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A wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by workers in exchange for their labor.

Compensation in terms of wages is given to workers and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees. Compensation is a monetary benefit given to employees in return for the services provided by them.

Determinants of wage rates[link]

Depending on the structure and traditions of different economies around the world, wage rates are either the product of market forces (supply and demand), as is common in the United States, or wage rates may be influenced by other factors such as tradition, social structure and seniority, as in Japan.^[1]

Wages in the United States[link]

Historical graph of real wages in the US from 1964 to 2004.

In the United States, wages for most workers are set by market forces, or else by collective bargaining, where a labor union negotiates on the workers' behalf. The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a minimum wage at the federal level that all states must abide by, among other provisions. Fourteen states and a number of cities have set their own minimum wage rates that are higher than the federal level. For certain federal or state government contacts, employers must pay the so-called prevailing wage as determined according to the Davis-Bacon Act or its state equivalent. Activists have undertaken to promote the idea of a living wage rate which account for living expenses and other basic necessities, setting the living wage rate much higher than current minimum wage laws require.

See also[link]

• Compensation of employees
• Employee benefit (non-monetary compensation in exchange for labor)
• Employment
• Labour in Economics
• List of Average Wages per Country
• Performance-related pay
• Wage labour
• Wage share
• Real wage
• Minimum wage
• List of sovereign states in Europe by net average wage

Political science:

• Labour power
• Proletarian
• Working class
• Wage slavery

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up wage in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Wealth of Nations - click Chapter 8
• Understanding Capitalism Part III: Wages and Labor Markets - Critical of capitalism
• U.S. Department of Labor: Minimum Wage Laws - Different laws by State
• Average U.S. farm and non-farm wage
• LaborFair Resources - Link to Fair Labor Practices
• The Truth Behind Wages in Mining - Link to An Article Abouth How Wages are measured and Current Standards for Mining Professionals
• Database Central Europe - Data on average wages in Central Europe and in Emerging Markets

Xavier Kurt Naidoo (born October 2, 1971) is a German singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actor. Born and raised in Mannheim, Naidoo worked in several jobs in the gastronomy and the musical industry before relocating to the United States in the early 1990s, where he released his first full-length English language-album Seeing Is Believing under his stage name Kobra in 1994. He currently resides in his native Germany.

After working as a backing vocalist for the Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt and 3P label mates Sabrina Setlur and Illmat!c, Naidoo released his first German language album Nicht von dieser Welt in 1998, for which he won an ECHO Award and an MTV Europe Music Award. Selling more than one million copies in total, it produced six singles, including "Seine Straßen." and "Sie sieht mich nicht," the latter of which served as the theme song for Astérix & Obélix Take on Caesar (1999). After his highly publicized departure from 3P, his third studio album Zwischenspiel – Alles für den Herrn was released in 2002. It spawned the top five hit singles "Wo willst du hin?" and "Abschied nehmen" and led to a collaboration with Wu-Tang Clan member and producer RZA, with whom he released his first number-one single "Ich kenne nichts (das so schön ist wie du)" in 2003.

Known for his soulful voice and his Christian lyrics, he has collaborated with several famous artists such as Deborah Cox and Swiss artist Stress. Naidoo was with the Söhne Mannheims (Sons of Mannheim) earlier before he became famous, after his popularity increased he went back to the band and wanted to help them to become famous too, which worked. Nowadays he switches back and forth with doing some Solo music or recording an Album and going on tour with the Söhne Mannheims. He joined groups like Brothers Keepers and the charity project Zeichen der Zeit (Signs of the Times) in the early 2000s.

Personal life[link]

Naidoo is the child of a South African mother and South African father. His mother is from South Africa but is of Tamil heritage

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

• Tatort - Die kleine Zeugin (TV, 2000)
• Auf Herz und Nieren (2001)

Musical[link]

• Human Pacific (1995)
• People (1998)

Awards[link]

• 1999: MTV Europe Music Award - "Best German Act"
• 2000: ECHO - "Best National Male Artist - Rock/Pop"
• 2002: Goldene Stimmgabel
• 2002: Comet - "Best Act National"
• 2002: MTV Europe Music Award - "Best German Act"
• 2004: Amadeus Award - "Record of The Year" for "Ich kenne nichts (Das so schön ist wie Du)"
• 2006: Goldene Kamera - "Pop National"
• 2006: ECHO - "Best National Male Artist - Rock/Pop"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Xavier Naidoo @ MusikNews

Kool Savas
Kool Savas in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Savaş Yurderi
Also known as	King Kool Savas (KKS), Juks, Jux, Essah
Born	(1975-02-10) February 10, 1975 (age 37) Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Origin	Turkey
Genres	German hip hop
Labels	Essah Entertainment
Associated acts	M.O.R., Azad, Samy Deluxe, Lumidee, 40 Glocc, Ying Yang Twins
Website	Official website

Savas Yurderi (born 10 February 1975) also known as Kool Savas (or as well King Kool Savas), is a German rapper and hip hop artist. Savas is mostly referred to as "King of Rap" or "King of German Rap".^[1]

"Savaş" is the Turkish word for "war".

