Peter Schiff: The Crash is Here

On Tuesday’s episode of The Peter Schiff Show, Peter warns that a sudden sell-off in U.S. assets is the opening act of a broader flight from the dollar. He connects the market moves to recent political rhetoric, warns that Treasuries are no longer a safe haven, and lays out the portfolio shifts he believes listeners should make now to protect and grow wealth as the dollar weakens.

He opens by describing how markets finally reacted once U.S. traders returned from the Martin Luther King holiday, calling it a decisive “sell America” day that he thinks will set the tone for the year:

Well, while Americans were enjoying a three-day holiday weekend courtesy of Martin Luther King, the rest of the world was reacting to some of the news that came out over the weekend and our markets finally got a chance to react today. It was a big day in the U.S. markets. Pretty much everything related to the United States was down. It was really a sell America day and I think this really is going to set the tone for the rest of the year. The Dow Jones dropped over 800 points today.

Next he pins the immediate catalyst on President Trump’s Greenland remarks, arguing that the rhetoric gave global investors a reason to move away from U.S. assets—something Peter says foreign holders should have done long ago:

Little did I know that the catalyst would be Greenland. I mean, who the hell knew that right that that would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, that it would be what causes ultimately the mass exodus out of the U.S. dollar and what causes the U.S. dollar to lose its reserve currency status would be Greenland, and I said something about that on my last podcast. I could not believe what the president was saying. And of course he’s getting all this support you know from Republicans who are afraid to stand up because what he’s saying is idiotic.

Peter frames this as a broader realization by foreign governments and institutions that they have been subsidizing the U.S. through Treasury holdings and settled payments, and he says the unwinding has begun—with gold already signaling the move:

But what we did do again is alert the world to the dangers of subsidizing the United States, right, and the Europeans are now waking up. Hey, Europe owns eight trillion worth of U.S. treasuries—oh well, I just read today that it was a Danish pension fund—oh we’re going to dump our treasuries. In fact this is going to begin the mass exodus out of U.S. treasuries, out of all U.S. dollar denominated debt; this is it, the dollar’s days are over as the reserve currency, the reign is coming to an end. 

He is blunt about the changing nature of risk: Treasuries and the dollar are no longer safe, while physical precious metals are. He also takes aim at the crypto crowd, saying Bitcoin failed its moment to prove itself as a true haven:

Treasuries are not a risk-free asset; they are the risk. The U.S. dollar is the risk. So the safe haven is gold, the safe haven is silver, the safe haven is not bitcoin and that should be painfully obvious. You know, all these bitcoiners are just waiting for bitcoin to follow gold and silver; they think it’s only a matter of time. The fact that it hasn’t moved means it’s not going to move; bitcoin had its time to shine and it passed — it had a test and it failed, it is over for bitcoin.

Looking further out, Peter foresees a 2026 crisis tied to America’s structural imbalances—he expects that crisis to be mostly an American problem, not a replay of 2008’s global contagion. He argues foreign economies will actually be relatively better off as the U.S. consumer burden is lifted:

The big difference between the 2026 financial crisis—which is actually going to coincide with the 250th year anniversary of our country—and 2008 is that the 2026 crisis will be very different than the 2008 financial crisis, not just because it’s going to be a lot worse but because it’s not going to be a global financial crisis; it’s going to be an American financial crisis. The rest of the world is actually going to benefit because the burden of supporting the U.S. consumer-based economy will be lifted from their backs, so our loss is the rest of the world’s gain. 

Gold and silver are surging: check out Peter’s precious metals commentary on his latest Friday Gold Wrap.