Forbes: Occupy Wall Street should target the Fed

Occupy Wall Streets sets itself up in opposition to the "one percent" of Americans who have enjoyed a massive share of the nation's gains lately. And few embody that one percent as well as Steve Forbes. So we asked the scion of the Forbes magazine dynasty and former Republican presidential candidate what he thought about the movement.

His response: Wall Street is the wrong target.

"They should be demonstrating against the federal reserve and the halls of power in Washington," Forbes said. "We wouldn't have had the financial crisis if not for the Fed printing too much money. And we wouldn't have had the housing bubble as bad as it was if not for Fannie and Freddie."

In fact, some of the protesters have indeed criticized the Federal Reserve, though their complaint has been that the Fed helped bail out Wall Street banks, not that it printed too much money.

Forbes has backed the presidential campaign of Texas governor Rick Perry, and helped him devise his recently released tax plan, which would allow Americans to choose between a flat 20 percent rate and their current rate.

Perry said over the summer that it would be "almost treasonous" for the Fed to print more money between now and the election.