Biography[link]

Born in Aachen, Germany to a German mother and a Turkish father, Savas' family moved back to Turkey when he was one year old. His father, who is from Çorum, Turkey, was arrested because of his political posture against the government in Turkey, and as a result of his father's arrest, his mother was forced to return to Aachen with Savas.^[2] By 1987, his father was released and the entire family was reunited and relocated to Berlin. It was in Berlin where Savas first came across Hip Hop music.^{[citation needed]}

Savas lived with his girlfriend, Melbeatz, in Berlin for an extended amount of time. As a result, the majority of Savas' beats were produced by her. Although Savas and his girlfriend are no longer together, they remain close friends.^{[citation needed]}

Although Savas is popularly called a "Berlin rapper," he resides in Heidelberg. He is also a vegetarian.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

2000: Early career[link]

Savas started his rap career with the EP Warum rappst du, containing rather provocative lyrics in songs such as "L.M.S.", "Schwule Rapper" and "Pimplegionär". He first started under the name Juks and rapped mostly in English. He became successful through the groups Masters of Rap (M.O.R.) and Westberlin Maskulin.

In 2001, he and all of M.O.R. left former label Put Da Needle To Da Records, because of personal and artistic differences. They released a diss track against former label CEO Peter Sreckovic titled "Track gegen Peter" where Savas gave reason for his exit.

Beginning in 2002, he founded his own label, Optik Records, where he released his first solo album titled Der beste Tag meines Lebens, for which he won a Comet award. For the album, Savas worked together with several domestic and foreign musicians including Azad, Samy Deluxe, Kurupt, 40 Glocc, Dem Franchize Boyz, Lumidee, RZA, Moses Pelham, J-Luv, Bligg, Jadakiss, Royce da 5'9", Xavier Naidoo, Mobb Deep, Ying Yang Twins and Illmatic. The album sold over 90,000 copies worldwide.

With his record label, Savas tried to build up other artists. He discovered Eko Fresh and signed many upcoming artists such as DJ Nicon, Melbeatz, Ercandize, Caput, Amar, Sinan and Moe Mitchell.

In 2004, Savas released his first mixtape, "Kool Savas goes Hollywood" which was later made available as free online download.

Since early 2005, Savas has been supporting the efforts of his younger brother Sinan, his cousin Dimi and his brother-in-law Igor in their blooming rap careers.

In 2005, he released his mixtape titled "Die John Bello Story". It was the most successful mixtape in Europe in 2005 and also Savas' best to date at over 60,000 sold copies. In the same year he produced the album "One", together with Azad. The hit single "All 4 One" peaked at 4 in the German Top 100 Singles.

In 2006, Savas released the label sampler "Optik Takeover", a collaboration with several other artists signed to Optik Records. Also in 2006, he released an album with Optik Schweiz, the Swiss counterpart of Optik Records, titled "Wer Hatz Erfunden".

His second solo album, Tot oder Lebendig (eng. Dead or Alive), was released in 2007 and proved to be successful at 50,000 sold copies.

Savas released the sequel mixtape "Die John Bello Story 2" in 2008. He then went on to release an updated version labeled the "Brainwash Edition".

In 2009, he released the EP "Was hat S.A.V da vor" with the Hip Hop Magazine Juice. The same year saw the release of a collaboration album with Optik Russia which was called "New Russian Standard".

On March 12, 2010, Savas released "Die John Bello Story 3" which sold roughly 50,000 copies. The album featured fellow rappers Azad, Curse, Ying Yang Twins, Olli Banjo, Ercandize, Moe Mitchell, Amar, Franky Kubrick, Kaas, Mo Trip, Sinan, Tua, Vega, Kitty Kat, Laas Unltd. and more.

His 2011 album Aura included a single with the same name and a song featuring Xavier Naidoo, titled LMS 2012.

