who's laffin' now?

no one, actually.

but if anyone deserves to enjoy a chuckle, it's financial cassandra peter schiff.

and if a network deserves to be laughed out of existence, it's fox news.

schiff: the basic problem in the u.s. economy is that we have too much consumption and borrowing and not enough production and savings. what's going to happen is that the american consumer is bascially going to stop consuming and start rebuilding his savings, especially when he sees his home equity evaporate. when you have an economy at 70% consumption, you can't address those imbalances without a recession.

laffer: i think peter is totally off-base and i don't know where he's getting his stuff.

schiff: this is just getting started. this is not just sub-prime. this is a problem for the entire mortgage industry. it's not just people with bad credit that committed to mortgages they can't afford. it's not just people with bad credit who are going to see their home equity vanish. and it's not limited to mortgage credit. americans are going to have a difficult time borrowing money to buy cars, to buy furniture, to buy appliances. foreigners around the world have been lending us money for years — they are now finding out that we can't afford to repay. this is going to be an enormous credit crunch. the party is over for the united states of america.

stein: you're simply wrong about that. ... the financials are a super bargain.

pundit 1: i think the worst is over.

pundit 2: i think stocks will be a heckuva lot higher a year from now then they are today.