
Peter Schiff: "In many ways, it's going to be worse than the Depression." - fiaz
http://www.myprops.org/content/US-News-and-World-Report-Interviews-Peter-Schiff-In-many-ways-its-going-to-be-worse-than-the-Depression/
======
hugh
OK, I'm getting pretty bored of the Everybody Panic articles. Who keeps voting
them up?

I always pick up some books every time someone is giving them away for free.
One of my favourites (which I unfortunately left in my old office) is called
something like "The Great Depression of the 1990s" (publication date: 1989)
and warns us all how terrible the 1990s are going to be.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
> Who keeps voting them up?

Perhaps economically literate people who agree with the arguments? Schiff is a
little on the alarmist side, but it takes a megaphone to be heard over the
geyser of bull-tard propaganda that dominates popular business discussion. You
get ahead in America by joining the rah-rah chorus and people just don't want
to hear bad news.

> Everybody Panic articles.

Schiff is very positive and bullish on certain countries and certain sectors.
"Everybody panic" is not his theme; it's "US citizens should panic." If you
paid attention to him six years ago and panicked, and moved out of USD
denominated assets you're something like 50% richer than your neighbors. So
who's being irrational?

> "The Great Depression of the 1990s"

What's your point? Various idiots make bad predictions all the time? So what?
Might as well mention "Dow 30000". Schiff isn't an idiot. His arguments are
sound.

~~~
davidw
> Perhaps economically literate people who agree with the arguments

... for some odd values of "economically literate", and who haven't caught on
that this site is not for the discussion of one's pet economic and political
theories.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
If this post is off topic then so are almost all of pg's essays.

~~~
davidw
_Most_ of PG's essays are about startups, hacking, and the like, although
perhaps fewer have been lately. The other ones are generally interesting looks
at something or another, but very rarely wacky rants about politics or
economics.

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sridharvembu
I upvoted for this. I take Peter Schiff very seriously. He has been right on
housing, right on gold/commodities, and he is coming from a very fundamental
point of view. I have been a fan of the "Austrian School" of Economics
(Mises/Hayek/Rothbard) also known as the libertarian school, which is where
people like Schiff come from.

Do yourself a favor, and read up about it before you dismiss all of that as
pointless doom and gloom. Ultimately it all comes down to the mindset change
that has happened in America (and many other countries) over the past 15-20
years. Debt has become very fashionable, and large segments of the population
have unwittingly become debt slaves. The ultimate root cause is Federal
Reserve monetary policy (find out why).

Credit bubbles do not end well.

~~~
gscott
The problem is the people who don't see this guy is dead on right.

The Fed is trying to get more money out into the economy but debt is eating it
up before it can do any good. Now they are going to try raising interest rates
to get more outside investment but were messed up by the EU also announcing
there own interest rates may rise.

------
jakewolf
Who keeps on submitting links to sites that steal original content and don't
even link back to the original? [http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/your-
money/2008/05/3...](http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/your-
money/2008/05/30/permabear-peter-schiffs-worst-case-scenario.html?PageNr=2)

------
ConradHex
Whenever I worry about working at a startup during an economic downturn, I
remember reading about HP, which was founded during the depression.

~~~
magus_pwnsen
A lot of great opportunities appear during difficult times. For smart people
under 30, the coming "next Great Depression" is a boon. For as long as we've
been alive, social connections have mattered a lot more than hard work and
talent. That is going to change.

------
henning
The Internet says disaster looms just over the horizon? No way!

~~~
j2d2
Seriously... The Great Depression doesn't seem all that bad compared to what
history says if this is worse...

------
tptacek
How seriously do you take someone who advocates for the dissolution of the
Federal Reserve? Pronouncements like this are kind of this guy's schtick.

~~~
Prrometheus
I advocate for the dissolution of the Federal Reserve. The world had very
stable interest rates and inflation rates before the institution of fiat
monopoly money (monopoly as in the sense of only one legal producer, but the
other connotation works as well). If you knew that the interest rate on 10-yr
AAA bonds was going to be within +/- 0.5% a year from now, don't you think
that would make it easier to do business? Instead, we have a system where next
year is +/- ~4.0%.

People point out other drawbacks of the free banking and classical gold
standard eras, and I agree that the systems had their problems. However, they
were also working with a much smaller and less technological economy. In
addition, they were hampered with idiotic anti-banking laws (such as unitary
branching), most of which have been repealed today.

I don't think we need a price-setter on the short term credit markets, and I
don't think we need legal monopoly money. I don't think the arguments for the
market break down in the monetary sphere.

Anti-Fed people might not always state their case well, but that doesn't mean
there is not a good case. There are a few Nobel's among the gold bugs.

------
xirium
The History Of Oil by Robert Newman (
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5267640865741878159> ) also mentions
the possibility of a US only depression.

------
sabat
Typical bullshit from a guy who can't conceive of an economy that isn't based
on the production of physical goods.

Stop posting this crap, please. :-)

