Soros faces Congress over hedge funds' role in meltdown

Abstract: Five of the world's richest hedge fund managers, including George Soros, the man who the broke the Bank of England, have been called to account by US politicians for their role in the collapse of the global financial system. The quintet – including John Paulson, who made $3.7bn (£2.49bn) last year betting against the US mortgage market – were grilled over their roles in buying unregulated derivatives products, which some politicians believe contributed to the financial markets' meltdown. The men, who each earned more than $1bn each last year, were called to account by Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, who chairs the House committee on oversight and government reform.

Mr Soros, best known for his $1bn bet against sterling in 1992 which forced Britain to leave the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, argued for measured regulation of hedge funds, predicting 50pc-75pc of the industry will disappear in the coming months in any case as a result of the financial crisis. Mr Soros stopped short of placing total blame for the crisis on hedge funds, but he admitted that the funds had been an integral part of the financial market bubble which had now burst. He added: "A deep recession is now inevitable and the possibility of a depression cannot be ruled out." However, he Mr Soros said blame for the crisis should also be borne by US financial regulators and the Federal Reserve for allowing the bubble to occur and called for regulation of financial engineering to be a high priority.

No tinfoil needed. The problem was already there. The whole sector was a house of cards, all it needed to precipitate a panic and collapse rather than slow dismantling was a breeze, which the windbag Schumer happily provided.

The timing of the panic was no accident. DUH1 had been annointed by the DBM, and all the pieces were in place. With no reasonable chance for the real story about who deserved the blame getting past the choirbox or various Conservative sites, which unfortunately became echo chambers unable to get the message out to anyone who was not willing to listen, marginalized by the orgy of Obamaworship around the dial on the MSM, cell phones, and the dark side of the internet (darkness referring to evil, not the color of the candidate).

That McCain had co-sponsored a bill which might have provided enough oversight to slow or head off the meltdown and that that bill had been killed by some of the selfsame Democrats in committee who got loans at sweetheart rates from Countrywide all went unreported, though the Countrywide scandal (if you can call it that) was reported with the intensity of officially changing the color of the toilet paper in the Rayburn Building.The primary problem, even worse than the fact that pre-Palin the Conservative message was homeopathic in its dilution, was the lack of ability to reach mom-and-pop America watching the DBM for the snooze, weather, and spurts every night between the commercials and human interest stories that pass for relevant news.

Unless and until the ability to spread the word to the unbelievers out there improves significantly, the Conservative agendae, Conservatives, and increasingly, the Republican Pary (which has been morphing away from the aforementioned as hard as the voters will accept--or not) will all be doomed to be minority positions in all but retrospect.

Little consolation for the awakened voter who will rue with "I could have had a tax cut!", today, and in incredibly amnesiac fashion vote for the same pack of idiots running the show in 4 years.

At the bottom of the financisl markets, ultimately, is faith. Faith in a bull market creates a bull market, faith in a crash, and the market does. Schumer intentionally rocked that faith, with predictable results, which had a predictable influence on the election. Shorting only bolstered that impression. After all McCain had been repeatedly equated an the third coming of 'W', and it was all "Bush's Fault".

If the campaign was a football game, the game-changing play came when the alleged "looming meltdown" was announced. The stench of this announcement was so strong that it still staggers my mind that nobody stopped and said, "Wait a minute.... You, Henry Paulson, just discovered today that there is an imminent economic meltdown so catastrophic that Congress needs to pass a $700 billion bailout bill by freaking Monday??"

It made no sense on the face of it, and I figured it had to be a setup. Then when Obama curiously and suddenly took a low profile I knew it was a setup. It was the Democrats' "October surprise", launched a little early and no doubt set up by George Soros. I have yet to hear anybody call it what it was.

Of course, McCain played right into the scheme by "suspending" his campaign and racing back to Washington on his white horse to take charge and fix everything and.... Well, who knows what he thought he could do. It doesn't matter, because he ultimately contributed nothing to the process and only made himself look impotent.

All the while, Obama kept his distance as he quietly sat and watched and chuckled. McCain ended up accomplishing nothing and getting almost no TV face time and after a day or two he bailed out (no pun) of Washington and made his way back to the debate he wasn't supposed to make... You know - - the debate Obama wouldn't agree to postpone? And Congress did what it did without any help from McCain.

Ball game.

1960s "Bring it all down, man."

Mr Soros, best known for his $1bn bet against sterling in 1992 which forced Britain to leave the European Exchange Rate Mechanism . . . .

"He brought it all down, man!"

George Soros: the Rat Party's (formerly the traditional, patriotic Democratic Party) hero!

The Rat Party's leaders and stalwarts are 1960s New Left and anarchist street rabble and their ideological issue.

moron.org, mediasmatters, dailycuss -- they are all dependent upon Soros.

"A month or so ago, investors were almost in disbelief, now they just don't want to listen to explanations or arguments, they want their money back."

Among "they" are Red China and Muslim (Islamist?) countries.

Wasn't the original purpose of the $700+++ billion to start giving their money back? And now that's changed, I believe. The $700+++ billion is now diverted to heavy contributors to political parties.

Gee, I'd hate to be the ones who sold the "toxic" paper to maniacal Muslims and Communists.

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