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