Peter Schiff and his ilk are charlatan scumbags

[virtuoso]

The fact that these so called Austrians are given so much air time should have sparked the alarm bells but I now see these people from a totally different perspective. Anyways before I elaborate, I wanted to get others take.

[heyyou]

I like Peter Schiff.

Sure his predictions haven't fully happened at this moment,  but imo that's because the elite are manipulating the economy, government and media. They can only maintain it for so long.
Nobody can know at what exact time collapse in the dollar will happen but he has called out the reasons why it will pretty well.

He called the housing crisis in the mainstream media before it happened and was met with ridicule, and he said that the Fed would not taper in September as soon as they decided to engage in QE, while all the mainstream were certain they would.

So overall his diagnosis is pretty spot on imo

[virtuoso]

Okay, i will bite, so what they do is they provide you with a group of government/establishment shills who will provide the pro government line and on the other side of the fence are people like Schiff.

However he has his own agendas and is providing false solutions, so let's just look at one of those topics, let's take inflation.

There is no doubt that food prices have increased, no doubt that energy prices have increased but what people want to overlook is the so called hot money has seen that most of the proceeds have fallen out of housing and therefore the large capital has poured into these essentials but, like everything this is a bubble.

Now, let's look at what Schiff said "printing money will cause hyperinflation" of course he has to push this line in order push his agenda. So what's happened? there is major deflation, and this is why....the money "printed" does not equal the amount that has been lost due to deleveraging.

So what does Schiff want? he wants a deflationary collapse, he wants spending to be cut, but money is debt, so bear that in mind, so whilst this occurs, the dollar will massively strengthen as a fire sale ensues. However he doesn't just want spending cuts, he wants a return to the gold standard, with the explosion in necessity, population, what he wants will bring a lot of people onto the verge of starvation.

"The problem with Greece is they haven't had enough austerity". He wants to let it all burn, he is just as dangerous as the people he purports to be opposed to. Do you notice how it's allllllll about the government spending? (according to him) never any mention about just how much of that debt is bank debt, no proposals to regulate derivatives but more so, the sheer dishonesty of this shithead.......

He talks in endearing terms about Paul Volcker....so let's get this right....America had an inflation problem, the answer....Paul Volcker increases interest rates beyond 15% ,,,,Congressman Ron Paul also said in a 2011 presidential debate that, "If I had to name a Federal Reserve chairman that did a little bit of good, that would be Paul Volcker." . Yes, it's no wonder he was revered, bond holders were getting wonderfully enriched at the expense of the people. I think from memory national debt rose from 1 trillion to 8 trillion, an 8 fold increase.

Going back to the debt issue, what also makes people like him grossly dishonest, is that the very nature of the economy means someone has to be a debt debtor and a net creditor. However of course once debt becomes x, then the growth of debt becomes exponential but this is the very nature of the debt based system we have.

[heyyou]

True, everyone has their own agenda and I'm sure Schiff is no different, but I agree in what he says philosophically regarding small government, free markets and sound money.

I agree that the solutions he suggests will be a massive shock to the financial world will cause civil unrest, but I can't see how patching up the current system will work. Too many people and corporations etc depend on the current system which breeds corruption and poor value for money for the taxpayer.

Yes much of the debt is bank debt, and those banks should have not been bailed out, but what do you expect when the central bank's own and control the government.

Yes the is likely to be deflation in m3 money supply, but look at the chart of m1 base money since the inception of the USA and especially when the Fed came into being.
Consumer price inflation is much higher than official figures, which is obviously manipulated downwards, plus much of the inflation has been exported - over 50% of us dollars are held abroad, and once people abroad decide to dump the dollar (which more and more counties are doing) then that inflation will be imported back into the USA.

No fiat currency has survived in history and I don't expect that to change, while gold and silver over the long term has maintained purchasing power.
What people like Schiff suggest for solutions are going to be really painful in the short term, but long term make sense imo. He is just going back to the original values the constitution) that made the USA supposedly a great country  (obviously there were also really bad events that occurred though too like slavery etc).
The further the US has stepped away from the constitution over time, bears in direct correlation/results to much of the problems the USA face today.

Just my humble opinion though.

[virtuoso]

You know, I am a proponent of the likes of silver, because it's a hard asset, but it's not true to say that silver has maintained purchasing power. This is a misconception, so let's give you an example, if you had bought silver in 2001, well up until 2011, you had made a 10 fold plus profit, but, if you bought during the very recent top of 2011, and are still holding, your purchasing power has fallen by almost 60%.
The same thing is true in the 80's, there was a major top and then a major collapse.

