Watching the Daily Show occassionally in the past year, I’ve seen how Stewart has focused a lot of his attention on the financial crisis. He especially likes to call out CNBC (and other networks) commentators and pundits for misreading the economic situation.
So, Peter Schiff was the guest on “The Daily Show” this evening (unless it was a rerun). Schiff had been predicting the financial collapse for the last couple of years at least, back when it was not popular to do so. Naturally, Stewart likes him for this. But the interesting thing here, and the reason I’ve made a post for this, is that Schiff is in the Austrian strand of economic thought. Indeed, he was an economic advisor to Representative Ron Paul’s presidential campaign.
Those of us familiar with Austrian economics know that while Schiff was a pretty lonely voice in the American popular media predicting the recession, his was one among many in the Austrian economics circles, particularly those associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute (as Schiff is).
In his interview with Stewart, Schiff spoke very plainly his conviction that Obama is only further hurting the economy with the stimulus, with the bailouts, and that we’re potentially on the road to hyperinflation. What was so interesting to me was that Stewart didn’t have anything to rebut Schiff’s points.
If someone like Schiff is suddenly very credible to someone like Stewart, then perhaps paleolibertarianism has a significant future in this country. I will give it, oh, twelve or sixteen years before anything serious could develop practically, i.e., politically.
