In December 1980,along with Alan Greenspan and Herbert Stein,Roberts was one of the three speakers at the two-day National Forum on Jobs,Money and People at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor,Florida.[9] Two months later,in 1981,he was appointed by President of the United States Ronald Reagan as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy.[6] As Assistant Treasury Secretary he was a driver behind the economic policy of the first term of the Reagan administration and was lauded as the "economic conscience of Ronald Reagan".[10] Nonetheless,his singular zealousness for supply-side economics provoked ire in some quarters within the government,with Larry Kudlow –then an official in the Office of Management and Budget –saying that "Craig saw himself as the keeper of the Reagan flame. Only Craig knew what was right. No one else knew what was right".[1] Roberts' concern about U.S. budget deficits led him into conflict with other Reagan-era officials such as Martin Feldstein and David Stockman.[1]
From 1983 to 2019,Roberts served as a board director of nine different Value Line investment funds.[15] Between 1992 and 2006 he sat on the board of directors of A. Schulman and,according to the company,was its longest-serving independent director at the time of his retirement.[16]
Roberts' commitment to supply-side economics has been a dominant feature of his career.[21] Writing in 1984,Thomas B. Silver said that adherents of supply-side economics had "no more formidable advocate in their ranks" than Roberts.[21] However,Roberts has expressed skepticism at the ability of government to lower taxes and decrease regulation,positing that the personal political ambition of officeholders tends to promote meddling in the economy,a criticism he has directed even at the former Reagan administration of which he was a part.[21]
Ron Hira of the Economic Policy Institute has described Roberts as one of the first prominent economists to "break from the orthodoxy" by opposing offshoring;Roberts believes that the practice is "lethal for America's future".[22] According to him,"a country that doesn't make anything doesn’t need a financial sector as there is nothing to finance".[23] In 2004,Paul Blustein in The Washington Post described him as heretical in relation to mainstream US economics for challenging the positive impact of free trade.[24]
According to Roberts,"the West in general suffers from an excess of skepticism about its own values and accomplishments. We're being gobbled up by nihilism,itself the product of unbridled skepticism. It's hard to anchor on to the verities anymore".[1] He has expressed his opposition to Affirmative Action policies and dismissed the existence of white male privilege.[26] In an opinion column for Scripps Howard News Service in 1997,Roberts opposed gender integration aboard U.S. Navy vessels,opining that gender integration would destroy the "ethos of comradeship" which,in his view,motivated wartime sacrifice more than "abstract concepts such as honor and country".[27]
In The New Color Line (1995),Roberts and co-author Lawrence M. Stratton argue that the Civil Rights Act was subverted by the bureaucrats who applied it.[28][29][30]
Writing in 1995,Roberts expressed skepticism at the war on drugs,saying that it "perfectly illustrates the maxim 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'."[31] In The Tyranny of Good Intentions (2000),Roberts and co-author Lawrence Stratton argued that the opposition of some American conservatives to drug-policy reform was an example of "the right's myopia".[32]
Foreign policy
He is a strong opponent of neoconservatism,saying,"the neocons are the worst thing that ever happened to the United States. (They’re) really the scum of the earth…They should all be picked up and shipped out of the country. They all belong in Israel. That’s where they should be. Pick ’em up,ship ’em to Israel,revoke their passports."[19]
Roberts has stated his opposition to United States involvement in the post-2001 War in Afghanistan and to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[33] According to Roberts,"the Bush regime’s response to 9/11 and the Obama regime’s validation of this response have destroyed accountable,democratic government in the United States".[18] He believes the US is a puppet government of Israel.[19]
He supports Russian president Vladimir Putin,blames Euromaidan and the Syrian civil war on a neocon plot,and argues that human rights NGOs working in Russia are part of a “US fifth column”working to undermine its government.[19]
In 2019, Roberts wrote in support of the views of Holocaust denierDavid Irving, asserting that "Irving, without any doubt the best historian of the European part of World War II, learned at his great expense that challenging myths does not go unpunished... I will avoid the story of how this came to be, but, yes, you guessed it, it was the Zionists".[44] Roberts added that "No German plans, or orders from Hitler, or from Himmler or anyone else have ever been found for an organized holocaust by gas and cremation of Jews... The "death camps" were in fact work camps. Auschwitz, for example, today a Holocaust museum, was the site of Germany's essential artificial rubber factory. Germany was desperate for a work force."[44]
Personal life
Roberts' wife, Linda, was born in the United Kingdom and professionally trained in ballet.[1] The couple met while he was at the University of Oxford.[1]
Honors and recognition
In 1981, Roberts was decorated with the United States Treasury Meritorious Service Award for "outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy".[13]
In 1987, he was invested into the French Legion of Honour at the rank of chevalier (knight) for his services to economics.[10][45]
In 2017, Roberts received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who's Who.[47]
Works
Books
Alienation and the Soviet Economy: Toward a General Theory of Marxian Alienation, Organizational Principles, and the Soviet Economy (University of New Mexico Press, 1971) ISBN0826302084
Marx's Theory of Exchange, Alienation, and Crisis (Hoover Institution Press, 1973; 1983) ISBN0817933611 (Spanish language edition: 1974)
The Supply Side Revolution: An Insider's Account of Policymaking in Washington (Harvard University Press, 1984) ISBN0674856201 (Chinese language edition: 2012)
Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy (Cato Institute, 1990) ISBN0932790801
The Capitalist Revolution in Latin America (Oxford University Press, 1997) ISBN0195111761 (Spanish language edition: 1999)
Alienation and the Soviet Economy: The Collapse of the Socialist Era (Independent Institute, 1999: 2nd edition) ISBN094599964X
The New Color Line: How Quotas and Privilege Destroy Democracy (Regnery Publishing, 1997) ISBN0895264234
The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice (2000) ISBN076152553X (Broadway Books, 2008: new edition)
Chile: Dos Visiones La Era Allende-Pinochet (Universidad Andres Bello, 2000). Joint author: Karen LaFollette Araujo. Spanish language.
How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds (AK Press, 2010) ISBN978-1849350075
Wirtschaft Am Abgrund: Der Zusammenbruch der Volkswirtschaften und das Scheitern der Globalisierung (Weltbuch Verlag GmbH, 2012) ISBN978-3938706381. German language.
Chile: Dos Visiones, La era Allende-Pinochet (2000) ISBN9562841340
The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West (Clarity Press, 2013) ISBN0986036250
How America was Lost. From 9/11 to the Police/Warfare State (Clarity Press, 2014) ISBN978-0986036293
The Neoconservative Threat to World Order: Washington's Perilous War for Hegemony (Clarity Press, 2015) ISBN0986076996
Amerikas Krieg gegen die Welt... und gegen seine eigenen Ideale (Kopp Verlag, 2015) ISBN386445221X
↑Stratton, Lawrence M. (August 1, 2001). "Paul Craig Roberts". hoover.org. Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on January 8, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
↑Roberts, Paul Craig. "The View of Russia in the West". paulcraigroberts.org. Paul Craig Roberts (official website). Archived from the original on January 20, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
↑"Charges Against We Are Change Leader Belie Group's Pacifist Image". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2021-07-14. The roster for WAC's upcoming Sept. 9-12 9/11 conference in New York City reflects its continuing ability to attract A-list conspiracy theorists, while still bridging right and left. Speakers [include] Paul Craig Roberts, a right-wing columnist who writes for the racist VDARE.com website (named after the first English child born in America).
↑Roberts, Paul Craig. "9/11: Finally the Truth Comes Out?". paulcraigroberts.org. Paul Craig Roberts (official website). Archived from the original on 2019-01-20. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
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Legion of Honour 
