Fed Face-Off: Peter Schiff Goes Toe-to-Toe With Alan Blinder, Jim Bullard

Peter Schiff's views as an author, investor and free market idealist are no secret: Abolish the Fed, buy gold and avoid the dollar. With that in mind, Sunday night was something of a dream come true for the President of Euro Pacific Capital.

Thanks To Princeton University's Business Today, Schiff went head to head in New York City with St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder in a panel titled, "Challenges of the Global Slowdown: Redefining Government Regulation." 

It might as well have been called "Schiff Blames the Fed for the Financial Crisis."

We caught up with Schiff after the panel to discuss some of the points mentioned in greater detail. (Click here for our one-on-one intereview with Bullard from the confab.) 

Schiff on capitalism

• Capitalism is not the problem: "Just like during the 1930's, capitalism got a bad rap for all the damage that government did. Every time government policy interferes with capitalism and then creates a problem it's always capitalism that comes under fire not the government interference that led to the problem," he says. Schiff predicts this behavior will lead to the next calamity, a currency crisis which he claims will be even bigger than the one "we think we've solved."

Schiff on the Stock Market

• The stock market rally is an illusion: "It looks like stocks are going up but on a real basis they're going down" when compared to the value of gold, he says, predicting that trend will continue until the Dow trades on a one-to-one ratio with gold. (Today, the Dow is worth about 9 ounces of gold, down from a peak of 43 in 2000.)

Schiff on Gold

• Gold is not a bubble. "It's a great buy, I think it's going higher." Earlier this month, India's central bank bought 200 metric tons of gold for more than $1000 an ounce; Schiff believes other central bankers will follow suit which should help drive prices higher for years to come.