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Standard of living refers to the level of wealth, happiness, comfort, material goods and necessities available to a certain socioeconomic class in a certain geographic area. The standard of living includes factors such as income, quality and availability of employment, class disparity, poverty rate, quality and affordability of housing, hours of work required to purchase necessities, gross domestic product, inflation rate, number of vacation days per year, affordable (or free) access to quality healthcare, quality and availability of education, life expectancy, incidence of disease, cost of goods and services, infrastructure, national economic growth, economic and political stability, political and religious freedom, environmental quality, climate and safety. The standard of living is closely related to quality of life.^[1]

Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real (i.e. inflation adjusted) income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality, Disposable Energy (people's disposable income's ability to buy energy) and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods (such as number of refrigerators per 1000 people), or measures of health such as life expectancy. It is the ease by which people living in a time or place are able to satisfy their needs and/or wants.^{[citation needed]}

The idea of a 'standard' may be contrasted with the quality of life, which takes into account not only the material standard of living, but also other more intangible aspects that make up human life, such as leisure, safety, cultural resources, social life, physical health, environmental quality issues, etc. More complex means of measuring well-being must be employed to make such judgements, and these are very often political, thus controversial. Even between two nations or societies that have similar material standards of living, quality of life factors may in fact make one of these places more attractive to a given individual or group.

However, there can be problems even with just using numerical averages to compare material standards of living, as opposed to, for instance, a Pareto index (a measure of the breadth of income or wealth distribution). Standards of living are perhaps inherently subjective. As an example, countries with a very small, very rich upper class and a very large, very poor lower class may have a high mean level of income, even though the majority of people have a low "standard of living". This mirrors the problem of poverty measurement, which also tends towards the relative. This illustrates how distribution of income can disguise the actual standard of living.

Likewise Country A, a perfectly state capitalist country with a planned economy with very low average per capita income would receive a higher score for having lower income inequality than Country B with a higher income inequality, even if the bottom of Country B's population distribution had a higher per capita income than Country A. Real examples of this include former East Germany compared to former West Germany or North Korea compared to South Korea. In each case, the state capitalist country has a low income discrepancy (and therefore would score high in that regard), but lower per capita incomes than a large majority of their neighboring counterpart. This can be avoided by using the measure of income at various percentiles of the population rather than a highly relative and controversial overall income inequality measure.

See also[link]

• Cost of living
• Gini coefficient
• Human Development Index
• Median household income
• Right to an adequate standard of living

References[link]

External links[link]

• Industrial Revolution and the Standard of Living by Freddy Madero

Jamey Johnson
Johnson performing in 2008
Background information
Born	(1975-07-14) July 14, 1975 (age 36)[1] Enterprise, Alabama, USA
Origin	Montgomery, Alabama, USA
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	2005–present
Labels	BNA Mercury Nashville
Associated acts	Trace Adkins Randy Houser John Michael Montgomery Joe Nichols James Otto George Strait George Jones
Website	JameyJohnson.com

Jamey Johnson (born July 14, 1975) is an American Grammy Award nominated country music artist. Signed to BNA Records in 2005, Johnson made his debut with his single "The Dollar," the title track to his 2006 album The Dollar. Johnson was dropped from BNA in 2006 and signed to Mercury Nashville Records in March 2008, releasing his second album, the gold-certified That Lonesome Song. This album has produced two more singles: the Top 10 hit "In Color" and "High Cost of Living." In addition to most of his own material, Johnson has co-written singles for Trace Adkins, George Strait, James Otto, Joe Nichols and Jessie James.

Career[link]

Johnson was born on July 14, 1975, in Enterprise, Alabama, but raised in Montgomery, Alabama. From an early age, he was influenced by country acts such as Alabama and Alan Jackson, the latter of whom was the first act that he saw in concert.^[2] After graduating high school (Jeff Davis High School), Johnson attended Jacksonville State University, the same university from which Alabama lead singer Randy Owen graduated.^[2] During his time at Jacksonville State University, he was a member of Sigma Nu in the Iota Lambda chapter.

