Peter’s Blog

Earlier this week, Federal Reserve governor and vice-chair nominee Lael Brainard indicated the central bank will shrink its balance sheet at a “considerably” more rapid pace than it did during the previous cycle. I, Peter Schiff and a few others outside the mainstream have said the Fed won’t be able to do this. Why not?

It appears quantitative easing has pretty much come to an end. At least for now. Although the Fed was still expanding the balance sheet through mid-month, it only added a net $9B to the balance sheet during March. This was accomplished with moderate purchases of short- and long-term debt, while 5–10-year notes had a $20B […]

Is the US about to go the way of Japan? The Japanese yen tanked after the Bank of Japan vowed to buy an unlimited number of Japanese government bonds in order to hold the 10-year yield under its 0.25% target.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve launched its first salvo against inflation, raising interest rates by a quarter-percent. It was a pretty weak shot given 7.9% CPI, but Jerome Powell and other Fed presidents ratcheted up the tough rhetoric last week. Powell raised the possibility of 50 basis-point rate hikes at future meetings and San […]

We talk a lot about how the Fed keeps its big fat thumb on the Treasury market. But it also has its big fat thumb on the housing market. And if the Fed really does follow through with its taper and its plans to shrink its balance sheet, it will have a big effect on […]

President Joe Biden’s “build back better” spending bill seems to be dead — at least for the time being. But there is still plenty of spending coming down the pike. This raises an important question: how is the Federal Reserve going to simultaneously taper its bond-buying program and monetize all of this debt? On Monday, […]

The Federal Reserve wrapped up its FOMC meeting on Wednesday and finally announced the much-anticipated QE taper. The Fed will cut its bond-buying program by about $15 billion a month. But so what? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey digs into the Fed announcement and raises some very important questions.

The Federal Reserve wrapped up its November FOMC meeting on Wednesday and finally did something other than talk. The central bank announced it will begin to taper its massive quantitative easing program.

The Federal Reserve held its September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last week. While there was a lot of talk about the central bank tapering its quantitative easing program, the Fed didn’t announce any concrete plans to slow asset purchases. The lack of concrete action was no surprise to Peter Schiff. After the Fed […]

The Federal Reserve wrapped up another FOMC meeting with a whole lot of talk and very little action. Interest rates remain at zero and quantitative easing continues unabated. The mainstream headlines are all focusing on the prospect of QE tapering. In this episode, Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey explains why he’d write a completely […]