Paul Craig Roberts

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.