Paul Craig Roberts: Everything Is Totally Manipulated

Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed former assistant US Treasury Secretary under President Reagan, former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal and distinguished academic and author, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/. Paul also served on many boards of directors in the private sector. During this 40 minute interview, Jason starts off by asking Paul about the US' foreign policy and if it got more aggressive after the Soviet Union collapsed. Dr. Roberts talks about the Wolfowitz Doctrine from the Neo-Cons and how US foreign policy has become even more aggressive towards war and expansion after the Soviet Union collapsed. Jason and Dr. Roberts discuss the military industrial complex and Dr. Roberts talks about how and why the Soviet Union fell. Dr. Roberts says production managers in the Soviet Union focused on beating quotas but they did not produce anything consumers wanted, there was enormous misallocation of capital and resources there and there were not any reliable pricing mechanisms for businesses and entrepreneurs to produce goods and services consumers wanted. Next, Jason asks Paul about what's going on in the real economy in the US and if there's inflation. Dr. Roberts talks about all the inflation in food, energy, etc and how the CPI was changed by politicians so cost of living adjustments (COLA) would not have to be paid out to more social security recipients. Jason and Dr. Roberts talk about the ways the BLS continues to change the CPI and under report inflation using hedonics. Dr. Roberts also talks about how the US economy is not creating really any full time high paying jobs. Dr. Roberts talks about offshoring/outsourcing and why he thinks the US is quickly becoming a 2rd world economy while asset bubbles are created with fiat money. Jason and Dr. Roberts discuss restaurants and retails stores closing and why that means the economy is not recovering. Paul says the US consumer lacks any savings or discretionary income to spend money. Finally, to wrap up the interview, Jason asks Dr. Roberts how long he thinks this asset price inflation, QE, backdoor bailouts, currency wars and the real economy in the US contracting can last while politicians, Wall St and large corporations are pure rent seekers and maintain the narrative in the mainstream media that the economy continues to improve.