Controversy[link]

Eko Fresh[link]

In 2002 Eko Fresh and Savas began to dispute. Eko Fresh left the label and continued his career without his colleague. He released "Die Abrechnung", a song which spoke out against Kool Savas and other German rappers. Savas replied with "Das Urteil", which also became a hit song.

Discography[link]

• 2002: Der beste Tag meines Lebens
• 2004: Die besten Tage sind gezählt
• 2007: Tot oder Lebendig
• 2011: Aura

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kool Savas

• YouTube
• Official Homepage'
• Official Facebook Page'

Elizabeth Warren (born June 22, 1949) is an American bankruptcy law expert, policy advocate, Harvard Law School professor, and Democratic Party candidate in the 2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts. She has written several academic and popular books concerning the American economy and personal finance. She contributed to the oversight of the 2008 U.S. bailout program, and also led the conception and establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Warren attended The George Washington University and the University of Houston. She received a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law–Newark in 1976. Warren taught law at several universities and was listed by the Association of American Law Schools as a minority law professor throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the wake of the U.S. financial crisis, Warren served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the Troubled Assets Relief Program in 2008. She later served as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under U.S. President Barack Obama.

Early life and education[link]

Elizabeth Herring^[1] was born June 22, 1949,^[2] in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to working class parents Pauline (née Reed) and Donald Jones Herring.^[3][4][5] She was the Herrings' fourth child, with three older brothers.^[6] When Warren was twelve, her father, a janitor, had a heart attack, which led to a pay cut, medical bills, and eventually the loss of their car. Her mother answered phones at Sears and Warren worked as a waitress.^[6][7]

At Northwest Classen High School she was named "Oklahoma's top high-school debater". She received a debate-team scholarship to George Washington University at the age of 16. Initially aspiring to be a teacher, she left GWU after two years to marry her high-school boyfriend Jim Warren.^[6][8] She moved to Houston to be with her husband, who was a NASA engineer. There she enrolled in the University of Houston where she graduated in 1970 with a degree in speech pathology and audiology.^[9] She taught children with disabilities for a year in a public school. However, she had not taken the required education courses to get a teaching certificate (she previously taught under an "emergency certificate"). After taking several graduate education courses, she decided she no longer wanted to pursue education as a career. She and her husband moved to New Jersey and since she was pregnant with their first child, she decided to stay at home for a few years.^[10][11][12]

After making a decision to study law, Warren enrolled at the Rutgers School of Law–Newark,^[10] where she served as an editor of the Rutgers Law Review, and was a summer associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft's.^[13] Shortly before her graduation in 1976, she became pregnant with her second child and she worked from home, writing wills and doing real estate closings.^[8][10]

She and Jim had two children before divorcing in 1978: Amelia Warren Tyagi, with whom Elizabeth would later coauthor two books and several articles, and a son, Alexander Warren. Today they have three grandchildren.^[14] In 1980, Warren married Bruce Mann, also a Harvard law professor. She cites Methodist founder John Wesley as an inspiration.^[15]

Academic career[link]

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s she taught law at several universities throughout the country, while researching bankruptcy and middle-class personal finance.^[10] In 1978 Congress had passed a law that made it easier for companies and individuals to declare bankruptcy and Warren decided "to set out to prove they were all a bunch of cheaters... I was going to expose these people who were taking advantage of the rest of us". However, she instead found that the vast majority of those in bankruptcy courts were from hardworking middle-class families: people who had lost their jobs or had family breakups or illnesses that had wiped out their savings. "It changed my vision," she said.^[6]

According to her CV, she taught at the Rutgers School of Law–Newark (1977–78), the University of Houston Law Center (1978–83), the University of Michigan (visiting, 1985), and the University of Texas School of Law (1981–87). She also worked as a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin (1983–87). She joined the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1987, where she became the William A Schnader Professor of Commercial Law in 1990. She joined Harvard Law School in 1992 as the Robert Braucher Visiting Professor of Commercial Law, and began a permanent position as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law in 1995.^[16]

In 1995 Warren was asked to advise the National Bankruptcy Review Commission. She helped to draft the commission's report and then spent several years opposing legislation meant to severely restrict the right of consumers to file for bankruptcy. Warren and others opposing the legislation were not successful and in 2005 the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was passed by Congress.^[17]

Warren appeared in the documentary film Maxed Out in 2006, has appeared several times on Dr. Phil to talk about money and families, has been a guest on The Daily Show,^[18] is interviewed frequently on cable news networks,^[19] appears in Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, has appeared on the Charlie Rose talk show,^[20] and has appeared on the Real Time With Bill Maher talk show.^[21] She has also appeared on the PBS show NOW.^[22]

Warren in 2010 at a Women in Finance symposium held at the U.S. Treasury.

