Peter Schiff vs. Art Laffer and all the other cheerleaders
Peter Schiff has been calling the mortgage crisis and the recession for years. This video shows Schiff battling the likes of Art Laffer and Ben Stein, who were arguing last year that the US economy was in great shape and that there was no problem with inflated home values or the sub-prime mess.
Laffer is the same guy saying the sky will fall if Obama institutes his tax plan. Why should we listen to this guy?
For years we were told that tax cuts would solve everything. Of course, we were just living it up on cheap money, and now the bill is coming due. Watch the video, and ask yourself who you should be listening to now.
Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan
Posted in: Conservatives, Economy, Policy, Taxes, Video
Tags: Art Laffer, Art Laffer was wrong about the economy, Art Laffer was wrong about the recession, Ben Stein, Ben Stein was wrong about the economy, Ben Stein was wrong about the recession, housing crisis, mortgage crisis, Peter Schiff, Peter Schiff predicted the recession, Peter Schiff vs Art Laffer, Peter Schiff was right about the recession, recession
This is brilliant! The next one to watch is the health insurance crisis. Similar priciples are at work here.
good example of how “journalists” are bought and paid for by special interests. I loved watching Stein making the recommendation to purchase Merrill Lynch at USD 175.00
It’s not rocket science, Schiff simply made a solid macro economic analysis. The herd didn’t tell the truth and one can speculate it’s because they were serving some other interest.
Business people around the world right now are cutting spending, credit is tightening up for everyone. Those who think government had no role in creating today’s situation and those who think government should have to role in trying to improve the situation, are ignoring facts.
Great video – Peter was all over it.
I saw four stock recommendations:
Merrill Lynch: price at time of video $75, current price $12
Goldman-Sachs: price at time of video $175, current price $62
Washington Mutual: price at time of video $13, current price $0.16
Gold (Peter’s rec): $83, current price $73
Anyone who is getting financial advice from the guy from “Ferris Beuller” ought to re-think his strategy.
What struck me as funny was the groans and huffs from the other people as Peter gave his arguments. It’s like you can’t have a dissenting opinion at Fox News without being harassed for it.
Peter Schiff’s Clients Got Hosed This Year, Too
Posted Jan 26, 2009 11:43am EST by Joe Weisenthal in Investing, Media, Newsmakers
Related: ^gspc, ^dji
From ClusterStock.com, Jan. 26, 2009:
Sure his on-air sparring makes for some great TV. And his pointed criticism of the stimulus plan is spot on, especially at a time when people believe the answer to our pile of debt is to spend like crazy. But that doesn’t mean Peter Schiff has been an amazing steward of his clients’ cash.
Michael Shedlock punctures the Schiff aura, saying he’s heard from several clients who claim losses of 40%-70% after investing with EuroPacificCapital. How could this be? Hasn’t Schiff been bearish during a horrible year for US equities? Yes, but that negative on US equaties was just a part of his overall strategy.
Shedlock sums Schiff’s complete thesis:
• US Equity Markets Will Crash.
• US Dollar Will Go To Zero (Hyperinflation).
• Decoupling (The rest of the world would be immune to a US slowdown.
• Buy foreign equities and commodities and hold them with no exit strategy.
Schiff was correct about point number 1 above. The US equity markets crashed. That was a very good call. Unfortunately, his investment thesis centered on shorting the dollar in a hyperinflation bet, and buying foreign equities rather than shorting US equities.
Furthermore, Schiff made no allowances for being wrong and had no exit strategy whatsoever.
What happened in 2008 was that foreign equities sold off much harder than US equities, and a strengthening US dollar compounded the situation.
Bottom line: Not all doomsayers are going to make money in a bad investment. And you can be extremely sharp and insightful with your analysis, but it doesn’t mean your investment theses will pan out. In fact, there’s frequently a disconnect between people who call for doom and their actual results
Who’s Laffing now!!!!!
Laffer is a farce so are most mainstream economists.
Obama and the Democrats are sending this country into a depression worse than what this country experienced in the 1930′s
Right – Obama has been in office 6 weeks, and Joe is blaming the sinking economy on him. That’s just hilarious.
Gerardo,
Shouldn’t the election of this Obamanation have brought some confidence back to the market? Since his immaculate inauguration the stock market has gone down nearly 3000 points. No one likes what this clown is saying. His Treasury Secretary (the one that couldn’t figure out how to do his taxes) makes an appearance and the market drops like a rock the next day.
Businesses, Investors, the people that employ people (the dirty rich people) are the ones that make this economy hum- not the beneficiary’s of these handouts. We’re getting deeper and deeper, more and more people are getting outraged. You have idiots like this http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/28/AR2
009022800168_2.html calling the responsible crybabies just adding fuel to the growing fire (and she’s at the Washington Post? No wonder papers are in trouble)
Nick – Blaming Obama for the short term market is beyond stupid. The economy is tanking, and that started 2 years ago when the real estate bubble burst. Get a grip.
You are becoming a liberal caricature. What is beyond stupid and retarded is thinking what Obama is doing is having no effect on the market. I mean, come on Gerardo– take the lib glasses off for 1 day, even 10 minutes.
AND 2 years ago is when the democrats took congrol of congress-I can easily agree with you there.
I read this after my post
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123604419092515347.html
But I guess you and other libs still won’t by the fact that Obama is making things far worse.