Peter’s Blog

As the coronavirus-induced economic lockdowns have tightened across the US, we’ve seen the emergence of a government-inspired fantasy – the myth of the nonessential business.

According to Owen Ullmann in an op-ed published by USA Today, there are some unsung “heroes” in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic – the brave and courageous bankers at the Federal Reserve. I think Ulmann misspelled “villains.”

Let me be clear upfront. I don’t think coronavirus is “just the flu.” I think the pandemic represents a significant health threat and could potentially overwhelm the healthcare system if the spread isn’t slowed. I think social distancing is wise. But I also think the draconian measures taken by governments that have effectively shut down […]

Many people have likened the battle against coronavirus to a war and invoked imagery of the US fighting World War II. President Trump has even deemed himself a “wartime president.” The president told reporters at a White House briefing that fighting the virus would require a sacrificial national effort just like it took to defeat […]

Stock markets have been getting hammered, ostensibly because of the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Peter Schiff has been saying this isn’t really about the virus. It was the pin that pricked the bubble. If it wasn’t coronavirus, it would have been something else. Regardless, the Fed hit the panic button last week and slashed […]

Have you heard? The Democrats are going to fix the student loan mess! They’ve brought up the issue in almost every  Democratic Party presidential debate. All we need is a good government program and we can easily solve this $1.64 trillion problem. Never mind that government programs caused the problem in the first place. Just […]

A paper  by Scott A. Wolla and Kaitlyn Frerking for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis warns that the Fed’s own policy could lead to “economic ruin.” The paper titled “Making Sense of National Debt” explains the pros and cons of national borrowing in typical Keynesian fashion. In a nutshell, a little debt is […]

Fiscal 2020 started just like fiscal 2019 ended – with a massive federal budget deficit. And that has Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell worried. In an ironic bit of political theater, Powell lectured Congress about the spending he helps facilitate. The budget shortfall last month was 34% higher than the October 2018 deficit, coming in […]

Silver investment in three major categories is up so far this year, according to a report highlighted in the latest edition of Silver News. Silver held in ETFs hit an all-time high this year. Year-on-year through mid-August, 736.9 million ounces of metal were held in silver-backed ETFs. Meanwhile, global mint silver bullion coin sales rose […]

Rene Magritte’s 1929 painting “The Treachery of Images,” depicts a tobacco pipe with a caption that reads “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” (French for “This is not a pipe”). Everyone who has taken a course in modern art knows that Magritte’s exercise in contradiction was meant to draw a distinction between a real thing and […]