Johnson quit college after two years and served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve for eight years.^[2] He served in Company L, 3rd Battalion 23rd Marines as a mortarman (MOS 0341) and attained the rank of corporal. He would often play original songs for his fellow Marines and has kept in contact with many of them. He wrote two songs on his initial self-released album that mention his Marine Corps service. After exiting the Marines, he began playing country music in various bars throughout Montgomery; one of his first gigs was opening for David Allan Coe.^[2] By 2000, Johnson had moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in pursuit of a career in country music. He also self-released an album called They Call Me Country. One of his first connections was with Greg Perkins, a fiddler who had played for Tanya Tucker and other artists. Perkins invited Johnson to sing as a duet partner on a demo tape; the other duet partner with whom he sang was Gretchen Wilson.^[2] Songs for which Johnson sang demos include "Songs About Me" (cut by Trace Adkins) and "That's How They Do It in Dixie" (cut by Hank Williams, Jr. with Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and Van Zant).^[2]

In addition, Johnson had made connections with producer and songwriter Buddy Cannon, who helped him land a songwriting contract.^[3] Among Johnson's first cuts as a songwriter was "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," which Adkins released from his 2005 album Songs About Me. That song he co-wrote along with hit songwriter Dallas Davidson and fellow country singer-songwriter Randy Houser, who later worked with Johnson again co-writing "My Cowboy" for country pop singer Jessie James for her self-titled debut album.

Musical career[link]

By 2005, Johnson had also been signed to a recording contract with BNA Records. His first single, entitled "The Dollar," was released that year, followed by his Buddy Cannon-produced debut album (also entitled The Dollar) in March 2006. "The Dollar" went on to peak at #14 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The album's second single, "Rebelicious," failed to enter the charts and Johnson was dropped from BNA.

After the loss of his record deal, Johnson divorced his wife and took on a reclusive lifestyle, residing in a friend's house while working on his songwriting.^[4] He wrote several songs for other artists. In 2006, George Strait reached #1 on the Country chart with "Give It Away," a song which Johnson co-wrote with Bill Anderson and Cannon. This song became Strait's 51st #1 on the Billboard country charts, setting a new record for most #1s on that chart.

In 2007, Trace Adkins charted with two more songs that Johnson co-wrote: "Ladies Love Country Boys" and "I Got My Game On," the former being Adkins' first #1 in 10 years. Also in 2007, Joe Nichols reached Top 20 with "Another Side of You," another song co-written by Johnson. This song was the first single on Nichols's album Real Things, which also contained "She's All Lady," a song that Johnson originally recorded on The Dollar.

Johnson was part of the Fox TV television series Nashville,^[5] which was cancelled after two episodes in September 2007.

Johnson released an album in 2008, That Lonesome Song, which was only made available online.^[4] The album drew the attention of Mercury Nashville Records, who signed him to a record deal in 2008. His first single for the label, "In Color," was released in March 2008. This song, which Johnson co-wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and James Otto, entered Top 40 in June 2008, and That Lonesome Song was physically released in August of that year. "In Color" peaked at #9 on the Country chart in January 2009 and was followed a month later by "High Cost of Living," which managed to crack the Top 40, but only reaching #34. By April 2009, That Lonesome Song was certified Gold by the RIAA.

A fifth single, "My Way to You," was issued in July 2009. The song was released to radio on July 13, 2009, and debuted at #56 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The song peaked at #52 in September 2009.

Johnson was nominated for the 2009 CMA Awards New Artist of the Year, and has been nominated for the 2010 Academy of Country Music Top New Solo Vocalist.

Johnson's single "Playing the Part," was released in summer 2010 and included on The Guitar Song, released September 14, 2010. The music video for the single was released in October, and was directed by Matthew McConaughey, who also stars in the video as a dancing gorilla.

Johnson is the supporting act on Kid Rock's 2011 Born Free Tour, accompanying Rock on a duet or two most concerts.

