Aftershock: The Next Economy And America's Future

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Aftershock: the Next Economy and America’s Future Author: Robert B. Reich Author Review: Robert B. Reich (born June 24, 1946) is an American Political Economist, professor, author and a political commentator. He served in three US presidencies and he was the Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. Reich is currently Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley . Book Review: Starting with the statement made by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner: “For too long, Americans were buying too much and saving too little”, Reich has identified that there were much deeper causes for the recent Financial Crisis. Reich then clearly does not agree with…show more content…
He argues that the Middle Class is shrinking by the time and he evaluates people income in alignment with the business cycle. However, those people in the middle class want to maintain their relative level of income comparing to those who are above the level. Coping Mechanisms are those tools or ways that people in the middle class are using to maintain their relative income. Reich claims that there is a serious of coping mechanisms like women entering the workforce. He then explained that a family to sustain their level of income would put in longer shifts would be a coping mechanism in its own. And finally, the family after they used those two coping mechanisms and yet they feel they did not yet sustained their relative income, the go into the debt! Reich believed that families when they are rushing to the credit would fuel the bubble. However, those coping mechanisms have been exhausted and they are bringing more harm to the society daily. According to some medical statistics, in 2007 the Americans spent roughly $ 23.6 billion in sleeping
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