How Dave Ramsey Made $55 Million by Being Good on Personal Debt, Naive on Business Debt, Lousy on Investing, and a Loudmouth Bully.
by Gary North

I have kept my mouth closed on Dave Ramsey for years, but no longer. I have finally had enough.

In a January 23, 2008 phone call, he excoriated Peter Schiff's book, Crash Proof, after telling the caller that he had never heard of the book or Schiff.

This was unconscionable. The rule is simple: if you attack a book, read it first.

The caller, a young woman, said that her father was worried about a coming stock market crash. He was buying gold and foreign currencies. Ramsey said this advice was "absolutely ludicrous."

On that day, the Dow was at 12,270. Gold was at $880.25.

Yesterday, the Dow closed at 11,240. Gold closed $1,884.50.

You tell me: Ramsey or Schiff?

But it gets worse. Ramsey's off-microphone research man told Ramsey that Peter Schiff is Irwin Schiff's son. Ramsey then went into a tirade over the father's tax protest advice. He then said this: "This kid's dad is a nutburger, which probably means the kid is a nutburger."

No, it means that Dave Ramsey is a disgrace. He verbally tarred and feathered Peter Schiff for a position Schiff personally opposes: the tax revolt.

The "kid" is three years younger than Ramsey. He runs a business. And, just for the record, he has never declared bankruptcy. Ramsey did -- and has become a multimillionaire by parleying that act of contract breaking into an anti-debt career. He is like the reformed alcoholic who says no one should take a drink. For the record, I hope he has long since repaid all of his former creditors with interest. "The wicked borroweth and payeth not again." (Psalm 37:21a).

On Irwin Schiff, I have been clear: http://www.garynorth.com/public/692.cfm. I was clear in the mid-1970s, when Schiff began his crusade against paying income taxes. I published R. J. Rushdoony's 1975 article, "Jesus and the Tax Revolt," in the Winter 1975/76 issue of The Journal of Christian Reconstruction, which I edited. The article was a refutation of the tax protesters. This was when Schiff had just begun his crusade. I knew who he was, and I joined with Rushdoony to oppose what he and others like him were doing.

In 1975, Dave Ramsey was 15 years old.

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