From November 2006 to November 2010, Warren was a member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion, which advises the FDIC "on important initiatives focused on expanding access to banking services by underserved populations".^[23] She is a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, an independent organization which advises the U.S. Congress on bankruptcy law.^[24] She is a former Vice-President of the American Law Institute and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2005 to 2008, Warren and her law students wrote a blog called Warren Reports, part of Josh Marshall's TPMCafe.

Popular works[link]

In addition to writing more than 100 scholarly articles and six academic books, Warren has written several best-selling books, including All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, coauthored with her daughter, Amelia Tyagi.

Warren and Tyagi also wrote The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke. Warren and Tyagi point out that a fully employed worker today earns less inflation-adjusted income than a fully employed worker did 30 years ago. To increase their income, families have sent a second parent into the workforce. Although families spend less today on clothing, appliances, and other consumption, the costs of core expenses such as mortgages, health care, transportation, and child care have increased dramatically. The result is that even with two-income earners, families are no longer able to save and have incurred greater and greater debt.

In an article in The New York Times, Jeff Madrick said of Warren's book:

The upshot is that two-income families often have even less income left over today than did an equivalent single-income family 30 years ago, even when they make almost twice as much. And they go deeper in debt. The authors find that it is not the free-spending young or the incapacitated elderly who are declaring bankruptcy so much as families with children... their main thesis is undeniable. Typical families often cannot afford the high-quality education, health care and neighborhoods required to be middle class today. More clearly than anyone else, I think, Ms. Warren and Ms. Tyagi have shown how little attention the nation and our government have paid to the way Americans really live.^[25]

In an article in Time magazine by Maryanna Murray Buechner, "Parent Trap" (subtitled "Want to go bust? Have a kid. Educate same. Why the middle class never had it so bad"), Buechner said of Warren's book:

For families looking for ways to cope, Warren and Tyagi mainly offer palliatives: Buy a cheaper house. Squirrel away a six-month cash cushion. Yeah, right. But they also know that there are no easy solutions. Readers who are already committed to a house and parenthood will find little to mitigate the deflating sense that they have nowhere to go but down.^[26]

In 2005, David Himmelstein and Warren published a study on bankruptcy and medical bills,^[27] which said that half of all families filing for bankruptcy did so in the aftermath of a serious medical problem. The finding was particularly noteworthy because 75 percent of families who fit that description had medical insurance.^[28] This study was widely cited in academic studies and policy debates, though some have challenged the study's methods and offered alternative interpretations of the data.^[29]

TARP oversight[link]

On November 14, 2008, Warren was appointed by United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to chair the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.^[30] The Panel releases monthly oversight reports that evaluate the government bailout and related programs.^[15] The Panel's monthly reports under Warren's leadership covered foreclosure mitigation, consumer and small business lending, commercial real estate, AIG, bank stress tests, the impact of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) on the financial markets, government guarantees, the automotive industry, and many other topics. The Panel has also released special reports on financial regulatory reform and farm loans. For each report, Warren released a video on the Congressional Oversight Panel's website explaining key findings.^[a]

In an interview at Newsweek, Warren commented, "To restore some basic sanity to the financial system, we need two central changes: fix broken consumer-credit markets and end guarantees for the big players that threaten our entire economic system."^[31]

On July 29, 2011, she left her role with the agency to return to academic life at Harvard Law School. Her departing address indicated how she first became involved:

Four years ago, I submitted an article to Democracy Journal that argued for a new government agency called the Financial Product Safety Commission. I threw myself into that piece because I felt strongly that a new consumer agency would make the credit markets work better for American families and strengthen the economic security of the middle class... I leave this agency, but not this fight... the issues we deal with – a middle class that has been squeezed and business models built on tricks and traps – are deeply personal to me, and they always will be.^[32]

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau[link]

