Peter's Blog

Andrew Cuomo on Halloween – Far More Terrifying Than Michael Myers

Peter Schmidt recently wrote two article highlighting the fatal conceit of PhD central planners who populate the world’s central banks. You can read those articles here and here. But central banking is not the only place you find people suffering from fatal conceit and the delusional notion that they are smart enough to micromanage the economy. […]

Savings – Not Tariffs – Will Make America Great Again

In a podcast earlier this month, Peter Schiff talked about the “twin deficits” of national debt and trade. We’ve talked a lot about the federal debt spiral, and there has even been some discussion about it in the mainstream. But almost nobody is paying attention to the growing trade deficit. Peter is an exception. When […]

Fatal Conceit and the Question That’s Never Asked

Keynesian central planners suffer from what Peter Schmidt calls “fatal conceit.” Paul Krugman serves as the poster child for central planning arrogance. But it’s the Federal Reserve that gives the central planners power, as Schmidt highlighted in the first article in a series highlighting this fatal conceit. Schmidt built on this theme in the second article, […]

The Gold Standard: Protector of Individual Liberty and Economic Prosperity

Most of the mainstream view the gold standard as an archaic relic from a bygone era. At best, a return to some kind of gold standard is unnecessary. At worst, it would plunge the world into economic chaos. Conventional wisdom holds that a gold standard would make boom-bust cycles worse. (This is a myth.) Paul […]

The Story of Benjamin Strong: How Fatal Conceit Wrecks Economies

In an article we published last week, Peter Schmidt highlighted what he called the “fatal conceit” of modern Keynesian economics. These economists, central bankers and politicians think they can plan, direct and guide the economy through their great wisdom and application of their economic models. But as economist Friedrich Hayek explained, the central planners’ arrogance ignores […]

Paul Krugman, the Federal Reserves and the Fatal Conceit of Keynesian Economics

A recent Paul Krugman New York Times column praised the success of the Keynesian macro model in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In his view, the Federal Reserve did exactly what was necessary  – pushed interest rates to zero and launched rounds of quantitative easing to jumpstart demand. As Tom Woods and Bob […]

The Whole Thing Could Fall Apart at Any Time

We are well into the third quarter of 2018. In our perpetual fast-forward world, analysts are already looking toward Q4. What will the last quarter of the year bring? It’s virtually impossible to predict the short-term. Who knows what kind of political event, natural disaster or emerging trend will drive the markets over the next […]

Befuddled By Bubbles: The Greenspan Bernanke Era at the Fed

We have declared 2017 as the “Year of the Bubbles.” We’ve reported on the stock market bubble. We’ve reported on the student loan bubble. We’ve reported on the auto bubble. We even told you about a shoe bubble. And then there is the mother of all bubbles – the debt bubble. All of these bubbles are still floating […]

Busting a Myth: Gold Makes Boom-Bust Cycles Worse

Some people claim gold isn’t “sound” money any more than dollars or euros. They argue that the gold supply can be inflated just like a fiat currency. After all, gold is constantly being pulled out of the ground, right? They say a gold standard actually makes the boom-bust cycle worse. But commentators who make this […]

Money Printing Does Not Do an Economy Good

The following article was written by Peter Schmidt. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.  When Nixon closed the gold window in August 1971, the US found itself in exactly the same economic circumstances as Britain had in September 1931 when she reneged on her gold […]