I first came across Paul Craig Roberts when he wrote the
book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, which I think Amazon recommended for me for my kindle. Before that I had never heard of him but I downloaded the
free kindle sample and I was knocked out by it so much that I bought the book
straight away.
I was very intrigued because he was once
Reagan’s chief economic advisor and was the co-founder of
Reaganomics, but here he was deeply attacking present day capitalism, the very
thing he seemed to have started. Reaganomics also influenced Margaret
Thatcher and she went on a privatization spree which became known as
Thatcherism.
Anyway, I thought that the Failure of Laissez Capitalism
could have been written by any rampart left winger, like myself, but it was
written by someone who had been very much on the Right. He also attacked
libertarianism as a crackpot idea and said that he was once a libertarian
himself until he saw the light. This became one of the best political books I
had ever read.
But PCR does occasionally throw in some surprises, though,
like the way he deeply admires Ronald Reagan, and if you are a lefty, like me,
then Ronald Reagan is one of the most hateful figures. But PCR says that no
president can keep his eye on everything and that Reagan wasn't aware of
the Iran Contra-Rebel scandal until it got exposed. But PCR never
mentions all the other atrocities that occurred in Central America under
Reagan's watch.
PCR also admires Reagan for bringing about peace with Russia
and reducing the amount of nuclear weapons in the world which was a fantastic news leading to the end of the Cold War. And it is said that he wanted
complete nuclear disarmament but Margaret Thatcher talked him out of it by
saying that the Russians had too many tanks employed ready to invade Europe.
PCR says that military-industrial banking complex were furious with Reagan.
But apart from the occassional surprise I would say that PCR is
very much on the Left nowadays, although no one is perfect and maybe he can't
acknowledge that there may have been some mistakes in his past economic policies.
But he says that when Reagan came to power Keynesianism had run its course
and it was now time for supply side economics. But we know that real
Keynesianism was never properly implemented as the ruling class would
never allow it, so neo-Keynesianism was practiced instead which messed
everything up. PCR says that you need both sides in a balance, supply
and demand.
I love Paul Craig Roberts, I really do, and Michael Hudson.
I wrote to Michael Hudson - who used to call himself a Marxist and is still no
doubt a committed socialist - about PCR and said, would you believe it,
he's one of us, and he wrote back and said that even right wingers get it right
sometimes? Nowadays PCR and Michael Hudson are friends.
And PCR likes all the people on the left that I do, including Eric
Zeusse, a very brave journalist, John Pilger, Chris Hedges and many more.
It takes a very brave person to switch politically but he
says that he never did, that he was always a radical who was never pinned down
to either left or right. He's a fantastic guy, a champion for decency,
fair and goodhearted values, and for a capitalism that really does work for the ordinary guy as well as remaining compassionate for those less of us who are
less fortunate. That's socialism.
