Think Gold's Pricey? Wait Until It Hits $5000: Schiff

Schiff Ventura (Photo credit: tm-md)

Chicago, Oct.26, stock investing .- Runaway public spending combined with excessively loose monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and other global central banks will push gold to $5,000 per ounce within the next two years, noted investor Peter Schiff said Thursday. A longtime bullion bull, the head of Euro Pacific Capital told Futures Now in an interview that despite a recent retracement, "gold's got only one direction to go, and that's higher."

The implacable gold bug dismissed the idea that costly gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: GCCV1) would deter people from buying it. He renewed his critique that the Fed's bond-buying policy - combined with cheap money policies from other major central banks - will eventually stoke the embers of hyperinflation and lead to a sharply devalued U.S. dollar.

(Read more: Peter Schiff: Stock Market Gains a Fed 'Delusion'.)

Against that backdrop, Schiff said, near worthless fiat money will leave people with precious little choice other than the yellow metal.

"I think gold is going to go up against all currencies...central banks around the world are being too loose," Schiff said, arguing that the Dollar Index (Exchange:.DXY) "is going to be cut in half at a minimum. If we don't change our policies, the dollar index could go much lower."

On Wednesday, gold sank to a seven week low near $1,700 an ounce, only weeks after setting an 11-month high just shy of $1,800.

"One day we're going to look back at $1,700 with nostalgia," Schiff said. "People are going to be shocked at how inexpensive gold was when it could be snapped up for such a bargain price."

(Read more: West in a 'Colossal Mess' in Five to 10 Years: Marc Faber.)

Schiff is a relentless critic of U.S. fiscal and monetary policy, with his flagship investment fund being positioned for what he's called a "dollar crash". His somber pronouncements about the global economy in general - and the U.S. economy in particular - place him in a camp similar to the market's reigning "Dr. Doom," Mark Faber. 

The dollar bear was skeptical that Washington would find a way to avoid falling over the fiscal cliff, saying that Congress and the White House would only delay the day of reckoning until it became a full fledged calamity.

"I think we're going to have a monetary crisis [and] a dollar crisis," Schiff said, arguing that it was only Europe's debt crisis preventing investors from coming to grips with the U.S.'s own looming debt troubles. "We're going to have a real crisis of confidence."

Related articles

• Peter Schiff: The Fed is Inflating Housing (wealthwire.com)
• Why do I always think up weird titles? (twistedgothic.wordpress.com)
• Lori Lewis Says It's Not Necessarily You, It's The Landlord (allaccess.com)