Soros, OMG!

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

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Soros works for the export of democracy.

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Soros works for the export of democracy.

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Soros develops philanthropic activities with money he has made through currency speculation.

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Soros develops philanthropic activities with money he has made through currency speculation.

See what I did there?

Some finance-speculation trivia:

In 1997, as economies were crashing across Asia, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad attributed the crisis to currency traders, in particular George Soros, and called for such trading to be banned. (read more)

As early as spring 1992, Mr Soros had decided that the pound would have to be devalued because it had been pushed into the ERM at too high a rate. ... [The Quantum Fund] did very well out of the collapse of fixed exchange rates in the 1970s and the deregulation of global capital markets. By 1980, Soros himself was worth more than £16.5 million and his fund £67 million. The stage was set for his intervention in the ERM. (read more)

"[N]obody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis, but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fun and profit. These new actors on the scene do not yet have a standard name; my proposed term is 'Soroi.'" (from "The accidental theorist: and other dispatches from the dismal science." - by Paul Krugman).

The panel [of the highest court in France], the Cour de Cassation, upheld the conviction of Soros, 75, an American citizen, for buying and selling Société Générale shares in 1988 after receiving information about a planned corporate raid on the bank. (read more)

Some nation-building trivia:

Former Georgian Foreign Minister Salomé Zourabichvili wrote that institutions like the Soros Foundation were the cradle of democratisation and that all the NGOs which gravitated around the Soros Foundation undeniably carried the revolution. She opines that after the revolution the Soros Foundation and the NGOs were integrated into power. (from Salomé Zourabichvili, Herodote (magazine of the French Institute for Geopolitics), April 2008).

"Soros carried out his will in Ukraine and Georgia by using these NGOs...Last year Russia passed a special law prohibiting NGOs from taking money from foreigners. I think this should be banned in Turkey as well." (read more)

On the world order:

"China has risen very rapidly by looking out for its own interests ... They have now got to accept responsibility for world order and the interests of other people as well." ... "Today China has not only a more vigorous economy, but actually a better functioning government than the United States". (read more)

Meanwhile, he has embarked on a myriad of philanthropic activities, and has supported dissidents all across Eastern Europe, including the Solidarity movement in Poland. In Zimbabwe, he's behind the foundation of the Movement for Democratic Change which is the main opponent to Mugabe. He has funded worldwide efforts to promote drug policy reform. And has pushed back against anti-Semitism.

Quite a controversial figure, by any means, eh?

Comments

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

[The Quantum Fund] did very well out of the collapse of fixed exchange rates in the 1970s and the deregulation of global capital markets. By 1980, Soros himself was worth more than £16.5 million and his fund £67 million.

And yet, he now says he "gets" the complaints of the OWS?

O_O

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

True, but you don't have to be a vegetarian to "get" (ie understand) vegetarianism.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

When you're a thief and you say you simultaneously "get" the 8th Commandment, you'll have to forgive me for ROFLing at that.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Sort of….it's more that when you see a gap in the rules which govern what countries are doing in an international money market, and you exploit that gap to your own advantage, and then you act all Robin Hood-like with the proceeds rather than doing the serfs down properly like the Sheriff of Notts or good 'ol cruel ol' Prince John, you get hit with accusations of hypocrisy.

If not Soros, than someone worse. Soros is doing something with his ill-gotten gains, apart from simply feathering his own nest and disappearing into well-protected security. And those gaps in the international money market would have been exploited whatever.

But what I really want to know is where can we find the evidence that George is being advised by alien mentors who enable him to always be one step ahead of the rest of us. Evidently they are from an opposing alien group to those helping out Rupert Murdoch, and we're just all puppets in their vast game. But we need either real or fabricated evidence to get the villagers all fired up with their torches and pitchforks and silver ammunition. Else we'll never have the courage to burn the inhuman monsters to death.

And besides, aren't both Murdoch and Soros Jewish Catholics, amirite?

Erratum

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

"Then" rather than "than".

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

He may be trying to redeem himself by using the money he earned in an unfair way for charity, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be called out on what he did, and that this stain will somehow go away. Moreover, a large part of his effort has gone to pushing his agenda (whatever it may be) in foreign lands, as opposed to doing something that Bill Gates is doing now for example. If we have to put Soros' role in per cents, I'd say 50% good and 50% bad. And that's not good enough, I think you'll agree.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Very generally speaking, doing bad in the name of good is never a good idea. Road to Iraq paved with good intentions and all that.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

How about doing good in the name of bad?

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

People generally only go the other way.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

I like Buffett better.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Just need to add BUTBUTBUTBUT SOOOOROOOOOSSSSS ::haironfire:: before anyone else does.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Icon win. Would've been even more awesome if it was an animated gif.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

And much win was had.

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

I think we can reach a bipartisan consensus that that is a wicked cool userpic.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I wish userpics could be dailyquoted.

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

I saw George Soros at Cato once. You know he donates a bit to them? And yes, some of the interns there were unhappy he made his money ruining economies with his currency speculation.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

A lot like Andrew Carnegie.

[surferelf.livejournal.com]

I think there should be some kind of corollary to the fake version of Godwin's Law for invoking Soros or the Koch Bros. (I'm releasing my next EP under the name Soros & the Koch Bros., BTW).

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

You totally should invent a Surferelf's Law about Soros and the Kochs!

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

We need far more variations of Godwin's Law now that so many people have been hit by it and are looking for new demonizing analogies to make.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Except we have literal proof of Koch funding former biased climate studies, tea party etc. If we have specific proof of Soros doing more than just giving money to candidate elections, honestly it is fine for it to be part of the conversation. Probably should be.

[surferelf.livejournal.com]

Soros and the Kochs do very much the same thing. I think the Kochs are better at it because the end result of their efforts makes them more powerful, while Soros squanders a lot of his effort on stuff like helping ex-cons rejoin society.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Do you actually have proof they "do very much the same thing" or are you just assuming it due to the standard distributed middle fallacy?

[surferelf.livejournal.com]

Gosh, LJ is getting very fallic lately. Thanks, Gunslinger!

All of my knowledge about the Kochs comes from the August 2010 New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all) and left-leaning news outlets like Democracy Now and Talking Points Memo. Sources that are mostly biased against the actions of the Kochs. Even so, I haven't heard anything beyond they create and/or fund organizations that promote their political ideology, they fund research that they're interested in, and they financially support political candidates and movements that align with their own beliefs. Soros does all of this, too.

I'm not saying the Kochs aren't powerful, but they're not the WASP version of the Elders of Zion.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

LJ is getting very fallic lately.

I luld!

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I didn't say they were, I'm just wondering if you have actual information of Soros promoting liberal-ism in the US in such a way.