captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> business news from the capital region. this is "washington busiss report" with abc7 national corresespondent rebecca cooper. thanks for joining us for a look at business and finance sues here in the washington region. 35 yeaears ago and anchormen urged americans to open their windows and shout as they were mad as hell and not going to ke it anymore. it seems we are facing a similar

sentiment today with t anger we have been hearing from the occupy wall street t movement. it has morphed into worldwide movement. demonstrators turning out an camping out. our first guest, michael farr makes his living in the financial industry but things occupipiers might have a point. he is the author of "the arrogance cycle." michael farr thank you for joining us on "washington business rert." you do not look like the guys camping out at the park. >> i have not had a tent out with the protesters, but i talked with them downtown in washingt. i think these protests here are ve similar and are sending

similar messages and reacting to similar things as the tea party movement. people are unhappy with what is happening on wall street. a lot of pepeople are left without chairs when theusic stops. >> is fair to s say that you have made a professional career out of helping peopleanage wealth. what is wrong with being one of the 1 per cent? " absolutely nothing wrong with being one of the 1%. i think it is a big mistakehat we do nott support those 1% who have created wealth and have notot overspend. those should be our poster children. instead, we are listening to an administration that continues to increase the deficit and debt that will have to be paid back by future genertions. >> "politico" says that there is some arrogance on wall street

then you say gives good ammunition to the movement. >> i think in many ways ll street acted irresponsibly. after glass-steagallas repeal which meant that commercial banks and investment banks could sort of interim and gothey've leveraged their balance sheets sometimes 40 to 1. if you are woworth only $1 but you leverage in and borrow another $39, think about what happens if youu lose a dollar or two. that is what wall street did. they leveraged 40 to 1. when they lost, it was a catastrophe. taxpayers have to pay, and we are still paying. >> you cast a wide net in your book. you also make the popoint that consumers bear some of t blame for the aogance. >> one of my critisms of the folks in the crow is i do not

think they have a mirror anywhere n nearby. amicans increased the average household debt from 35% to 111%. we saw the average basically double. so people took on more credit card debt, bought bigger houses, took lower interest rates, but they took on a lot more debt and a borred money to afford a better life -- >> you do not think the protesters are part of the mansion crowd, do you? >> in thehe newspaper today, there was a woman interviewed who says i have40,000 in credit-card debt because i could not afffford to live on my pension and social security. what we know is she did not live on her pension and social security, and shefforded at let $40,000 more. there has bn spending from a sense of entitlement, but people

racked up debt. >> you see how much this has taken off. it srted withh adbusters in canada launching a movement. and iteally group. i was in toronto this week as they we occupying toronto. explained the global movement. what do they find in common? >> i think pain and the fact that they are in a place where they can see no adscapape. there wasn't -- there was a woman interviewed in greece. they lost their restaurant beuse they did not have customers coming in. she said we cannot afford our mortgage. that sort of pain without a place to go or get a job is happening in different places around the world. people a angry. there is a lot of unrest. a lot of disparity in wealth

fuels of the inequality and on fairness. >> i gave up a career as a political journalist and decid there was no way to fix congress or the white house but a lot being done in the financial world. what can the private sector do to respond to some of these issues? >> first of all, the private sector has to listen and try to understand. i think is missing p people even if their mesessages s are modeled you have to listen them and begin a dialogue. as this pain grows in this kind of ecomy, wewe are not growing jobs. is a problem that we ought to start a dialogue. anything that we can do to really address and create jobs has to be done. in my opinion, it is the private sector th will do that and not governmement.

to the extent that we can band together and thehe private sector can fina level of confidence which i think is going to come from the policy makers, if they say we will keep our hands off go out there and be creative entrepreneurs, those jobs will be created. it is a bit of a chchicken and egg, but listening to these folks isery important. >> a former o official in the clinton n administration was going to become a spokesman but it turns out that was just a rumor. one of the original canadian organizers says the reason this movement did not start immediately in the after mamath was because predent obama ofoffered some ideas for change. was a rit to lose fah? >> -- r is a right to lose faith? >> they have not seen a lot o of progress from anywhere.

yes, when the entire campaign is run on hope and change and they have not seen it delivered, he is going to get criticism. hope is really an issue in many places around the world. the lady in greece after the interview -- they teargassed the crowowd, and she said we are losing hope. why don't you understand? that is kind of the same message, and it is an insidious message if people cannot see hope for the future that things will get better and improved. we he to show them the signs and that leadership to offer some sense of hope and direction. >> michael farr, author of "the arrogance cycle," thank you for joining usn "washington business report." ththere is more a head after the break. a local ceo with the latest

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>> welcome back. when you hear about our next guest, you might think we are more of a lingerie show than a business show. it is not just that we loved lingerie. what we really love our small businesses with big ideas. knock out! is an underwear company unded by a harvard stay at home and mother in the district.

she is a success. today, angela newnam, ceo of knock out! panties is here to tell us about technology of panties has become a huge business. there is this whole idea about technology behind them, and it hato do with deer hunting technology. explained the link. >> it is a crazy story behind knock outut! i had this idea about making undergarmentss with high-tech performae of fabrics built in. >> trying to get rid ofll of the issues that we do not talk about. >> all of ose things that no one wants to talk about. in my patneent work, i found this technology that was a natural technology for natural fafabrics that absorbed older.

