‘Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison Slams Anti-Business Regulations [Video]

Pawn Stars star Rick Harrison maintains that government regulators need to stop making it difficult for American businesses to operate otherwise the economy will never improve.

Rick Harrison is co-owner of the World Famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop and the guy who does most of the bargaining that is shown at the Las Vegas venue on the hit History Channel reality television series. Harrison is assisted by Big Hoss, the Old Man, and Chumlee.

In an April FNC interview, Harrison expressed frustration and said he was fed up with Obama administration regulations that prevents entrepreneurs from building a business, hiring staff, and having a chance at the American dream.

Harrison reaffirmed his views about government overregulation on CNBC on Friday. The interview began with a discussion of buying and selling gold but segued to commentary about the Federal Reserve policy of printing more currency, i.e. so-called cheap money. This kind of policy traditionally has lead to inflation.

Harrison noted that the supply of the “physical metal” can’t keep up with demand at the moment. He deemed long-term investment in gold as a “good insurance policy” because “governments have a tendency to screw up currencies.”

As far as the Fed’s cheap money policy, Harrison commented that “Basically, you have the government regulating and making business more difficult, and you have the Fed trying to compensate for it. It can’t go on forever that way. I have a problem when we have seven percent of GDP based off borrowed and printed money.”

Added Harrison: “Eventually we have to make a good business environment in this country so that we can start tapering, because if we keep on printing [money] forever, things will get bad. It’s a matter of math.”

Harrison continued: “I think that we should slowly taper, but the Fed is not going to be able to taper unless we have some sort of less regulations and make it easier for business to actually do business, and we can start tapering. If you make it difficult to do business, there’s not going to be any business. …”

He did allow that the economy seems to be getting somewhat better. Harrison noted, however, that he runs a pawnshop that is a lot different than the typical one in your city in that he averages 4,000 customers a day who are mostly tourists buying Pawn Stars swag. He also explained that there is a misconception that pawn shops do well in a bad economy; on the contrary, when the economy is down, there are no buyers for pawned items according to Harrison.

Do you agree or disagree with Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars that the government red tape stands in the way of small business formation or expansion?