Paul Craig Roberts Quotes

Powerful Paul Craig Roberts for Daily Growth

About Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts is an American economist, journalist, and political commentator, born on January 28, 1936, in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in economics. Later, he pursued a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia. Roberts began his career at the U.S. Department of Treasury during the Nixon Administration, serving as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy from 1981 to 1982 under President Ronald Reagan. In this role, he was instrumental in implementing supply-side economics policies. After leaving government service, Roberts joined Wall Street where he served as a vice president and senior economist at the Fidelity Management & Research Company. However, his passion for academia led him to return to teaching, holding positions at Virginia Tech, Duke University, and George Mason University. In 1982, Roberts co-founded the Institute for Economic Policy Studies, which later became the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He also served as an editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page from 1974 to 1980. Roberts is perhaps best known for his critical analysis of U.S. foreign policy and economic issues. His most notable works include "Alienated America: Why Some Places Destroy Themselves" (2010), where he discusses the decline of the American Dream, and "The Tyranny of Good Intentions" (1994), a critique of the Reagan Administration's policies. Throughout his career, Roberts has been a prominent figure in economic and political debates, often offering dissenting views to mainstream perspectives. His work continues to influence discussions on global affairs, economics, and policy-making.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"In a world where lies pass freely as truth, justice will not prevail."

This quote emphasizes the impact of dishonesty and manipulation of facts on our society. In an era where false information can easily be spread as if it were true, truth and fairness may struggle to triumph. Justice, in this context, is the principle that impartiality and righteousness should prevail. When lies pass unchallenged as truth, it undermines justice and creates confusion, making it difficult for people to make informed decisions or hold individuals accountable for their actions. It's a cautionary reminder about the importance of upholding truth, honesty, and integrity in our discourse and decision-making processes.

"The United States is unique in its dishonesty and hypocrisy."

This quote highlights a perceived characteristic of the United States, suggesting that it demonstrates an exceptional level of deceit and hypocrisy compared to other nations. The statement implies that the U.S. often presents itself as upholding certain moral or ethical values, but in practice, its actions may not align with these proclaimed beliefs, either intentionally or unintentionally. This observation can be based on a wide range of issues, including foreign policy, human rights, and economic practices. The quote serves as a call to examine the U.S.'s role in global affairs more critically and question whether its actions align with the ideals it promotes.

"Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four."

This quote by Paul Craig Roberts emphasizes the importance of intellectual freedom, particularly the ability to express and question facts without fear or censorship. In this case, "two plus two equals four" is an undeniable truth, yet acknowledging it can be seen as a form of free thought and expression in contexts where such facts are suppressed, manipulated, or disputed. Essentially, Roberts argues that true freedom only exists when one can express and explore the obvious truths without fear of repercussion.

"Economic collapse is always political, never an act of God."

This quote by Paul Craig Roberts suggests that economic crises do not occur randomly or due to divine intervention, but are usually the result of human decisions and policies. In other words, economic instability is a consequence of political choices made by governments, corporations, or powerful individuals, rather than an inherent flaw in the system or an unpredictable event beyond human control. This perspective encourages scrutiny of economic systems and policies, as understanding their underlying causes can lead to more equitable and sustainable solutions.

"War is a racket. It always has been just a little different in every era."

This quote by Paul Craig Roberts highlights that war, regardless of its time or form, serves as a means for profit and power rather than a genuine pursuit of peace or justice. He suggests that while the methods and motivations may vary across eras, the essence of war remains the same: it is primarily an instrument used to enrich a select few at the expense of the many. This perspective underscores the need for critical examination of the motives behind conflicts and encourages us to seek peaceful resolutions to global issues whenever possible.

Humans regard animals as worthy of protection only when they are on the verge of extinction.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Only, Extinction, Regard, Worthy

The Golden Rule is to 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Allegedly, America is a Christian country. This means that Christian America is following Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in a masochistic way.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Country, Means, Unto, Golden

Hillary Clinton, an agent for the Oligarchy, was defeated despite the vicious media campaign against Donald Trump. This shows that the media and the political establishments of the political parties no longer have credibility with the American people.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Trump, Agent, Donald, Vicious

Trump has more understanding and insight than his opponents realize. For a man such as Trump to risk acquiring so many powerful enemies and to risk his wealth and reputation, he had to have known that the people's dissatisfaction with the ruling establishment meant he could be elected president.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Reputation, Trump, Had, Dissatisfaction

The Western media is a Ministry of Truth that operates full-time in support of the artificial existence that Westerners live inside The Matrix where Westerners exist without thought. Considering their inaptitude and inaction, Western peoples might as well not exist.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Thought, Inaction, Full-Time, Considering

On one hand, our food is polluted with herbicides and on the other hand by antibiotics. And then we have hormones and pesticides.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Other, Hormones, Polluted, Pesticides

