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Rating: 
Summary: Incomplete but Original and Worthy of a Second Look
Review:
One reason I read only books I have bought (so that I may liberally mark them up) and tend to never discard a book, which is becoming a real problem in my basement, is because current reading will often lead one back to some gems and to a reestimation of earlier readings. Robert B. Reich's "The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism" can be read with renewed appreciation and respect if one if also now reading William Greider's "The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy" or any of the books by Herman E. Daly (e.g. "Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications").
I read Reich's "Locked in the Cabinet", but this book remains a better gauge of his value to America, and I do hope we get a chance to hear from him again. If you have not read this book, it is a real bargain as a used book and you should buy it--Reich will remain relevant for decades to come.
Rating:
Summary: Ad Hominem
Review: A. Robert Reich is not an economist, he's a lawyer. B. The title: does he think he's Adam Smith? Enough ad hominem arguments. In short, the "economic theory" suggested by Reich is as economically irrational as Marxism or Reaganite Supply-Side "economics". There are two well-established economic facts to consider. By "well established" I mean as well established as "let-go-of-a-rock-it-will-fall" is in physics. A) Free trade results in a net benefit to a country. B) There are domestic winners and losers in international trade. Those who are involved in the production of goods or services that are exported will benefit, those who are involved in the production of goods or services that are imported will not. This makes sense: a factory worker in the US who made TVs lost his job when the US started to import TVs from Asia; a management consultant, on the other hand, has benefited by being able to export his services abroad. We have two goals (get the benefits of free trade, prevent domestic social inequity), and there are trade-offs (free trade alone results in inequity, restricted trade reduces our net welfare). Thus, we require two separate policy tools (this is known as Tinbergen's Postulate). The smart thing to is to allow free trade (and get the gains from trade), but institute a re-distributive tax policy aimed at compensating the losers (by encouraging them to shift to sectors in which they will benefit more directly from trade). Mr. Reich's solution: strategic trade, a highly dubious theory that seems to work on the blackboard (it involves a beastly amount of theory and calculus), but fails in reality. Strategic trade theory states that we ought to use tariffs and subsidies to increase American firms' market shares in their fields. And we better do it because other countries are doing it to us! Sounds good, right? That's why folks like Mr. Reich advocate it: it sounds good (and because the counter-argument doesn't work in a 30-second sound bite). In reality, it doesn't work because we don't know how foreign firms and governments will react. This book is full of pat answers that are not too difficult (economics is very very very difficult) or disturbing. In essence, we don't have to radically restructure our own society to reduce social and income inequity, we can just blame the foreigners who aren't playing fair. Sorry, not that easy. For a much better look at economics (written by a real economist), find books by Paul Krugman of M.I.T. His books have a definite liberal slant, but they are not dismissive of conservative economics (instead, he clearly lays out conservative arguments and then explains why he believes they are wrong--and, when he is dismissive, he is non-partisan--the Democrats' strategic trade outlook is just as silly as the Republicans' supply-side). His books are not simple (nothing in economics is simple, not even "supply and demand"), but they are extremely clear and well written, involve only very basic math (no calculus, bless him) and can be understood by just about anyone from those unfamiliar with real theoretical economics (as opposed to garbage like supply-side or strategic trade) to those who are very well acquainted with economics.
Rating:
Summary: Globalization 101
Review: Although written way back in 1990-1, this book was prescient enough and insightful enough to still be relevant today. The trends Reich lays out -- toward globalization of capital, outsourcing of labor, the internationalizing of information through the internet and the growing Third World distrust of "American ideals" -- continue unabated in 2004 just as he said they would. He provides a clear analysis of why American hegemony in manufacturing evaporated in the '60s & '70s, and how this led inevitably in the '80s & '90s to the shrinkage of the middle class. He shows why the rich continue to get richer (through PACs) while the poor get poorer (through withdrawing from a system which continues to abandon them). Although the book is not overtly political, he exposes "Reaganomics," the trickle-down theory and their current euphemisms as self-aggrandizing pandering to political contributors. Contrary to some reactionary reviewers, Reich does NOT advocate a return to progressive income taxation (which created the biggest consumer boom in history), because he acknowledges it's too late for that.
