Schiff on Corner Office: Bitcoin is a Sideshow

Earlier this week, Peter joined Rachel Lee on her show, The Corner Office, for an interview on President-elect Trump’s campaign strategies, the nation’s debt-driven economy, and Peter’s predictions for the future of precious metals. They also discuss Trump’s inconsistent views on crypto, the hidden costs of tariffs, and the fate of the dollar, cautioning that its decline could sharply impact the American standard of living.

Peter drops the painful truth early in the interview, pointing out that we are quite far from a healthy economy. We can’t even see the light at the end of the tunnel:

It’s going to get worse before it gets even worse. I mean, we’re not at the point where it’s going to get worse before it gets better yet, because we haven’t actually done anything to bring about the kind of constructive pain that would eventually lead to long-term gain.

Of course, Trump’s second term will probably make things relatively better than they would be under a Democratic president. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be good:

The pretend great economy that Trump had, by comparison to the pretend great economy that Biden has, wasn’t as bad. So, it looks good by comparison. People would prefer to go back to where it was four years ago. Unfortunately, we can’t. We have a lot more debt than we had four years ago. The economy is far more screwed up now than it was four years ago, and Trump’s policies won’t address those underlying problems.

Rachel and Peter spend much of the interview discussing Bitcoin, which has recently surged following the election. Peter cautions listeners to avoid the cryptocurrency:

Don’t get distracted by the sideshow in Bitcoin. I know a lot of people in the Bitcoin community are trying to fool people into buying Bitcoin under the pretense that it’s some digital version of gold that’s better than gold. But that’s just a bunch of hype. Yes, it’s gone up a lot because people have bought into this nonsense. That’s the dynamic of any kind of pyramid scheme, which is really what it is.

He also calls out Trump’s inconsistent rhetoric on cryptocurrency, noting that his recent courting of Bitcoiners is probably just politics:

It’s a no-lose deal for Trump because if you want to know what Trump actually thinks, look at what he said about it [Bitcoin] when he was president the first time. He said it was a scam and had no value. He said the same things that I say. And now he’s trying to claim, ‘Well, I’m educated.’ He’s not educated. He flip-flopped only to get votes. That’s what politicians do. They say what they need to say.

Bitcoin’s original promise was in its anti-establishment, anti-Wall Street, and anti-government applications. The cryptocurrency has fallen far from these hopes, as it’s now embraced by big banks looking to make a buck on a highly speculative asset:

You’re not a contrarian when you buy Bitcoin. You go to any financial station– look at CNBC– you’ll hear all about Bitcoin. …You got all the biggest brokerage firms out showing Bitcoin because they’re getting paid to babysit your coins in these ETFs. … If you want to be a contrarian, don’t buy Bitcoin. If you just want to jump on the bandwagon, that’s who’s in Bitcoin.

The duo ends the interview discussing the future of the dollar. As it declines, it’ll impoverish Americans and sharply reduce our ability to trade internationally:

The end game for the dollar is that it goes much lower against not just gold, but against its fiat counterparts, all the other currencies. And that’s going to severely diminish the living standard of Americans, because right now we rely on overvalued dollars to buy the goods that we don’t produce. But when the dollar crashes, we won’t be able to afford those goods. We don’t produce them ourselves, and we won’t be able to afford to buy the ones that are produced by the rest of the world.

If you missed it, be sure to watch Peter’s other recent interview with David Lin.