The Ticker

There's no doubt that Euro Pacific Capital's Peter Schiff has struck a chord among the legions of angry Americans looking to make sense of the financial crisis. He's a constant and controversial presence on cable news shows, and over the past few years has built his free-market, hands-off approach to fixing the crisis into a formidable one-man brand, including two books in addition to his money management business.

So how do Schiff's clients actually fare? Mike Shedlock a.k.a. Mish says not so well. In a long discussion of Euro Pacific's strategy, he lays out Schiff's investing thesis and lists "12 Ways Schiff Was Wrong in 2008":

Schiff's Investment Thesis

• US Dollar Will Go To Zero (Hyperinflation).
• Decoupling (The rest of the world would be immune to a US slowdown.
• Buy foreign equities and commodities and hold them with no exit strategy.

12 Ways Schiff Was Wrong in 2008

• Wrong about hyperinflation
• Wrong about the dollar
• Wrong about commodities except for gold
• Wrong about foreign currencies except for the Yen
• Wrong about foreign equities
• Wrong in timing
• Wrong in risk management
• Wrong in buy and hold thesis
• Wrong on decoupling
• Wrong on China
• Wrong on US treasuries
• Wrong on interest rates, both foreign and domestic

That's a lot of things to be wrong about, especially given all the "Peter Schiff Was Right" videos floating around everywhere. The one thing he was right about was the collapse of US equities and no part of his investment strategy sought to make a gain from that prediction.

Peter Schiff concludes many of his articles, books, etc. with the claim he saw this coming and positioned his clients accordingly."

If you're a Schiff fan or a critic, read the whole post. I'm sure Peter will respond (Update: He does so here to the Baltimore Sun's Jay Hancock), but for further consideration take a look at a few predictions from my Q&A with him back in May 2008:

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It's a $68 billion cash-and-stock deal, with Wyeth shareholders getting $50.19 a share - $33 in cash and 0.985 a share in Pfizer stock. That's 29 percent above where the stock closed last Thursday before the WSJ reported a deal was in the works.

The big question is this: Does this deal get Pfizer out of a tough spot as its blockbuster Lipitor goes off-patent? Chief Executive Jeff Kindler says yes, calling the deal a way to "definitively" address the threat from an end to Lipitor's exclusivity set for 2011. By 2012, he said no single drug will represent more than 10 percent of the combined company's sales.

That doesn't mean the drugmaker isn't struggling. Pfizer announced it would cut 15 percent of its combined workforce, slashed its dividend, and said it will borrow $22.5 billion to finance the deal (that's partially good news, since at least somebody is getting a loan). Pfizer shares slumped more than 8 percent in early trade, though the deal seemed to cheer broader markets hungry for any sort of dealmaking.

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Susie Gharib interviews Warren Buffett tonight on Nightly Business Report. The interview includes some good advice and a few unsettling views on markets and the economy (bold is mine):

SUSIE GHARIB, ANCHOR, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT: Are we overly optimistic about what President Obama can do?

WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: Well I think if you think that he can turn things around in a month or three months or six months and there’s going to be some magical transformation since he took office on the 20th that can’t happen and wouldn’t happen. So you don’t want to get into Superman-type expectations. On the other hand, I don’t think there’s anybody better than you could have had; have in the presidency than Barack Obama at this time. He understands economics. He’s a very smart guy. He’s a cool rational-type thinker. He will work with the right kind of people. So you’ve got the right person in the operating room, but it doesn’t mean the patient is going to leave the hospital tomorrow.

SG: Mr. Buffett, I know that you’re close to President Obama, what are you advising him?

WB: Well I’m not advising him really, but if I were I wouldn’t be able to talk about it. I am available any time. But he’s got all kinds of talent right back there with him in Washington. Plus he’s a talent himself so if I never contributed anything for him, fine.

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On Friday, I was sitting around a table with six people. Four of them had iPhones, and the remaining holdouts (myself included) weren't even thinking about upgrading to anything else (not a Blackberry, not a Palm Pre). We obviously weren't alone, as Apple posts another blowout quarter.

The highlights:

• Revenue passes the $10 billion mark, hitting $10.17 billion on a record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. Analysts were expecting about $1.40 a share as the consumer apparently continued to love iPods, iPhones and the Mac.
• Specifically, Apple sold 2,524,000 Macs in the quarter, up nine percent from a year ago.
• iPod sales hit 22.7 million, up 3 percent, which Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar called the "best we can expect" given the macro backdrop.
• iPhone sales jumped 88 percent from a year ago to 4.36 million
• Guidance for Q2 was $7.6 billion to $8 billion, with earnings of 90 cents to $1 a share (just like this quarter that'll be conservative).
• Gross margins were steady at 34.7 percent -- an accomplishment given the currently weak retail environment.

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history—surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. He didn't mention his health in the release, though in the latest twist the SEC is apparently interested.

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