Tales of a New America

Reich tells the story 20 years ago; some things have come home to roost, others challenges persist. Reich offers (if not introduces) a third way, between state-run liberal bureaucracy and laissez faire capitalism. He advocates for a market and political system where the government sets the rules, and leaves the picking of the winners to the market. His ideas are being tested now.

Reich makes his point by reviewing four American myths, three of which are
* The Rugged Individual
* The Supportive Community -- check me on this one,
* The Rot at the Top

I'll "have to get back to you" on the third in his list. In each of the myths, he details how the right and the left have personalized the myth to promote their own view and discount the other. His approach draws contemporary praise from the Wall St Journal, where they laud his challenge to the left. Reich deftly steers what we on the left would call a "middle course", between the extremes. For example, his "Rot at the Top", as used by conservatives, refers to the government bureaucracy, and for us on the left, it's the corporate oligarchy. Reich, writing in '86 - '87, anticipating the election of '88, reflecting on Reagan's "government is the problem" view, argues that both extreme views fail to hold up in the latter half of the 20th century. He is persuasive (to this liberal, anyway) that the middle way is for government to supply the regulation, the market may then play the game. For example, he notes the outcome of the deregulation of the airline industry, while it led to the dismissal of the air traffic controllers, also freed the airlines to compete and hold down fares. He didn't anticipate the growth of short-haul airlines, as such, but his vision can still be applied to the other problems he visits.

And in one more i'll-have-to-get-back-to-you, Reich proposes regulation of the public-private nature that is finally coming to be regarded as common place. ( )

Reading this book from the perspective of 2009 it is remarkable how the topics are so relevant for the Obama administration to deal with.The issue of inequaity, takeovers, executive compensation have not changed.