Back when Treasury Secretary “€œHank”€ Paulson was informing us all that the U.S. economy was “€œfundamentally healthy,”€ and the global economy A-okay, Peter Schiff was saying something quite different, indeed”€”and was being scoffed at and even denounced as unpatriotic (where have we heard that before?) by the analysts of BubbleVision.

Well, Peter was right, and a video a highlight reel of his truth-telling became the YouTube sensation of the financial crisis”€”spurring the legions of Troy to launch a counterattack on Cassandra.

Last week, I had a chance to sit down with Peter in his office, and the resulting interview reveals quite a bit about what lies behind Peter’s famous calls from the past 4-5 years. Specially, he talks about why lenders had to resort to financial instruments like “€œmortgage-backed securities”€ in lieu savings, why he opposes protectionism and the auto bailouts but thinks trade deficits really do matter, and how his father, the income tax protester Irwin Schiff, influenced his economic thinking.  

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