Peter's Blog

Living in the Shadow of a Volcano: The US National Debt in Perspective

Every once in a while, a mainstream news outlet publishes a piece about the national debt. Here and there, politicians trot out the surging debt as a talking point to make some political hay. Now and then, an economist will wave the red flag. But by-and-large, the national debt just kind of looms over us. […]

Some Doubt about the Economic Benefits of GOP Tax Reform

There’s a lot of optimism out there that passage of the Trump tax plan will juice the economy. Many analysts say tax cut optimism is one of the factors that continue to push stocks up, and that has created headwinds for gold and silver. But as we’ve pointed out, there are reasons to question this mainstream […]

What Does the Ballooning National Debt Mean to You?

When Pres. Trump signed a bill raising the debt ceiling limit for the next three months, it instantly added approximately $318 billion to the national debt, raising it to $20.16 trillion. And Trump wants to do away with the debt ceiling altogether. It’s hard to even conceptualize $20 trillion. What does that mean to the average person? Just […]

The Fed Balance Sheet – It’s Not Going to Shrink

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will meet this week. There is virtually no expectation of a rate hike this time around, but there is widespread anticipation that the Fed will outline its strategy for shrinking its massive balance sheet. In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff made a pretty good case that the Fed […]