Warren has long advocated for the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency designed to "make basic financial practices such as taking out a mortgage or loan more clear and transparent while ferreting out unfair lending practices," according to CNN. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Warren said "My first choice is a strong consumer agency. My second choice is no agency at all and plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor".^[33] Through Warren's efforts, the bureau was established by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by Obama in July 2010. For the first year after the bill's signing, Warren worked on implementation of the bureau as a Special Assistant to the President in anticipation of the agency's formal opening. While liberal groups and consumer advocacy groups pushed for Obama to nominate Warren as the agency's permanent director, Warren was strongly opposed by financial institutions which had criticized Warren as overly aggressive in pursuing regulations, and by the Republican members of Congress. Furthermore, she did not have the strong support of the Obama administration, particularly Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. In July 2011, Obama instead announced the nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as the bureau's director, subject to Congressional approval.^[34] However, in December his nomination was blocked by a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate. Until a director is confirmed, the agency will not gain the full measure of its powers. It can supervise the compliance of banks with existing laws, but the Dodd-Frank financial legislation dictates that it cannot supervise other financial companies or write new rules. On 4 January 2012, President Obama named Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray the Bureau's Director in a recess appointment.^[35]

2012 US Senate run[link]

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (May 2012)

On September 14, 2011, Warren declared that she intended to run for the Democratic nomination for the 2012 election in Massachusetts for the United States Senate seat currently held by incumbent Scott Brown.^[36][37] On September 21, a video of Warren explaining the rationale of her economic policy received attention on the Internet.^[38]

Cherokee self-identification controversy[link]

An editor has expressed a concern that this section lends undue weight to certain ideas relative to the article as a whole. Please help to discuss and resolve the dispute before removing this message. (June 2012)

Warren listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools directory of law professors, from 1986 to 1995.^[39] The Brown campaign, the Native American Rights Fund, and a group of more than 150 Cherokees organized by Cherokee genealogist and activist David Cornsilk^[40][41] have questioned her motives for the claim and its propriety.^{[42][43][44][45][46]} The group, “Cherokees Demand Truth from Elizabeth Warren”, plans a protest at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention on June 2, 2012.^[47]

Genealogist Chris Child at the New England Historic Genealogical Society researched Warren's claimed native ancestry but found nothing conclusive. According to Child, “Once you go back further than 150 years the records are more complicated to go through,” and it may take weeks to months to make a determination.^[48][49][50] Warren said that she had heard family stories about her Cherokee ancestors her entire life ^[51] and had hoped it would create opportunities to meet people like her (even though the directory does not specify which minority professors belong to).^[39] But according to Warren, such opportunities never materialized and she eventually "stopped checking it off".^[52]

A month after the controversy began the Boston Globe discovered documents indicating that the Harvard University Law School had reported employing a Native American professor to the U.S. government in the years immediately before and after Warren left Harvard for a stint at the University of Pennsylvania.^[53] The most recent diversity census, for 2011, still shows one Native American professor. The census says that “Race/Ethnicity designations are from self-report data”.^[39] Warren, who does not meet the federal diversity definition of "Native American," admitted providing the information that she was a Native American to University of Pennsylvania and Harvard faculty in conversations after she was hired but denied that "there was [any] reporting for this".^[53] The Washington Post observed that she had "turned what could have been a small problem into a major story" by the way she had handled the issue.^[54]

According to a Suffolk University/7NEWS (WHDH-Boston) poll of 600 likely voters on May 20-22, 2012 there was 72 percent awareness of the controversy. 69 percent said Warren’s Native American heritage listing was not a significant story and 27 percent said it was.^[55][56]

Recognition[link]

Warren at the 2009 100 Most Influential People in the World reception.

Since about 2009, Warren has been recognized by several institutions as a major political figure. In 2009, the Boston Globe named her the Bostonian of the Year,^[9] and the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts honored her with the Lelia J. Robinson Award.^[57] She was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2009 and 2010.^[58] The National Law Journal has repeatedly named Warren as one of the Fifty Most Influential Women Attorneys in America,^[59] and in 2010 they honored her as one of the 40 most influential attorneys of the decade.^[60]

Warren has been recognized for her dynamic teaching style. In 2009, Warren became the first professor in Harvard's history to win the law school's teaching award twice. The Sacks-Freund Teaching Award was voted on by the graduating class in honor of "her teaching ability, openness to student concerns, and contributions to student life at Harvard."^[61] Warren also has won awards from her students at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and the University of Houston Law Center. She delivered the commencement address at the Rutgers School of Law–Newark in May 2011, where she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree and was conferred membership into the Order of the Coif.^[62]

Publications[link]

