Peter's Blog

This Is Not a Printing Press! (Or Is It?)

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 […]

Stimulus Doesn’t Stimulate: The Case of Japan

Last week, Keynesian extraordinaire Paul Krugman called for more fiscal stimulus in the form of a “government investment program.” Mike Maharrey poked fun of him in his Fun on Friday column. But while it might be amusing to crack jokes at the expense of Keynsians and their obsession with both fiscal and monetary stimulus, the […]

Peter Schiff: The Fed Will Try Again But It’s Not Going to Work

“In case the people in this room didn’t know, the financial crisis of 2008, which I had been forecasting for some time, and the Great Recession that ensued, was caused predominantly by the Federal Reserve.” This was the opening line of Peter Schiff’s talk at the Las Vegas MoneyShow. The Fed managed to “rescue” the […]

Fed Set to Launch “Massive” Bond-Buying Program — In Other Words QE

The Federal Reserve is set to begin what a MarketWatch article called a “massive” bond-buying program. Jerome Powell announced the program last Tuesday and the central bank released more details about the plan on Friday. The Federal Reserve will buy $60 billion in short-term Treasury bills each month. According to a statement, the purchases will […]

Peter Schiff: Trump and the Fed Are Reading Off the Same Script

Stocks took off on Friday on several big news items – most significantly President Trump’s announcement that the US and China have worked out phase one of a trade deal. In his podcast, Peter broke down the news. He also made an interesting observation: Trump and the Federal Reserve seem to be reading off the […]

Peter Schiff: The Fed Is Lying to Say This Is Not QE

Yesterday, Jerome Powell announced that the Fed will soon launch another round of quantitative easing. Except he insisted it will not be doing quantitative easing. This is not QE. In no sense is this QE.” What the Fed will be doing, according to Powell, is expanding its balance sheet. Powell said details of the process […]

Peter Schiff: Spiraling Toward Recession

Last week, we got bad news in the manufacturing sector. The ISM index of national factory activity dropped to a 10-year low. It was the second straight month the number was below 50, which indicates a contraction in manufacturing. That news sent stock markets into a tailspin. This was followed up by a very week […]

The World Is Awash in Easy Money

The Federal Reserve isn’t the only central bank cutting interest rates. In fact, the world is awash in easy money. The Fed met market expectations during the September FOMC meeting and lowered interest rates another 25 basis points. It was the second cut of the year and pushed the interest rate down to the range of […]

Does the Fed Have the US Economy on Life Support?

The Fed did exactly what markets expected during the September FOMC meeting and lowered interest rates another 25 basis points. It was the second cut of the year and pushed the interest rate down to the range of 1.75 – 2%. And yet we’re told that this is the economy is “great.” What gives? Economist […]

Is the Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full? SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap Sept. 27, 2019

Gold and silver are down this week. There was some more hopeful trade war news and stronger than expected economic data that drove markets this week. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey covers it, plus some news that’s being mostly ignored. And he ponders a question: should we be […]