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George Soros On The Dollar, China, Goldman Sachs, And The Economy
The billionaire Hungarian provides his views on a variety of economic topics in this interview with the Financial Times.
Below is a full transcript of the interview.
h/t Joe
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This is a must read. Period.
Boring. Period.
I am Chumbawamba.
I love how he talks about the American consumer being f*cked. It's about time Americans stopped buying into the idea that consumption of crap, mostly made in another country, is good for your personal economic situation.
Word to that, not to mention he fails to acknowledge that dollar weakness and zirp is really self inflicted and by that same measure can be reversed with policy action.
Consumption is dying here, only with massive incentives are consumers hitting the stores and dealerships. Ignoring rising default rates, credit contractions and mispriced assets is poor form.
And on China he ignores the fact that China is remarkably small. If their growth were to continue at 7% annually for the next 10 years they would only occupy 25% of the US GDP, but then you have to assume that they would want that. It would force them to be more transparent, it would put the reminbi in a place where demand would begin to rise and hurt the govt. China has plans for increasing currency transparency and availability for 2020, but that's a long way off and a lot can happen between then and now.
Here's another view:
“Just as the Twin Towers collapsed from the top down, so too will the US economy … when the giant firms fall, they’ll crush the man on the street.” He has also predicted tax revolts.
http://www.investmentpostcards.com/2009/10/26/gerald-celente-there-is-no...
“political atheist”
LOL! Which is why this dufus only shows up on Fox-affiliated programs.
Obamageddon. What a joke. One can certainly put a lot at the feet of the current administration but this nut is completely ignoring what went on the 8 years prior.
Celente's not a neo-con. He has criticized Bush and the republicans harshly as well. He says that it's a "two headed one party system".
Hey Soros,
Fuck you and your new world order.
Dear China,
Everyone wants to play nice with you and let you in the fiat money club. You may think to yourself "we are smart, we invented paper money and had the first fiat crash on record, we can hang with the big (yellow:) dogs."
You will be enslaved like everyone else who wanted to play. It may take 10-20 years, but the ending is already written if you decide to ante up.
Sincerely,
An American in Chains (Spanish Inquisition)
And Soros has spoken, as you were.
Soros knows what's coming and he's playing a fecking game with it.He was the King maker and will be a great little Fascist.
Well said.
"MARK IT ZERO, DUDE"
Who's Soros kidding? This guy's money put another Goldman Sachs lackey into the President's office, and he's talking up the same dollar-busting promotion that Bernanke has been implementing the last few months.
People seem to forget that Soros is a Warren Buffet-style vulture; the only difference is that Soros picks the scraps from entire national economies rather than individual heirs. If either of them give any interviews at all, it's not to promote responsible financial management, but to use their reputation to manipulate the markets the same way the banksters do.
Just because these guys tell you what you want to hear doesn't make them your friends.
+100
Ding!
F*** yes, #110539.
"MARK IT ZERO, DUDE"
He is licking his chops. This is his wet dream. The economy in the world going bankrupt. And you know he is short the dollar big.
This fuc@ing commie bastard is going to be in for a big surprise. Cultural Revolution II coming soon to a theatre near you.
PS. I had the "pleasure" of listining to this commie a few years back, in Moscow. Oh boy, and I had thought I had seen the worst of communism.
I dont know how Americans can sit idly by and watch the destruction of their country as they are being leapfrogged by all these up and coming countries (BRICs) who had relied on our insatiable buying binge to build up their empires. Honestly, if I was a high ranking official in the US military, I would have have tried to get support to stage some coup in order to prevent this destruction from getting out of hand. I am sure some generals out there in the army are in disbelief as their own leaders are basically handing over the country's status as the most powerful country in the world. To make matters worse, they are watching their own currency, which they are paid in, plummet to the depths of the abyss. Good thing is that there aint much Jews as high ranking military officials because I doubt Bernanke or Geithner can not pursued them that another 2 trillion dollars of debt will help save the world from the pending warfare.
I don't see how the Chinese are in the catbird seat. Sure, a few million of them got rich in the recent boom, and the Government holds a lot of U.S. debt, but, the majority of their 1.3 billion people are still poor as shit and won't be able to replace the loss of demand caused by the U.S. recession.
