Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, touched upon the recent debt limit crisis in the US and the impact on the economy. Schiff believes that the real crisis is the debt itself, and the government wants the burden to be unlimited. He argues that the debt limit tries to limit that burden, but the government wants to pile on more debt. When comparing the US to Japan, Schiff notes that Japan is the exception, and most countries with a debt-to-GDP ratio similar to that of the US are having a lot of trouble. He points out that Japan is a nation of savers, and the individual Japanese can afford the debt. However, Japan is facing its own debt crisis, and inflation has finally broken out. Schiff believes that the US has many obligations beyond the money they actually borrowed, such as guaranteed bank accounts, pensions, student loans, and military pensions, which dwarf the funded portion of the debt.
