Nonsense on Stilts

IN THE 1980s, Robert Reich was tossing out politically marketable policy proposals like a salad shooter. The quixotic task he had assigned himself—devising an economic agenda for liberals—would require several trips back to the drawing board. But in 1992 his efforts paid off, when his old friend and fellow Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton incorporated many of his ideas about government investments in people in his platform, Putting People First. At the Democratic National Convention that year, the late journalist Andrew Kopkind overheard someone remark, “The only point of this campaign is to put somebody in the Oval Office who will put Robert Reich in the basement.”

Instead, Reich was put in charge of the Department of Labor. It’s not normally considered a plum job, but he has raised its profile higher than ever before. His Republican predecessors, Elizabeth Dole and Lynn Martin, never pretended to be economic heavyweights. Reich, by contrast, is constantly explaining the larger meaning of economic trends. “He and Laura Tyson are the two most widely quoted representatives of the Administration on economic affairs,” says Princeton economics professor Harvey Rosen. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin’s public remarks tend to concern the bond market. Nobody ever heard from Roger Altman when he headed the National Economic Council, and nobody’s ever heard of Council of Economic Advisors chairman Joseph Stiglitz.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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IN THE 1980s, Robert Reich was tossing out politically marketable policy proposals like a salad shooter. The quixotic task he had assigned himself—devising an economic agenda for liberals—would require several trips back to the drawing board. But in 1992 his efforts paid off, when his old friend and fellow Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton incorporated many of his ideas about government investments in people in his platform, Putting People First. At the Democratic National Convention that year, the late journalist Andrew Kopkind overheard someone remark, “The only point of this campaign is to put somebody in the Oval Office who will put Robert Reich in the basement.”

Instead, Reich was put in charge of the Department of Labor. It’s not normally considered a plum job, but he has raised its profile higher than ever before. His Republican predecessors, Elizabeth Dole and Lynn Martin, never pretended to be economic heavyweights. Reich, by contrast, is constantly explaining the larger meaning of economic trends. “He and Laura Tyson are the two most widely quoted representatives of the Administration on economic affairs,” says Princeton economics professor Harvey Rosen. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin’s public remarks tend to concern the bond market. Nobody ever heard from Roger Altman when he headed the National Economic Council, and nobody’s ever heard of Council of Economic Advisors chairman Joseph Stiglitz.