Peter Schiff on bank failures: "the entire house of cards was directed by the Fed and U.S. government"

I warned for years that the banks will start collapsing for the precise reason that they're collapsing now: the Fed kept interest rates at zero for so long.  That's what allowed the institutions to load up on overpriced, low-yielding Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities and other loans.  Plus U.S. government auditors from the Fed, FDIC, they encouraged the banks to buy these long-term Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities because they gave favorable accounting treatment.  The banks didn't have to mark them to market as long as they could pretend they would hold them to maturity.  So the entire house of cards was directed by the Fed and the U.S. government, and now it's collapsing and they're acting like they have nothing to do with it and they're tying to figure out how to put out a fire that they lit.  And of course the problem is they're not putting out the fire, they're throwing gasoline on it.

~ Peter Schiff, interview with Fox Business, 4:05 mark, May 4, 2023