It is really simple about him: He was right about the market downturn, but he made the wrong choice using foreign markets as the safe bet. The slowdown was global thus he got screwed anyhow. He simply should have just shorted the indeces or sectors, instead of trying to be cute in other markets...
It seems Schiff is immensely popular with the youtube/college kid crowd. Obiously, his obscure economic theories have an appeal with that audience.
Hello jdeezero05, I am not a fan of his but just getting started studying him. I am thinking of buying his book (I read a lot of books and most are hardly worth the paper but he is making a name for himself with the housing crash) Anyway, the reason I quoted you is that you claim he has been a gold bug hard asset guy since 2002-3. That would seem to actually make you a fan of him as gold has shot way up since then. I know as independent of Mr. Schiff (didn't know of him at the time) I started buying gold coins around $290 each and they are now worth about $1000 each. I bought just a few in 2002-2005 and I just sold most of them (six coins) off in the last few weeks. My point is that your post makes him appear to me anyway to be right on target although you clearly are bashing him???? Best RW
It's clear he was right on calling the crash. Plain and simple. Being able to make a profit is an entirely different thing. Hell, you can profit all day long on being wrong if you have the proper MM skills. It's not about being right, it's about making money, blah blah blah. Claiming his call was wrong because he didn't profit off of it is pure emotional woman-like babble.
the overwhelming supreme irony about schiff is for a decade he kept calling everything a "bubble". when the bubble finally did burst it turned out he was by far and away the biggest beneficiary of this bubble. all his dividend paying foreign mining stocks were pumped up from the very easy credit he ranted and raved about. as far as his macro analysis it is simply childish. yes, he correctly called a meltdown but he's been calling for a meltdown since 2000. his understanding of austrian economics, which he claims to be a student of, is wrong. here is some nice analysis from a correct austrian perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3KFFFXvbXY&feature=channel_page this guy was explaining this in november 2007. schiff's analysis was, and is, the exact opposite of this and that is why he got raped and pillaged during the collapse.
Schiff's nr 1 personal position is physical gold bullion. I don't understand how people watch him on CNBC.... Hear him talk about the coming economic collapse.... Dollar collapse.... All the banks bankrupt... And then they wind up owning some obscure Australian zinc mine.... Jeez. Economic collapse + currency collapse = physical gold. All the rest is pure hedging.
also schiff tries saying garbage like his stocks are now exploding. what a retard! his stocks collapsed the worst so of course in the bear market rally they will bounce strong. when a stock collapses from 20 to 2, a bounce to 4 is a 100% return. comparing him to buffet is ridiculous. buffet is not taking credit for calling this collapse. schiff is parading around like a messiah when his closet is stuffed with his bankrupt stock picks. bottom line: when you are running a full service brokerage charging 4% and you are calling a collapse you should be capable of profiting off of it or at the very least not losing money. if you can't do that then anything coming out of your mouth is verbal diarrhea. schiff didn't profit, schiff didn't preserve wealth, schiff didn't take small losses, schiff got nuclear bombed. actually, his clients got nuclear bombed.
Bottom line: Jim Cramer's portfolio did better during the crash than Peter Schiff's. Yet on the daily Show it is Cramer who gets raked over the coals, whereas Schiff is lauded as a hero. Someone ought to skewer John Stewart for preferring soundbites over performance.
+1 Stewart made Schiff look like a financial GOD on that show. Pathetic. He needs to leave the serious topics alone and stick to comedy.