Loading ...Paul Craig Roberts
On the question of the economy failing, Dr. Roberts, who holds a PhD in economics, says, “Whatever blows, it has to be something the government can’t rig. The only way it could stop means the government can no longer rig it. It is such a huge pile of cards that if they can’t keep it rigged, a lot is coming down in a hurry.” So, what’s going to be the trigger? Roberts thinks it will be when the world abandons the U.S. dollar. How long can the economy be propped up? Dr. Roberts says “It will continue as long as it is tolerated. When will it cease to be tolerated? I think it will be when there is a general flight from the dollar. . . Once the general mood changes, and not just by gold investors, and people cease to hold dollars, then this won’t work. It will fail, and at that time, it will be almost impossible to get into gold. There just isn’t enough to absorb a major flight from a currency as large as the dollar. The dollar is just a huge currency.”
About the 4% GDP growth in 2nd quarter, Dr. Roberts says, “There is a lot of pressure on them because that can be a black swan event. You get a second negative quarter and you are talking about recession, and then you got people asking why are stocks so high? Then, people start bailing out of stocks, and since it’s rigged, you don’t know how big the crash will be. I don’t know if we can expect an honest (GDP) number. I do know that nothing has happened since the forces that produced the negative first quarter. There has been no growth in consumer incomes. There has been no growth in consumer credit. We see not only middle class stores like Sears, Macy’s and JC Penny’s being closed, but now we see it’s the dollar stores that are failing. That tells you people don’t even have enough money to keep the dollar stores in operation. So, where did 4% growth come from?”