Throughout, his text is very concise and direct, without an extraneous word.
He loses a star only for the last chapter, which is a utopian and not-very-convincing prescription for a way out of the morass. He no doubt felt a responsibility to provide some sort of solution after 300 pages of problems -- but his days with the Clinton administration immediately following the publication of this book may have disabused him of such easy answers.
Rating: 
Summary: Good definitions, incomplete discussion of the solution
Review: I was interested in reading this book to gain some sort of understanding on the liberal-fiscal ideas bouncing around the heads of some of my democratic friends. I have to say that some of the ideas in this book, ones covering the rise of internationalized corporate webs, was stimulating and provided good cause to re-evaluate my positions on supply-side policies. However, the proposed solutions (such as taxing the life out of people at rates as high as 83%) are unrealistic and hopelessly utopian. The ideas to grow government by the sizes required to carry out the proposed public policies for aiding the poor and increasing the number of symbolic-analytic people in our society boarders on severe socialism, even communism. Those that make money should not be forced into acts of humanitarianism by excessive taxation. Also, the author never considers that in the increasingly globalized world, what is to stop those making the money from fleeing the nation that built them because the cost to stay (taxes) are too high? His only argument is that the mobility of human capital is less than corporate assets, but if living somewhere else on the planet means saving you 80% of your salary, just how mobile might wealthy symbolic-analysts become? In the end I was disappointed because The Work of Nations spent the majority of the book defining the problem and only the last 1/5 of it explaining a solution and in no good way dealing with the tough details and hurdles of implementing that solution.
Rating: 
Summary: Trenchant analysis of the growing gap between rich and poor
Review: Robert Reich has done a masterful job of analyzing the widening gap between the one-fifth of us who are riding the Web to unprecedented wealth; and the four-fifths of us who are falling farther and farther behind. I found his central thesis entirely credible: that the "symbolic analysts" of the world are seceding from the rest of the population into enclaves of privilege. His confession, as a Democrat, that his party has sold out to the same interests which used to be the sole property of Republicans helps explain why None of the Above won another presidential election this year. I can't fault Reich for not coming up with a brilliant solution to this trend--a renewed call to patriotism requires a great leader to issue the call, and he wasn't around on Election Day.
Rating:
Summary: Investing in people
Review: Robert Reich is interested in labor. Not surprising. He's a former Secretary of Labor under Clinton's administration. He begins by telling us that corporations have lost their national identity. In other words, almost all American and foreign corporations consist of employees, investors, and machinery that are located all over the world, and so the traditional view that American economic progress being directly related to the profitability of American firms is no longer valid. So what then should be the economic goals of the state? Three types of workers exist in Reich's thinking: routine producers, in-person servers, and symbolic analysts. Reich shows evidence that the symbolic analysts, who "solve, identify, and broker problems by manipulating symbols," are the winners in this age. The workers who are educated and can use their knowledge to supply a service will get the highest incomes. Those who have no knowledge to sell, who are engaged in routine jobs in factories or in-person servers such as waiters and cashiers will be left behind them. So Reich proposes that education is of great importance, and devotes two chapters to "The Education of the Symbolic Analyst." It doesn't matter whether or not American firms, if definable, prosper. It is in the long term interests of the American people for the people to learn and be able to use that knowledge. If foreign firms come and employ Americans, good. The workers will still be Americans, and they will learn stuff in the process. But not all Americans can be symbolic analysts, and perhaps not all symbolic analysts can be well off. Reich's main concern seems to be income inequality and the social attitudes of the symbolic analysts. He feels that we have lost a sense of national community as more and more symbolic analysts, who earn the most income, become less dependent upon the other workers who earn much less. If those who are fortunate do not feel obligated to those who are not, then what does that mean for America as a whole? I don't feel that I gained much new information in reading this work. And though I read with interest, the economic arguments are not clearly stated (understandably, as this is written for the public). So, many claims were made and they make sense given the data and reasoning he provides, but it isn't a sturdy enough work for me to give more than three stars. Robert Reich takes a liberal view, but I disagree with other reviews that this book is drivel. One review comments on how the rich deserve to be rich for working hard and the poor, it is implied, are lazy and deserve to be somehow punished by low wages. Income disparity is a concern. Whether or not Reich's argument is sound and his data accurate, there is nothing wrong in sympathizing with the poor or thinking that government might serve some purpose in aiding them. There is much that is wrong in making general assumptions about the behavior of the poor and what they deserve. Another review says that Reich advocates strategic trade in which "we ought to use tariffs and subsidies to increase American firms' market shares in their fields." Reich does advocate subsidies to help the work force gain advanced skills, but he says, "it would draw no distinctions based on the nationalities of the firm's shareholders or top executives." Such subsidies would have little to do with "American firms," a notion he spends the first half of the book trying to erase. Not great, not bad. Pick it up if you're interested in these topics.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book by a Harvard economist!
