printIs America back and are the statists out? If only, says the one-and-only Peter Schiff. “The statists aren’t out; they’re here, they’re in control.” The Fed has yet to raise interest rates as it ought to. Americans have yet to begin saving in earnest. The government’s sticky paws are all over the place, prices are not being allowed to fall to reflect reality. We’re still a broke and bankrupt consumer economy.
Peter Morici, on the other hand, smells the recovery—a fourth-quarter recovery, to be precise. I wonder whether he’ll be asked back on the “Kudlow Report” when his prediction turns out to be false? Who am I kidding. Being a commentator on the “idiot’s lantern” means never having to say you’re sorry.
Update (July 21): Schiff said nothing about saving dollars. Anyone who follows his advice knows he recommends divesting of US assets. And he’s big on gold. We discussed strategizing in “Survival On the Road To serfdom.”
Different people notice different things. Peter Schiff’s remark that the stock market had lost 75% of its value relative to gold in the last nine years was the one that intrigued me. If I had the time and could find the data, I’d plot the daily closing value of the DJIA every day since January 1, 1929, in ounces of gold. I’ve long suspected that stocks have been losing value, in terms of real money.
I can’t entirely agree that it’s time for Americans to start saving. Is it really a good idea to hold savings denominated in a fiat currency?
Peter Schiff deals with the market everyday analyzing how it is working, Peter Morici is a college professor, who teaches students how the market “should” work. Apples and Oranges- who is Kudlow kidding here. If he can’t find another investment broker to disagree with Mr. Schiff, then Mr. Schiff wins the argument by default. Hope my broker is listening to the right Peter.
Kudlow is a neo-con who unfortunately wants to be the forever optimist on the Stock Market and the American dollar. To be otherwise in his book would be almost anti-American. Schiff is talking real production, real wealth, and real value while Morici and Kudlow are talking statistics. In other words, the latter two are not Austrian in their thinking. You can’t place the destruction of wealth via government intervention and spending on a stat chart.
Gringo Malo,
I think that Mike Maloney’s book, Investing in Gold & Silver, has the sort of plot in it that you are seeking. Maloney is a precious metals dealer, and of course he wants people to buy and sell gold and silver, but his book is better than many others in the field. I read it, but then lent it to someone and can’t recall just who I lent it to. I am totally overrun with books, anyway.