Peter Schiff’s role model is an incarcerated felon, his father. The crime? Tax evasion. Irwin Schiff is 84 years old, and has served nine years of a 13 year sentence. The elder Schiff played a prominent role in challenging the Constitutional support for income taxes.
Alexis de Tocqueville
How many times will this simple observation be a revelation? Uttered humbly and powerfully in 1971 by one of the most influential leaders of our time—the cartoon strip character Pogo—this statement has never been truer than it is today. If you are angry about the capital markets mess we find ourselves in, you need travel no farther than your own bathroom mirror to pick a bone with the protagonist.
Living legends aren’t easy to come by. Actually shaking one’s hand is a very special experience. Seeing the noble and flawed human who represents the legend is really encouraging. The imperfections allow one to accept the truth of the person’s accomplishments.
A few years ago, I began to get excited about the return of manufacturing to the U.S. and now it’s happening. Mind you, I don’t expect it to regain the prominent position in our economy that it had prior to the 1970’s. In those days, the U.S. manufacturing industries led the world. Prior to 1973, we were a net exporter to the rest of the world in manufactured goods, oil, grains and investment capital. We were a net attractor of the world’s intellectual talent. Some of these trends took longer to reverse, but manufacturing changed early on.