Review: The first half of "The Work of Nations" did a great job of explaining how the global economy really works. The second half of the book revealed Reich's ideas on how to improve the American labor force. I LOVED the first half but wasn't so thrilled with the second half. Free-traders (even the conservatives) will love the first half, and liberals will like the second half. I do understand that M.I.T. economist Paul Krugman takes issue with Reich in his book "Pop Internationalism," but even Krugman must like the first half of "The Work of Nations." The introduction alone makes this book a must read.
Rating:
Summary: The part on kinds of jobs is good
Review: The usefulness of this bok comes from its accurate and original analysis on the classes of jobs that exist today: Symbols analysis, in-person services, and routine laborers. Basically, any job can fit in this classification, except, for example, professional athletes (at least I am doubtful about where they would fit). As for the solutions to the growing gap between rich and poor, please note that this is a most complex problem or, better, set of problems. There is simply no clearcut recipe for abridging economic and social gaps, since each national situation is different. Some things we know that are indispensable, but not always enough: investment in infrastructure, public education, health, etc. We know that civic values are important and what investments are needed, but HOW to do it remains the core of serious political debate. Certainly, I don't think that for nations like the US, "strategic trade" might be a solution (it relays on the basic statist assumption: that a group of bureaucrats will know better than the market what to do with resources). Nevertheless, I did find the book interesting and thought-provoking, even if some of its proposals are somewhat outdated nowadays.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent readable treaty on economics.
Review: This book almost seem like a revival of Adam Smith "Wealth of Nations" that was published in 1776. Both authors demonstrate that the living standard of a country will depend essentially on how productive their respective citizens are. They also suggests that the focus on international trade position is often misplaced and does not by itself reflect the economic power of a country. Reich develops a great metaphor for the modern worker: the Symbolic Analyst. This person is someone with a very high IQ, with the ability to manipulate symbols (letters, numbers, icons) extremely proficiently so as to develop new markets for his employer products and services. These include investment bankers, consultants, merger and acquisition lawyers, engineers, software programmers, and many other high end white collar professionals. Reich shows how these people educate and train themselves, and what they do to stay ahead of the knowledge curve. You will most probably recognize many of your colleagues and yourselves within this description.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent readable treaty on economics.
Review: This book almost seem like a revival of Adam Smith "Wealth of Nations" that was published in 1776. Both authors demonstrate that the living standard of a country will depend essentially on how productive their respective citizens are. They also suggests that the focus on international trade position is often misplaced and does not by itself reflect the economic power of a country. Reich develops a great metaphor for the modern worker: the Symbolic Analyst. This person is someone with a very high IQ, with the ability to manipulate symbols (letters, numbers, icons) extremely proficiently so as to develop new markets for his employer products and services. These include investment bankers, consultants, merger and acquisition lawyers, engineers, software programmers, and many other high end white collar professionals. Reich shows how these people educate and train themselves, and what they do to stay ahead of the knowledge curve. You will most probably recognize many of your colleagues and yourselves within this description.
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