Selected articles

• Warren, E. (1987). "Bankruptcy Policy". The University of Chicago Law Review 54 (3): 775–814. JSTOR 1599826. 
• Warren, E. (1992). "The Untenable Case for Repeal of Chapter 11". The Yale Law Journal 102 (2): 437–479. JSTOR 796843. 
• Warren, E. (1993). "Bankruptcy Policymaking in an Imperfect World". Michigan Law Review 92 (2): 336–387. JSTOR 1289668. 
• "Principled Approach to Consumer Bankruptcy". American Bankruptcy Law Journal 71: 483. 1997. http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/ambank71&div=25&id=&page=. 
• "The Bankruptcy Crisis". Indiana Law Journal 73 (4): 1079. Fall 1998. http://www.law.indiana.edu/ilj/volumes/v73/no4/index.shtml. 
• Warren, Elizabeth; Westbrook, Jay Lawrence (January 2000). "Financial Characteristics of Businesses in Bankruptcy". SSRN Electronic Journal 73: 499. DOI:10.2139/ssrn.194750. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=194750. 
• Himmelstein, DU; Warren, E; Thorne, D; Woolhandler, S (2005). "Illness and injury as contributors to bankruptcy". Health affairs (Project Hope) Suppl Web Exclusives: W5–63–W5–73. DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.w5.63. PMID 15689369. 
• "The Vanishing Middle Class". In Edwards, John, ed. (2007). Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream. The New Press. ISBN 978-1-59558-176-1. 
• Himmelstein, David U.; Warren, Elizabeth; Thorne, Deborah; Woolhandler, Steffie J. (2005). "Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy". SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI:10.2139/ssrn.664565. 
• Himmelstein, DU; Thorne, D; Warren, E; Woolhandler, S (2009). "Medical bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a national study". The American Journal of Medicine 122 (8): 741–6. DOI:10.1016/j.amjmed.2009.04.012. PMID 19501347. 

Books

• As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America. Oxford University Press. 1989. ISBN 978-0-19-505578-8.  (with Teresa A. Sullivan and Jay Westbrook)
• The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt. Yale University Press. 2001. ISBN 978-0-300-09171-7.  (with Teresa A. Sullivan and Jay Westbrook)
• The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke. Basic Books. 2004. ISBN 978-0-465-09090-7.  (with Amelia Warren Tyagi)
• All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. Simon and Schuster. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7432-6988-9.  (with Amelia Warren Tyagi)
• Casenote Legal Briefs: Commercial Law. Aspen Publishers. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7355-5827-4.  (with Lynn M. LoPucki, Daniel Keating, Ronald Mann, and Normal Goldenberg)
• The Law of Debtors and Creditors: Text, Cases, and Problems (6th ed.). Aspen Publishers. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7355-7626-1.  (with Jay Westbrook)
• Chapter 11: Reorganizing American Businesses (Essentials). Aspen Publishers. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7355-7654-4. 
• Secured Credit: A Systems Approach. Wolters Kluwer. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7355-7649-0.  (with Lynn M. LoPucki)

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Social class in the United States

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Elizabeth Warren U.S. Senate campaign website
• Elizabeth Warren at Harvard Law School
  • Bibliography
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances on Charlie Rose
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Elizabeth Warren in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Elizabeth Warren collected news and commentary at Salon.com
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org

Interviews and articles

• Generation, Gap, and interview with Elizabeth Warrn in Guernica Magazine
• Elizabeth Warren: a tough sheriff in finance's Wild West, The Daily Telegraph
• Warren Winning Means You Won't Sell It If You Can't Explain It, Bloomberg
• In fight over credit rules, she wields a plan, Boston Globe
• "The TARP Queen: Why we should all bow before Elizabeth Warren (even if you've never heard of her)". Slate. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090427081845/http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/04/23/elizabeth-warren-my-hero. 
• Bank Buster, Mother Jones
• The Debt Crusader: Inspired by Dr. Phil, Harvard's Elizabeth Warren has gone to D.C. to change the way America borrows, Newsweek
• Elizabeth Warren on the Economy, NOW on PBS
• Video: Elizabeth Warren, New Yorker, Nov. 16, 2009
• Interview with Yahoo! Finance, Oct. 16, 2009
• Voices of Power Video: Elizabeth Warren, Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2009
• Interview with Elizabeth Warren from Frontline
• Elizabeth Warren on NPR link to full interview for show of May 8, 2009
• UCTV programs with Elizabeth Warren
  • The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class: Higher Risks, Lower Rewards, and a Shrinking Safety Net
  • Conversations with History: Law, Politics, and the Coming Collapse of the Middle Class with Elizabeth Warren
• Warren says Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is Obama's "Strongest Financial Reform" – video report by Democracy Now!

