Now We're In A Very Different Economy.

When Top Executives Get Huge Pay Hikes At The Same Time As Middle-level And Hourly Workers Lose Their Jobs And Retirement Savings, Or Have To Accept Negligible Pay Raises And Cuts In Health And Pension Benefits, Company Morale Plummets. I Hear It All The Time From Employees: This Company, They Say, Is Being Run Only For The Benefit Of The People At The Top. So Why Should We Put In Extra Effort, Commit Extra Hours, Take On Extra Responsibilities? We'll Do The Minimum, Even Cut Corners. This Is Often The Death Knell Of A Company.

I'm Quite Optimistic When It Comes To The Capacity Of Our People To Have An Honest Discussion About What's Really Going On. What Do You Think John Mccain's Candidacy Was About? And The Early Days Of Bill Bradley's Candidacy? People Are Hungry For A Genuine, No-spin Set Of Ideas And Truths. They Want Their Leaders To Tell It Like It Is. There Is A Great Demand For This. Politicians Continually Underestimate The Ability Of The American Public To Understand What's Happening To Them And What The Real Choices Are.

If You're Going To Be A Great Guide To What's Great For Consumers, And, Indirectly, For Investors, You've Got To Be Very Careful About Who You Contract With And What You're Offering.

Regardless Of How You Interpret The Facts, You Have To Come To The Conclusion That Inequality Is Widening In The Us And In Almost Every Other Country.

Higher Education Isn't Just A Personal Investment. It's A Public Good That Pays Off In A More Competitive Workforce And Better-informed And Engaged Citizens. Every Year, We Spend Nearly $100 Billion On Corporate Welfare, And More Than $500 Billion On Defense Spending. Surely Ensuring The Next Generation Can Compete In The Global Economy Is At Least As Important As Subsidies For Big Business And Military Adventures Around The Globe. In Fact, I Think We Can And Must Go Further - Not Just Making Public Higher Education Tuition-free, But Reinventing Education In America As We Know It.