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Any Joe Schmo (myself included) could have said that the NASDAQ and housing bubbles were going to burst (eventually). Schiff saw both of these coming very early in the game.
Schiff recommends cutting the size, scope and power of Government. He considers Gov't a burden on the economy and says that we (as private citizens) need to maintain a certain level of productivity just to maintain the bloated Government.
These 3 Schiff videos cover a LOT of ground (including discussion of the stimulus, what is wrong with our economy and what can be done to help) in less than 25 minutes total. It's amazing how well the 1st clip discusses the situation in less than 4 minutes. The 2nd and 3rd (part of one interview) are also very good and discuss how Government never learns from its mistakes.
It is more of the same. It assumes all spending bad, slim down good. The question remains, what are the effects of such cut downs? Not just to save a few bucks which every company is doing right now, but is it helping them or the economy?
Why is a depression our best option? Do we have a precedent to a capitalistic society surviving and coming out of a major depression? I don't know of any.
You have to realize that the country is already broke with abut $ 6 Trillion of public debt. There is another $ 5 T of intragovernment debt, but (from what I can tell) this is less of a concern (it's kind of confusing). With the takeover of Fannie/Freddie and other FOMC liabilities, I'd imagine the debt is a lot less. That's excluding the $53 T of entitlement underfunding moving forward.
He says that this recession is so bad since we didn't let the NASDAQ recession tun its course. I agree b/c Greenspan kept interest way too low to soften the damage. He thinks that taking extreme measures now to 'stimulate' the economy will make the next downturn that much worse. The main concern is inflation. If the dollar loses too much value, we're all in trouble.
The more I hear from Peter Schiff, the more he sounds like a politician (or one paving the path to become one). Yes, everybody knows that increasing debt is bad. And many, besides him, predicted that we're heading into an economic nightmare, and that included me, a telecommunications engineer back in 2000. I also knew we will be going to war. Does that make me an expert? No. In fact, far from it, which only proves it only takes a bit of thinking to analyze a situation, in and out of it. I don't believe in a "rule by the book" methodology, with a single line to run economy... cut costs at any price and let market decide. We're talking a nation here, in a hostile world. One has to be pragmatic about it, make an effort and evaluate if it works. Take it off, if it doesn't (taken from Obama's inaugural speech). To assume that it won't work, without doing anything, is a seriously flawed philosophy IMO. And a nation's economic health (hence security) is NOT the right thing to be played with. It is prudent to try within reason and use metrics to keep track of progress.
While we know text book definition of a recession, and of depression, I liked what I heard from an economist on NPR a few days ago... depression is when economy fails to get up on its own. And he believed that we're already in one. Does Peter Schiff explain how an economy can recover from a deep recession/mild depression, and how long will it take, what the effects will be, and how we go about doing anything about it? It is also worth noting that unemployment rate in the USA today is comparable to late 30s, if same standards were used to measure them. Is this irrelevant, and be left alone? What do you believe can be the effects of this growing concern to many of us (I'm leaving room for you to count yourself out)? And I'm talking, nationally and internationally.
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