Robert Bernard Reich ( /ˈraɪʃ/;^[2] born June 24, 1946) is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Reich is currently Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was formerly a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government^[3] and professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University. He has also been a contributing editor of The New Republic, The American Prospect (also chairman and founding editor), Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Reich is a political commentator on programs including Hardball with Chris Matthews, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CNBC's Kudlow & Company, and APM's Marketplace. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Best Cabinet Members of the century,^[4] and The Wall Street Journal in 2008 placed him sixth on its list of the "Most Influential Business Thinkers".^[5] He was appointed a member of President-elect Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board.^[6]

He has published 14 books, including the best-sellers, The Work of Nations, Reason, Supercapitalism, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, and a best-selling e-book, "Beyond Outrage". He is also chairman of Common Cause and writes his own blog about the political economy at robertreich.org.

Early life and career[link]

Reich was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and attended John Jay High School in Cross River, New York. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating with an A.B. summa cum laude in 1968 and winning a Rhodes Scholarship to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University.^[7] Reich subsequently earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. At Yale, he was classmates with Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Richard Blumenthal. He first met Bill Clinton when they both were Rhodes Scholars at Oxford.^[8] Before Hillary and Bill met each other, he allegedly went on a date with Hillary Clinton.^[9]

From 1973 to 1974 he served as law clerk to Judge Frank M. Coffin, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and from 1974 to 1976 was Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, Robert Bork. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed him Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the Federal Trade Commission.

From 1980 until 1992, Reich taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he wrote a series of influential books and articles, including The Next American Frontier and The Work of Nations. In The Next American Frontier he blamed the nation's lagging economic growth on "paper entrepreneurialism" -- financial and legal gamesmanship that drained the economy of resources needed for better products and services.

In The Work of Nations he argued that a nation's competitiveness depends on the education and skills of its people and on the infrastructure connecting them with one another, rather than on the profitability of companies headquartered within it. Private capital, he said, was increasingly global and footloose, while a nation's people—its human capital—constituted the one resource on which the future standard of living of a nation uniquely depended. He urged policy makers to make such public investments the cornerstone of economic policy.

Bill Clinton incorporated Reich's thinking into his 1992 campaign platform, "Putting People First," and after being elected invited Reich to head his economic transition team. Reich later joined the administration as Secretary of Labor. During his tenure, he implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), successfully promoted increasing the minimum wage, successfully lobbied to pass the School-to-Work Jobs Act, and launched a number of job training programs.

In addition, Reich used the office as a platform for focusing the nation's attention on the need for American workers to adapt to the new economy. He advocated that the country provide more opportunities for workers to learn more technology.

Reich was born with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, also known as Fairbanks disease, and as a result is 4 feet 10.5 inches (148.6 cm) tall. He has at times frankly discussed this fact about himself, often with a twist of humor. He once appeared with the 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) Conan O'Brien in a sketch on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[10][11] In the early days of the Clinton Administration, Reich confirmed to reporters that he was on Clinton's 'short list' for a cabinet appointment.

After the Clinton administration[link]

In 1996, between Clinton's re-election and second inauguration, Reich decided to leave the department to spend more time with his sons, then in their teen years. He published his experiences working for the Clinton administration in Locked in the Cabinet. After publication of the book, Reich received criticism for embellishing events with invented dialogue. The paperback release of the memoir revised or omitted the inventions.^[12]

Reich became a professor at Brandeis University, teaching courses for undergraduates as well as in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. In 2003, he was elected the Professor of the Year by the undergraduate student body.

In 2002, he ran for Governor of Massachusetts. He also published an associated campaign book, I'll Be Short. Reich was the first Democratic candidate for a major political office to support same-sex marriage. He also pledged support for abortion rights and strongly condemned capital punishment. His campaign staff was largely made up of his Brandeis students. Although his campaign had little funding, he surprised many and came in a close second out of six candidates in the Democratic primary with 25% of the vote.

In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97 Prize, by the former Czech president, for his writings in economics and politics.^[13]

In 2004, he published Reason, a book on how liberals can forcefully argue for their position in a country increasingly dominated by what he calls "radcons", or radical conservatives.

In addition to his professorial role, he is a weekly contributor to the American Public Media public radio program Marketplace, and a regular columnist for the American Prospect, which he co-founded in 1990.^[14] He is also a frequent contributor to CNBC's Kudlow & Company and On the Money.

