A couple of days ago Andy Duncan had the great pleasure and privilege of speaking to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, formerly Ronald Reagan’s economic policy adviser at the U.S. Treasury. Although not a fully-fledged Austrian, Dr. Roberts is still very much on the side of the angels, and his thoughts about economics are both deep and interesting. Here’s the interview:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2VUbTdtlbg]
Andy Duncan has the pleasure to interview former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts.
Andy gets straight to it and asks Dr. Roberts about his view on a manipulated price of gold. Dr. Roberts elaborates on how he sees what has occurred since early April, whom was behind it and the reasons why.
Dr. Roberts sees inherent problems with the US dollar system and expresses grave concerns about the systematic fragility due to excess money printing around the world. One serious problem with money printing is that it has allowed the US to engage in what Dr. Roberts calls “military overreach”.
Next Andy poses a question as to what could be done to get things back on track utilising the US political system, which allows Dr. Roberts to express his concerns with the current state of the nation before answering an interesting question regarding his recent book “The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West“.
Dr. Roberts poses some important questions about libertarian ideals versus human nature before offering some advice for listeners regarding the future.
Dr. Roberts does betray his non-Austrian proclivities when he mistakenly equates much crony capitalism with the free market, especially in banking. Furthermore, he holds non-Austrian views regarding the environment, failing to understand that pollution would be cured by rigorous defense of property rights. Furthermore, he subscribes to the non-Austrian view that the world is running out of resources.
Nevertheless, Dr. Robert’s understanding of currency and commodity price manipulation and its consequences in asset bubbles is very important and deserves your attention.
