From: watanabe@cs.uiuc.edu (Larry Watanabe)
Subject: Re: Opinions on Reich?
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 03:18:12 GMT

taw4@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (TODD A WATKINS) writes:

>In article <1992Nov21.015954.1536@cs.sfu.ca>, mcdonald@cs.sfu.ca (Ken Mcdonald)
>writes:
>>
>>Can anyone in netland offer a thumbnail (or better) synopsis of Reich,
>>Clinton's Man From Harvard, and the ideas this fellow is pushing?  I
>>like Clinton, but looking at Reich makes me very uneasy.  (Visual looking--
>>on nothing but first impressions, I neither like nor trust the man.  This
>>isn't a very good way of evaluating people, but at the moment, it's all
>>I've got.)  Feedback from people who know and understand Reich's work in
>>some detail is especially desired.  I'll track down and read his books
>>sometime, but probably not soon.  Is his research sound?  Does he use
>>reasonable assumptions?  (Many economists do not.)  Can he justify his
>>conclusions by historical validation?  (Well, maybe "justify" isn't
>>the right word here.  You know what I mean.)  Etc. etc.
>>

>I've just spent the last 8 years at the Kennedy School at Harvard, where Reich
>teaches. I recently left, but I had the opportunity to get to know him and his >work.

>I would not call his work true scholarly "research" but rather "synthesis" and
>"popularization," which he does extraordinarily well.
>This lack of contributions to academic research is
>reflected in the fact that he is not a tenured professor at the Kennedy
>School, but rather gets continuing appointments as a Lecturer.

>I would describe his work as Liberal, but pragmatically so.  I'd also not call
>him an economist.  His background is in law.

>Anyway, the Clinton economic plan to date is vintage Reich
>-- investment in infrastructure and
>human assets, education and training.  These are assets, in Reich's view
>that government can invest in for long term growth without the fear that the
>assets will pick up and move offshore.  Roads, bridges, pipelines, and people
>do not tend to be very mobile -- whereas other forms of investment, even
>capital equipment, can pick up and move, and increasingly do, in Reich's view,
>in the global economy.  He's recently made famous the phrase "Who is Us?"
>to indicate the difficulty we would have identifying a truly "U.S." company,
>when stockholders are globally distributed,
>multinational companies employ people worldwide,
>cars are made with parts from all over the globe.  The only assets the
>government and taxpayers can be assured will be truly American are its people
>and infrastructure.  For an American it matters little, for Reich, if he is
>employed by Honda or IBM, because both firms will only invest in the US
>if there are well trained employees to run the machines, and manage the
>plants, and investment by one is as good as investment by the other.

>I'm grossly simplifying here, but that's the nutshell.

>As for his personality and trustworthiness,
>he's a delightful and honest man, as far as I can
>tell, and is probably the single most popular teacher at the Kennedy School.
>-- 
>Todd A. Watkins          Lehigh University/College of Business & Economics
>taw4@lehigh.edu          Rauch Business Center #37/Bethlehem, PA  18015

Glad to hear he's honest and popular. Honesty is of course
important, but popularity may also help collaborative decision making.

These ideas seem to make sense to me .. but I do think that 
having strong American-based companies is also important.

-Larry Watanabe watanabe@cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: misc.invest