Category Archives: Peter’s Commentaries

Peter Schiff’s latest commentary at Euro Pacific Capital examines the logic behind an international currency war. Schiff looks at the recent example of the Swiss franc to show what happens to an economy that decides to abandon a strong currency. Of course, if you want to avoid the woes of fiat currencies, it’s important to invest in something real and tangible, like precious metals.

“Productive nations generate excess goods and services that can be sold abroad and their growth and stability attract investment funds from abroad. These conditions will tend to increase demand for the nation’s currency, thereby pushing up its price. A strong currency keeps capital and raw materials costs low, enabling more productive workers to earn higher real wages. But according to most economists, a strong currency will bring down an economy because it destroys international competitiveness and can even lead to lower prices (deflation) which they see as economic quicksand. These fears have ignited a “global currency war” in which countries are expending huge amounts of national savings in order to ensure that their currencies stay cheap. In today’s economic logic we must fail in order to succeed.” 

Read the Full Commentary Here

On Friday, CBS MoneyWatch published Peter Schiff’s rebuttal to prominent gold skeptic Larry Swedroe, who had challenged Peter’s precious metals forecasting. Peter writes:

“In an article entitled “Ignore the ‘buy gold now’ crowd” on CBS MoneyWatch this Monday, columnist and equities analyst Larry Swedroe criticizes forecasters who remain bullish on gold despite its monumental decade-long run.

He links to an interview in which I forecast that gold will rise above $5,000/oz before this bull market ends. Unsourced, Swedroe modifies my prediction to $2,300/oz by the end of 2013. While I typically forecast overall market direction rather than timing, I’m fairly comfortable with the words Swedroe put in my mouth. I believe gold will continue to rise and close 2013 significantly higher than present levels, and I’m invested accordingly. What I find most disconcerting in Swedroe’s piece is everything that follows. He goes on to question both a) investment forecasting as a practice and b) gold as an asset in general.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Peter Schiff’s latest commentary pulls apart the ridiculous logic of a trillion dollar platinum coin as a solution to the nation’s debt, and exposes the real reason the Fed would never permit such a scheme:

“The government, not the Fed, mints coins, so they did not have to rely on the Fed to create value out of thin air. That is why the platinum coin idea was so seductive, if ultimately unsellable.

But the Fed does the exact same thing all the time using sophisticated accounting and state of the art computing. The Fed “expands its balance sheet” by buying government bonds from private banks. In exchange for these securities, the Fed credits the banks with funds it creates out of thin air. The banks then pass the funds to the general public through loans. But it’s important to realize that the Fed does not have any money to actually buy the bonds in the first place. The funds are “created” by a Fed computer. The process is easier (and equally duplicitous) than minting a trillion dollar coin (which at least requires the production of something other than computer code). The only difference is the lack of window dressing. It’s a shame that the platinum coin episode did not result in a wider recognition of this brutal truth.”

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Everyone knows the investor’s mantra: “buy low, sell high.” Rather than fretting about lower gold prices over the past month, investors should be seizing this golden opportunity to safely store some wealth in precious metals before gold and silver start ratcheting higher again. I’m not the only one anticipating $2,000 and higher gold – experts all over the world are predicting another bullish year for the yellow metal.

However, there are a lot of unscrupulous metals dealers out there ready to take advantage of the novice gold bug. You don’t want to approach a metals broker unprepared. That’s why I created my “Classic Gold Scams” special report. In this free report, investors can learn how to avoid all the classic gold scams, from bait-and-switch tactics to worthless proof sets to overpriced numismatic coins.

I set up Euro Pacific Precious Metals to give my clients a safe and inexpensive place to buy physical precious metals. Whether or not you give us your business, I urge you to read this report so you can at least tell the difference between an honest dealer and a crooked one.

-Peter Schiff

Click here to download the report and start investing in precious metals with confidence.

In this month’s edition of Peter Schiff’s Gold Letter, Peter addresses Shinzo Abe’s plans to devalue the Japanese yen. In the aftermath of the fiscal cliff negotiations, Peter seems to be the only one examining the disastrous effects that Japan’s monetary policy will have on the US bond market.

“The yen hit a post-war high against the US dollar in 2011 and has remained strong. For sound-money enthusiasts, this has been cause for celebration. But for Keynesian demand-siders, it’s a crisis.

Rather than attribute decades of sluggish growth to an interventionist industrial policy, Abe and his cadres are blaming the strong yen. In response, Abe has called for the Bank of Japan to target at least 3% inflation.

For some time, the only saving grace for Japanese citizens who are unable to find jobs or secure financing has been that prices have been stable or falling. Abe intends to rob them of that salve while doing nothing to address the underlying infection.”

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