March 21, 2009

Here's an hour of Schiff - "Why the Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One"



Great hour with Schiff. A tour-de-force, and extremely entertaining too.

We need Schiff in government. But of course, he's way too bright for that.

And he's right, the meltdown shouldn't have surprised anyone.


But the dollar rallying (for awhile) and foreign stocks being completely destroyed, now THAT was surprising. And even Schiff will probably admit that now.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a pleasure to listen to a smart person sans tele-prompter.
Go Peter!

Anonymous said...

"Is anybody really surprised?...Of course not."

The KEY to our system is mastering the presentation of befuddlement and incompetence.

It couldn't have been a plan; knowing full well it would crash, for each significant participant to stuff their own pockets while the resulting system fucks us.

this approach is preferred by those in authority...

...somehow, if easy money in the form of debt is made endlessly available, the economy will recover from this credit crunch, notwithstanding that excessive debt has been the cause...

...a broad stealth nationalization of the insolvent financial sector...public debt to support corporation socialism..."

Treasury and Federal Reserve...panicky rogue traders...

Anonymous said...

Of course it did not surprise anyone but if one makes money WHO cares, right?

I like Schiff because it's true what he said and did say BUT why do I have this feeling that he is pushing gold to go higher???

Gold is almost as worthless as paper fiat money. It is used in jewelry and that's about it.

AND...it can bubble just like...YOU guest it, Real Estate, Tulips, Dot Com's, Stocks, Pork Bellies, Diamonds, and so on and so on...

He sells books too, RIGHT? and snake oil???

My point is this, ALL this stuff is so incredible rudimentary that anyone with a half a brain can and could have figured this stuff out for him/herself.(but we made $$$ so who cared)

However, these gurus do come in handy to gather free opinions from to form conclusions.

One small tip, do what de rich people do. They are buying distressed assets at bargain basement prices worth very likely a ton of "fools" gold in the future.

Have a nice day!

Anonymous said...

A caveat: as much as Peter's perspective on the overall economy still resonates with me, my account with him has lost 70% of its value in the past 1.5 years. His foresight into the macro trends did not equate into him being a great steward of others' wealth. So far, quite the contrary...

Anonymous said...

Great video. Schiff has a good macroview. I'm in the deflationista camp, I suspect inflation may come in 18-24 months. Schiff downplays the massive contraction of the global money supply. Bernanke is only threatening to print a small fraction of the ongoing contraction. He will print more. Housing, auto, tech prices will likely continue dropping. Energy, food will rise, especially with cap and trade policy. Europac investors will have to wait a long time to break even (inflation adjusted) as decoupling theory was incorrect. The US will undergo a societal pardigm shift as our consumptive binge has ended and our economy will reequilibrate at a lower level thus rendering some percentage of businesses and employees uneeded. People underestimate how important our consumpive binge was for many European and Asian economies. The US also has the resources to begin increasing our manufacturing base if necessary in the decades ahead. Bernanke can't force banks to lend and borrowers to borrow. The only way to force people to spend is to tax wealthier citizens and funnel that money into the economy through tax credits and expanding government jobs. Some people have hypothesized taxing savings, but it seems politically unpalatable. Since the tax base will significantly contract, large tax raises would have to occur for all taxpayers, the upper 1% of earners mathematically will not suffice. Massive deficit spending to shift the pain further into the future will occur as personal responsibility is out of style at present. As a deflationista, I would agree that buying distressed assets is a good idea in preparation for inflation in the medium term. Gold has risk. It will go up in price as fear increases but it susceptible to manipulation by the big players and prices can crash. As a hedge it has come value. Geithner's toxic asset plan will just pile on more taxpayer loses in a stealthy way although Geithner isn't very stealthy as he got caught in the AIG scandal. Predictions: more jobs losses, more bankruptcies, more bailout requests (voters getting restless), oil/food prices higher, budget deficits much bigger than expected, higher taxes, inflation in medium term with resultant higher interest rates and another dip down, more socialistic policies, politicians acting like they always have.

Anonymous said...

A caveat: as much as Peter's perspective on the overall economy still resonates with me, my account with him has lost 70% of its value in the past 1.5 years. His foresight into the macro trends did not equate into him being a great steward of others' wealth. So far, quite the contrary...

I am another one. Schiff's credibility is tarnished pretty bad here. I put some money with him to let an "expert" protect me during what we both knew was coming. He lost me roughly 60%, while I managed a pretty modest 10% return for 2008 with my own money. My fault though. I was not a victim like so many asswipes out there that "didn't understand the papers we were signing"

Anonymous said...

the process will get gamed and the taxpayers will lose

"...if I can be the "private party" I can overpay on purpose, capping my losses at 5% of whatever I "buy" from myself! I am thus able to transfer the other 95% of the risk onto the taxpayer and I escape with a 5% penalty off the purchase price..."

Mitesh Damania said...

A caveat: as much as Peter's perspective on the overall economy still resonates with me, my account with him has lost 70% of its value in the past 1.5 years. His foresight into the macro trends did not equate into him being a great steward of others' wealth. So far, quite the contrary...

That's funny, he says his personal investments are dong just fine...

ApleAnee said...

Absolute Return Fund at Sitka Pacific is doing terrific. God Bless the Deflationistas.

Saul said...

Peter has a gift of explaining things in a way which I believe is clear and logical. His vision for the future is disturbing, and I agree with him on where things are heading.

However, he has come to some conclusions which have been wrong, or at best, premature. The recent rise in the US$ caught him off guard, and the global market "decoupling" is yet to happen. Even with these mistakes (or mis-timings) he still tells a very compelling story. I listen carefully whenever I hear him talk, so I was pleased to watch this.

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