American stock broker, financial commentator, and cryptocurrency skeptic Peter Schiff—who was in the news a few days ago, when he debunked a “fake news” byte that he had “conceded” that Bitcoin has represented a successful investment opportunity for over the past ten years—is now talking about the impact Coronavirus is having on the markets.
While earlier Peter had said he thought the virus was an excuse for stock market woes. But now it turns out coronavirus has actually helped the US stock market because it has led central banks to pump even more liquidity into the world financial system.
“All this means more liquidity,” said Peter in a recent podcast. “In fact, that is exactly what has already happened, except the new easing is taking place, for now, outside the United States, particularly in China. In fact, I think but for the coronavirus, the US stock market would still be selling off. But because of the central bank stimulus that has been the result of fears over the coronavirus, that actually benefitted not only the US dollar, but the US stock market.”
He said that the primary economic concern is that coronavirus will slow down output and ultimately stunt economic growth. “Practically speaking, the world would produce less stuff. If the virus continues to spread, there would be fewer goods and services produced in a market that is hunkered down,” he said.
“In fact, if central bankers were really going to do the right thing, the appropriate response would be to drain liquidity from the markets, not supply even more.”
In a recent tweet, he said: “Everybody looks at central bankers as if they’ve got the solution to every problem. They don’t. They don’t have the magic wand. They just have a printing press. And all that creates is inflation.”
Everybody looks at central bankers as if they've got the solution to every problem. They don't. They don't have the magic wand. They just have a printing press. And all that creates is inflation. https://t.co/6ZKbMioTOv
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) February 19, 2020
He said that the biggest problem likely to result from the Coronavirus itself will be a supply shock, where the supply of goods and services is reduced. “However, central bank policy is designed to increase demand, which will only exacerbate the imbalance between supply and demand.”
As for the news that he conceded that Bitcoin is a successful investment opportunity is “fake news”. “I acknowledged the past rise in the price of Bitcoin merely to point out that those gains did not prove my earlier comments about Bitcoin’s flaws as money invalid. A pyramid scheme has no place in an investment portfolio.”
