Peter Schiff hit a number of subjects in his most recent podcast, including bitcoin, the stock market, wealth inequality, the Fed and the voting age. He also said we should be thankful for capitalism.
In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff said something that seems rather perplexing on the surface. He said that the current stock market rally isn’t being driven by a strong economy. It’s actually being driven by a weak economy.
How can this be?
Well, the underlying economic weakness is what keeps the Federal Reserve in play and it’s the Fed’s loose monetary policy that’s goosing this market.
The Dow pushed above 28,000 on Friday. The Nasdaq also closed on a record high above 8,500, and the S&P 500 made a new record high of 3,120. This despite some more gloomy economic data that came out during the day. Industrial production dropped more than expected, falling by 0.8 in October. Inventory numbers were also revised down. All of this led the Atlanta Fed to revise its Q4 GDP estimate down to 0.3.
In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff said that it’s QE and Federal Reserve policy that is driving the stock market, not a great economy. In fact, the Fed is creating all kinds of bubbles. And like all bubbles, they will eventually pop.
Stock markets made new highs on Wednesday, but as Peter Schiff explained in his latest podcast, there are a lot of cracks under the surface. The markets are surging forward even as they overlook bad economic data and chilly political winds.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed on record highs Friday after a stronger than expected jobs report. But in his podcast, Peter Schiff said that the stock markets aren’t surging because of a great economy. They’re surging because of bad monetary policy.
As expected, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates another 25 basis points on Wednesday.
The mainstream read the post FOMC meeting comments to be relatively hawkish, saying Powell and Company seemed to indicate that future rate cutting is on pause.
Peter Schiff opened up his podcast reminding us that just one year ago, the Fed was raising rates and telling us it would continue to do so through 2019. It also claimed that quantitative tightening was on “autopilot.”
Years ago, markets used to pay a lot of attention to the money supply and trade deficits. Now, these numbers barely get a passing mention. In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said he thinks what is old will become new again and trade deficits and money printing will once again come front and center.
Stocks took off on Friday on several big news items – most significantly President Trump’s announcement that the US and China have worked out phase one of a trade deal. In his podcast, Peter broke down the news. He also made an interesting observation: Trump and the Federal Reserve seem to be reading off the same script.
Yesterday, Jerome Powell announced that the Fed will soon launch another round of quantitative easing. Except he insisted it will not be doing quantitative easing.
This is not QE. In no sense is this QE.”
What the Fed will be doing, according to Powell, is expanding its balance sheet. Powell said details of the process will be explained in the following days, but it will involve the purchase of Treasurys.
This sounds an awful lot like QE, as Peter Schiff emphasized in his podcast.
Last week, we got bad news in the manufacturing sector. The ISM index of national factory activity dropped to a 10-year low. It was the second straight month the number was below 50, which indicates a contraction in manufacturing. That news sent stock markets into a tailspin. This was followed up by a very week service sector report the following day.
In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff said the service sector is about to follow manufacturing into recession. He also talked about the recent employment numbers and explained how the Fed is acting like a Soviet Politburo.