Exactly Brett, can you say, Agrarian Society.
tj3
Their middle class is still roughly the size of the entire US population. Same with India.
Where would you rather do business? Go big, or go home.
You may not have to wait too long for your wish to come true. Since we are fast becoming a banana republic, military coups will become part of our political system.
Americans sit idly by because thanks to our educational system they haven't a clue what to think. The same educational system, by the way, that fostered this commentary of yours.
I live in the US. In response to your remarks, several points:
1) When you must rely on outside buyers to purchase your debt, or expose your nation to possible currency crises, you are not powerful, you are weak. Eventually, the choice will be guns or butter. The government will have to obliterate discretionary spending and this means the military.
2) To be fair the creation of debt, until the latest FED QE actions, was mainly created by our elected officials and not the FED or Treasury. Really Treasury is much like a clearing house for the nation. With Hank and Tim, Treasury just echoed everything the FED said, or pressured legislators to enact preferential banking legislation like TARP. Even Ben is calling for a reduction in deficits.
3) Why would the military stage a coup when they are the main beneficiaries of Obama's budget. Look who gets most of the money: Military and Medicare (+medicaid). There is no mention in cutting the military budget, it actually went up for FY2010. The focus is on a health care bill which is really a referendum on Medicare part D (amongst other things). War is our chief export, at tax payer expense. A squandering of the nations wealth.
4) Last point, many votes for Obama were for change away from the problems you mentioned. Away from the Bush era of uncontrolled spending. Then Obama releases his budget with no balanced budget in sight for 10 years. Americans voted for change and got the shaft.
Good article.
It was all a bunch of bullshit, but a necessary read nonetheless.
We've got to get everyone on the bandwagon of responsibility. I know most people are so laden with debt and strapped for cash flow that they can't spend. But what happens when things actually do get a little better. Are we going to collectively exercise the same prudence we are forced into now, or will things return to the way they were - blindly financing any whimsical purchase with a mountain of unnecessary debt?
Our government won't do a damn thing to help us, nor could they if they wanted to.
It's time to kick the habit. Time to erase our drug dealer's number from our cellphones. Maybe we need rehab.
"It was all a bunch of bullshit, but a necessary read nonetheless."
that was either very deep, or very shallow, but a necessary read nonetheless
His logic on why to regulate bonuses at GS and other TBTF firms is worded perfectly. I've never read it like that before and couldn't agree more.
So the number 1 enemy of free market American capitalism has spoken......but isn't this what he wanted.....?
Sure it is. A dimished America is GOOD for the Soros' of the world.
What a douche bag.
Honestly, I see nothing new except for his speculations about SDRs. It's nice to hear Mr. Soros' opinions. If anything, his musings can give us an idea of what could go wrong. Maybe we should think about what wasn't said and worry about that.
Thanks for link
We don't need more regulation. We need to break up the banking giants. Let them compete with themselves and all teh rest of teh banks, rather than propping up a few and destroying the value of the dollar in the process with artificially low interest rates.
Break them up! So no one bank is large enough to destroy the system. Let the screwed up ones die.
Rich
Your wrong George, it's not China.
On another note is the above sentence,(and this one) ; grammatically correct?
okay okay, because pretty much everything that CAN be said HAS been said in zh discussions, from day-trading sky-is-the-limit chest-thumping to dow 3500 short-side speculation and every sensible possibility in between, can we stop requiring that every commentator or market participant needs to say something completely original every time he or she lends an opinion? everything has been said, we've heard every permutation possible.
okay soros has not offered any vastly different interpretations here, but he is worth heeding. the guy has weathered many cycles.
and this loony shit about soros personally installing a goldman lackey...get over yourself.
thank you for the pdf, it is always better to read than to hear soros. cheers zero hedge, love you all
"The stock market is pretty real"
"We had a good run because an awful lot of money is on the sidelines and it earns no money at all and gradually its being sucked in to the market"
George, no comment on how the actions by the FED and Treasury, in concert with big banks and GSEs, can influence the market? He did say he was retired.
Money on the sidelines? In what form. For what priority? Perhaps deleveraging first before buying equities? Most would say, the players in this rally are limited to targeted groups, big banks (BHC) and fund managers, who invest with little or now risk, or must invest to follow the heard.
