Currently chairman of The Institute for Political Economy, Dr. Roberts has had careers in scholarship and academia, journalism, public service, and business. He has written extensively on the effects of the neo-liberal economic policies pursued since the 1990’s. In 1993, the Forbes Media Guide ranked him as one of the top seven journalists in the United States. On March 26, 2010, Roberts announced he was “signing off” as a journalist in a column titled “Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty with It.” Now Roberts talks candidly to Andy Mazzone about the “hubris and arrogance” in Washington,about powerful private interest groups [that] run the country,” about the effects of off-shoring and about the declining power of the United States and of the dollar.
Shooting straight from the hip, Paul Craig Roberts analyzes the current trends in off-shoring led by CEO’s whose interest is “short-term” and fueled by the profit motive. “The argument is corporations are only responsible to the shareholders and bear no other responsibility. None to communities. None to the employees. And none to the customers.”
And Roberts doesn’t shy away from pointing out the faults of the government: “In terms of thinking about the longevity of the country and the success through time of the country, they [government policy planners and corporations] …really have no incentive to do that.” Even Craig’s fellow economists are found wanting for “bogus studies” that are geared more to garnering grants and speaking fees than to truth-finding.
In talking about this Smart Talk interview, Dr. Roberts has said, “Of all my interviews, this one is the best.”