Headline: Carlson and Schiff Spar Over Whether Bitcoin Can Replace the Dollar — Schiff Calls It a Speculative Asset, Not a Reserve Currency Media figure Tucker Carlson and economist Peter Schiff squared off this week in a wide-ranging interview that touched on inflation, government spending and the possibility of Bitcoin supplanting the U.S. dollar. Schiff — a long-time critic of crypto and a prominent gold bull — argued Bitcoin is primarily a speculative commodity with no intrinsic utility beyond price appreciation. He dismissed proposals to create a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve as effectively a taxpayer-funded bailout for early adopters rather than sound monetary policy. Schiff said Bitcoin demand is driven mainly by hopes of selling to a “greater fool” at a higher price, not by productive economic use. The conversation broadened into Schiff’s view of current inflation and fiscal policy. He claimed official inflation metrics understate real household cost increases because adjustments to the Consumer Price Index mask true price gains. Rather than blaming corporate pricing, he attributed rising prices to money and credit expansion and criticized fiscal choices across both parties — singling out the “Big Beautiful Bill” from President Trump as worsening deficits through higher spending and tax cuts. Schiff placed today’s pressures in historical context, tracing them to the U.S. exit from the gold standard in 1971 and the subsequent shift to fiat money. He said decades of low interest rates and monetary expansion have eroded purchasing power and distorted asset prices. Global monetary dynamics were also on the table. Schiff argued the dollar’s reserve-currency status has allowed persistent U.S. trade deficits, but that arrangement is under strain as countries rethink dollar exposure — a trend he says has accelerated since sanctions on Russia exposed risks of holding dollar-denominated reserves. He pointed to central banks’ recent gold purchases and gold’s price moves as evidence that official buyers are diversifying away from dollars. Citing a recent pullback in Bitcoin prices, Schiff suggested investors are favoring traditional stores of value over speculative assets. When Carlson asked whether Bitcoin could become a new fiat if confidence in the dollar collapses, Schiff flatly rejected the idea: he said Bitcoin lacks intrinsic value, non-monetary demand and the stability and deep liquidity required by central bank reserve assets. By contrast, Schiff argued, gold possesses tangible industrial and decorative uses in jewelry, electronics, aerospace and medicine. The exchange highlights an ongoing divide in markets and policy debates: crypto advocates increasingly pitch Bitcoin as “digital gold” because of its capped supply and independence from sovereign issuers, while critics like Schiff maintain that fiat vulnerabilities and rising U.S. debt (now north of $37 trillion) will not automatically elevate speculative digital assets into reliable national reserves. Watch the full interview here (video). Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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