For now, things might look just fine – after all, last month the Nasdaq stock exchange enjoyed its biggest gain since 2000. But as Schiff puts it in a recent episode of The Peter Schiff Podcast, investors need to be aware of what happened right after that peak 18 years ago: the Nasdaq declined by around 80% from peak to trough. This lesson from history “should give people pause”, says Schiff.
Yet there is none. US stockmarkets have now been in a bull market for an extremely long period, and this is also now the second-longest economic expansion on record. Yet rather than take this as a sign that we could be near the end, instead “people are betting that we’re not going to have another recession and we’re not going to have another bear market – maybe ever”.
This is worrying. Not every market is currently running with the bulls. Many emerging markets are getting clobbered – some are even at decade lows. Rather than believe everything is rosy, a more sensible bet would be to assume, says Schiff, that we will have another recession and bear market – and relatively soon.