Here’s a video of President Obama’s speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich calls it the president’s most important speech on the economy (and offers commentary on the important parts) here.

Perhaps most notably, it refers to the Occupy Wall Street protests around the country, and according to Reich, “[lays] out the reasons behind our economic and political crises, and assert[s] a willingness to take on the powerful and the privileged that have gamed the system to their advantage.”

 

 

Joel Whitney

Joel Whitney is the author of Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers. A 2003 winner of the Discovery Prize, his work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, the Wall Street Journal, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. His essays have twice been notables in Best American Essays.