Peter Schiff's prediction--in 2006!

See how accurate he was--in the face of a consensus of detractors who insisted he was part of the lunatic fringe.

"The United States' (economy) is like the Titanic and I am here with the lifeboat trying to get people to leave the ship," said Schiff, president of Darien-based Euro Pacific Capital, a brokerage firm that specializes in trading foreign equities.

"I see a real financial crisis coming for the United States,"Schiff said. "I am helping my clients protect themselves."

Schiff likes the Titanic metaphor. Everyone thought the ship could never sink, just like most people think the U.S. economy can't, he said. But people were wrong about the Titantic, and they are wrong about this country's economic stability, he said.

Schiff sees a mammoth iceberg ahead that's going to obliterate the U.S. dollar. The investors' lifeboat, he said, will be to put their money into non-dollar assets and foreign currency.

Besides being down on the dollar, Schiff said U.S. equities are substantially overvalued and bond prices are on the verge of collapse.

Here's his take on real estate:
"The combination of artificially low interest rates, foreign central bank intervention, an irresponsible Fed, excessive credit availability, the proliferation of low or no-down payment, adjustable-rate, interest-only and negative-amortization mortgages, a can't-lose attitude among speculators validated by ever rising 'comps,' the complete abandonment of lending standards, widespread corruption in the appraisal industry, rampant fraud among sub-prime lenders and the moral hazards associated with loan originators reselling loans to buyers of securitized products who perceive minimal risk and an implied government guarantee, has produced the mother of all bubbles."