AP Photo/Mark Lennihan/ASSOCIATED PRESS
- Peter Schiff dismissed bitcoin as useless and said the crypto boom will end in tears.
- The Euro Pacific Capital economist expects the US dollar to plunge in value.
- Schiff blasted the government for juicing demand and creating a “giant bubble economy.”
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff trashed the cryptocurrency as worthless, and called his son “completely delusional” for betting the farm on it, during a RealVision interview released this week.
Euro Pacific Capital’s chief economist and global strategist also predicted a crash in the US dollar, blamed the government for surging asset prices, and called for less federal intervention in markets and the economy.
Here are Schiff’s eight best quotes from the interview, lightly edited and condensed for clarity:
1. “Bitcoin is not a currency, it’s not used as a medium of exchange really, or a unit of account. It’s just used for speculation. It’s not an investment asset like real estate, doesn’t pay rent, it’s not a stock, it doesn’t pay dividends, it’s not a bond, it doesn’t pay interest. It’s not even a commodity, because you can’t use it for anything. It’s a collectible token.”
2. “I don’t think these bitcoin collections are going to be worth anything when the music stops. People have told me that when the bubble burst in Beanie Babies, they were able to use them to insulate their homes. They could shove them in between the walls, and they made good insulation. You can’t do anything with a bitcoin. Once nobody wants your bitcoin, it’s completely worthless.”
3. “The bitcoin bubble might pop before the dollar bubble. We may have a cryptocurrency crisis before we have a dollar crisis.”
4. “My son’s been indoctrinated into the bitcoin cult. He’s completely delusional. Now, he’s got an excuse, he’s only 18. But you’ve got a lot of older people that don’t really have an excuse.” – comparing bitcoin to a religion whose followers believe each coin will be worth millions of dollars someday.
5. “We have this enormous government and a giant bubble economy that’s sustained by the artificial suppression of interest rates. That continues to exacerbate these underlying economic imbalances, that ultimately are going to need to be corrected with a major economic collapse.”
6. “I want to unchain people from government. I don’t want people to have to pay income taxes. I don’t want people to keep books and records. I don’t want people to have to pay Social Security taxes. I want to free people up to save for their own retirement, not rely on a government Ponzi scheme.”
7. “The big threat to your liberty and freedom is the government, not Google. If we had fewer barriers to entry, if we had no corporate income tax at all, if we got rid of a lot of these rules or regulations, we’d have a much more competitive free market and you would probably have more search engines.”
8. “The US economy today is in far worse shape than it was in the year 2000. The imbalances are much bigger, the debts are much bigger. This is going to be a much bigger dollar decline than we had from 2000 to 2008. The next crisis is going to be a US dollar crisis and a sovereign debt crisis.”
