The United States economy hasn’t exactly been the bastion of recovery since the financial collapse a few years ago. Millions of people are still out of work, households nationwide are in massive debt, students are on the brink of a personal collapse and the only people and organizations benefitting in today’s economy are those who are close to the money printing.
Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, speaking in an interview withNewsmax, isn’t exactly impressed with the overall economy and believes it’s currently in a bubble that is being inflated by the Federal Reserve. To Schiff, the U.S. economy can’t remain strong because it’s not even strong to begin with, citing the lies being purported by the Fed, including the central bank shrinking its astronomical balance sheet (nearly $5 trillion).
According to Schiff, the balance sheet will never contract or diminish.
“The balance sheet is going to get bigger and bigger when the fed launches QE4 [quantitative easing],” averred Schiff. “They cannot shrink this balance sheet, and they cannot raise interest rates without pricking the bubble. That’s what they should do, but unfortunately, that’s not what they’re going to do.”
Wal-Mart has announced that it will raise its lowest wages to $9 in April and $10 by February 2016, well above the national minimum wage or $7.25. The move has been widely hailed as a salve for the poorest working Americans, and a potential benefit to the American economy insofar as it will pressure other companies to raise wages and therefore spur consumer spending.
But Peter Schiff, the CEO Euro Pacific Capital, says the move has a darker side.
“Ultimately, it’s going to cause Wal-Mart to cut back on hiring,” he said. “I mean, if it has to pay higher wages, it may decide just to have fewer job opportunities.”
“When Wal-Mart has a job opening, they get inundated with applicants,” Schiff added. “I mean, this is going to make it even harder to get a job at Wal-Mart. Because if people were lining up for Wal-Mart jobs before, they’re obviously a lot more attractive now at these higher wages.”
But that’s not the only potential harm to lower-income Americans that could come from this move, according to Schiff, who has long defended Wal-Mart against pressure for the world’s largest retailer to raise its minimum wage.
“They may end up passing on some of that extra cost to their customers,” he said. “It’s not all going to be about lower profits at Wal-Mart. It also could be about higher prices for Wal-Mart customers. And of course, many of those customers are low-income workers themselves.”
Finally, Schiff notes a third potential negative ramification.
“By paying higher wages – if it forces higher prices – Wal-Mart could end up losing some of its customers, because they’re going to end up going somewhere where the wages are lower and the prices are lower. So it might backfire, and Wal-Mart might end up having to cut back on its staff.”
“They might pay higher wages, but they may pay them to fewer people,” he added. “And it will be harder to get a job. So pretty soon, you might have to have a connection to get a job at Wal-Mart.”
Peter Schiff talks about the oncoming of QE4, he believes the market will enter back into a bear market if the FED doesn't act. You can't take away the drugs and expect the market to stay high.
The US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are investigating at least 10 major banks for possibly rigging the precious metals markets. According to the Wall Street Journal, the CFTC has opened a civil investigation into the matter while prosecutors from the DOJ simultaneously examine the price setting process for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Precious metal benchmarks have been under increased regulatory scrutiny ever since the 2012 scandal over Libor rate manipulation broke. Erin weighs in.
Then, Erin is joined by Peter Schiff – CEO of Euro Pacific Capital and host of the Peter Schiff Show. Peter gives us his take on Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s remarks to the Senate and tells us if there’s a chance of a hike. He doesn’t see the Fed raising interest rates primarily because it fears the risk of markets suffering. He thinks other markets outside the US offer more value at this time, especially due to the strong dollar, which he sees as vulnerable.
After the break, Erin sits down with George Magnus – former chief economist at UBS and author of "Uprising: Will Emerging Markets Shape or Shake the World Economy?" George tells us what he seems as major economic themes leading up to the UK elections and gives us his take on why emerging markets haven’t been in the spotlight recently. Overall, he is cautious on emerging market because of the large increase in non-financial corporate debt.
And in The Big Deal, Erin and Edward Harrison discuss the big tech stories of the day. Take a look!