In early 2005, there was speculation that Reich would once again seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. He instead endorsed the then-little-known candidacy of Deval Patrick, who had previously served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration. Patrick won the party's endorsement, a three-way primary with nearly 50% of the vote, and the general election in November 2006.

In September 2005 Reich testified against John Roberts at his confirmation hearings for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

On January 1, 2006 Reich joined the faculty of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Policy. Since then, he has taught a popular course called Wealth and Poverty.^[15] In addition to his professorship, Reich is also a Member of the Board of Trustees for the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley.^[16] The Center is focused on finding solutions to address the crisis of extreme poverty and disease in the developing world.^[17]

Two years later his book Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life was published. In it he argued turbo-charged corporate competition, fueled by consumers and investors seeking the best possible deals from anywhere in the world, was generating severe social problems. But governments were failing to address them because big corporations and Wall Street firms were also seeking competitive advantage over one another through politics, thereby drowning out the voices of ordinary citizens. The answer was to keep corporations focused on making better products and services and keep them out of politics. "Corporate Social Responsibility" is essentially forbearance from activities that undermine democracy.

During the 2008 primaries, Reich published an article that was extremely critical of the Clintons, referring to Bill Clinton's attacks on Barack Obama as "ill-tempered and ill-founded," and accusing the Clintons of waging "a smear campaign against Obama that employs some of the worst aspects of the old politics."^[18]

On April 18, 2008 Reich endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.^[19]

On April 3, 2009, Reich commented that published U6 employment figures indicate that the United States is in a depression.^[20]

In September, 2010, his book "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future" was published. In it, Reich explained how America's widening inequality had contributed to the great recession and made it difficult for the economy to recover, by undermining the purchasing power of the middle class relative to the nation's productive capacity. In April, 2012, his book "Beyond Outrage" was published as an e-book. In "Beyond Outrage" Reich focused on why an increasing portion of the public felt the game was rigged in favor of those with wealth and power, why the "regressive right" was nonetheless able to persuade many that taxes should be lowered even further on corporations and the wealthy while many public services should be cut, and what average people could do to take back the economy and reclaim democracy.

Social media[link]

Reich has been an active user of social media. He has personally maintained a presence on Tumblr and Blogspot. In September 2011 he created an account on the internet forum reddit and opened an 'ask me anything' thread.^[21]

Political and philosophical stances[link]

Official Department of Labor portrait of Robert Reich

In an interview with The New York Times, he explained that "I don't believe in redistribution of wealth for the sake of redistributing wealth. But I am concerned about how we can afford to pay for what we as a nation need to do."^[22]

In response to a question as to what to recommend to the incoming president regarding a fair and sustainable income and wealth distribution, Reich said, "Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit — a wage supplement for lower-income people, and finance it with a higher marginal income tax on the top five percent. For the longer term, invest in education for lower income communities, starting with early-childhood education and extending all the way up to better access to post-secondary education."^[22]

Reich is pro-union, saying "Unionization is not just good for workers in unions, unionization is very, very important for the economy overall, and would create broad benefits for the United States."^[23][24]

Books[link]

• 2012: Beyond Outrage: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy and how to fix it
• 2010: Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future ISBN 978-0-307-59281-1
• 2007: Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life ISBN 0-307-26561-7
• 2004: Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America ISBN 1-4000-7660-9
• 2002: I'll Be Short: Essentials for a Decent Working Society ISBN 0-8070-4340-0
• 2000: The Future of Success: Working and Living in the New Economy ISBN 0-375-72512-1
• 1997: Locked in the Cabinet ISBN 0-375-70061-7
• 1991: The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism ISBN 0-679-73615-8
• 1990: Public Management in a Democratic Society ISBN 0-13-738881-0
• 1989: The Resurgent Liberal: And Other Unfashionable Prophecies ISBN 0-8129-1833-9
• 1988: The Power of Public Ideas (editor) ISBN 0-674-69590-9
• 1987: Tales of a New America: The Anxious Liberal's Guide to the Future ISBN 0-394-75706-8
• 1985: New Deals: The Chrysler Revival and the American System (with John Donahue) ISBN 0-14-008983-7
• 1983: The Next American Frontier ISBN 0-8129-1067-2
• 1982: Minding America's Business: The Decline and Rise of the American Economy (with Ira Magaziner) ISBN 0-394-71538-1

See also[link]

• The Trap (television documentary series), BBC documentary featuring Reich
• 2008–2009 Keynesian resurgence

References[link]

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