Friday, May 29, 2015

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Schiff: Yellen is "Half Right" About the Market


Fed chair Janet Yellen spooked investors Wednesday when she warned against sky-high equity values. And in a strange turn of events, she's finding an unlikely ally in her assessment in the form of her biggest critic, Peter Schiff.

On CNBC's "Futures Now," the outspoken Schiff said that the stock market is "more than just a little overvalued, it's extremely overvalued." But rather than defending Yellen's call, Schiff instead blamed the Fed's policies for the frothy valuations that Yellen was warning about.

According to Schiff's logic, the sky-high valuations for equities are a direct result of the Fed's easy money policies over the past couple years. Schiff said that "artificially low rates" have forced investors to buy stocks and in the process have made them more expensive.

"Janet Yellen was half right when she said the stock market was overvalued," Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital CEO on said on Thursday.

According to Schiff, the Fed is now trapped and unable to raise rates, as he believes doing so would prick the very bubble in stocks that it created.

"If the Fed was really going to raise interest rates [the market] would be a lot lower," he said.

As a result, Schiff is convinced that the Federal Reserve will not only not raise rates anytime soon, but will likely enact another round of quantitative easing. By his logic, the Fed will do "anything" to keep stocks high.

"That's also why I don't think the Fed is going to raise interest rates, because I don't think Janet Yellen wants the stock market to go down. This whole phony recovery is based on asset bubbles and the Fed is not going to intentionally prick those bubbles."

So, how overvalued does Schiff think the stock market is? "It's difficult to say," he said. "I don't know how far the market will drop because I don't think the Fed will allow it to."


- Source, CNBC

Schiff: Fed's 'heroin' is about to wear off

While traders obsess over the timing of the Fed's next rate hike, Peter Schiff has a simple message for Wall Street: don't.

On CNBC's "Trading Nation," the outspoken investor said the central bank is "bluffing" and instead of waiting for a rate increase, traders should have their sights set on another round of quantitative easing.

"We are addicted to zero percent rates," he said. Schiff says that raising rates would "pop" the stock and real estate bubble that the Federal Reserve has created through its low-rate policies. And that would send the U.S. economy into a catastrophic recession. By his reasoning, the Fed will do anything to prevent stocks from falling. In fact, he sees more stimulus ahead.

"I think they're going to do another round of quantitative easing," added Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital. But according to Schiff, even another round of easy monetary policy won't be able to stop what he calls an impending crisis.

"When the dollar finally does collapse based on our failure to raise rates and our launching QE4, it's going to be that kind of inflation and currency crisis that will ultimately force the Fed's hand," he said. "That's when we're going to be in some real trouble."

And according to Schiff, there's no telling how bad it could get. "We've had a huge dose of this monetary heroin and it takes a while for that high to wear off," he said. "We've just postponed the pain."

Of course, Schiff has made similar predictions in the past. And although he has correctly forecast the lack of Fed rate hikes, some of his other predictions—including gold going to $5,000—have yet to pan out.

- Source, CNBC