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- PeppermintPig, on 04/03/2009, -1/+50State manipulated market junkies think they can get high without all the negative side effects of artificially creating 'prosperity'. Schiff is on the mark here!
- kaelyiesta, on 04/03/2009, -1/+28This is just another example of how disparate wealth and productivity are from their representation in money and accounting. There is so much effort being made to convince everyone that the current course of action is working and that there is value in the things we have, but it completely ignores reality. The reality is that no matter how the numbers are spun, and represented via model instead of market determination, there are shanty towns rising all over this country. I know of two in Seattle.
This is a direct consequence of misdirecting productivity. In redistributing wealth and putting it to malinvested ends that are not productive(IE: not profitable in a free market atmosphere), it is draining this nation of its potential ability to correct those imbalances and begin to align with reality and become prosperous again. Fidgeting numbers to trick people into thinking that it's profitable to take some of their wealth and misuse it will only exacerbate the problem.
Spending must be determined by the free market, or there is no guarantee that it will not direct productive pursuits properly. Forcing spending outside of economic calculation does not work, unless there is enough extra profit from productive behaviors to offset the waste. It doesn't work with the drug war, the war on terror or any of the other numerous forms of theft our government is responsible for. These are unproductive behaviors and they only exist because there is force making us fund these things. True free market capitalism(IE: voluntarism and respect for private property) could not produce these things. Rational economic calculation would always indicate that these things are wasteful and not worth pursuing. - DarthVivi, on 04/04/2009, -5/+24The keyword is "yet."
- MrFunStuff, on 04/04/2009, -0/+12Peter Schiff Was Right Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7aQXuauR9g - Waiting2awake, on 04/04/2009, -0/+12Just a thought; Maybe be more concerned with the message, and less concern with the mode of communication?
- deboerpa, on 04/04/2009, -2/+14If this dude wants people to watch a 6:29 long video he should probably fix his mic levels :/
- DrWiggly, on 04/04/2009, -3/+14It hasn't tanked yet because it is relative to other currency. Other currency is supported by other developed nations who we are taking down with us.
- maviis, on 04/04/2009, -2/+12And flying pigs are going be to shooting rainbows from their arses.
Though you might be right about people still ignoring Peter Schiff and co. - MooseOfReason, on 04/04/2009, -0/+10I prefer to say "truth-teller" than "doomster".
- MooseOfReason, on 04/04/2009, -0/+9Colonel, Prove Schiff wrong.
- bearsandbulls, on 04/04/2009, -0/+9Damn people engaging in the world.
- sloppychris, on 04/04/2009, -1/+9I hope you keep your money in dollars. You deserve what is coming.
- Aroundtown27, on 04/04/2009, -3/+11Your government just spent trillions of American dollars in a very short period of time... that creates demand for dollars and has kept the price stable.
- ozel01, on 04/03/2009, -0/+8Here is the way I see it. The Mark to Market accounting rules are a double edged sword. Yes, ENRON extrapolated it's MTM to inflate it's P/E. B ut, they were adjusting the vaule upward to accomplish that. In good times ande good markets that will work as long as the market stays strong and no one changes the rules. Now, on the mortgages, we are seeing the other side of the MTM rules. Now these companies are holding mortgages that should have a value identified by the amount financed. However, we all know that is a uselss figure since property values have dropped so much. That is why those items are now toxic. If you adjust the MTM to reflect the reduction in value, you are going ot kill your bottom line. Plus, there are other rules in play that stipulate financial institutions must maintaij a certain level of liquidity. That was the other killer ot the financial markets. Now they had all these overinfloated mortgages as compared to actual value that they had to maintain liquidity for. They just couldn't do it and ultimately collapsed.
- zoziw, on 04/04/2009, -0/+8Under MTM, a bank would have to list an asset at it's current market value whether the account was current or not. An asset valued at $400k would have to be recorded as worth $400k, even if the mortgage out on it was worth $700k.
If they have suspended MTM, then if the above account was current the bank could value it at $700k instead of $400k. This creates the illusion that the bank has more assets than it really does. In a stronger economy, they might get away with this, however, with the downturn in both employment and housing prices, they are probably going to experience a higher number of defaults before the asset value recovers.
Schiff is saying that this downturn is the cure to the economic problems we are facing and that by changing the accounting rules we are simply prolonging the illness longer than necessary.
Using the same example, if we have a $700k mortgage on property valued at $400k, we have a toxic asset and the government is in the process of trying to clear these up. If you suspend MTM, then you can value the asset at $700k if the account is current...now it isn't toxic anymore.
Except that as soon as the account ceases to be current it will become a toxic asset.
So we are going to make a sweep through the financial sector to clear up the toxic assets only to have more come back to haunt us down the road. - inactive, on 04/04/2009, -3/+11Schiff has advocated our stopping payment on our credit card bills. They will tank and get bailed out anyway. If you have any cash, don't put it into the black hole known as credit. You will pay twice, once as consumer then as a taxpayer.