Elephants are magnificient creatures.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Creatures, Elephants

Putin does not lie. When he says something, he means it.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Lie, Means, Does, Putin

Putin responds to threats, to illegal sanctions, and to incessant propaganda with statements that governments need to respect each other's national interests and to work together for common benefit. No politician in the West speaks in this way.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Other, Responds, Statements, Putin

The road to economic well-being is to reward productive economic activity and to provide a moderate and predictable growth of money to finance real economic growth without reigniting the fires of inflation.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Well-Being, Reward, Activity, Fires

I have argued that the Soviet story is one of the interaction of speculative excess or utopian aspirations with refractory reality.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Excess, Speculative, Argued, Aspirations

The Transatlantic and Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnerships have nothing to do with free trade. 'Free trade' is used as a disguise to hide the power these agreements give to corporations to use lawsuits to overturn sovereign laws of nations that regulate pollution, food safety, GMOs, and minimum wages.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Use, Regulate, Overturn, Free Trade

The Soviet Union was a partial check on capitalist looting in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. However, with the Soviet collapse, capitalist looting intensified during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes.

- Paul Craig Roberts

However, Capitalist, Bush, Intensified

I have come to the conclusion that the West is a vast lie machine for the secret agendas of vested interests.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Conclusion, Machine, Agendas, Vested

Paul Krugman, a professor at MIT and a consultant to the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Trilateral Commission, is certainly a member of the establishment.

- Paul Craig Roberts

United, Certainly, IMF, World Bank

If the Obama regime gave a hoot about 'humanitarian crisis,' the Obama regime would not have orchestrated humanitarian crisis in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Crisis, Regime, Obama, Yemen

The government, of course, will print money to bail out the banks' uncovered casino bets, but not to bail out the elderly from the theft of their funds.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Elderly, Will, Banks, Bail

The public subsidies provided to miners, loggers, and ranchers are as extravagant and as harmful to the public interest as the subsidies that the Federal Reserve and Treasury provide to the 'banks too big to fail.'

- Paul Craig Roberts

Big, Banks, Provided, Harmful

When I was a young man, an individual with one million dollars was very rich. Anyone with a few millions more was considered richer than rich.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Young, Individual, Very, Richer

Many foolish people believe that nuclear war cannot happen, because there can be no winner. However, the American war planners, who elevated U.S. nuclear weapons from a retaliatory role to a pre-emptive first strike function, obviously do not agree that nuclear war cannot be won.

- Paul Craig Roberts

American, Role, However, Elevated

Vice is Washington's signature. A fish rots from the head, and Washington has led our country into vice, greed, selfishness, and the mockery and destruction of human life.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Country, Signature, Vice, Mockery

Progressives regard government as the white knight that protects the public from the greed of capitalists. If only.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Government, White, Protects, Capitalists

Capitalists make money by exploiting labor and by externalizing the costs of the wastes produced by the productive process by imposing the wastes on the environment.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Process, Costs, Imposing, Capitalists

Beginning with the Clinton Administration and rapidly accelerating with the George W. Bush and Obama regimes and Tony Blair in England, the U.S. and U.K. governments have run roughshod over their accountability to law.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Beginning, Administration, Regimes

We need a memorial day to commemorate the victims of neoliberal globalization.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Globalization, Need, Memorial

Jobs offshoring began with manufacturing, but the rise of the high-speed Internet made it possible to move offshore tradable professional skills, such as software engineering, information technology, various forms of engineering, architecture, accounting, and even the medical reading of MRIs and CT-Scans.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Medical, Software, Manufacturing

Offshoring manufacturing jobs left Americans with fewer high-value-added, well-paid jobs, and the U.S. middle class downsized. Ladders of upward mobility were taken down. Income and wealth distributions worsened.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Income, Mobility, Ladders, Manufacturing

The way to attack the entitlements problem is to bring the jobs home. This could be done by taxing corporations according to the location, domestic or foreign, at which they add value to their product.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Product, Add, Which, Entitlement

Marxism is the only doctrine that both satisfies the demands for progress and provides a safe outlet for moral expression in a skeptical age.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Expression, Marxism, Both, Satisfies

Despite massive evidence to the contrary, libertarians hold tight to their romantic concept of capitalism, which, freed from government interference, serves the consumer with the best products at the lowest prices.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Concept, Which, Libertarians, Consumer

When I met with Chinese policymakers in 2006, I advised them that there was a limit to how long they could rely on the U.S. consumer market, as jobs offshoring was destroying it.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Could, Jobs, Them, Consumer

Few, if any, corporations absorb the full cost of their operations. Corporations shove many of their costs onto the environment, the public sector, and distant third parties.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Cost, Costs, Public Sector, Shove

