Peter Schiff

Peter Schiff was a guest on Fast Money today.

Almost two years ago he predicted that the financial markets were heading for crisis. At the time he told CNBC, "We're on the verge of a major, major recession that's probably going to start by the end of this year, maybe early next year. The housing market is just beginning to unravel. We're seeing the tip of the iceberg here.”

In fact he went on to compare the economy to the Titanic then added, “I am here with the lifeboat trying to get people to leave the ship.”

Here's a U.S. News article from May.

There's nothing good to say about our situation. The policies both the Fed and government are pursuing are making the situation worse. We've been getting a free ride on the global gravy train. Other countries are starting to reclaim their resources and goods, so as Americans are priced out of various markets, the rest of the world is going to enjoy the consumption of goods Americans had previously purchased. This is a natural consequence of this phony economy. If America had maintained a viable economy and continued to produce goods instead of merely consuming them, and if we had saved money instead of borrowing, our standard of living could rise with everybody else's. Instead, we gutted our manufacturing, let our infrastructure decay, and encouraged our citizens to borrow with reckless abandon.

[5/22/09] What is Schiff saying now? He sees the present rally as a mirage, opining that the "premature conclusion ... that the crash of 2008/2009 is now a fading memory, is just as delusional as [the] failure to see it coming in the first place." On the massive fiscal response to the crisis, he believes that: "By throwing money at the problem, all the government is creating is inflation. Although this can often look like growth, it is no more capable of creating wealth than a hall of mirrors is capable of creating people."