Video: Kevin O'Leary mouths off about Chris Hedges, taxes, Ayn Rand, and asset bubbles

Vile. Despicable. Pathetic. Hard to understand why harper wants to cut CBC funding when they give this man a podium.

Really? I thought Mr. O'Leary made is arguments very well. Mr. Smith could have done a better job of conducting the interview (another microphone for starters). If this was debate class, O'Leary takes it hands down.

Mr. O'Leary speaks well, and is convincing, from a theoretical point of view. The fact is that user fees on services and ultilities would be very punishing on the poor segments of the population. Some people might argue that BC Ferry fares are a form of user fees, but actually they are a means of extra taxation for those directly using the service on top of taxes already paid to fund ownership of the utility. Also, about lowering corporate taxes to ZERO: Just because this might happen does not guarantee capital flights to Canada. The government must ensure a trained, educated and healthy population provided by -GUESS WHAT- tax dollars, or else the corporations have to pay for these to their workers. Better a little taxation and a decent rate of return than no taxes and a burden to provide own services. So, Mr. O'Leary, based on these examples alone, operates in a world of supply side textbooks and Atlas Shrugged, and not reality.

I strongly suspect that this guy is much less rich and much less of a dealmaker than he pretends to be. He sells himself so hard - he has obviously studied Donald Trump very closely and aspires to be the Canadian version thereof. Like Trump, his primary source of wealth is his own self-created brand, not real capital in a real business. Why seek to emulate a two-bit hustler and serial bankruptcy case?

The irony is that the model of prosperity O'Leary touts ("tout" being the operative word here) - deregulation, reduction in government revenue, shifting the tax burden off corporations and wealthy people - has failed spectacularly in the United States. Rampant speculation without adequate taxation and regulation hasn't created wealth, it has destroyed it. O'Leary is a cheerleader for economic delusion and failure. But who cares about this result, as long as Kevin adds to his net worth?

Kevin O'Leary is a disgrace to good journalism. In his own words he "Attacks" ideas he believes have no merit. This not what a Journalist does... journalists are not rabid pitbulls. You debate an idea, you present a well documented case. You study the issue in all its myriad forms. Whether you agree with Chris Hedges POV or not... any fool can see that O'Leary was not prepared, did not know the information and had jumped to his usual conclusions. First rule of Good Journalism.... Assume you are wrong, gather evidence to prove that you are wrong and hopefully in doing so support a case that is the more truthful arguement. If you saw the Chris Hedges interview, it was embarassing. I only thank God that there are still people like Chris Hedges who can keep their cool and do their best to remain calm.

He prides himself on his greed. Just another robber baron.

People want to know what the 99% movement is all about? The O'Leary's of the world and the laws and tax-loopholes that support them!

The interviewer, Charlie Smith, ought to know that Ayn Rand would have abhorred Greenspan's abominable handling of the Federal Reserve. The manipulations of the market by the Fed & Treasury are precisely what she opposed. Printing money dilutes wealth benefiting the institutions that first receive it, and harming those small businesses at the far end of the economic distribution chain. The result is inflation. Fixing interest rates too low encourages improper investment decisions (like buying mortgages).

Charlie also suggested deregulation was a factor in the collapse of several major financial institutions. Rand would also point to the 50,000 regulations aimed at the financial industry, some of which compelled lending institutions to make mortgage loans to borrowers with a very high risk of defaulting. These were started by Carter and enhanced by Clinton, & Bush ... because that is what Leftist economists thought was good.

Kevin O'Leary is not just a talking head on CBC, he is a regular contributor to BNN and often has very good advice that is subsequently used by investment brokers and others in the financial industry.

Ayn Rand's ideas are not something one grows out of. Many young readers don't really understand them, and lose track of them in a few years. To understand Rand properly one has to grow up.

REGARDING THE BALD & BAWDY BAY STREET BULLY

People with singular bottom lines are a bore and retro 80's. Kevin may have mastered greed and has even gotten himself to believe that greed is good. The root issue in people like Kevin is what they are rooted into (themselves and their own press releases & are full of themselves and something far more diabolical)

I find it laughable that he can't even enjoy how to spend well. People that focus merely on accumulation rather than consumption are not better than everyone else. They've come to the abysmal realization that possessions are toys and people are commodities (just like their investments). They rarely invest in people and don't even love material wealth.

It's the feeling of power they get that covers their deep seeded insecurity that all they have is their bottom line and in the end you can't take it more than 6 feet under.

The love of money is like drinking sea water to quench your dying thirst...
it'll only make you thirstier and it'll kill you in the end my shallow friend!

Change your brew and get some lessons in humanity and stop speaking out of your ass... the 1% always think their experts in everything

Kevin had an early childhood experience that has driven him to believe that power and control is everything. Little does he realize how he relinquished that decades ago... (visit the ice cream parlor where he had his first job)