Johnson is a main stage act on Willie Nelson's Country Throwdown May–July 2011.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Singles[link]

Music videos[link]

Other appearances[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Johnson received three Grammy Award nominations at the 51st Grammy Awards: Best Country Album for That Lonesome Song, and Best Country Song and Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "In Color."^[14] "In Color" won the Academy of Country Music's 2009 award for Song of the Year and the same award during the 2009 Country Music Association Awards. Going into 2010, Johnson received two more Grammy Award nominations for the 52nd Grammy Awards: Best Country Song and Best Male Country Vocal Performance, both for his 2009 single "High Cost of Living."^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site
• Official Jamey Johnson UMG Nashville Artist Page

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (March 2009)

Clifton Craig Collins, Jr.^[1] (born June 16, 1970) is an American actor.

Life and career[link]

Clifton Craig Collins, Jr. was born in Los Angeles, of half Mexican descent^[2] and the grandson of actor Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez. He has sometimes been credited as Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez to honor his grandfather.^[2] He first broke through the mainstream in 1997 with a performance as gang thug César Sánchez in the film One Eight Seven. In 1998, he enchanted and amused small screen audiences in Ray Bradbury's cult film The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. He next portrayed a gay hitman, named Frankie Flowers, for the Mexican drug cartels in the 2000 ensemble drama Traffic. In 2002 he played the role of Buddy in the film Confessions of an American Girl. In 2005, Collins, Jr. won rave reviews for his subtle portrayal of killer Perry Smith in the fact-based film Capote. He starred in the 2005 film Dirty alongside Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. Collins, Jr. starred on FX Networks' show Thief. Collins, Jr. also played a supporting role on FX Networks' show The Shield, as undercover ICE agent Hernan. He also has a small role in 2006's Babel, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

In 2008, Collins directed two music videos for the country music group, Zac Brown Band: "Chicken Fried" and "Whatever It Is".

Collins starred in the comedy Sunshine Cleaning with Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin. He played Winston, the owner of a cleaning supply shop who builds meticulously detailed model airplanes with only one arm. Collins played the part with one arm tied behind his back.^[3] In 2009's Star Trek, Collins plays Ayel, a Romulan, second in command to the villain Nero.

Collins stars in Extract, a 2009 film by director Mike Judge. He plays a hard-working factory floor worker named Step whose loss of a testicle in a freak accident marks the beginning of trouble.

Collins, Jr. co-produced the film National Lampoon's TV: The Movie in which he plays Officer Sanchez alongside Jacob Vargas in TJ COPS. He also voiced the fictional video game character Cesar Vialpando in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Collins will replace Amaury Nolasco on Southland, TVGuide.com has confirmed.^[4] And in 2009, he played Romeo in the film The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. It has been reported that Collins might be joining the film Yucatan which is the last screenplay written by Steve McQueen and possibly to be directed by Quentin Tarantino.^[5]

Collins joined the cast of NBC's drama The Event as Thomas.^[6]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

• Grand Canyon (1991)
• Fortress (1993)
• Menace II Society (1993)
• Poetic Justice (1993)
• The Stoned Age (1994)
• One Tough Bastard (1995)
• Dead Presidents (1995)
• Sgt. Bilko (1996)
• One Eight Seven (1997)
• The Bad Pack (1997)
• The Replacement Killers (1998)
• The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998)
• My Sweet Killer (1999)
• Light It Up (1999)
• Road Dogz (2000)
• Price of Glory (2000)
• Tigerland (2000)
• Traffic (2000)
• The Last Castle (2001)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• American Girl (2002)
• I Witness (2003)
• Undefeated (2003)
• Mindhunters (2004)
• Life of the Party (2005)
• Capote (2005)
• Dirty (2005)
• TV: The Movie (2006)
• Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006)
• Babel (2006)
• Little Chenier (2006)
• Still Waters (2008)
• Sunshine Cleaning (2009)
• Horsemen (2009)
• The Perfect Game (2009)
• Crank: High Voltage (2009)
• Star Trek (2009)
• Brothers (2009)
• Extract (2009)
• The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)
• The Experiment (2010)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
• Pacific Rim (2013)

Television[link]

• Resurrection Blvd. (2000–01)
• The Twilight Zone (2002)
• Alias (2003)
• Thief (2006)
• The Shield (2007)
• Masters of Science Fiction (2007)
• Fear Itself (2008) (episode "Family Man")
• Southland (2010)
• The Event (2010–2011)
• CSI: NY (2011)

