Top 15 Peter Schiff Quotes

One of the biggest attractions of the euro is that it is seen as the most likely candidate to replace the dollar as the reserve currency.

In the long run, the euro as a fiat currency may very well fail like the U.S. dollar. (2006, before Greece)

Think about all the rules and regulations American businesses have to deal with. How can we compete with nations that don’t impose those excessive burdens? Does anyone think that the United States could ever have become a great power with all the rules, regulations, and taxation that exist today?

It is a common misconception that low wages are the main factor influencing prices. The reality is that low capital costs, and the absence of taxation and regulation, are far more important.

… it is precisely because it is not a democracy that China will likely be so successful...What is of vital importance for economic success is economic freedom, meaning the protection of private property, the rule of law, and minimal regulation and taxation, not the right to vote.

Borrowing to build factories is not the economic equivalent of borrowing to buy television sets, and it’s amazing just how few modern economists can see the difference...Borrowing to produce is the way poor countries become rich. Borrowing to consume is the way rich countries become poor. A vivid example of the latter is the stream of container ships unloading at U.S. ports and going back empty because we have nothing to ship.

In the perspective of previous bear markets, notably those of the 1930s and the 1970s, the prospects look even worse. Economic conditions now are as bad as or worse than what existed then.

Here’s why I would recommend against [selling the U.S. stock markets short]....Retail brokers normally require investors to hold any short-sale proceeds in U.S. dollars, usually earning no interest. The dollar, seen through my famously jaundiced eye, could lose more purchasing power than the security you sold short lost value....I’ve got a much better idea, which is to borrow dollars and spend them to acquire foreign income-producing assets, using the income to pay the interest.

By historical standards and given the gloomy corporate profits outlook in an environment of high corporate debt and rising interest rates, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is considerably overvalued at late-2006 levels and should be avoided. I say that, even setting aside the imminent prospect of a collapsed dollar and the recession and hyperinflation that would accompany it.

If you think mutual funds aren’t a flagrant enough example of conflict of interest, try hedge funds.

Mutual funds are an overrated investment heavily promoted by Wall Street.

It can be argued that the U.S. brokerage and investment banking industry has transformed the modern American stock market into nothing more than a mechanism for transferring wealth from shareholders to management.

If Enron had been forced to pay cash dividends, it could never have pulled that caper off!

Non-dividend-paying growth stocks can be attractive but should be viewed as speculation rather than investing.

Stocks that are selected conservatively and pay high cash dividends [higher than bonds] are, in fact, my favorite investment alternative, especially where there is the prospect of currency profits....