Robert Reich’s ‘Inequality for All’ lacks true economic insight

Thanks to Economic Policy Journal, there was a trailer shown for the documentary “Inequality for All,” starring Keynesian economist and former Clinton administration official Robert Reich. The film, which was released this past Friday, attempts to show the the inadequacies of the United States economy, particularly income inequality.

Essentially, the documentary appears to blames the downturn on capitalism and free markets, while promoting the concept that the government is the savior. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, the trailer at least, highlight the true reasons why the economy has suffered.

In traditional Reich and Hollywood fashion, “Inequality for All” doesn’t list the actual erosions of the middle class: the Federal Reserve, money printing, government regulation, taxes and corporatism through such audacious legislation like antitrust laws.

The chart, which Reich says looks like a suspension bridge, shows wealth inequality at its highest in the years 1928 and 2007. He and the filmmakers like to shift the transgression on companies, but what about the excessive money printing that Fed Chairs Daniel R. Crissinger and Roy A. Young (1923 to 1930) and Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke (1987 to present day) took part in.

In addition, according to several reviews, Reich pontificates that consumption is what drives the economy – not savings and investments – and that the affluent must be taxed in order to stimulate the economy because the rich save their money.

Economic Collapse News reported last week on the many income inequality fallacies. Indeed, central banking intervention is one element, but also the facts that charts and statistics mislead the American people. Snapshot data could suggest a terrible problem, but media outlets, public officials and financial experts like to refrain from pointing that people start out poor, such as recent graduates, immigrants or the unskilled, but they get richer as time goes by.

Reich also fails to address this crucial aspect of the data.

Audiences don’t really appear to be enthusiastic about the picture: IMDB.com has a 6.1 rating.