Peter Schiff appeared on CNBC this week with a dire warning on America’s economic future – “It’s gonna be awful!”

Do you guys remember the financial crisis of 2008? Did you think that was bad? This is going to be worse.”

Peter said this time around, we’re not looking at a financial crisis. We’re staring down the barrel of a currency crisis. Ultimately, the central bankers and government policy makers will sacrifice the dollar on the altar of the stock market. Their main goal is to make sure the stock market doesn’t crash again. Peter said they might succeed, but only at the expense of the dollar. The Real Crash: Americ... Schiff, Peter D. Best Price: $3.00 Buy New $9.55 (as of 12:25 UTC - Details)

So we’re going into a currency crisis, and this crisis is going to be much bigger than a financial crisis. The impact it’s going to have on the average American, on his standard of living, on his way of life is going to be much more profound. And sure, people won’t lose as much money in their stock portfolio, but if they try to sell their stocks and spend the money, the purchasing power that they lose is going to be much greater then what was lost in ’08.”

Peter went on to defend his position, arguing that the only reason the dollar is so strong right now is because people actually believed Federal Reserve policy is working. What are people going to do when they finally figure out that it was a failure and we’ve been in a phony recovery?

Highlights from the interview:

“They’re just still little cubs. I mean, they haven’t really matured into full-blown a bear yet. They have no idea just how bad it’s going to be. It’s going to be awful.”

“Do you guys remember the financial crisis of 2008? Did you think that was bad? This is going to be worse.”

“It’s not necessarily going to be concentrated in the stock market. See, I think that the government, the Federal Reserve, their main goal is to make sure that the stock market doesn’t collapse again, to make sure the real estate market doesn’t collapse again, and they may succeed. But only by sacrificing the dollar. So we’re going into a currency crisis, and this crisis is going to be much bigger than a financial crisis. The impact it’s going to have on the average American, on his standard of living, on his way of life is going to be much more profound. And sure, people won’t lose as much money in their stock portfolio, but if they try to sell their stocks and spend the money, the purchasing power that they lose is going to be much greater then what was lost in ’08.” How an Economy Grows a... Schiff, Andrew J. Best Price: $1.99 Buy New $7.20 (as of 11:05 UTC - Details)

“The dollar only started to rally because everybody believed the Fed’s program actually worked, that we had a real, sustainable recovery, that the Fed could actually normalize policy, raise interest rates, shrink its balance sheet, and everything was going to be fine. That’s why the dollar started to rally…Now people are just beginning to realize that that wasn’t true – that the policy didn’t work. If fact, it not only didn’t work, it made everything worse. We’ve dug ourselves into a deeper hole. People are going to find that out now when the Fed can’t raise rates, when they have to go back to zero and when they have to do QE4, and so I think the dollar is going to implode.”

“The dollar is falling and gold is rising when people still expect the Fed to raise rates. Imagine what is going to happen when they expect a cut.”

“Once the Fed has to admit that we’re in a recession, what are they going to do? They’re going to cut rates. They’re going to start printing up a bunch of money. The dollar is going to tank. Commodity prices are going to rise. And all of a sudden a lot of the emerging markets are going to be in better shape.”

“Even though the Fed hiked rates in December, real rates are lower today than they were in December because inflation has increased more than that quarter-point rate-hike, and that’s going to continue. So, imagine what happens when the Fed starts cutting rates as inflation is getting worse. And then real rates really tank and the dollar just drops through the floor.”

“All we’re doing now is giving more drugs to a drug addict and that is not going to solve the drug addict’s problem.”

Reprinted from SchiffGold.com.