Peter Schiff Speaks for 1 Percent at Occupy Wall Street

Last week, Reason.tv followed investment guru, radio show host, and unflappable defender of capitalism Peter Schiff as he spent three hours among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.

An unapologetic member of "the 1 Percent," Schiff argued with all comers for the better part of an afternoon.

Schiff is no ordinary observer. As the prinicipal of the financial firm Euro Pacific Capital, he's a full-fledged and unapologetic member of "the 1 Percent." As an outspoken radio show host and commentator, he not only predicted the housing crash and financial crisis, he railed bank and auto-sector bailouts as they were happening. Schiff believes that capitalism offers is the only hope for young, frustrated people to have a vibrant and prosperous future. So he went to Occupy Wall Street to engage and debate the protesters.

Touring the Occupy Wall Street scene in New York with a sign that read "I Am the 1%, Let's Talk," Schiff spent more than three hours on the scene, explaining the difference between cronyism and capitalism, bailouts and balance sheets, and more.

"The regulation we want is the market," said Schiff. "That's what works."

Schiff describes himself as "sympathetic" to the plight of the OWS protesters, but thinks their anger is misdirected at legitimate business interests and should be better at the White House, Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the crony capitalists they've bailed out.

Check out Schiff's Euro Pacific Capital at www.europac.net

Listen to his radio show online at www.schiffradio.com

Buy his latest book, How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, at http://www.amazon.com/How-Economy-Grows-Why-Crashes/dp/047052670X

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Camera by Nathan Chaffetz.

Runs about 19 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions of our videos and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel for automatic notification when new material goes live online.

For a two-minute version, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZr9c1zYaOE

For Reason's coverage of the Occupy movement in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and elsewhere, go to http://reason.com/topics/occupy-wall-street

Here's a playlist of Reason.tv's always expanding video coverage of the Occupy movement: http://www.youtube.com/user/ReasonTV#grid/user/3E65B192ADEB84BD

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• peter schiff
• occupy wall street
• OWS
• crony capitalism
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• Economy
• anthony fisher
• zuccotti park
• liberty plaza

[araiderfreak1]

Fuck the state

[HymanKaplan]

@TheAnubisDrake But the Wall street will always be immoral. There is no point protesting them. You have to change the rules and laws in Washington to take away the power from politicians, so Wall street don't have the influence. That's the best way to do it. It's naive to think Wall Street will change. Shiff is right, greed is good in economy and it has it's natural control mechanism and counterpart fear. Fear from bankruptcy. But the bail outs took that away..and all is left is the greed..

[MrMauriceObrien]

HAHAHAHA!!! 7:55 Peter Schiff: "The reason employers want to lower wages is because their costumers want low prices. Everybody in this park wants low prices!"

Protester: "No we dont! No we dont! No we dont!"

what a fucking idiot!

[TheAnubisDrake]

@88relient Doesn't stop the effectiveness of it, it only minimizes it. We need lobby reform and campaign finance reform along with shrinking the size/cost/power of the gov.

[88relient]

@TheAnubisDrake You are right, but the solution is with minimising gov't. Yes, they are both at fault, but minimising of gov't stops the effectiveness of lobbying.

[smoore47212]

I want to be in the 1% so I get off my ass every day and bust my ass at work and do my job better then the next guy try ows

[CaptainSkeletor]

liberals lmao fucking pathetic scum

[STLConservative]

that idiotic lady at 16:12 Is not in the 1%. Her tax rate puts her in the 94% :P

[paunocu666]

5284 Likes ?

Cool... Libertarians ?

[you831able]

The fat headed black dude is arguing a pointless point. At the end when he calls him an idiot it's very ironic. Dept. of education wastes millions every year, yet are education system gets worse every year. The FDA Regulates drugs and cost's the tax payers billions, yet every year 100's of FDA approved drugs turn out to be dangerous. The EPA wastes millions of dollars every year with enforcing regulations, that do little or nothing to protect the environment.