Comments on: Today’s Stock Market Crash

By: whythawk

whythawk — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:24:10 +0000

Don’t know if I wasn’t clear. The entire quote is Schiff. I merely present it to indicate that correlation (of an opinion, in this case) with a set of events does not indicate that the overall pattern of thinking that shaped it is meaningful.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:13:25 +0000

Well, Schiff does have a reputation for doomsaying. A broken clock does tell the right time twice a day.

Still, the clip that begins ~2:30 is indicative of just how blind the pundits were. Laughing at the concept of supply and demand…

By: Djerrid

Djerrid — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:00:41 +0000

I wonder, Gavin, if in a few years we’ll have another post highlighting all of the doomsayers opinions that can’t find a positive thing to say about Obama’s economic plans (see your post for an example) and have fun contrasting it with the then current prosperity and stability?

Now, I have no idea whether the economy will recover fully within the next 4-8 years, but your absolute certainty that the economy will completely disintegrate in the near future is very similar to the Fox pundants’ blind optimism about the health of the financial sector in the clip above.

By: jeff watson

jeff watson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:45:42 +0000

Gavin,

I beg to disagree. My models indicate that the economy will be in better shape when Obama leaves office than it is right now despite higher taxes and whatever. 93% of the de-leveraging should be done within the next 5 quarters, and we might feel some residual pain for a couple of quarters after that.

Jeff

By: jeff watson

jeff watson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:27:23 +0000

This market crash is presenting trading and investing opportunities of a lifetime for the sagacious, brave person. This de-leveraging is nothing compared to the 1873 crash when everything was wiped clean. Perhaps that is what is needed now.

Jeff

By: Gavin Chait

Gavin Chait — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:51:33 +0000

This is the same Peter Schiff who recently declared: “In 1980, when the U.S. economy was last in serious trouble, Ronald Reagan offered the correct diagnoses that government was the problem and not the solution. His message resonated with voters, propelling him into the White House to implement an agenda of lowering marginal tax rates, reducing government spending and business regulations, restoring sound money, abolishing entire government departments, and basically allowing free market vibrancy to unshackle an economy burdened by big government. Though in practice much of the Reagan revolution never materialized, at least in theory his basic premise was sound.

In contrast, the country has now hitched its wagon to the views of Barack Obama. We don’t know much about what he truly believes about economics, but the little that we do know is not encouraging. Obama has repeatedly heaped the blame for the current crisis on the excesses of unregulated capitalism and the greed of the wealthy. For him, the free market is the problem and government is the solution.

Despite the absence of Reagan’s promised spending cuts, the economy generally did well during his presidency (The growth would have been more genuine if the cuts had been delivered). However, Obama’s policies will immediately make the current situation worse and the nation will suffer severely as a result. Rather than a sharp recession at the beginning of his term followed by a significant expansion (as occurred under Reagan), the recession that Obama inherits will be far worse when his first term ends.”

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:47:13 +0000

Wow…..just wow.

I bet it was fun to shout him down at the time and laugh at his “wacky ideas”, but I wonder how people like Ben Stien feel about that clip now.

Ecxcellent post