Schiff Vs. Roubini on Inflation, Gold

[goodasgold]

Battling gurus video at:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101672789

I tend to side with Schiff over the long-term price of gold, but unfortunately he is of the "buy guns 'n ammo" school. Roubini, IMHO, has passed his "sell by" date as the reigning Poobah of crystal ball gazers.

[edsanville]

Battling gurus video at:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101672789

I tend to side with Schiff over the long-term price of gold, but unfortunately he is of the "buy guns 'n ammo" school. Roubini, IMHO, has passed his "sell by" date as the reigning Poobah of crystal ball gazers.

They both got the same "prediction" right, and then proceeded to parlay that into a cult.  Then, they both proceeded to make a bunch of horrible "predictions."  They actually have a lot in common.

A couple thoughts: 

Is it me, or was the housing bubble kind of obvious back in 2004-2005 when it was inflating?  I used to browse the local real estate catalogs when I was bored eating lunch at Subway.  I used to marvel at the fact that the average American could ever afford those prices.

I actually like some of Schiff's abstract philosophies, but his grasp of the actual functioning of the actual world isn't all that great (to put it mildly).  His father Irwin Schiff is a tax protester (or, "nutjob,"  depending on who you ask), who's been serving decades in JAIL for refusing to pay income taxes.  He published a comic book about Austrian economic theory in the 1970s.... it's actually an interesting read.  The first chapter is about savings and investment, and is a straightforward allegory about how investment comes from savings, and savings must come from short-term sacrifice.

[Reub]

Is Irwin Schiff still in jail? How long has the poor fellow been in?  We had a mayor in NYC who didn't pay his taxes for years and nothing ever happened to him.

[edsanville]

Is Irwin Schiff still in jail? How long has the poor fellow been in?  We had a mayor in NYC who didn't pay his taxes for years and nothing ever happened to him.

He's apparently still in jail, according to Wikipedia.  It says he has a projected release date in 2017, although they've pushed that back at least once already.

[Reub]

So instead of him paying his taxes the taxpayers are paying to keep him in vertical stripes. What a country!

[Pointedstick]

I guess he figured out a way to avoid income taxes after all.

[MachineGhost]

It's still sad though.  It's not easy going up against the Jackbooted Thugs and becoming a martyr that no one cares about. 

Being a former one myself, I have a bit of respect for tax protestors because even if they are in the right with how the tax code became corrupted and the laws and regulations are intentionally ignored by the Tax Court solely for purposes of enforcing public policy, they get no respect.  But at some point you have to wake up, stop fighting City Hall and deal with actual reality.  Taxes aren't anywhere in the same league as scientific knowledge.  If KShartle is a tax protestor, give him extra credit for walking the talk.

[Reub]

Since the government won't allow poor Irwin to sell his book explaining why no one has to pay income tax he is providing a free download for The Federal Mafia.

http://www.paynoincometax.com/federalmafia.htm

Do you think that downloading it might trigger an alarm or two?

[MachineGhost]

Do you think that downloading it might trigger an alarm or two?

I'll save you the risk.  Just write $0 at the bottom of the 1040.  As far as tax protestor schemes go, Schiff's is one of the dumbest.

[Kshartle]

Do you think that downloading it might trigger an alarm or two?

I'll save you the risk.  Just write $0 at the bottom of the 1040.  As far as tax protestor schemes go, Schiff's is one of the dumbest.

What was his scheme?

[MachineGhost]

What was his scheme?

Writing in $0 on the entire return, especially the owed amount.  Due to Schiff, I believe there's now an instant $500 penalty for filing a return like that.  The way our system is setup, it is not the appropriate venue to protest taxes with the collection agency instead of the judicial courts.

The only strategy that has ever gotten past the courts is a good-faith belief (backed up by opinion letters from the appropriate tax authorities) that you're not liable to file a tax return, since the IRS can only prosecute for willful failure to file.  A lot of what should be taxpaying non-taxpayers don't bother to file and without filing, they're not in the system so they get overlooked (this has been whittled away over time with gradually more required information reporting to the IRS which legally presumes everything reported to it is "taxable income" and the taxpayer's job is to dispute otherwise with the 1040).  It's not completely airtight yet, but is definitely more difficult post-2001 than it used to be.  That recent uproar over 1099's being required for literally everything was an attempt to make the system more airtight.