Peter Schiff In the Octagon with Furious Congressbots

Peter Schiff, the investment seer and radio show host best known around here for engaging with Occupy Wall Street scenesters, got a chilly reception at a House hearing on Oversight of Federal Housing Administration's Multifamily Insurance Programs the other day, and has posted a highlight reel at the Youtubes. 

Schiff breaks out his plays of the day: 

6:06 - My Opening Statement

11:16 - "I don't know whether to go to Mr. Schiff or not, but I guess I will" - Judy Biggert (R)
I explain to Chairwoman Judy Biggert why federal involvement in home lending has created more problems than it has solved.

16:22 - "Despite all the sound and fury, there's not a lot of details…" - Robert Hurt (R)
My proposals that old regulations be repealed, rather than new ones proposed, in order for the free market to come up with solutions are repeatedly lost on Congressman Robert Hurt. 

25:16 - "Mr. Schiff, I just have one question…" - Emanuel Cleaver (D)
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II unsuccessfully tries to 'nail' me. Instead, a spirited discussion ensues in which I remind the congressman of the moral hazard and economic costs of government subsidies. 

30:38 - "Maybe that happens in an Ayn Rand novel…" - Dan Sherman (D) 
Congressman Dan Sherman asserts that as a practical matter the federal government, in one way or another, insures all homes, and that only characters in an Ayn Rand novel would believe otherwise. 

Correction: That's not Dan Sherman but Rad Brad Sherman, the Sherman Oaks Democrat, occasional critic of Obama Administration policies and weather machine expert who I was interested to see seems to have a substantial lead over smart-money favorite Howard Berman in their squabble over a jerrymandered San Fernando Valley seat.

Sherman, who voted against the 2008 TARP bailout, is refreshingly post-ethical in his calls for taxpayers to support lifestyles and political structures he knows to be unsustainable. In 2009, when I asked about the wisdom of having the Federal Housing Administration continue to underwrite loans on million-dollar houses, Sherman replied, "The economy of Los Angeles would tank if prices fell another 50 percent." The pattern holds here. His argument to Schiff is that government must subsidize insurance because to avoid doing so would subject Washington, DC to extortion during "front-page natural disasters." 

Comments

[juris imprudent]

Does anyone have the slightest doubt that this country is doomed? The Greeks are just giving us a preview of coming attractions.

[Gojira]

Notice the (R) after the names of some of the skeptics.

I could use a good dose of Tulpa or wareagle right now to tell me how much republicans are teh awsume and lovez them some free markets.

[Paul.]

Meh, Tulpa is just a mainstream guy who looks at it strategically. He wants the most realistic alternative to Obama, which sadly is Romney.

[Gojira]

Right, but since one can generally say the same thing in any election, then one just winds up voting for a team, which makes one just...a dem or a rep. A TEAM FIRST player.

The level of cognitive dissonance with some people (not you Paul.) is astounding. Remember that story a few months ago, where those angry communists broke into an Obama function and sang a song about how much they hate him, but they're going to vote for him anyway?

Remember how much we made fun of those people? Well saying that I'm going to vote for a shitty big-gov't republican because at least he isn't TEAM BLUE is the exact same thing. So why is it, "Haha, stoopid occutards!" whenever they do it, but strategic, realistic, thinking whenever someone here does it?

[joshua corning]

What does Tulpa live in the perfect purple state in which his one vote will swing the entire election?

Bullshit.

Note: i am not saying this is a conspiracy of disinformation. I am saying Tulpa's logic is idiotic and needs to be ridiculed relentlessly.

Not praised as 'strategic' or 'realistic'. Voting for Gary Johnson is strategic. It shows the teams that they are missing out on votes that they could be getting but aren't...and in that strategim every vote does count.

[Gojira]

Ah, that was supposed to be a separate comment, not a reply to ji. Fuckity fuck fuck.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Needs more fuck.

Also, we're fucked.

[Mr. FIFY]

Also, fried chicken*.

*except in New York under Nanny Bloomberg.

[SML]

Listen to the mocking disdain in their voices as they interact with Schiff

[Paul.]

Hurt didn't hear solutions because they can't wrap their mind around not "doing something".

When one suggests pouring drano down the government pipe to unclog the regulatory hairball, that's seen as "doing nothing"

[Broseph of Invention]

Alternatively, when one suggests using that same drano to cut the cocaine binge of government spending, that's seen as "doing nothing".

[Paul.]

Good lord this is hard to listen to.

"All sound and fury, Mr Schiff, but I don't hear any proposals"

The proposal... the fucking proposal is to stand athwart the process and yell STOP!

And this whole "this program comes at $0 cost to the government".

Zero cost? Zero cost?

Ok, Ms. Zero Cost. I approve of your program, and the department overseeing these loans will be funded at $0.

Adjourned.

[JW]

"All sound and fury, Mr Schiff, but I don't hear any proposals"

Yeah, I think he covered that in his opening statement.