STOP PAYING YOUR CREDIT CARD BILLS. YOU ARE NOT YOUR FICO SCORE. - UbIwerks, on 04/04/2009, -2/+10Experts with speech problems like: Moses, Robert Boyle, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton, Jimmy Stewart, George Washington, and Steven Hawking?
- ramtanion, on 04/04/2009, -1/+8Obama is a teleprompter puppet.
- Mactard, on 04/04/2009, -1/+8Hooray, meet the new balance sheet, same as the old balance sheet.
- MentalVasectomy, on 04/04/2009, -0/+7OfNumbers, you won!
Congratulations you are the winner of the DAILY DOUCHE award.
Thanks for the hard work. - thegrantman, on 04/04/2009, -1/+7Schiff turns a moral hazard into a tempting business proposition.
- inactive, on 04/04/2009, -0/+6The problem isn't free trade, it's a lack of a free market in MONEY. Currency manipulation is not possible under the discipline of gold/silver, which is the only REAL Constitutional money anyway. Humanity is now about to learn that lesson via hyperinflation, again.
- donotclickjim, on 04/04/2009, -2/+8Man, just when I think I'm beginning to understand this stuff someone comes along and messes everything up. At first Schiff sounded like MTM was the problem then he said it wasn't. I'm not sure really what he said. Why again are people not paying their mortgages? I mean, I understand that its crazy to pay for something that is losing value or when you feel like you've been screwed but whatever happened to integrity? I mean, I bought a house 2 years ago during the peak of the real estate bubble and my home has lost around 20% of its value. Sure I'm pissed but that doesn't mean I should stop paying. I still have to have a place to live and who's to say house prices won't go up again? If banks acted that way it would be like them raising the mortgage because home values went up. That's just part of the business decision. There are risks involved but if we all abandon our responsibilities and expect someone else to pick up the tab then we are doomed as a society (which seems to be what we are experiencing).
- Mpwns, on 04/04/2009, -2/+8i give it to the end of the year when hyperinflation hits. the early signs of a depression are here. most people are just in denial. sure the markets are up who cares, people are still losing there jobs and homes at alarming rates. i bet soon there will be a federal sales tax on top of the state sales tax in about a year or so. government spent way to much in the last 6-8 months. when they should have been saying "welcome to capitalism." when a ceo asked for money.
- motters, on 04/03/2009, -4/+9Although Schiff is a bit of a doomster I agree with most of what he says about the fundamentals of what's going on.
- iamacyborg, on 04/04/2009, -1/+6Actually, spending a lot of dollars creates demand for GOODS, which drives prices up, thus decreasing the buying power of the dollar. The reason the dollar is up is because lots of companies are hard hit for cash and have to sell their assets. This causes the dollar to buy more as there is more stuff of the market for x quantity of dollars to buy.
- inactive, on 04/04/2009, -5/+10The dollar has not tanked yet because the Obama budget has just now been passed. All of those trillions of dollars have yet to be printed and circulated into the economy. Don't worry, the bigger shoe will drop soon. China ain't havin' it neither they want to see the dollar go away. Who do you think has the most leverage in the world. Who is THE MOST POWERFUL ECONOMY ON THE PLANET?
China.
Start learning Chinese. - RonPauls, on 04/04/2009, -3/+8against what? gold? other fiat currencies?
define your terms
vs. other fiat currencies it has done well, cause other countries are in worse shape. That doesn't mean the dollar is better off. - akhomestead, on 04/05/2009, -0/+4Peter is a long term trader. What the market does this week or next means nothing, he's looking years down the road.
You invest short term on the lies, and long term on the truth. - Feenix566, on 04/03/2009, -0/+4As I understand it, companies aren't losing money because of the MTM rules. Companies are losing money because they bought mortgage-backed securities that weren't worth as much as they paid for them. MTM rules are just forcing the companies to report that.
- ozel01, on 04/03/2009, -1/+5Correct, those mortgages are worth something, just not what the mortgage value is. Putting a definite number on that worth is more or less throwing a dart at a dart board and hoping you hit the right number. No matter what number they use to place a value on the mortgage it is going to reflect a loss that is going to hit the bottom line, the question is simply how badly and how that will affect the liquidity they must maintain. Now the video argued against doing away with the MTM rule. I can understand that in down times becuase it will ultimately have a huge negative effect on the balance sheet. But, in a sense, the MTM rule played a large role in creating this mess because companies playing by the rules who showed the actual value of the mortgage are now being hurt. If we do away with MTM the only requirement is to show TODAY's value, not some number based on market conditions down the road, which MTM requires you to do, although not decades down the road. That would protect from heavy losses in a market downturn.
- MooseOfReason, on 04/05/2009, -0/+3Choice in Currency, by F.A. Hayek:
http://www.anc.org.za/books/hayek.pdf - chromerium, on 04/04/2009, -0/+3Schiff was pretty well on the mark leading into this whole mess, so I'm betting he will continue to be more right than wrong.
