Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Schiff For Senate 2010

There is a grass roots effort building up to recruit Peter Schiff to run for senate against incumbent Democrat Chris Dodd in Connecticut. Schiff is well known to liberty lovers, he is a student of Austrian economics, he predicted the occuring economic collapse, and he is a talented public speaker. Dodd's approval ratings are at all time lows as he battles scandals in regards to his relationship with Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac. He had been a staunch supporter of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac throughout most of the decade and has received over $160,000 from these two companies.

The founders of this movement created a website at the beginning of the year which can be found at www.schiff2010.com.

The Norwich Bulletin, a local Connecticut newspaper wrote the following about Schiff's chances:
Schiff, on the other hand, is a dark horse, but would appear to have the background in the one area that could prove to be Dodd’s Achilles’ heel — Schiff’s an expert on the nation’s financial markets. Dodd, of course, is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and at the forefront of the financial meltdown.

An Austrian school economist, Schiff is frequently seen as a guest commentator on CNBC, Fox News, CNN and Bloomberg Television, and just as frequently quoted in major financial publications. He supposedly predicted the economic crisis we’re now facing, and served as economic advisor to Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul during the 2008 GOP primaries.

There’s no clear indication yet whether he actually has any interest in being a candidate, but if so, he’d likely give Dodd a run for his money on this one issue.

Here's a YouTube clip of Schiff's response to the idea during his weekly radio show Wall Street Unspun (this is how I first found out about it):



The Western Standard, a Canadian publication, has picked up the story oddly enough. You can read their piece here. The folks at the Western Standard contacted the people who created www.schiff2010.com and received the following statement:
Last July, we spoke with Schiff at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas for quite awhile. During conversation, we asked him about running for office and "what would you do if a grassroots movement tried to get you in office?" He said he would be interested and would respond positively if someone tried, and more or less, "at the very least I would take the publicity," implying that he would enjoy it even against extreme odds. We have also talked with people close to Peter at EuroPacific Capital (we are young investors) and they are very excited about the project.
Hopefully there will be enough support gained to convince Schiff it will be worth his efforts.

12 comments:

Douglas Porter said...

Yeah, predicted it without speaking to one of its key causes.

Josh said...

Its funny, he's able to reference the Austrian Theory of the Business cycle to predict all of these booms and busts.

I guess, though, just because he's always right, doesn't mean he's right, right?

The problem with referencing high paying job losses as a cause of the bust is that just creating new high-paying jobs will not solve the problem. You need an environment in which this will occur, but just going out and borrowing a bunch of money to pay people high wages to do things the government thinks should be done will not help the US economy prosper. While these jobs moving over seas doesn't help, its not the cause of the problem, its the symptom.

Josh said...

When you look at the boom and bust of the NASDAQ and the boom and bust of the housing market, there's a direct relation with the increase in money supply versus the increase in "wealth" at the peak of each bubble. If these bubbles weren't allowed to occur by easy money supply, there wouldn't be the crisis we're in today. Would there still be a problem of high paying jobs moving over-seas? Maybe, I don't know, but it'd be better for that to be the problem than the collapse of the dollar.

Josh said...

You can't simply ignore theory that has successfully predicted every boom and bust for the past century because its not in line with your perspective.

Douglas Porter said...

Yes, I can, because I know that his explanatory premise is limited. Crisises happened BEFORE the FED.

Douglas Porter said...

Speculation is the underlying cause of the crisises. Easier obtained loans just grease the wheels.

Josh said...

"Speculation is the underlying cause of the crisises. Easier obtained loans just grease the wheels."

Speculation is part of human nature. Your right, easy money greases the wheels though and lets them spin out of control.

"Yes, I can, because I know that his explanatory premise is limited. Crisises happened BEFORE the FED."

There were central banks before the FED.

Douglas Porter said...

"Speculation is part of human nature. Your right, easy money greases the wheels though and lets them spin out of control."

Are you saying that loans have always been lax?

"There were central banks before the FED."

You finally made a counter-argument! I'm proud of yah!

Unfortunately, that just makes me shift the blame on capitalism itself, because if there has always been a central bank of some sort, then central banks are a result of capitalism.

Josh said...

``Unfortunately, that just makes me shift the blame on capitalism itself, because if there has always been a central bank of some sort, then central banks are a result of capitalism.``

Central banks are chartered by government.

Douglas Porter said...

"Central banks are chartered by government."

And the capitalist class has controlled the government since the begining of their movement. Even under the feudalists they had power over the banks.

Josh said...

"And the capitalist class has controlled the government since the begining of their movement. Even under the feudalists they had power over the banks."

Which is it, do the capitalist class control the government or the banks or both? I think you need to define "capitalist" so I can better understand what you're talking about.

Chris said...

"Which is it, do the capitalist class control the government or the banks or both? I think you need to define "capitalist" so I can better understand what you're talking about."

Both, duh. Capitalists are those who own or control capital. You know what capital is, right?