Review: Locked in the Cabinet

Locked in the Cabinet by Robert B. Reich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I completed my Metal Model Maker apprenticeship in 1995 and keep my Certificate of Completion of Apprenticeship framed in my office, next to my degrees. I consider it an on-par accomplishment.



I always figured it was signed by a machine, like the one Robert Reich tended in the office of Robert F. Kennedy at the humble start of his political career, as mentioned here in one of the many flashback recollections. Now, I feel I can hold some hope it may have been hand-signed, as this was during the United States federal government shutdowns of 1995–1996. My certificate is dated 28 November 1995 and in the closest entry here, 21 November, Reich recalls being alone in the cavernous Dept. of Labor building with a security guard and "There are still papers to be signed..."

In this personal memoir, Reich recalls being repelled by the manipulations of Fed head Alan Greenspan and Dick Morris. Reich sees Morris' downfall in a prostitute scandal, but more importantly to him the Family and Medical Leave Act, a raise to the minimum wage, and legs for the term "corporate welfare", apparently re-coined by Reich in his own mind.

Reich finds the role as Secretary of Labor unfulfilling and ineffectual in a presidency where only a handful hold real power and Bill Clinton lacked courage to match his convictions. This is insightful on how government really works (or doesn’t), the effects of such a career on family and peace of mind, and what it can be like trying to make job opportunities for the lower class in a government beholden to Wall Street and corporate heads.

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