Paul Craig Roberts wrote Alienation and the Soviet Economy, first published in 1971. An entire generation of market-oriented economists were influenced by this book. Many of us envied Roberts for the work. It combined history, history of ideas, analysis, and political science into a brilliant whole. He was the first American economist to flesh out the idea that Soviet “central planning” was not central planning at all, but rather a decentralized system with very poor incentives. The late Don Lavoie, arguably the greatest authority on the planning debates, cited Roberts as a major influence as well. Alienation and the Soviet Economy was one of the most important books of the 1970s, and one of the most important books on the Soviet system. That being said, Roberts never achieved the recognition from the economics mainstream that he deserved, I do not know why. Perhaps he came with the message too early, plus the book was not very technical.
I have not much followed Roberts’s recent writings, except for his turn toward protectionism. I was saddened to read Eugene’s account from yesterday. Did you know that Roberts was inducted into the French Legion of Honor in 1987? Perhaps over time, due to his unjust lack of recognition for his early achievements, he has stopped writing for his intellectual peers and sought other goals.
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