Video games[link]

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) (voice) Cesar Vialpando

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Clifton Collins, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
• Clifton Collins, Jr. at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

Douglas "Doug" Casey is an American-born economist and advocate of the free market. He is a best-selling financial author, international investor, entrepreneur, and the founder and chairman of Casey Research, a provider of subscription financial analysis about specific market verticals including natural resources/metals/mining, energy, commodities, and technology. Since 1979, he has written, and later co-written, the monthly metals and mining focused investment newsletter, The International Speculator. He also contributes to other newsletters, including The Casey Report, a geopolitically oriented publication.

Casey graduated from Georgetown in 1968^[1] where he was a classmate of Bill Clinton.^[2]

An avid traveller and international opportunity seeker, Casey's first book, The International Man (1978), was designed to show readers how to make the most of their personal freedom and global financial opportunities.^[3]

His 1979 book Crisis Investing (1979) became the largest selling financial book in history,^[4] listing at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list for a total of 12 non-consecutive weeks.^[5][6]

Casey is a frequent contributor to various financial websites, as well as to free-market online magazines such as WorldNetDaily and LewRockwell.com and the libertarian print publication Liberty. He espouses anarcho-capitalist views.

Casey supported Ron Paul's run for president in 2008.^[7] In 2009, he gave a speech titled My Misadventures in the Third World, in which he outlined plans to privatize a small country and take it public on the New York Stock Exchange.^[8] In 2010 he inspired a project titled International Man, building on the legacy of his first book, to show individuals how to internationalize to gain personal freedom. Using the connective power of the Internet, the project includes a real-time global network of freedom-seekers, investors, adventurers, speculators and expatriates looking to live an international lifestyle.^[9]

Casey has lived in twelve countries and visited 175.^[10] His offices are located in the town of Stowe, Vermont.^[11]

Books[link]

• The International Man (1978). Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-932496-09-6
• Crisis Investing. (1979). Hardcover: ISBN 0-936906-00-6. Paperback: ISBN 0-671-42678-8.
• Crisis Investing for the Rest of the 90s. (1993) Paperback: ISBN 0-8065-1612-7.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Casey Research
• International Man
• EscapeArtist.com: List of articles by Doug Casey
• Financial Sense archive of Casey's editorials
• WorldNetDaily archive of Casey's commentaries
• LewRockwell.com archive of Casey's articles
• Debate on the Iraq War

Peter Schiff

Austrian School
Born	(1963-03-23) March 23, 1963 (age 49)
Nationality	United States
Field	Financial Economics
Alma mater	U.C. Berkeley (B.B.A.), 1987[1]
Opposed	John Maynard Keynes,[2] Alan Greenspan,[3][4][5] Ben Bernanke,[6][7][8] Paul Krugman,[9] Christopher Dodd,[10] Barack Obama,[11]
Influences	Irwin Schiff, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard

Peter David Schiff (pronounced /ˈʃɪf/; born March 23, 1963) is an American businessman, investment broker, author and financial commentator. Schiff is CEO and chief global strategist^[1] of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a broker-dealer based in Westport, Connecticut^[12] and CEO of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, LLC, a gold and silver dealer based in New York City.^[13]

Schiff frequently appears as a guest on financial television and is often quoted in major financial publications. He is host of The Peter Schiff Show, a radio show broadcast on terrestrial and internet radio. He is a frequent guest on internet radio^[14][15][16] as well as the host of the former podcast Wall Street Unspun.^[14][17] In 2010 Schiff ran as a candidate in the Republican primary for the United States Senate seat from Connecticut.^[18]

Schiff is known for his bearish views on the dollar and dollar denominated assets, while bullish on investment in tangible assets as well as foreign stocks and currencies.