Do you not what is truly bemusing to me is that money is debt, in order words it's created out of thin air with interest, so you must create more money to repay the principle plus the interest and yet, money is just the means by which exchange is made for goods and services. Why is Schiff not pushing for debt free money?

Let's put this into context, the reason why government debt started to rise was because private debt started to fall but let's suppose they do pass a "balanced" budget, that means there will be in excess of 1.2 trillion less money in the economy. So at a time of deep recession and arguably depression that is what is being pushed for is a further reduction in spending which collapses demand ever more, thus much greater job losses.

What these radicals do is present their ideas to the masses in the same simplistic patronising manner as the the other toxic group "take your medicine" "it may give you a headache now, but you will feel better afterwards".

By the way, it's not because the markets look on Schiff's proposals as a wonderful idea which causes the dollar to strengthen, it's because the supply of dollars would dry up and then the panic and "pain" really is felt.

You know the guy was actually smiling when he said that the Greek's haven't had enough austerity? He is a sociopath, through and through.

[heyyou]

Of course people who bought assets at their peak are being hit when those assets go down in price - precious metals are no different.

I don't think Schiff is a sociopath in these tv debates, I think he smirks because he probably can't believe what comes out of the hosts and other Keynesian propagandists, and what policies that countries like Greece pass when they make no economic sense, so be honest I'm the same also, because what the status quo suggest doesn't really solve the problem.

I understand the concept of fiat currency and that interest is paid to private entities for the privilege to create that debt. The problem with creating interest free money is that it is still inflation and steels from the people's savings/those who currently hold $ - you can t break the law of thermodynamics.

The government will have the excuse to spend what it likes and print up the currency - ie no financial discipline of not just the government but the public (those in Power will create lots of money and spend it to win votes) which will lead to inefficiency and screw up the economy imo.

This will then have unintended consequences ie screwing up the cost of money throughout the economy and impact the markets, although it's probably better than interest bearing currency.

Paper money has always been debased and goes to its intrinsic value (whether interest bearing or interest free) because it's very simple for them to do it (ie the continental) Where as while it's possible to debase metals, it's much more difficult and noticeable.

If the public have the option to settle transactions with gold or silver (or anything else the parties agree on) at least they can opt out of the system of currency that's in the hands of someone else.

Don't get me wrong, gold and silver (coins, not paper receipts deposited in central banks) have their own issues, but imo in the long run they provide a more solid foundation - that's why is was specifically stated by the founding fathers.

I'm not American btw, I'm British whose parents immigrated from india and culturally we generally view gold very differently to westerners.
 

[virtuoso]

Essentially what Schiff is, is a hardcore fanatical establishment operative and I don't choose those words lightly.
People are out in the streets starving in Greece, he smirks and says they haven't had enough medicine. This, a country, whose living standards have collapsed as a result of the "headache" imposed on them, where even basic medical supplies are extremely hard to come by, whose pensions have been robbed.
However don't you see....it's irresponsible lending by the government, notice how he won't talk about the banking takeover, he won't countenance punishing the banksters, he won't factor in how the IMF has basically had a plan in place to destroy the western economy.
As for his solutions of Gold, it's pretty simple, most Gold is held by the mega rich anyway and furthermore, since money is debt, in order to go back to a so called Gold standard, you would need to totally collapse the money supply.
He tells you with a straight face that the answer to a collapsing money supply is to collapse it some more. He is part of a ruling class, his very ideology is at the core of that and look into the family history of the nae Schiff, it's a jewish family with close ties to the Rothschilds.

These people make me sick, look at Jim Sinclair too, oops, his name really isn't Sinclair and that so called gold bug expert's father really was bosom buddies with the rothschilds and rockefellers.

[TraceOneInfinite]

Peter Schiff went out in the middle of the occupy wall-street protests and screamed, "Here I am, I am a 1%, I am one of the people you are angry at.  I'm right here, come talk to me".

The video's are all up on youtube and he served every one of those protesters.  You got to give a nicca props for that.

Not to mention he is a devout Libertarian 

[Sami]

Peter Schiff is human filth, I prefer Max Keiser.

Max is a Libertarian but he doesn't reflexively hate the poor.

[TraceOneInfinite]

Peter Schiff is human filth, I prefer Max Keiser.

Max is a Libertarian but he doesn't reflexively hate the poor.

I can't read Virtuoso's big long post, it's all over the place (love you Virt, but please condense and just stick to one thing so I can respond).. If you guys just give me one or two bullet points on why you hate Peter Schiff I would be happy to take up issue with you.