Gold bug Peter Schiff has been publicly confronted by his 18-year-old son, a bitcoin proponent, on the topic of value. Calling his dad’s understanding of money “Flawed,” Spencer Schiff made the statement in defense of TV Personality Max Keiser, who was having an argument with Peter on Twitter.
‘Your Understanding of Money is Flawed’
Gold bug Peter Schiff was confronted by his son, Spencer Schiff, on Monday after he accused TV personality and bitcoin proponent Max Keiser of not understanding the concept of fiat money.
“According to Max Keiser, I oppose bitcoin because I’m a fiat addict. In the bizarro world of bitcoin, gold is the new fiat,” Peter Schiff tweeted. “Clearly, Max Keiser doesn’t understand the concept of fiat, or how it differs from legitimate currency or actual money. That explains his bitcoin fixation.” At the time of this writing, his tweet got 354 comments and was liked 877 times and retweeted 67 times.
Among those who commented was his son, an 18-year-old bitcoin proponent. Spencer Schiff, a college freshman and student of Austrian economics, replied to his father’s tweet:
Your understanding of money is flawed. You think the key determinant of a money’s soundness is possession of ‘intrinsic value’, a nonsensical concept. What differentiates sound money from fiat money is the former’s emergence on the free market rather than by coercive State edicts.
Many commenters praised Spencer for putting Peter Schiff in his place, with some wondering if he was adopted. Keiser also liked Spencer’s tweet, stating that “The future belongs to bitcoiners. The boomers don’t get it. The millennials and Genz do.” He also urged others to follow Spencer on Twitter.
“By all means follow my son,” Peter Schiff replied. “But not because he has a soft spot for bitcoin. He’s wrong about that. Follow him for all the things he gets right. He’s no monetary scholar yet, but he’s working on it. Losing money on bitcoin will be a costly, but valuable part of his education.”
Peter Schiff and Max Keiser have long been tweeting back and forth about bitcoin and gold. Keiser has predicted that Peter Schiff will panic buy bitcoin at $50,000, just like Warren Buffett and several other bitcoin naysayers, including Mark Cuban and Jim Rogers.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Keiser claimed: “Keep in mind… I started telling Peter Schiff to buy bitcoin at $1. And kept telling him to buy it at $10 $100 $1000.”
Peter Schiff immediately contradicted Keiser, arguing: “I do not recall you ever talking to me about bitcoin when the price was that low. Since so much about bitcoin is a lie anyway, I guess you feel that including a few more makes little difference.”
Do you think Peter Schiff understands what makes money valuable? Let us know in the comments section below.
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