12 ms·

He is predicting doom for over a decade.

epicureanideal 5y ago
Sure, but the government has also been kicking the can down the road for over a decade. Interest rates get lower and lower, asset prices get pushed higher and higher...
- fakesheriff 5y ago
  Demographics = destiny. When an older generation with no concept of civilization wields political power, it does so in its own narrow self interest. We must pay $1.5m for a shitty 3BR apartment, $300k for a college degree, and $600 for insulin so that Boomers may live comfortably in retirement. The frustrating part is that only half of Boomers will live comfortably in retirement. The ones that do will be very comfortable. The others will stand on their arthritic knees 8hrs a day bagging groceries, trying to offset the precipitous decline in the purchasing power of their social security checks. Boomers are so selfish they don't even look out for people in their own cohort. The Boomer generation is an abject civilizational failure.
applepple 5y ago
Clearly he was right. Not sure how else to call what's going on now. Many people now are doomed. You just don't hear about them - This makes their suffering worse, not better. It's a matter of time before it reaches the rest of us. The rot has already eaten away the core of the economy.
CheezeIt 5y ago
Yet we now have rock bottom interest rates and a 0% reserve requirement.
- spinchange 5y ago
  And a global health pandemic that's harder to peg than inflation
SAShithole 5y ago
And at some point he is bound to be right desu.
coralreef 5y ago
I don't care for Schiff, but central banking and the modern monetary system is fundamentally problematic. Just because we haven't experienced a black-swan event doesn't mean that it's not possible, whether that be a market crash or a pandemic. Some cycles take longer than decades to play out. Some things take hundreds of years. First principles thinking (and common sense) tells us that no party should be able to create money out of thin air, it almost breaks physics, but it doesn't because the value comes from diluting every else's money. It breaks the social contract by taking from others without consent or transparency. And so no one complains because they don't notice it happening; my accounts stand as complete as they were yesterday. A powerful tool that over time, inevitably gets abused and mismanaged.
- bin_bash 5y ago
  > Just because we haven't experienced a black-swan event doesn't mean that it's not possible. That’s going to be true for any kind of economic system. No reasonable person would argue that a black swan event wouldn’t be possible.
  - coralreef 5y ago
    The more complexity introduced into a system, the more likely the event of failure. This is true for airplanes, fission reactors, and monetary systems. Humans are the ultimate complexity, and indeed central banking relies on the decision making of a powerful few. Will the interest rate go up or down? Will a flood of money buy bonds and mortgages? Those decisions are made for us.
- SantalBlush 5y ago
  These issues, like "it almost breaks physics" and "it breaks the social contract," are pretty vague.
  - coralreef 5y ago
    If I was able to create new energy out of nowhere in my bare hands, you would be astounded. Of course this is not possible. Energy must come from somewhere else. When you create new money, you have seemingly "new energy" in your hands, except the value of that "new money" came from everyone else's money, the existing base. Their money became worth less (inflation). The government is constantly creating more money, which is why we consistently have inflation year after year. They do it in the name of stimulating the economy. They've done it so much, that many governments now have 0 or negative interest rates on their bonds. This is when things start getting very confusing, because saving money should yield you a positive return. Your savings account should pay you interest, but instead you pay the bank to store your money (doesn't actually happen at the retail level, banks eat the cost to keep you in their business). The "social contract" aspect is that if you want something, you ask for it. Raise taxes? Lower taxes? At least there is representation at some level with a vote. Going to war in Iraq? Needs congressional and senate approval. Creating $100b of money you don't have and buying government bonds every month? Fed does this, and nobody blinks.

Sure, but the government has also been kicking the can down the road for over a decade. Interest rates get lower and lower, asset prices get pushed higher and higher...

fakesheriff 5y ago
Demographics = destiny. When an older generation with no concept of civilization wields political power, it does so in its own narrow self interest. We must pay $1.5m for a shitty 3BR apartment, $300k for a college degree, and $600 for insulin so that Boomers may live comfortably in retirement. The frustrating part is that only half of Boomers will live comfortably in retirement. The ones that do will be very comfortable. The others will stand on their arthritic knees 8hrs a day bagging groceries, trying to offset the precipitous decline in the purchasing power of their social security checks. Boomers are so selfish they don't even look out for people in their own cohort. The Boomer generation is an abject civilizational failure.

applepple 5y ago

Clearly he was right. Not sure how else to call what's going on now. Many people now are doomed. You just don't hear about them - This makes their suffering worse, not better. It's a matter of time before it reaches the rest of us. The rot has already eaten away the core of the economy.

CheezeIt 5y ago

Yet we now have rock bottom interest rates and a 0% reserve requirement.

spinchange 5y ago
And a global health pandemic that's harder to peg than inflation

SAShithole 5y ago

And at some point he is bound to be right desu.

coralreef 5y ago

I don't care for Schiff, but central banking and the modern monetary system is fundamentally problematic. Just because we haven't experienced a black-swan event doesn't mean that it's not possible, whether that be a market crash or a pandemic. Some cycles take longer than decades to play out. Some things take hundreds of years. First principles thinking (and common sense) tells us that no party should be able to create money out of thin air, it almost breaks physics, but it doesn't because the value comes from diluting every else's money. It breaks the social contract by taking from others without consent or transparency. And so no one complains because they don't notice it happening; my accounts stand as complete as they were yesterday. A powerful tool that over time, inevitably gets abused and mismanaged.

bin_bash 5y ago
> Just because we haven't experienced a black-swan event doesn't mean that it's not possible. That’s going to be true for any kind of economic system. No reasonable person would argue that a black swan event wouldn’t be possible.
- coralreef 5y ago
  The more complexity introduced into a system, the more likely the event of failure. This is true for airplanes, fission reactors, and monetary systems. Humans are the ultimate complexity, and indeed central banking relies on the decision making of a powerful few. Will the interest rate go up or down? Will a flood of money buy bonds and mortgages? Those decisions are made for us.
SantalBlush 5y ago
These issues, like "it almost breaks physics" and "it breaks the social contract," are pretty vague.
- coralreef 5y ago
  If I was able to create new energy out of nowhere in my bare hands, you would be astounded. Of course this is not possible. Energy must come from somewhere else. When you create new money, you have seemingly "new energy" in your hands, except the value of that "new money" came from everyone else's money, the existing base. Their money became worth less (inflation). The government is constantly creating more money, which is why we consistently have inflation year after year. They do it in the name of stimulating the economy. They've done it so much, that many governments now have 0 or negative interest rates on their bonds. This is when things start getting very confusing, because saving money should yield you a positive return. Your savings account should pay you interest, but instead you pay the bank to store your money (doesn't actually happen at the retail level, banks eat the cost to keep you in their business). The "social contract" aspect is that if you want something, you ask for it. Raise taxes? Lower taxes? At least there is representation at some level with a vote. Going to war in Iraq? Needs congressional and senate approval. Creating $100b of money you don't have and buying government bonds every month? Fed does this, and nobody blinks.