Peter Schiff at OWS: "Walmart Doesn't Hold a Gun to Your Head!"

"Did a corporation end slavery, or did the *government* end slavery?!?!"

That's the sort of question investment guru and radio show host Peter Schiff fielded as he debated Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters last week in New York's Zuccotti Park.

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.

If you dig this video, check out a 20-minute-long video from Schiff's day at Occupy Wall Street in which the unflappable defender of true capitalism spars with an eclectic mix of protesters and gets at least some of them to reassess where the blame for financial crisis really lies. That's at YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGL-Ex1CD1c

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 2.30 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 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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[MrBrational]

When a Liberal loses an argument , they start the name calling. Happens every time. This black guy is a full on nut job.

[mtgsean]

@MrBrational He's unemployable... with that mind set no one would ever give him a job. No wonder he's upset. Maybe if he'd stop whining about slavery and how unfair the world is he might actually do something with his life. But I doubt that will happen unless the federal government creates a program to give him an unfair advantage in the world place. Oh wait, there's AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. Even with that shitty law he still can't make it.

[USASecretHistory]

Slavery was introduced into the colonies by corporations. Insurance companies also profited from slavery. Slaveowners took out insurance policies on their slaves. This guy doesn't know what he is talking about.

[datalorez]

I love Peter Schiff, but standing in the midst of a bunch of shouting assholes who are there to tighten their bootlaces and shout is not going to accomplish much. The videos should be him pulling one or two persons aside and having a conversation with them.

[amperro]

They work in sweatshop conditions but they are not getting enough hours? LOL

[ohevshalomel]

You call that a "debate"? I always thought debate involved the polite exchange of opposing ideas by reasonable men. That seemed more like a one-sided presentation of near-sighted, vitriolic ignorance, with Schiff as the audience.

[SuperThe86]

Nikola Tesla, physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer :

"Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life."

Many consider Tesla being greater than Einstein.

People of virtue are not motivated by greed.