ROMNEY HAS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MORALITY UPSIDE DOWN

Mitt Romney’s reaction to J.P. Morgan Chase’s mounting losses from reckless trades is “the market will take care of it.” His spokesman says “no taxpayer money was at risk” so we don’t need more financial regulation. Romney has even promised to repeal Dodd-Frank if he’s elected president.

Yet at the same time, Romney has come out strongly against same-sex marriage. He’s also against abortion. He has no problem with government intruding on the most intimate of decisions a person makes.

He’s got private and public morality upside down. He doesn’t want to regulate where regulation is necessary — at the highest reaches of the economy, where public immorality has cost us dearly, and will cost even more unless boardroom behavior is constrained. Yet he wants to regulate where regulation is least appropriate — at the level of the individual, in bedrooms and other intimate spaces, where private morality should govern.

This is a dangerous confusion. It should be a matter of personal choice whom to marry and when to have children. But it is undoubtedly a matter of public choice whether big banks should be allowed to take the kind of risky bets that plunged the economy into the worst downturn since the Great Depression, and whether people with great wealth and should be able to buy our democracy with huge campaign contributions.

Please see the attached video and pass it on.

How J.P. Morgan Chase Has Made the Case for Breaking Up The Big Banks and Resurrecting Glass-Steagall

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the nation’s largest bank, whose chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has lead...

Of Bedrooms and Boardrooms

The 2012 election should be about what’s going on in America’s boardrooms, but Republicans would...