A fascinating Video Lecture by Mr. Reich on what’s going on with the North American Economies is available on the Forum Network. You may need to open a free account on the Forum Network but it’s well worth a view. The summary follows;
Robert B. Reich: The Next Economy and America’s Future
Drawing on ideas from his latest book Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, public policy expert and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich peels back the onion on America’s current financial strife and goes back to the roots of our declining middle class which he pinpoints as occurring in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since then middle class wages have remained stagnant while the coping mechanisms of people working longer hours, women entering the workforce, and families borrowing more have been stretched to their limit to keep the middle class going.
The massive increases in wealth over the past three decades have gone mostly to the 1% at the top who now control almost 25% of the nation’s wealth. Reich points out the last time this much wealth has been in the hands of so few was in 1928 on the brink of the Great Depression. What can be done? Robert Reich provides some possible solutions for ways to get the wealth back into the hands of America’s middle class and get the American economy back on the right track. Robert Reich’s lecture is available on streaming video and MP3 download from the Forum Network.