We're so fucked, if this is the best that our betters can muster.

[Paul.]

My only advice to Peter Schiff is to quit saying "My answer is the Free Market". That doesn't compute with people who have "spent a lifetime in public service".

The free market is a dark and enigmatic thing that can't be controlled, or reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse...

I would suggest that when CongressCritter A asks the question: "I'm still not hearing a solution", that you spell. it. out:

"In your next legislative session, pass a bill which abolishes the FHA."

What's so fantastic about this hearing is we are IN THE MIDDLE OF A SO-CALLED HOUSING CRISIS, and these congressional idiots keep talking about how successful government intervention in the housing market has been.

If anyone needs any more proof that the whole country is California, I don't know how to provide it.

Price, Mr. Congressman, it's not what you say it is, it's what the market will bear.

[AlmightyJB]

A few years ago, Greenspan came out and said what I had been saying for a long time. That is that all government inititives and legislation should undergo an upfront cost-benefit analysis and annual reviews to see if the program is passing that analysis. Only in the publice sector does that not take plaCE,

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

While he was artificially holding interest rates down. Greenspan had a classic case of projection going on there.

[Suthenboy]

"My only advice to Peter Schiff is to quit saying "My answer is the Free Market". That doesn't compute with people who have "spent a lifetime in public service". "

Oh....it computes alright, they hear that and think " there is no angle in that for me!", so they pretend they didnt hear it.

[Killazontherun]

Price, Mr. Congressman, it's not what you say it is, it's what the market will bear.

Sounds like something out of an Ayn Rand novel. Reality? Hello? /sarc

[Paul.]

Actually, I wish I could claim it as mine, but it came from the country's greatest economic mind: The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse.

He uttered those words while negotiating the reward money with Nathan Arizona on the return of little Nathan Jr.

[Paul.]

When the congresscritter asked "who encouraged Congressman Jean Taylor to build where he did", Schiff missed another opportunity.

Schiff should have said, "You did. YOU encouraged him to build there by offering falsely low insurance rates!"

[WarrenT]

Without government regulation big, faceless food corps would just feed us whatever poisonous crap they have laying around.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business.....d=16476480

[S Man]

I hope you we're being facetious

[S Man]

I do wish that Mr. Schiff had given examples of what Free Market can offer; such as micro loans, intra family loans, meta family loans, community loans,etc; things that we had to do in past decades,

[S Man]

A good example of non-government controlled loans, is what goes on in the immigrant community.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Schiff's opening statement was incredible. And I think he was the only one not reading his.

[mr simple]

All of the lobbyists looked so disinterested, like they knew this was just a show for the taxpayers. They'll all get their money in the end and kick back a little to the congress critters that made it happen.

[hamilton]

I get sucked in every time, but after a short while I always end up (more) bitter and depressed watching congressmen in action. I can't ever - ever - recall a time when I saw one of them in a session like this appearing intelligent, well-educated, reasoned, and deliberate.

We are so totally screwed.

[Paul.]

You could tell by their demeanor that they already had their answers, they already had their course of action... this was just a show-hearing.

[Spoonman.]

The comments on the "weather machine expert" link are...crazy.

[RBS]

Welcome to the brave new world of toxic barium skies, weather control, mind control and population control through the use of chemtrails modulated with electromagnetic frequencies generated by HAARP.

[Saberprivateer]

While I agree with everything Peter said I also agree with the sentiment of the chairwoman. Presentation makes a difference when trying to change people's minds. Accuracy in economics is not sufficient to get people to listen. Admittedly, that just isn't Peter's style and I don't ask/expect him to change. Plus, it was his style that likely made the panel aware of his perspective in the first place.

[Paul.]

No, they were fighting him. "I haven't heard a proposal" isn't complaining about his demeanor, it's actively ignoring what Schiff was saying. Like I say above, I only give them a pass because a "lifetime of public service" fries the lobe of the brain which is responsible for this area of thought.

[GILMORE]

"I don't hear you coming with any proposals"

TRANSLATION = "I don't see how your proposal of 'getting the fuck out of the way' helps me get re-elected?, or helps me grease certain constituents?"

It was sad that the most sensible person there give a passionate speech in favor of the average american taxpayer, and the reaction by congress is largely, "Who's this man with all this crazy-talk"?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

?"But you don't give us your proposals"

"I have a very simple and easily implemented proposal. We just both already know that you will reject it out of hand.

It's only 5 words long. GET OUT OF THE WAY."

[GILMORE]

Having now watched the video in its entirety, I feel like my soul has been sucked out of my body and beaten to a pulp. Watching government 'at work' is the most gross, nauseating, offensive, disingenuous, dishonest, slimy, repulsive, soulless, purposeless, life-destroying, criminally stupid activity mankind has yet invented. The only opinion fortified is that politicians are the lowest form of life on earth, and the only thing I will ORDER my children is, "never, ever, ever, become a congressperson. I will return from the dead if necessary and haunt you until you commit suicide."