In a thinly disguised editorial, Saturday’s edition of the New York Times business section (January 8, 2011) featured an interview with Robert Reich, former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, over the sad state of the United States economy.

It is no coincidence that this interview comes hard on the heels of President Obama’s appointment of the centrist William Daley, brother of outgoing Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, to serve as his Chief of Staff. The interview, titled "Obama the Centrist Irks a Liberal Lion," affords a convenient platform for Reich to express how disillusioned he is with the new direction in which the Obama administration is moving, which Reich thinks gives cover to the Republican narrative that high taxation and extensive regulation are the source of the current economic malaise.

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