What Is Robert Reich's Net Worth?
Robert Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator who has a net worth of $4 million. Robert Reich has worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
Reich was the Secretary of Labor who served under President Bill Clinton. Robert graduated from Dartmouth College, where he earned an A.B. summa cum laude in 1968. He then won a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He went on to receive a J.D. from Yale Law School. Reich is the current Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Some of his past educational positions include former professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as well as a former professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University. He has formerly served as a contributing editor for "The New Republic," "The American Prospect," "Harvard Business Review," "The Atlantic," "The New York Times," and "The Wall Street Journal." He is the author of more than a dozen books and is a political commentator on many television news programs.
Early Life
Robert Reich was born on June 24, 1946, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Mildred and Edwin Reich. His father owned a women's clothing store. As a child, Reich was diagnosed with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, known as Fairbank's disease, a bone disease that results in short stature, among other symptoms. While growing up, the condition made him a target for bullies. Robert often sought the protection of older boys, one of whom was Michael Schwerner. Schwerner was one of the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. Reich later cited this event as inspirational to him as he pursued a career in public service.
Reich attended John Jay High School in Cross River, New York. He received a National Merit Scholarship and majored in history at Dartmouth College, graduating summa cum laude in 1968. He then won a Rhodes Scholarship to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at University College, Oxford. While studying there, he first met Bill Clinton, also a Rhodes Scholar. He later earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where he was classmates with Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham, Clarence Thomas, and Richard Blumenthal. Following his graduation, Robert served as a law clerk to Judge Frank M. Coffin, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Career
From 1974 to 1976, Reich served as an assistant to U.S. Solicitor General Robert Bork, whom he had studied antitrust law with while at Yale. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed him director of the Policy Planning Staff at the Federal Trade Commission. From 1980 to 1992, Reich taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he also wrote a series of books and articles like "The Next American Frontier" and "The Work of Nations."
After Bill Clinton won the Presidential election in 1992, he appointed Reich to head economic policy for the presidential transition. Robert joined the administration as Secretary of Labor. In the early days of the administration, he was seen as one of the most powerful members of the Clinton cabinet. He was close to the president and also had an ambitious agenda for the Department of Labor. He called for more federal spending on jobs training and infrastructure. He also was a member of the National Economic Council and advised the president on health care reform, education policy, welfare reform, national service initiatives, and technology policy. He also worked closely with independent government agencies like the Federal Communications Commission in order to encourage them to take a labor-focused approach to regulation. However, his power in the administration waned as the years passed, primarily because Clinton was also being advised by a number of other political figures who were more concerned with the federal deficit and too much government spending.
In 1996, Reich decided to resign to spend more time with his teenage sons. In April 1997, he published a book, "Locked in the Cabinet," that detailed his experience working for the Clinton administration. The book received criticism for embellishing some events, and some accused Robert of merely being upset at the administration for not following more of his advice.
In 2002, Reich ran for the Governor of Massachusetts, though he lost in the Democratic primary to Shannon O'Brien. He was the first gubernatorial candidate to support same-sex marriage. He also pledged support for abortion rights and strongly condemned capital punishment.
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Meanwhile, Reich became a professor at Brandeis University. Many of his students from Brandeis made up his 2002 campaign staff. In 2006, he joined the faculty of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. He is also a member of the board of trustees for the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2008, Reich endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States. In 2016, he endorsed Bernie Sanders, and both Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in 2020.
Robert has been active in sharing his political views and commentary on social media. In 2015, he founded Inequality Media, which produces videos and interviews on Facebook. In 2017, he began producing a "Resistance Report" program, which provides contextual analysis of White House and Cabinet activities, which he posts on Facebook and YouTube. In late January 2020, he launched a new YouTube weekly talk show called "The Common Good" along with Inequality Media.
Reich has also published many books over the course of his career. Some of his notable publications include "Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America" (2004), "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life" (2007), "Economics in Wonderland" (2017), "The Common Good" (2018), and "The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It" (2020). He has also written two plays, "Milton and Augusto" and "Public Exposure." In 2013, Robert made a documentary called "Inequality for All" with Jacob Kornbluth. A few years later, he again partnered with Kornbluth to make "Saving Capitalism."
Personal Life
In 1973, Reich married British-born lawyer Clare Dalton in Cambridge, UK. They welcomed two sons together – Sam and Adam. Sam became the CEO of the comedy website CollegeHumor, while Adam became a sociology professor at Columbia University. Robert and Clare divorced in 2012. Reich subsequently married photographer Perian Flaherty.
Real Estate
In 2000, Robert paid $500,000 for a home in Berkeley, California. Today, this home is worth around $2 million.