Early life and education[link]

Peter Schiff was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irwin Schiff, is a prominent figure in the U.S. tax protester movement, currently serving a 13-year sentence for tax evasion.^[19] Peter Schiff attended Beverly Hills High School in California,^[20] and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987 with a Bachelor's degree in finance and accounting.^[1]

Financial career[link]

Schiff began his career as a financial consultant at a Shearson Lehman Brothers brokerage.^[1] In 1996 Schiff and a partner acquired a small brokerage firm that had been founded in 1980, reincorporated it in California and renamed it Euro Pacific Capital.^[21][22] The company today has more than 15,000 clients^{[citation needed]} and six offices nationwide, with its headquarters in Westport, Connecticut.^[12][21][23]

According to a 2005 article in The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut Schiff relocated the firm to Darien, Connecticut to find brokers "who think like him". The New York Metropolitan Area, Schiff says, has the biggest concentration of brokers in the country, making it easier to recruit employees.^[24] The company has offices in Newport Beach, California as well as in Scottsdale, Arizona, Palm Beach, Florida, Los Angeles and New York City. Euro Pacific Capital also holds the exclusive rights to broker some Perth Mint gold products in the United States.^[25]

Economic forecasts[link]

Peter Schiff voices strong support for the Austrian School of economic thought, first introduced to him by his father.^{[26][27][28][29]}

2002–2008[link]

In his 2007 book Crash Proof, Schiff wrote that United States economic policies were fundamentally unsound, and predicted that the United States dollar would lose much of its value.^[3] Schiff believed that the imbalance between the amount of goods the U.S. consumed and what it produced would eventually lead to problems for the U.S. economy.^[30][31] As a remedy Schiff favored increased personal savings and production which he said would stimulate economic growth.^[32] Schiff cited the U.S.'s low personal savings rate as one of the causes of its transformation from the world's largest creditor nation in the 1970s to the largest debtor nation in the year 2000.^[33] Schiff attributed the low savings rate to higher inflation and the artificially low interest rates set by the Federal Reserve.^[34]

In a May 2002 interview with Southland Today, Schiff predicted that the economic downturn triggered by the bursting of the dot-com stock market bubble, an event that he had also forecast well in advance, would lead to a bear market likely to last "another 5 to 10 years."^[35][36] Later that year, following a 30% decline in the Dow Jones, Schiff reversed his call, and became bullish on U.S. stocks in nominal terms. However, he remained bearish in gold terms. In November 2002, as Schiff predicted, US stock indexes began a nominal bull market uptrend that held steady for five years,^[37] until reversing course in 2008, when they began a decline to less than half of their peak 2008 values,^[38] followed in 2009 by the Dow climbing 61% from its low point over the following year.^[39] However, priced in gold, U.S. stocks remained in a bear market the entire time. In May of 2002, the date of the Southland Today interview,^[40] the Dow Jones was worth over 34 ounces of gold. By 2011 the Dow fell below 6 ounces of gold, a nine-year decline of over 80%, in line with Schiff’s 2002 forecast.^[41]

In an August 2006 interview he said: "The United States economy is like the Titanic and I am here with the lifeboat trying to get people to leave the ship... I see a real financial crisis coming for the United States."^[42] On December 31, 2006 in debate on Fox News, Schiff forecast that "what's going to happen in 2007" is that "real estate prices are going to come crashing back down to Earth".^[42]

As part of these exchanges on Fox News and his repeated appearances on financial news network CNBC, Schiff had mentioned factors such as speculators and "the absence of lending standards" which are now seen by many^[43][44] to indeed be contributing factors to the housing crisis which began in 2007. On December 13, 2007 in a Bloomberg interview on the show Open Exchange, Schiff further added that he felt that the crisis would extend to the credit card lending industry.^[45] Following this observation, it was soon reported on December 23, 2007 by the Associated Press that "The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent to $17.3 billion in October from a year earlier at 17 large credit card trusts examined by the AP... At the same time, defaults -- when lenders essentially give up hope of ever being repaid and write off the debt -- rose 18 percent to almost $961 million in October, according to filings made by the trusts with the Securities and Exchange Commission."^[46]

Since 2007, Schiff has stated many times that if the government doesn't change course there will be hyperinflation in the US.^[3] Schiff is one of a minority of economists credited with accurately predicting the financial crisis of 2007–2010 while "nearly all [macroeconomists] failed to foresee the recession despite plenty of warning signs".^[47][48] In his book Crash Proof, he described several aspects of the U.S. economy that would lead to a recession.^[3]

