Have you ever watched a kid blow the most perfect soap bubble you’ve ever seen—huge, shimmering, almost magical—and then felt that tiny pang of dread because you know exactly when it’s going to pop?
That’s pretty much how I felt listening to Peter Schiff’s latest podcast. Except the bubbles aren’t made of soap. They’re made of trillions of dollars in tech stocks, overpriced houses, and digital coins that dropped 30% in a matter of weeks. And the kid blowing them? Well, let’s just say it’s been the Federal Reserve with the easy-money wand for the better part of fifteen years.
When one man keeps screaming “the bubbles are going to burst” for years and then suddenly several markets start cracking at exactly the same time… maybe, just maybe, it’s time to listen.
We Don’t Have One Bubble—We Have a Whole Cluster
Here’s the thing that hit me hardest: Schiff isn’t just talking about crypto going down (although he has plenty to say about that). He’s pointing out that literally every major asset class that benefited from near-zero interest rates is now looking dangerously overstretched.
Stocks—especially anything with “AI” attached to the pitch deck. Real estate that somehow still climbs even though mortgage rates doubled. And of course the granddaddy of them all lately: cryptocurrencies that were supposed to hit a million dollars per coin by Christmas.
When everything is going up together, it feels like genius. When everything starts rolling over together… well, that’s when the real pain begins.
The AI Boom: Real Revolution or Classic Mania?
Let me be clear—I’m not an AI skeptic. I genuinely believe artificial intelligence is going to change the world more than the internet did. I use ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney every single day. The tech is mind-blowing.
But belief in the technology and belief in current valuations are two completely different things.
“When I talk about an AI bubble, I’m not saying artificial intelligence doesn’t have potential. I think it has more potential than anything I’ve ever seen—including the internet.”
Peter Schiff
That quote actually gave me pause. Because he’s right. The internet in 1995 was transformative too… and the dot-com bubble still wiped out 80% of many stocks when reality finally showed up.
Today the poster child is obviously Nvidia. The company has been printing money selling the “picks and shovels” of the AI gold rush. But when a single company briefly becomes worth more than the entire energy sector combined, you have to ask yourself: are we pricing in ten years of future growth today, or are we just in the euphoria stage?
I’ve found that the later stages of every mania have the same soundtrack: “This time is different.” Funny how those four words have never actually been true in financial history.
Housing: The Bubble We Refuse to Let Deflate
If AI is the hot new thing, housing is the bubble we’ve been nursing along since 2009. Prices never really corrected after the Great Financial Crisis—they just took a breather and then started climbing again, fueled by the lowest interest rates in 5,000 years of recorded history.
Now rates have doubled (or more) and prices are… still going up? That only happens when you have massive policy intervention keeping the patient alive.
Government programs, mortgage forbearance, eviction moratoriums, record-low down-payment loans—you name it, we’ve tried it. Anything to avoid the dreaded “housing price crash” headline.
But here’s what nobody wants to say out loud: housing needs to become affordable again. And the only way that happens in a supply-constrained country with high demand is… lower prices.
Keeping the bubble inflated doesn’t solve the affordability crisis. It makes it worse for the next generation.
Crypto’s 30% Haircut—and Why It Actually Matters
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room that just tripped and fell down the stairs.
Bitcoin recently dropped below $88,500 after flirting with $108,000 not long ago. That’s a 30%+ decline in what feels like the blink of an eye. And yes, crypto folks will say “we’ve seen 80% drawdowns before and came back stronger!”
Fair. But Schiff’s larger point is brutal in its simplicity:
“That’s a pretty big bear market in nothing.”
Ouch.
His preferred yardstick isn’t dollars—it’s gold. Because Bitcoin has been marketed for years as “digital gold.” So let’s measure it against the original.
At recent prices, Bitcoin buys roughly 35 ounces of gold. At the peak, it was buying close to 55 ounces. In other words, Bitcoin lost almost 40% against actual money in a matter of months.
That’s not a dip. That’s a reality check.
The One Winner Crypto Might Accidentally Create
Here’s where Schiff gets interestingly optimistic—almost by accident.
He thinks the entire crypto experiment might end up doing one genuinely useful thing: forcing the gold market to modernize.
Tokenized gold—real physical gold backed 1:1, stored in vaults, but tradable 24/7 on blockchains with tiny fractions and instant settlement—could solve gold’s biggest historical drawbacks: portability, divisibility, and liquidity.
Ironically, the technology built to “kill gold” might end up making gold better than ever. As Schiff puts it, blockchain could give gold “a new lease on life.”
That’s the kind of unexpected outcome that makes markets so fascinating.
The Fed’s Dangerous Complacency
The most worrying part of the whole podcast, in my opinion, was Schiff’s take on recent Fed minutes.
Policymakers apparently believe any inflation from tariffs would be “transitory” or “one-time.” They’re treating price increases like a level shift rather than an ongoing process.
That’s the same language they used in 2021. We all remember how that worked out.
When the people in charge of the money printer convince themselves inflation is no longer a threat… that’s usually right when it comes roaring back.
So What Should Regular Investors Do?
Look, nobody has a crystal ball. But if multiple major asset classes are simultaneously showing cracks after the longest easy-money binge in history, prudence probably looks like:
- Raising cash or near-cash equivalents
- Owning some real, physical assets (yes, including precious metals)
- Avoiding leverage like the plague
- Remembering that trees don’t grow to the sky
Perhaps the most interesting aspect is how interconnected everything has become. When the AI trade unwinds, it could drag Magnificent Seven stocks down with it. When housing finally rolls over, banks get hit. When crypto crashes, risk appetite vanishes overnight.
We’re not in 2018 anymore, where one sector could crash and everything else kept partying. This feels bigger.
Schiff has been early before. He’s been loud before. But being early just means you get to watch the slow-motion train wreck longer than everyone else.
The bubbles are showing cracks. Whether they pop tomorrow or in 2026 is anyone’s guess.
But when a guy who called the 2008 housing crash starts using phrases like “bubbles everywhere”… I’m at least going to double-check where the exits are.
Because the last time everything felt this invincible, it really, really wasn’t.
