Posted on 08/03/2003 2:43:02 AM PDT by DPB101
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:40:30 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
LONDON
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Group MENATEP Appoints International Advisory Board
Stuart Eizenstat, Robert Rubin's #2 at Treasury, goes to work for Mikhail 'Misha' Khordorkovsky
An Inconvenient History - The Russian Money Laundering Pyramid
Uncle Bill's list of lists
BORIS BEREZOVSKY - Businessman or Gangster ?
Forbes Magazine
In Defence of Vladimir Gusinsky
Support from the Marxist Party
Chasing out those who looted Russia in the 1990s is a good thing. Can't have a few dozen people control 70% of the country when everyone knows they got it by bribery, theft, extortion, fraud, murder and capital from criminals (Marc Rich for one) outside Russia. There will be civil unrest sooner or later over it. Now if Putin starts nationalizing companies, that is another matter. The only people I have heard suggest that are those in the pay of the oligarchs.
This does affect American greatly you know. The oligarchs are socialists. Khodorkovsky's mentor is George Soros and Khodorksky is pushing the same social engineering Soros is. Even worse because Khodorkovsky has more money than Soros.. In addition, these oligarchs are tied right into the DNC. Conservatives should be rooting for Putin on this.
Isn't it curious that they're painting Putin as being heavy handed and vindictive, but they are speaking against him quite freely in public - and quite vociferously.
It bothers me that so few Americans study Soros and understand his agenda. You've provided some excellent links and I wish more people would read them.
There are persistent rumors that Putin will not run again, but at this point I'm not in that camp. Putin had a seemingly endless array of problems to solve when he came into office, and on balance I think he's done a fine job.
The Dems have tapped this endless money supply and will continue to do so until public attention or the law forces them to stop. I'm not holding my breath.
Catch how Khodorkovsky is funding a massive "peace" protest to undermine Putin? Where have we seen that tactic used before?
AFPtoday:
MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors may soon open a criminal case against the Sibneft oil company and its chief shareholder, billionaire Roman Abramovich, Interfax reported Friday, citing informed sources.Former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat now works for Menatep. He used to work for Robert Rubin and Clinton. Among other people.The news agency said that the Russian general prosecutor's office had collected material on the activities of Sibneft and several commercial ventures related to Abramovich in preparation for a criminal probe. Contacted by AFP, neither the oil company nor the general prosecutor's office would confirm the report. But financial analysts expressed concern that if the information proved true, it could mark a widening of prosecutors' month-long campaign against Russia's flagship oil company Yukos - which is due to merge this year with Sibneft.
MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors are probing a bank linked to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who has strongly criticized the judicial campaign against flagship oil company Yukos, the Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday.
In the course of their inquiries into the Yukos holding company Menatep, investigators on Tuesday questioned the head of its brokerage arm, Trust, the business daily said. The prosecution officials "asked for information about transanctions on the accounts of some of our clients," Trust spokesman Oleg Ivanov told Kommersant.
Stuart Eizenstat
Mr. Eizenstat heads Covington and Burling's international practice. His work focuses on international business transactions and regulations and on resolving international trade problems.
He has held a number of key positions during his decade and a half of government service. From 1977 to 1981 he was President Jimmy Carter's Chief Domestic Policy Adviser and Executive Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff. In addition to Deputy Treasury Secretary, Mr. Eizenstat has served as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs and Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. He was Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996. He received the highest departmental awards for his service from Secretary of State Christopher, Secretary of State Albright, and Secretary of the Treasury Summers and from the German government. Mr. Eizenstat also has practiced law for twenty years in Atlanta and Washington.
During the Clinton Administration, he had a prominent role in the development of key international initiatives, including the negotiation of the Transatlantic Agenda with the European Union (establishing the framework for the United States' relationship with the EU); the development of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue among European and U.S. CEOs; the negotiation of agreements with the European Union regarding the Helms-Burton Act and the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act; the negotiation of the Japan Port Agreement; and the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. He acted as the Administration's lead official in anti-money laundering initiatives.
Mr. Eizenstat also was the Administration's leader on Holocaust-era issues as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State, and successfully helped negotiate major agreements with the Swiss, Germans, Austrians, and French. The renewal of interest in World War II-era issues owes much to his efforts. He has published a book on these events, Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor and the Unfinished Business of World War II, which has been favorably received in publications like the New York Times, Business Week, and Publisher's Weekly. It has been translated into German and French.
He received his J.D. from Harvard University in 1967. He served as a law clerk for the Honorable Newell Edenfield of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Prior to entering law school, he earned an A.B., cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Summary: Anti-capitalist George Soros should stop trying to blame Capitalism for his investing errors
[www.CapitalismMagazine.com] I've just recently finished George Soros' new book, Open Society : The Crisis of Global Capitalism Reconsidered. In this 245-page mini-treatise, the renowned currency speculator and billionaire "guru" calls for more government regulation and bureaucratic management as a solution for the global financial meltdown that erupted in Asia in 1997 and still -- according to George Soros -- threatens the world today.
What makes Mr. Soros's prescriptions so ironic is that Soros condemns the economic paradigm and financial structure that allowed him to accumulate such enormous wealth in the first place. Indeed, it almost seems that the "man who broke the Bank of England", as the British press once called him, has begun to wax philosophical on what he describes as the moral shortcomings of capitalism.
Does Mr. Soros have an ulterior motive?
His moralistic criticisms of free markets do appear a bit disingenuous since they arrived only after he lost nearly two billion dollars through bad investments in Russia. I suppose one of the psychological quirks of being a self-made billionaire is beginning to believe in one's own infallibility. And since the great George Soros cannot be wrong, then the market must be wrong.
Perhaps Mr. Soros believed Russia was too big to fail and multilateral organizations like the IMF and World Bank would be there to bail out his bad decision making.
It appears that Mr. Soros no longer understands that capitalism entails both profit and loss, and the fact is that both of these components are vitally important to convey information to market participants.
Mr. Soros's bad call on Russian debt conveys the message that his analysis of risk was flawed - nothing more and nothing less. As a result, the value of his hedge fund fell almost as precipitously as the Russian ruble. And, as Soros began to feel the asphyxiating squeeze of margin calls, he cried fowl and his metamorphosis into a disgruntled anti-capitalist began in earnest.
The truth of the matter is that the financial tumult that shook Asia, Russia and to a lesser extent Latin America was not proof that global capitalism doesn't work, as Mr. Soros purports. Instead, the Asian contagion illustrated to the world that global capitalism works even more efficiently than had previously been thought, largely because of technological innovations in communications and finance.
The financial crisis can ultimately be blamed on a number of mundane factors such as government controlled money, banking, and finance, not the entire system of free-market capitalism or the post-war liberal economic world order.
As long as nitwits continue to riot at WTO meetings or emerging market currencies fall in the face of devaluating pressure, there will be an alarmist-du-jour pointing a finger and offering a solution. For the moment, Mr. Soros is an alarmist whose arguments don't hold any water. Hopefully, Mr. Soros's wealth won't afford his ideas the credence they don't deserve.
Curse you 185! It is 1:30 AM and now I'll be up until dawn searching the history of Scythians. Hmmm....they sure liked gold, didn't they?
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