According to the latest economic data, the U.S. economy grew at a better-than-expected rate of 1.7 per cent between April and June of this year, but at least one analyst isn’t buying the government’s numbers.
“It’s not really information, it’s more like propaganda,” CEO of Euro Pacific Capital Peter Schiff told CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday.
Schiff says the government is painting an erroneously rosy picture of an economy which he believes is actually on the brink of a crisis far worse than that of 2008-2009.
The crisis, Schiff believes, will be caused by a ‘toxic’ combination of America’s massive $16.4 trillion debt and the devaluing of the U.S. dollar through the controversial quantitative easing program that has seen that country’s central bank purchasing billions in bonds every month, as a means of stimulating the U.S. economy.
“If you look at the fundamentals, if you look at the contracting labour force, the declining use of energy, the explosion of poverty in America, and income inequality, the record numbers of food stamps and disability, all the part-time jobs that are now replacing the full-time jobs that we’ve lost, all of this is consistent with a shrinking economy. But the government won’t admit it,” Schiff said.
In Schiff’s opinion, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is laying the groundwork for more quantitative easing, pumping billions more into the economy.
“Because he knows that he can never taper, he’s just bluffing, he can’t tell the market the truth, that the U.S. economy is completely addicted to his monetary heroin,” Schiff said.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has been reviewing its quantitative easing, and says it will begin tapering the purchasing of $85 billion of bonds a month once the economy has shown “modest” recovery.
Schiff doubts this “modest” recovery will happen any time soon.
“The United States is in a recession right now, in fact it has been for the entirety of the Obama presidency,” Schiff said.
Schiff was one of the few to predict the economic downturn of 2008-2009, that saw the U.S. housing market bubble burst, sending shockwaves throughout the world’s economies.
This time, Schiff predicts that the economic bubble might be burst by a big drop in the bond market or a big drop in the dollar.
“The aftermath is going to be far worse than what happened in 2008-2009,” Schiff said.
Schiff believes that the current U.S. economy is in worse shape than it was going into the Great Depression.
“We’re gonna have a crash, there’s no way to prevent it,” Schiff said.
Schiff is the author of The Real Crash: America’s Coming Bankruptcy---How to Save Yourself and Your Country.