the more research i did, it was exactly what i wanted for undedergarments. >> it was developed and the primar audience that it was marketed toward where deer hunters. >> many of our viewers may have heard of this big virginia company. they developed this technoology. you put that on to fabrics,s, and bebed intoto the fibers,s, and you have a secret weapon for odor. now weave in our own appar. >> yo are saying thatat thesese are the kinds s of things t that every day women live with and no one caters to this market. why are women such an underserved market in terms of needs? athletes at their own types of fabrics and ings like that. what do yothink it is? >> i think women, moms working

women, they always make do. we dnot have time to search for the next thining or start the next thing. i had a career before i had my kids. then i had done me stay home time when my kids were young. i thought of a need that i had and i knew that other women had. you talk to women andnd you talk about all of these things going on with your life and your body, and i decided that i could do this. >> try and take this from the original prototype to where you are now making thee product. >> once i identified exactly what wanted to do, i hired one of the devevelops of the patent to work with the. we got into manufacturing developed prototypes, tested it around the country pending after

a year and a half, we launched last fall and a great success. and it worked so well. >> are you in any of the stores in the washington, d.c. area? >> we are. >> can use to work from home? have you moved up to an office? >> we still work out of my house. my husband is a hunter so we have hunting things in there but lots of launcher rate around the room. >> inspiration for all. it is a great success story. thank you for comingnto "washington business report." up next, our roundtable will take on the week's hot topics. st freight rail delivered caterpillar

to peoria more than 100 years ago. and they're still delivering cat machines today. you can find us on every continent. and the journey starts here on freight rail america's freight rail companies. helping deliver jobs across this country and goods around the world. reinvesting billions of their own money every year to build a rail network that powers our economy. nobody moves more dirt than caterpillllar. and we rely on freight rail to move us.

>> this week after lots of campaigning for his jobs bill, the president came up short in the senate in the meantime, herman cain has shot to the top of theolls with his controversial 9-9-9 plan. joining us peter morici professor at the university of maryland school of business, and josh boak from "politico." gentlemen, welcome to you both. josh i will start with you. you wrote an article this week warning that the housing crisis raises the stakes for the bill. >> very much so. most local governments depend on property taxes to get their revenues, and property tax

collection is goining to be down 3.7% this year and expects to slide continually in 2012 and 2013. president obama wants the federal government to fill in that gap, but the senate said no. >> he did tweak his bill that it would focus on fire fighters, police officers, and teachers. he cannot even get that part of the bill passed. not enough for the 60 votes he needed. >> quite simple, the republicans are not going to raise taxes. th will d do it a piece at a time. we neeeed this segment o of the jobs bill. this s segment of thbse bs bill, we need a little bit of texas. spending is up 25%. it did no work. is not going to work. the house and senate are not going to go along.

>> i know wone economist who says there is one plannedo raise sales taxes and is a good idea. peter morici, herman cain's 9-9- 9 would be good for the economy. do said this plan would in close administrative costs for raing the money needed to finance the government, better promote growth. what is there about a tax that increases sales tax for people wh are the least able to afford it? >> it t cuts their income tax to virtually zero. 42% of the population do not pay a federal income tax. you basical are collectg your taxes in a differentt way and it is muchheaper to collect. the incentive and that the ceo

of general electric h to go tax shopping to where he can go e lowest taxes. i have good news for you. with this proposal, ge would have to pay 9% of its profit inn taxes. >> michele bachmann says >> businessss news from t the capital region. -- michele bachmann says 9-9-9 isss 666 in the details. many of the wealthy would pay 9% of their taxes. does it make any sense? >> does it make political sense? this is about as close to reality as a "jersey shore." right now, we have congress deadlock whether to cut the corporate tax rate to 25%, let

alone nine%. no one can get it toappen. >> you do not think he is doing well in the polls b because of a. >> he is doing well in the polls. if he re elected on this platfoform there would be a wholesale tax reform. ronald reagan got dramatic changes in the tax ststructure and eliminating a lot of the deductions in exchange for lower more consolidated rates. if he gets a mandate, it is going to happen. >> josh, you talk to a lot of our economists. who gets the highest street credibility among people for having plants that make sense? >> it is interesting. yesterday, a previous adviser to the george bush gave a wonderful speech and talk exactly about the immediate importance of reducing the corporate tax rate to 25%, a position that mitt

romney has ten, but he has gained aot of credibility. president obama's jobs council has sa you need to do this to stimulate the economy. it is moving to decision makers in this country. >> peter your take on mitt romney? >> he has the most integrated economic platform that covers the most bases. no other republican has that. >> we got mixed retail numbers this week. what is your take? >> they came out for september and they were actually pretty good which caused an lot of analysts to say we might not be headed back into a recession. it depended heavily on automobile sales. if you were to look at what the u.s. is importing right now in anticipation of holiday shopping, holiday shopping does not look too good. >> every time we get a good

report with decent numbers everyone says maybe we are not headed into a double-dip recession, but then the next week we get some bad news. >> we are probably going to get some bad news. this happens over and over again. there is no reason to believe that it is changed. of the economy is still facing a lot of vulnerability. you alluded to the property taxes. foreclosures are going to start going up. the housing market remains depressed. existing home sales were down. my feeling is we are still facing a tough slog. >> think you for joining us. you will want to h hear the number

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if you do not work for yourself, our number of the wheat is for you. 59% of employees say they would not change a thing about their boss. 32% think their bosss could change for the better. it was nice of you for joining us this week, and we hope you state to end next week. there are options for how you connect t to "washingtgton besusiness rereport."

twitter, facebook, and you can go to wjla.com. we hope to see you next sunday. thank you for joining us. i'm rebecca cooper. captione look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ ♪ that's why right here in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest

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