People in Australia are completely optimistic; they're not seeing the worst of it yet and they seem to think that therefore nothing will happen. But its just blind optimism. - donotclickjim, on 04/04/2009, -0/+3I don't understand what you are saying. What are these "things" you speak of? Houses or CDOs? Houses do have value and always will. How much value is debatable. Since houses have value therefore CDOs must have value. I do agree with Schiff that the governments seem to be playing magic with the monetary system but I don't know if I agree with him on his points in this vblog (mainly because I don't understand what he is saying).
- edstate, on 04/03/2009, -0/+3I'm with you... it's just that I thought they were adjusting MTM the OTHER way, so that they don't have to mark it as it's valued TODAY (which is ???, and essentially = zero), but they can now extrapolate a bit, so they CDOs and their CDSs are actually worth something. Sure, they're a loss, and in some cases a heavy loss... but even the worst mortgages have underlying property attached to them, which means they're not worth nothing.
- qxcvr, on 04/05/2009, -0/+2Movies:
Zeitgeist
Prison planet
freedom to fascism
Demographic winter
FREEDOM TO FASCISM
FIAT EMPIRE
MONEY MASTERS
WAKE UP CALL
The Corporation
Endgame
IOUSA
Arithmetic, Population & Energy
People:
RON PAUL
Chris Martensen
Albert Bartlett
David Walker
JESSE VENTURA
Peter Schiff
George Carlin
Aaron Russo
Irwin Schiff
Alex Jones
Jim Rogers
John Hoefle
Lyndon LaRouche
Websites:
http://www.chrismartenson.com/
http://www.freeople.com/
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.shadowstats.com/
http://www.tnr.com/index.html
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/
http://www.restoretherepublic.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ - andreegal, on 04/06/2009, -0/+2If he's a doomster, well....we live in doom times then, cuz he's been right all along so far.
- inactive, on 04/05/2009, -1/+3China literally OWNS our asses.
A default on your credit cards is the patriotic thing to do.
Also, not so easy to open a business here in the USA, I manage. Incidentally, I do a fair amount of business in CHINA. They find a way to get what they want/ need.
Bottom line: Capitalism and Communism = Trash Heap o' History - abayden, on 06/27/2009, -0/+2A lot of experts who predicted the crisis just like Schiff agree with him. These include JS Kim and Gerald Celente. You can their current opinions at http://expertswhopredictedthecrisis.com
- mHtt, on 04/04/2009, -0/+2I really hope Peter Schiff takes the most awesome vacations.
And for future reference, if mr Schiff or anyone who knows him lerks on digg, a video blog is called a vlog. - edstate, on 04/03/2009, -3/+5I'm now confused.
I *thought* that since Enron was putting profits on their current books from, like, 2075, in order to inflate their P/E, one of the legislations passed (along w/ SBOX) were MUCH stricter MTM rules. As in, "you can't extrapolate, you can only show what your assets are worth TODAY". Right? He's talking like it was the other way around, like the current MTM rules let them extrapolate, and they just changed them to reflect TODAY's value.
Right? - RonPauls, on 04/04/2009, -2/+3we are in deflation because the supply of money and credit is declining
"How about it's purchase power of standard consumer products?"
That's not really inflation, but it can be a marker. Nevertheless, I would never use government CPI - they leave out a lot of important things like real estate and asset markets - psients, on 04/04/2009, -2/+3This is so sad.
- Trekhawk, on 04/04/2009, -1/+2I was equally annoyed by the window over his right shoulder. Every photographer knows you shouldn't back-light like that.
- inactive, on 04/04/2009, -2/+3With Sarbanes Oxley and the rest of "deregulation," try opening one in the USA first, as an experiment...
- cyberdork, on 04/04/2009, -3/+3How about it's purchase power of standard consumer products?
Inflation is minimal.
But now I'm sure you will find another problem with that... - raven7x, on 04/19/2009, -0/+0Its time to fight back for National Sovereignty world wide. Join the movement check out
http://www.larouchepac.com
HOMEOWNERS AND BANK PROTECTION ACT
“Applying the State Theory of Money [which assumes that a sovereign nation has the power to issue its own money], any government can fund with its own currency all its domestic developmental needs to maintain full employment without inflation.”
Watch the videos. heres the latest:
http://www.larouchepac.com/lpactv?nid=10000 - charmaniac, on 04/04/2009, -4/+4You should go try doing business in China before you proclaim them the next most powerful economy on the planet. Truth is, the PRC is a communist government with a closed system that is inefficient. The U.S. will remain the country to do business with/in because our society is entirely open to anyone who wants to invest in U.S. companies.
Try opening a business in China and see how far you get... - licnyc, on 04/04/2009, -4/+3I am going to listen to peter schiff - Run out, buy gold, bury it in coffee cans in the backyard and make treasure maps.
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