George has no confidence in the USD, or the growth in an economy based on 70% consumerism and massive deleveraging. Without the massive trade imbalances to mitigate debt servicing, the US will trend weaker for the foreseeable future.
With a little bit of research and polish George would be a decent advisor to Obama. I wonder how Larry Summers remarks line up with George's?
My advice to Larry: RESIST THE URGE TO BE STUPID!!
He underestimates china.. they're going to gain more and more and USA will lose more and more. The whole economic monetary shuffle game is just a function of military strength or resource consumption, and USA is nearing hte end of its ability to debt its way around
very telling that this Globalists(advocate of the NWO) is opposed to the sleeping giant China engaging in bilateral relations with countries ...this? would be a clear move away from collectivism ... the globalists need China to buy into their world view ... should China move to a new model ... where the entire planet begins SOVEREIGN type activities vs collectivism all the work during the life times of the Global Elites will fade into the past .....
wow ...
my two cents ... very telling that this Globaists is opposed to the China engaging in bilateral relations with countries ...this would be a clear move away from collectivism ... the globalists need China to buy into their world view ... should China choose a new model ... where the entire planet begins SOVEREIGN type activities (bilateralism) vs collectivism (SDRs) all the work during the life times of the Global Elites will fade into? the past .....
wow ...I thought is was a done deal ... he sounds concerned ...
Totally agree. He sounded so pleased with the SDRs being used and the IMF covering the cost, but why should I care?
Just another does of Soros propaganda. China will replace the US consumer? What? China gonna stop making junk and start importing it? Ludicrous claptrap.
China is the biggest car market in the world. It passed the US this year. There are 130 billionaires in China, up from 101 last year. Asia will have more millionaires than the US before 2013. Asia is already the top market for US and European auto brands. GM's sales in Asia are up 74% in the last 12 months. Rolls Royces are flying out the show room. Asia is growing very, very fast.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/business/global/13luxury.html?_r=1&scp...
continue every single sentence you wrote with "... based on government stimulus."
the spigot will be turned off at some point... and then what?
The spigot is never turned off until it's time to sweep assets off the table to the winners.
Has Soros ever said anything (publicly) without an agenda or personal interest?
Just curious...what do you think his real agenda is?
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/soros.htm
Interesting.....this is what I found out googling Soros :))) :
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/soros.htm
Interesting article while googling the guy in the article:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/soros.htm
BINGO! I'll take ulterior motives for $1000, Alex.
In China the super high end luxury goods are selling like hot cakes (super expensive wines, Rolls Royces and high end art). Asia is rolling in mountains of cash and they're going SHOPPING!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/business/global/13luxury.html?_r=1&scp...
I expect the dollar to strengthen against the Euro over the next months. The catalyst may be the US GDP numbers that come out later this week. It all has to do with interest rate differentials and relative conomic growth.
time123
P.S. I get my timing signals at http://invetrics.com
George Soros is an anti-capitalist, international socialist who uses the capitalist system to break economies and governments. Start from there and work backwards to see whether he's feeding you bullshit or not.
"In China the super highend luxury goods are selling like hotcakes..." In the late eighties, Japan was touted to be invincible. "Lifetime employment". The Nikkei rose to 30,000. They bought trophy American properties, including Pebble Beach, they paid $40 million USD for a Van Gogh painting, etc. By 1989, they crashed and have remained dormant for two decades. China is expecting 8% GDP growth in the midst of this Global Depression. They must be smoking opium.
If I were a high ranking Military Official, I'd be wondering why the largest, most expensive, most technologically advanced military forces in the world cant defeat an enemy with no Air Force, no Navy, no drones, no satelites, no computers, no missles, no heavy ordinance, no tanks, no jets etc, etc. The last attempted coup was by the Confederettes, and did not end well for the South.
Soros, like many others, says that banks can borrow at 0% and buy 10 year treasuries at 3.5% with zero risk. How does using short-term borrowing to buy a long duration asset with potentially significant price volatility translate into zero risk?
I understand that a bank can report the spread on the interest earned less any interest paid as income and presume they can avoid reporting any mark to market losses on 10 year treasuries by classifying them as held to maturity, but that doesn't make the trade zero risk in economic terms. Not that banks or the government prefer actual economic earnings to reported earnings that create a phony appearance of prosperity.
It is a zero risk trade because it is backed by the full faith and credit of the American taxpayer.