The Federal Trade Commission is supposed to enforce U.S. anti-trust law. Instead, the federal agency routinely violates U.S. anti-trust law by permitting monopoly concentrations of business interests.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Business, Law, Agency, Enforce

Because of the failure of the federal government to enforce federal law, we now have 'banks too big to fail,' unregulated Internet monopoly, and the evisceration of a dispersed and independent media.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Law, Independent, Big, Enforce

Marxism is a success because it fuses the two inconsistent strains in Western thought - moral skepticism and moral indignation - and makes them complements in the attack against existing society.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Thought, Against, Marxism, Strains

Everyone who ever trusted Washington has been betrayed. Possibly there is an exception somewhere, but the betrayals are vast and are sufficient in number to define Washington as the least trusted entity on the earth.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Exception, Everyone, Been, Possibly

It is impossible to work out a reduction in nuclear threat as long as one side is going all out to demonize the other.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Other, Going, Side, Demonize

It is the nature of government and of technology to establish control.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Nature, Government, Control, Establish

In 21st century America, capitalism has been unfettered from the regulations that democratized it and made it serve society.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Serve, Been, Made, 21st Century

Whether one has a favorable or unfavorable opinion of unions, their demise is also the demise of countervailing power. A system in which there is no countervailing power is a tyranny in which power is unconstrained and unaccountable.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Tyranny, Unions, Which, Unaccountable

Governments unaccountable to law are tyrannies, whatever they might call themselves, no matter how exceptional and indispensable they declare themselves to be.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Law, Might, Declare, Unaccountable

The human capital of most macroeconomists, heavily invested in demand management, was wiped out by the policy failures of the 1970s.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Failures, Capital, Wiped, 1970s

Western capitalism is a looting mechanism. It loots labor. It loots the environment, and with the transpacific and transatlantic 'partnerships,' it will loot the sovereign law of countries.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Law, Will, Looting, Sovereign

The planet is being polluted with many forms of wastes.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Planet, Wastes, Polluted, Forms

Clearly America is exceptional in its immorality, lack of human compassion, and disrespect for law and its founding document.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Law, Exceptional, Document, Immorality

The real Social Security crisis is that the government does not have the money to redeem its IOUs.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Government, Security, Crisis, Redeem

Under Reagan's policies, inflation and nominal GNP growth shriveled much faster than predicted, throwing off government revenue estimates and resulting in budget deficits.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Policies, Reagan, Deficits, Resulting

The great problem with corporate capitalism is that publicly owned companies have short time horizons. Unlike a privately owned business, the top executives of a publicly owned corporation generally come to their positions late in life. Consequently, they have a few years in which to make their fortune.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Life, Years, Consequently, Privately

If it turns out that global warming and ocean acidification are consequences of capitalism's carbon-based energy system, the entire world could end up dead from the external costs of capitalism.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Could, Costs, Entire World, External

Both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, are dependent on the same private interest groups for campaign funds, so both parties dance to the same masters.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Private, Republicans, Dependent

The neoconservative ideology supports American financial and military-political imperialism or hegemony.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Financial, Ideology, Imperialism

By offshoring the production of their products, U.S. corporations transferred technology, physical plant, and business knowhow to China.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Business, Transferred, Corporations

The office of U.S. Trade Representative was created in order to permit corporations to write law that serves only their interests.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Law, Office, Created, Corporations

Corporations and Wall Street in pursuit of short-term profits have given the economy away.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Away, Profits, Given, Corporations

The offshoring of American jobs by global corporations and the deregulation of the U.S. financial system have resulted in American economic failure.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Financial, Jobs, Resulted, Corporations

In the United States, journalists receive awards for lying for the government and for the corporations.

- Paul Craig Roberts

United States, Receive, Corporations

The financial markets are rigged by the big banks, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury in the interests of the profits of the few big banks and the dollar's exchange value, which is the basis of U.S. power.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Big, Which, Profits, Treasury

I have no sympathy for debunking human achievements that, in the end, gave ordinary people liberty.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Liberty, Achievements, Gave, In The End

If you want to learn real economics instead of neoliberal junk economics, read Michael Hudson's books.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Learn, Want, Read, Hudson

In the U.S., society and the environment have to pick up the tab produced by capitalist activity.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Society, Capitalist, Tab

Few Americans other than the One Percent have a stake in the American economic and political system.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Political, American, Other, One Percent

Peace is costly to the profits of the military/security complex. Washington's gigantic military and security interests are far more powerful than the peace lobby.

- Paul Craig Roberts

More, Profits, Gigantic, Costly

The neoconservative doctrine declares that it is the principal goal of U.S. foreign policy to prevent the rise of any country that would have sufficient power to serve as a check on American unilateralism. This neoconservative doctrine puts Russia and China in Washington's crosshairs.

