Peter's Blog

The Government Stimulus Sugar High

The US government has pumped trillions of stimulus dollars into the US economy giving us a massive sugar high. It felt good at the moment, but after the initial rush, you always experience a crash. It looks as if we’re already coming down off the high. May retail sales disappointed, dropping 1.3% after big stimulus-fueled […]

Political Hypocrisy Provides Cover for Fed on Inflation

From 2016 to 2020, Republicans were constantly trying to play up the economy. You’ll recall Donald Trump claiming it was the greatest economy in history. Meanwhile, Democrats were trying to play it down. Now, the roles have reversed. Since the Democrats own the economy now, they’re talking about how great the recovery is while Republicans […]

The World’s Top 10 Gold Producers in 2020

Who produces the world’s gold? Gold production fell again in 2020. According to the World Gold Council, gold production came in at 3,478 tons last year. That compares with mine output of 3,597 tons in 2019.

The Government Doesn’t Actually Budget

President Biden has proposed a borrow and spend “to infinity and beyond” budget featuring $6 trillion in government spending. That’s the largest amount of spending ever proposed in a presidential budget. It’s not accurate to call it a “budget.” The federal government has given up on actual budgeting.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell Sticks to Dovish Script During Congressional Testimony

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified before Congress on Tuesday and continued to peddle the “transitory” inflation narrative. Keeping with the dovish tone set after last week’s FOMC meeting, Powell reiterated that the central bank is not going to rush to raise interest rates, and he said the Fed would not hike rates merely in […]

What Does the Fed Know About the Future?

Central bankers at the Federal Reserve are talking a lot about what’s going to happen in the future. But what do they really know about what lies ahead? The fact is, they don’t know a whole lot. But we do know one thing for sure – the debt in the US isn’t going away. It’s […]

More Government Debt Means Less Economic Growth

The US government continues to borrow money at a frenetic pace in order to cover its massive spending spree. It runs huge deficits month after month and there is more spending coming down the pike. The national debt is over $28 trillion and it is about to begin surging upward again. But with the exception […]

The Fed Is Running a “No Stick” Monetary Policy

The markets reacted to last week’s Federal Reserve meeting as if the central bank was about to embark on a major monetary policy tightening spree. But as Peter Schiff discussed in his podcast, the Fed is all talk. It can’t possibly do what the markets think it might do. In effect, the central bank is […]

Another Inflation Warning: Import-Export Prices Rise Faster Than Expected

In another sign of rapidly accelerating price inflation, import-export prices rose much faster than expected in May. Import prices were up 1.1% month-on-month in May, and the Labor Department revised April’s increase from 0.7% to 0.8%. Projections for May were for a 0.7% increase. The actual number was higher than the high end of estimates.

Was This Fed Meeting Really “Hawkish?”

The Federal Reserve wrapped up its June meeting. While the central bank didn’t raise rates, the messaging coming out of the FOMC was widely viewed as hawkish. But was it really? We don’t think so. In fact, the Fed’s messaging was extremely dovish. And the fact that it continues to ignore inflation doesn’t bode well […]