Yep. Schiff was on The Kudlow Report when the former Paulnut abandoned Libertarian free market principles to jump on the anti-Goldline band wagon.

Via Newsbusters:

“You know, I have my own gold company and it bothers me what they’re going to do,” Schiff said to CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” fill-in host Michelle Caruso-Cabrera on the Sept. 24 broadcast. “I think that companies like, you know, like Goldline, you know that are basically marking up their gold coins 67 percent or whatever – it’s outrageous. I mean, most companies mark-up 2 or 3 percent, which is what I do. These type of companies give the whole industry a bad name. What I’m afraid of is we’re going to have a lot of regulation.”

Caruso-Cabrera asked Schiff in these circumstances if it was a case of buyer beware. However, Schiff suggested it was fraudulent for coin companies to charge these prices for what by any measure of the law would be a legal transaction if a consumer chose to purchase coins from such a company.

“If there’s fraud, it’s not buyer beware,” he continued. “But what I’m afraid of is I don’t want government regulating the coin industry so that people like me have to raise our prices to cover all the extra cost of regulation.”

But assuming Schiff’s assumption were correct, wouldn’t he has a competitor be able to move in on the market and offer the same product for a lower price? Isn’t that how the free market operates? Schiff conceded that point, but complained he was getting beat because he couldn’t afford the advertising.

“I mean, I think the free market should ferret out these companies that are grossly overcharging people who don’t know any better. You know, that’s the problem. People haven’t bought gold in so long and see how well it’s doing and get conned by these commercials that are all over television. But most gold companies like mine, we can’t afford to run commercials because we’re not charging that much.”

So Goldline “overcharging” is fraud? In a free market Schiff would simply advertise as a cheaper alternative and his claims that he can’t compete sound odd as he does it from one of the many cable news shows he’s allowed to pimp his company on. Schiff is just attacking the competition using the government. He tries to couch his complaints in a desire to not see more regulation but the reality is he’s saying he doesn’t want to compete with Goldline even though he supposedly has a better product.

I don’t shop with Goldline or Euro-Pacific Capital. There’s only one precious metals company on the web that is rated by the B.B.B. and that’s where I purchase any coins and bullion I want. But I do think that in a free market a corporation has the right to a) charge whatever they want for their services and b) advertise for that service where ever they can. But I’m just a Republican “fascist,” right Libertarians?

Peter Schiff, like many Libertarians, gives excellent economic analysis. And like many Libertarians he’s kind of a douche who will drop their belief in a total free market the minute they can’t compete. This is why they support legalization of drugs rather than decriminalization of drugs – they want the government to ensure that their drugs are safe and reasonably priced, which is of course impossible but that’s another argument.

George W. Bush takes a lot of heat for the bailouts, but in that case he literally thought you would be getting yanked out your car by rioters as the whole country went Katrina. Schiff abandoned the free market to save his bottom line, but I’m betting he won’t get much grief. That should make people think.