- Paul Craig Roberts

American, Country, Serve, Doctrine

Representing the people is not something 'our' representatives do. They are too busy representing a handful of private interest groups such as the financial sector, the military/security complex, and agribusiness.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Financial, Private, Handful, Representatives

The foreign policy of the United States rests entirely on propagandistic lies.

- Paul Craig Roberts

United, United States, Rests, Entirely

A government that cannot survive truth and must resort to stamping out truth is not a government that any country wants.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Government, Country, Survive, Resort

The unambigious fact is that U.S. capitalism is a mechanism for looting the many for the benefit of the few.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Fact, Capitalism, Looting, Mechanism

The American people and the entire world need to understand that the threat to life on earth resides in Washington and that until Washington is fundamentally and totally changed, this threat will remain as the worse threat to life on earth.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Will, Need, Remain, Resides

Once a country descends into evil, it doesn't emerge.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Evil, Country, Once, Emerge

There is no reason for a person to have thousands of millions of dollars.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Reason, Person, Millions, No Reason

Marx and Lenin were ahead of their time. Marx wrote before offshoring of jobs and the financialization of the economy. Lenin presided over a communist revolution that jumped the gun by taking place in a country in which feudal elements still predominated over capitalism.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Gun, Country, Communist, Taking

Washington's impulsive use of power is a danger to America and to the world.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Power, World, Use, Impulsive

As the dollar's exchange value declines, so will the value of dollar-denominated financial instruments, regardless of how many bonds the Federal Reserve purchases.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Financial, Will, Purchases, Dollar

In 2004, I predicted in a nationally televised conference in Washington, D.C., that the U.S. would be a Third World country in 20 years.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Country, Years, Third World, Televised

I did not think the Oligarchy would allow Trump to win. However, it seems that the oligarchs were deceived by their own media propaganda.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Think, Allow, However, Oligarchy

As the U.S. is import-dependent, this will translate into higher domestic prices.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Will, Domestic, Prices, Higher

Every public institution in the United States and most private ones are corrupt.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Private, Most, United States, Institution

Law is just one public institution, but it is a cornerstone of society. When law goes, everything goes.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Law, Society, Just One, Institution

If all countries are exceptional, the word loses its meaning.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Meaning, Exceptional, Loses

Washington is a black hole into which all sanity is sucked out of government deliberations.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Government, Hole, Which, Sucked

There are no free financial markets in America or, for that matter, anywhere in the Western word, and few, if any, free markets of any other kind.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Financial, Kind, Other, Western

Looting is the only way left for the Western financial system to make money.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Money, System, Left, Western

God made a mistake when he gave to humans, infected as they are with evil, jurisdiction over Earth. He should have given jurisdiction to animals.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Mistake, Over, Infected, Jurisdiction

The U.S. is ruled by private interest groups and by the neoconservative ideology that history has chosen the U.S. as the 'exceptional and indispensable' country with the right and responsibility to impose its will on the world.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Country, Will, Private, Ruled

In the Matrix in which Americans live, nothing is ever their fault.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Nothing, Which, Ever, Matrix

Clearly what differentiates the U.S. from other countries is the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution defines us as a people. Without the Constitution, we would be a different country. Therefore, to lose the Constitution is to lose the country.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Constitution, Country, Other, Defines

When America's Newspaper of Record is nothing but a propaganda ministry, what is America?

- Paul Craig Roberts

Newspaper, Propaganda, Ministry

People everywhere face the threat of control by government and technology.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Government, Face, Everywhere, Threat

There was no terrorism in the Middle East until Washington brought it there with invasions, bombings, and torture.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Middle, East, Brought, Torture

Globalism is a scheme for impoverishing First World labor and taking power and influence from the hands of the many and putting them in the hands of the few.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Hands, Scheme, Putting, Labor

Clearly the climate is changing, whether caused by CO2 emissions or some other cause.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Some, Other, Whether, Climate

I have come to the conclusion that capitalism is successful primarily because it can impose the majority of the costs associated with its economic activities on outside parties and on the environment.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Come, Costs, Primarily, Parties

The propagandistic American 'media' and the crazed neoconservatives have set humanity on the path to destruction.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Path, American, Set, Humanity

As truth is Washington's worst enemy, everyone associated with the truth is Washington's enemy.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Truth, Everyone, Associated, Washington

War is the only destination to which Washington can lead.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Destination, Only, Which, Washington

The champions of globalism are the champions of America's destruction.

- Paul Craig Roberts

America, Champions, Destruction

The concentration of U.S. income and wealth in the hands of the very rich is a new development in my lifetime.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Wealth, Income, Very, Concentration

There is no independent American print or TV media.

- Paul Craig Roberts

American, Independent, TV, Print

For a country to be looted, its people's voice must be silenced.

- Paul Craig Roberts

Voice, Country, Must, Silenced

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