Posted on 11/28/2004 5:30:54 AM PST by shubi
Time magazine has characterized financier George Soros as a "modern-day Robin Hood," who robs from the rich to give to the poor countries of eastern Europe and Russia. It claimed that Soros makes huge financial gains by speculating against western central banks, in order to use his profits to help the emerging post-communist economies of eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, to assist them to create what he calls an "Open Society." The Time statement is entirely accurate in the first part, and entirely inaccurate in the second. He robs from rich western countries, and uses his profits to rob even more savagely from the East, under the cloak of "philanthropy." His goal is to loot wherever and however he can. Soros has been called the master manipulator of "hit-and-run capitalism."
As we shall see, what Soros means by "open," is a society that allows him and his financial predator friends to loot the resources and precious assets of former Warsaw Pact economies. By bringing people like Jeffrey Sachs or Sweden's Anders Aslund and their economic shock therapy into these economies, Soros lays the groundwork for buying up the assets of whole regions of the world at dirt-cheap prices.
The man who broke the Bank of England?
An examination of Soros's secretive financial network is vital to understand the true dimension of the "Soros problem" in eastern Europe and other nations.
(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...
But I don't agree with his characterization of the problem. It is more serious than Dr. Sowell's characterization. We are running a pair of large deficits -- and neither would be a big problem if they were just temporary blips.
But the problem is that they are the continuation of 40 years of red ink, that turned us from the world's greatest creditor nation to the world's biggest debtor, paying increasing portions of our annual income for interest payments.
Even that would not be so bad if we were using the debt to buy productive assets. That could even be beneficial; if the production from the assets is enough to cover the interest and the asset is at least holding its value, then I have no problem with us buying it. But we haven't done that: we have created instead entitlements that will be increasingly burdensome as the baby boomers retire.
Even worse, we are out borrowing the money from foreign countries. That's really the way to get yourself into trouble. If our economy was big enough to absorb paying all of the interest and creating the new debt, then while it goes against my conservative instincts, the debt would be acceptable. But we are out borrowing from the lenders of last resort, the central banks of foreign nations. The reason that they are lending is not to give a helping hand, but in their own self-interest, to keep the dollar strong so that their export programs stay strong.
We could at least cut our interest expenses by disintermediating the foreign central banks by borrowing in the local currencies where possible. We could be getting yen a lot cheaper directly from the Japanese public.
But far better would be to take a whacking big axe to the budget. We have the congress with good majorities and we have the presidency -- let's do ourselves and our posterity a big favor and trim the fat from government.
"A 1% or less transaction tax on investment transactions would be far better than the horrors of the current system."
If 1% or less would stop you from making an investment, perhaps that would save you a lot of losses. ;-)
Wouldn't you pay a little bit to get rid of IRS?
-----------------------
In this instance, no. As an example, let's say I have $100,000 in my IRA, invested in a stock. Under this proposal, I would pay $10.99 to Ameritrade to trade the stock, and $1000 to Uncle Sam.
Let's get real. I wouldn't want to pay even $100, or $10, or $1 to Uncle Sam to trade. It then amounts to a wealth tax, not a sales tax.
Unconscionable. Unthinkable. I would move to Canada or Mexico or France first. And so would a LOT of other investors.
Don't take it personally, but that idea REALLY needs to be re-examined.
Are you so anti-Soros that you are willing to overlook the massive fraud committed in the election?
Perhaps you are right, the transaction tax would be better for transport etc. But sales tax would work just fine on sales of stock, so the transaction tax would not be necessary. I envision the transaction tax picking up anything the sales tax doesn't catch.
"Soros associates with anyone/anything that he thinks can/will enable him to gain leverage and "sell" his ideas."
We all agree that Mr. Soros is not a nice man. From a psychological viewpoint he comes across as a megalomaniac who thrives on the fawning adulation of those whose souls he's bought. So now he hobnobs with the clinton trash and gets his picture on the cover of Rolling Stone. So he engineers a coup in some remote corner of the XSSR, and throws millions at the defeat of President Bush.
It's important to follow the money...how much, for example, did Soros donate to the clinton library? I heard that because it is a foundation, clinton will be able to spend that money any way he wants to, no strings attached, a scarey thought.
But what is George Soros really after? Is he simply an eccentric billionaire amusing himself by dabbling in radical causes--which is bad enough, or is he joining forces with other left wing king makers to accomplish a unified objective, one as potentially dangerous as all his billions can bring?
Soros is pulling off his "Velvet Revolution" tactics in the Ukraine - just as he has done in Georgia and Yugoslavia. Is YOUR dislike for Putin so strong that you will let George Soros perfect his techniques for use here at some point?
You never answered my quesion. Which is more important, maintaining the sanctity of valid elections or defeating Soros? I've gotta go with the former.
Sounds like a little ostrich head in the sand type of thinking to me. Soros must be monitored by the FBI.
Nah. INS is better. Soros could be easilly stripped of U.S. citizenship because he belonged to Nazi organisation in Hungary during WWII. Arow Cross was responsible for death of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews.
bttp
"bttp"
I am pretty new. What does this mean?
Or is it a Bronx cheer? ;-)
bring to the top
Judging by the most recent Presidential election, it sounds like Soros robs from the rich, then uses the money to try to manipulate elections.
Soros should be arrested and charged with sedition.
George Soros - economic terrorist?
Osama Bin Laden's strategy is to bankrupt the U.S. Soros could be one of his operatives.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.