Kitco News spoke with Peter Schiff at the Grand Cayman Liberty Forum about the gold market. They covered the gamut, from the economic fundamentals for gold’s next price rise to the Swiss gold referendum at the end of the month.

Here are a few of Peter’s answers transcribed:

“If [the ECB is] going to buy more gold – which I think would be smart, because I think the price is going to go a lot higher – it’s not to counter low inflation. Maybe that’s what they’re talking about, but low inflation is not a threat. It’s high inflation that’s a threat. Low inflation is good, the lower the better. In fact, if prices go down, that’s even better for your economy than when prices go up…

A lot of people thought that when gold was falling, it was Russia that was selling. ‘Oh, they’re selling gold to protect the ruble.’ And I said, ‘No, Putin is way too smart to sell his gold.’ If anything, he’s buying gold and selling his dollars, and that’s probably exactly what he did…

The dollar isn’t really strong, it’s just that temporarily other currencies are weaker. I think people are worried about the yen, they’re worried about the euro, and so the dollar wins by default. They say, ‘Well it’s the cleanest shirt in the hamper.’ But it’s actually not. It’s actually the dirtiest shirt in there, people just don’t appreciate that yet. It’s only because the euphoric effects of our last round of QE haven’t worn off yet..

I’ve had that target [of gold at $5,000] in my mind for some time, and I think we’re going to eclipse it. I think that when this decline is over – and it’s been two or three years since gold hit its high around $1,900 – I think it’s actually going to rise faster than it fell. Normally markets take the stairs up and the elevator down. Well, I think that gold is going to take a rocket ship back up. Because I think that when all the people who have been shorting gold and selling gold realize that they’ve got it wrong and they want to buy it back, it’s just not there… I think all the gold that was dumped out of the ETFs is sitting in vaults in Russia and China, and it’s never going to see the light of day again…

Reality [is what will drive gold to new highs]. People are oblivious to the fact that it’s QE-infinity, that all the major central banks around the world are promising inflation. Once upon a time, central banks promised price stability, and they were willing to put interest rates up to 5, 6, 7, 8 percent to maintain stable prices. Now they’re saying that stable prices are dangerous…

This is the best fundamental environment I’ve ever seen for gold. And I also think the dollar’s days as the world’s reserve currency are numbered. When the dollar is no longer accepted as the reserve currency, what’s going to take its place? It’s not going to be the euro, it’s not going to be the yen. I think it’s going to be gold…”