Investor Peter Schiff told Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson on Monday that the amount of money printed by the government has caused Americans to suffer from inflation.
During an appearance on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” Schiff blamed inflation on the government for expanding credit and the money supply, stating that it is “obvious” that the Federal Reserve is causing rising prices. He argued that prices began to surge under President Donald Trump’s first term and continued to escalate under former President Joe Biden due to the massive spending during the COVID pandemic and other massive spending packages, such as the Inflation Reduction Act.
“The real reason for getting out of the dollar is we’re going to destroy its value. We have these runaway deficit spending that is the source of all the inflation that we have. It’s the Fed monetizing the debt that the government is creating,” Schiff said. “A lot of people don’t know what inflation is. They just think it’s prices going up because that’s what the governments tell them or some economists tell them. But prices going up are a consequences of inflation. They’re not inflation. Inflation is an expansion of the supply of money and credit. And when you expand money, you expand credit, that bids up prices.”
WATCH:Â
Gold has so dramatically outperformed the S&P this century that you’d think CNBC would be recommending it to investors. But they’re not. Peter Schiff explains why.
(0:00) Why Schiff Decided to Start Buying Gold
(10:45) You’re Being Lied to About Inflation
(23:39) How the… pic.twitter.com/8GstgGKC5W— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 26, 2026
Schiff said the government needs inflation to raise revenue and pay off its debts, adding that they make up all sorts of reasons why inflation is a necessity. He told Carlson that the Federal Reserve’s rationale is that inflation is needed because people will not buy if prices get too low, which Carlson called “deranged.”
“I’m not questioning your knowledge, which is obvious, it’s on display, but is that actually their rationale? Because that’s so deranged that I have trouble believing it,” Carlson said.
“I know, that’s how stupid they think we are,” Schiff added.
Schiff also disputed the claim that businesses make more money when prices rise and argued that no one can work at the Federal Reserve if they have any common sense. He also argued that inflation spiked to record-highs because of the stimulus checks handed out during Trump’s first term and because the Federal Reserve continued to print money “like crazy” during the Biden administration, despite people not working during the pandemic.
“When we got COVID in 2020, the government basically implemented the most inflationary combination of monetary and fiscal policy that I have ever seen … When COVID hit, we shut down the economy. We told people, ‘don’t go to work, stay at home, don’t produce anything.’ But then we said, ‘but don’t stop shopping.’ So, everyone’s gonna get a bunch of money. We had the paycheck protection, we had these enhanced unemployment benefits, we ran massive deficits. The Fed printed money like crazy, we doubled the Fed’s balance sheet from like $4 trillion to $8 trillion. Everybody stayed home and got money to spend. So we had all this money to spend, but we weren’t making anything,” Schiff added. “And so I knew that the consequence of that was gonna be soaring prices.”
Prices rose more than 20% during Biden’s term in office, jumping from 1.4% at the beginning of Biden’s presidency to its peak of 9% and finally falling below 3% for the first time in two years in July 2024. Many economists blamed the soaring inflation on the Biden administration spending $1.9 trillion and $750 billion on the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act at the beginning of his administration.
The economy remains a top issue for American voters and helped Trump get reelected in the 2024 election. Both Democrats and the Trump administration have prioritized affordability as a central campaign issue ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Trump’s approval on the economy has fallen since the 2024 election, which stands at an average of -13.6 points, according to RealClearPolitics. Affordability messaging was largely credited with helping Democrats, including Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherril, win their elections in November 2025.
Trump is due to speak about the economy in Iowa on Tuesday.
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