A YouTube video entitled "Peter Schiff was right" became popular in late 2008 and 2009.^[49][50] The video consists of a compilation of clips of his many appearances on various financial news programs from networks including CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC and Bloomberg, most of which took place from 2005 to 2007. In the video segments Schiff explains the fundamental problems he saw with the United States economy at that time. Schiff's warnings of a coming economic collapse earned him the moniker "Dr. Doom."^[22][51][52]

2009–present[link]

Despite predictions regarding the housing bubble and automotive industry difficulties coming to fruition, as early as 2009 Schiff was receiving criticism due to the performance of some of his client's accounts in 2008, as well as controversies over the predictions themselves. In January 2009, economic blogger and investment adviser Michael Shedlock reported, "I have talked with many who claim they have invested with Schiff and are down anywhere from 40% to 70% in 2008."^[53] Later that week an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal reporting that Schiff's broker-dealer firm, Euro Pacific Capital Inc., "advised its clients to bet that the dollar would weaken significantly and that foreign stocks would outpace their U.S. peers" and that instead, the dollar advanced against most currencies, "magnifying the losses from foreign stocks Mr. Schiff steered his investors into."^[54]

The Director of Communications at Schiff's investment firm responded to the original Shedlock piece by saying, "While it is true, that our accounts have suffered badly in 2008, a fact that we have never disputed or ran from, [Shedlock's] estimates for the size of our typical client losses are exaggerated and unfair."^[55][56] Schiff personally responded to Shedlock's criticism by saying, "to examine the effectiveness of my investment strategy immediately following a major correction by looking only at those accounts who adopted the strategy at the previous peak is unfair and distortive" and called Shedlock's blog entry "nothing more than an overt advertisement (and a highly deceptive one at that) to use my popularity to advance his career," adding that losses were felt mostly by recent clients and not by others.^[57]

Schiff responded similarly to criticisms made by Wade Slome of Sidoxia Capital Management, LLC. in a September 2009 blog entry entitled, "The Emperor Schiff Has No Clothes."^[36] Schiff stated not only were the losses suffered by his clients in 2008 highly exaggerated, but also that most of those losses have already been recouped, stating that many who were down then are now up, and most long-term clients were never down at all, but merely temporarily lost some of the profits they had earned over the years.^[36]

The January 2009 Wall Street Journal article discussed the value of Schiff's predictions, and stated how deficiencies "made mincemeat of investors who took his advice in 2008."^[54] In an interview the following week Schiff likened himself to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, saying they were both "buy and hold" long-term investors. Contrasting his negative press he compared claims about accounts managed under Schiff's firm to the stock market value of Buffett's company, saying: "His approach is you buy stocks and you never sell them—you hope to never sell them—and Berkshire Hathaway is down 40% in the last thirteen months; I don't see the Wall Street Journal saying 'Warren Buffett made mincemeat out of his clients.'"^[58] The Wall Street Journal also published a letter written by Schiff in response to his critics saying: "My central investing premise, a weakening dollar and safety in gold, commodities and foreign stocks, didn't materialize in 2008. But all the ingredients were (and remain) present for those movements to occur. Over the past year, market reactions that I didn't foresee—massive global deleveraging, a knee-jerk 'flight to quality' into U.S. Treasuries and a sharp counter trend rally in the U.S. dollar—have kept the scenario from playing out."^[59]

In a November 2009 videoblog, Schiff said that five stocks he picked for Fortune Magazine in January 2009 had gained a total of 360%.^[60][61]

In a March 2009 speech Schiff said that it would be impossible for the U.S. debt to China to be repaid unless the U.S. dollar's value is substantially diluted through inflation. In September 2009 Schiff said that "I would not be surprised to see [gold] at $5,000 over the next several years" and that the 2009 stock market rally was a "bear market rally".^[62]

According to economist Paul Krugman, Schiff's Austrian approach to economics led him to incorrectly predict hyperinflation in the United States.^[63]

Political career[link]

Schiff was an economic adviser to Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. In support of Paul's economic revitalization plan, he said: "We need a plan that stimulates savings and production, not more of the reckless borrowing and consumption that got us into this mess in the first place. Ron Paul's plan is the only one that amounts to a step in the right direction. If you want meaningful change—for the better that is—Ron Paul is the only candidate capable of delivering it."^[64]

In 2008, Schiff also endorsed Murray Sabrin for the U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey.^[65]

In an interview in February 2009, Schiff's position was summarized as a nonpartisan critique of American policymakers, comparing former presidents George W. Bush to Herbert Hoover and President Barack Obama to former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, with neither of the more recent incumbents comparing favorably to the earlier ones.^[66]

Schiff supports the reduction of government economic regulation, and is concerned that President Obama's administration may increase such regulation.^[67] Schiff says that the economic crisis of the late-2000s provides an opportunity to transition from borrowing and spending, to saving and producing. He is critical of the U.S. government's efforts to "ease the pain" with economic stimulus packages and bailouts. According to Schiff, the U.S. government's approach of replacing "legitimate savings with a printing press" could result in hyperinflation.^[68]

2010 U.S. Senate campaign[link]

In December 2008, Connecticut citizens created a website encouraging Schiff to campaign against the incumbent Senator Christopher Dodd.^[69][70] Approximately 5,000 people made campaign contributions using the web site.^[69] On February 21, 2009, a moneybomb raised over $20,000 for Schiff's campaign.^[71] In a May 2009 video blog, Schiff said that he was seriously considering a run for the senate and when questioned by a Washington Post reporter, he said the chance of him entering politics was "better than 50-50".^[72] In June 2009 Schiff commissioned a poll of likely voters which indicated that he trailed Dodd in popularity by four percentage points.^[73] On July 9, 2009, Schiff launched an exploratory committee and an official campaign website.^[69] He began accepting donations in an attempt to see if "people who really believe in freedom, liberty, sound money and the constitution are prepared to support that with an actual political contribution or to volunteer their services and work on this campaign." He received over 10,000 donations and many e-mails from around the world.^[69]

After giving some hints on The Daily Show^[74] Schiff officially announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination on September 17, 2009, during the MSNBC Morning Joe show.^[18][75][76] By October 2009 Schiff had received more than 10,000 telephone calls and letters^[69] and raised over $1,960,000 (USD) in campaign contributions.

At the May 2010 Republican convention, Linda McMahon received the most delegate votes but not enough to prevent an August primary election. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons received more than the required 15 percent of the total votes necessary to force the primary. Schiff then collected the signatures necessary to earn a position on the August 2010 GOP primary ballot, submitting at least 400 signatures over the state requirement.

In July 2010, Schiff's campaign received endorsements from Steve Forbes and Ron Paul.^[77][78]

In the Republican primary, held on August 10, 2010, Schiff lost the nomination to Linda McMahon.^[79] McMahon collected 49% of the vote, with Simmons on 28% and Schiff 23%.^[80]

Ultimately, the election was won by the Democratic Party primary winner, Richard Blumenthal.^[81]

Broadcasting[link]

From 2005 to 2010 Schiff hosted a weekly podcast named Wall Street Unspun. In October 2010 Schiff began hosting a new radio show named The Peter Schiff Show. The show is broadcast weekdays from 10am-noon ET on internet and terrestrial radio. The show has featured guests such as Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Niall Ferguson, Dennis Kucinich, Rick Santelli, and others.^[82]

Books[link]

Peter Schiff is the author of six books published by John Wiley & Sons. His book, Crash Proof 2.0, appeared on both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.

• Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse, February 2007, ISBN 978-0-470-04360-8 1
• The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets: How to Keep your Portfolio Up When the Market is Down, 2008, ISBN 978-0-470-38378-0 2
• Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse, 2nd Edition, September 2009, ISBN 978-0-470-47453-2 3
• The Little Book of Bull Moves, Updated and Expanded: How to Keep Your Portfolio Up When the Market Is Up, Down, Or Sideways, 2010, ISBN 0-470-64399-4 4
• How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, 2010, ISBN 978-0-470-52670-5 5
• The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy---How to Save Yourself and Your Country, 2012, ISBN 978-1-250-00447-5

References[link]