Is Soros tanking the dollar?

I have seen references to him tanking the pound a few years ago and now I'm starting to hear (ok from right wingers) that he's one reason now the dollar is tanking. I know it can't be the only reason even if he tried but if he's tied to it at all by the media wouldn't that cause many to seek revenge on the Dem nominee?

Is it something or just right wing propaganda to cover the fall of the dollar? I'm wondering if we'll hear of this on the right wing media by the weekend?

sheesh........

If this is Rovian Talking Points I'd like to know what they're talking about. I don't understand it.

.....but he's not that rich! :evilgrin:

He's also smart, he knows where the dollar is headed and is making money off that knowledge.

I had someone tell me that a lower dollar would be good for American Manufacturers---I replied: too bad there isn't anything made in America anymore.

As I posted below, I am pretty sure the Chinese yuan is tied in to the dollar, so when the dollar goes down and makes our American goods cheaper, it also makes Chinese-made goods cheaper to the rest of the world.

Sucking the Jiang family off and winking at the sinalisation of Tibet and the oppression of the Tibetan people and actively suppressing Taiwan's anti-China left.

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/tacinv011604.html

A head standard would simply mean that any
politician or central banker that attempted to
run the printing press like a maniac would be
decapitated on the spot. This would truly ensure
a complete balanced budget without any deficits
what so ever. These fat slugs have only one purpose
in mind to take everything that rightfully belongs
to you and offer you nothing but worthless paper in
exchange for it.

bush is doing it all by himself-well some one in the klan is-

I don't buy it, but I'm curious to know how and why he would do such a thing.∂

Hedge funds can buy puts or calls basically gambling that a commodity (or currency) go up or down.

The criticism against them is that they are the ultimate in shameless whore capitalists. For instance, they can bet against the dollar with billions of dollars of leverage, which will cause the dollar to fall even if it weren't going to anyway, or make it crash worse if it was going down anyway.

Irony can be so ironic.

The ultimate capialist, the hedge fund manager becomes a hero of the left.

Just in case anyone wants to buy in.

http://www.investorsoffshore.com/html/features/feature_hedge.html

Krugman's book, The Return of Depression Economics does a good job of explaining the role of hedge funds - especially Soros' - in causing some of the East Asian panics and collapses. Soros is responsible for much misery and you are entirely correct that it is ironic that he has become a hero of the left.

Soros was a hated man at DU until rather recently when he & Richard Holbrooke decided they needed to get one of their own in and gave us a laughable $10 million. $10 million from a Carlyle man who has Billions - that's "some" dedication!!

Does anyone realize what $10 million is to Soros? It's a jeton on a Roulette table. It's 0.09% of his minimum worth (using the conservative $11 Billion a few years ago).

$10 million from Soros is $54 from someone making $60,000/yr.

It's a $54 dollar bet on Red when the remaining Billions are on Black. Carlyle must be laughing its head off.



George Soros

Hungarian businessman. Jewish; original family name is Schwartz.
Net worth estimated at $11B.
A man of enormous wealth and ability to deploy it in unexpected ways.
Partner in the Carlyle Group.
Was the owner of Harken Energy, and bought its declining shares so that George W Bush could make a million dollars. His reason to do that: "political influence."
As currency speculator, cost the UK a billion dollars in one day.
Hated by Council on Foreign Relations. [br />
**Timeline**

12 Aug 1930 George Soros born, Budapest Hungary.

1944 Hides for a year from the Nazis, after they invade Hungary.

1947 Leaves Hungary for Britain to attend London School of Economics.

1956 Moves to United States.

1969 Establishes Quantum Fund, and dabbles in currency manipulation. Average return of that fund is an astonishing 35% per year, since its inception.

1979 Establishes Open Society Fund, New York City.

16 Sep 1992 In a brazen act of currency speculation, places a hedge bet that the UK will devalue the Pound Sterling. In September this nets him $1B in a single day.

1995 Appointed director, Council on Foreign Relations.

1997 Attacks the currencies of Thailand and Malaysia. A Thai source said: "We regard George Soros as a kind of Dracula. He sucks blood from the people."

2002 Convicted of insider trading, with regards to the stock of a French bank in 1988. Fined $2M.

Nov 2002 Soros is the primary sponsor of Nevada's ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

12 Sep 2003 "If you impose morality on , it means that you are actually with your hands tied behind your back and you're not going to be successful. It's extremely hard to be successful." Interview, David Brancaccio, Now with Bill Moyers.

7 Nov 2003 Moscow offices of the Soros Foundation stormed by forty armed men who seize papers and seal the building, after Soros criticized the recent jailing of one of Russia's oligarchs, Mikhail Khodorkovsky of oil company Yukos. The building's owner claims rent was not being paid, an unlikely explanation.


http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/business/george-soros/


Namebase on Soros: http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06/05902?_SOROS_GEORGE_




George Soros
NS Profile
NEIL CLARK / New Statesman 2jun03

The billionaire trader has become eastern Europe's uncrowned king and the prophet of ''the open society''. But open to what? George Soros profiled by Neil Clark


George Soros is angry. In common with 90 per cent of the world's population, the Man Who Broke the Bank of England has had enough of President Bush and his foreign policy. In a recent article in the Financial Times, Soros condemned the Bush administration's policies on Iraq as "fundamentally wrong"—based as they were on a "false ideology that US might gave it the right to impose its will on the world".

Wow! Has one of the world's richest men—the archetypal amoral capitalist who made billions out of the Far Eastern currency crash of 1997 and who last year was fined $2m for insider trading by a court in France—seen the light in his old age? (He is 72.) Should we pop the champagne corks and toast his conversion?

Not before asking what really motivates him. Soros likes to portray himself as an outsider, an independent-minded Hungarian emigre and philosopher-pundit who stands detached from the US military-industrial complex. But take a look at the board members of the NGOs he organises and finances. At Human Rights Watch, for example, there is Morton Abramowitz, US assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research from 1985-89, and now a fellow at the interventionist Council on Foreign Relations; ex-ambassador Warren Zimmerman (whose spell in Yugoslavia coincided with the break-up of that country); and Paul Goble, director of communications at the CIA-created Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (which Soros also funds). Soros's International Crisis Group boasts such "independent" luminaries as the former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Richard Allen, as well as General Wesley Clark, once Nato supreme allied commander for Europe. The group's vice-chairman is the former congressman Stephen Solarz, once described as "the Israel lobby's chief legislative tactician on Capitol Hill" and a signatory, along with the likes of Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, to a notorious letter to President Clinton in 1998 calling for a "comprehensive political and military strategy for bringing down Saddam and his regime".

Take a look also at Soros's business partners. At the Carlyle Group, where he has invested more than $100m, they include the former secretary of state James Baker and the erstwhile defence secretary Frank Carlucci, George Bush Sr and, until recently, the estranged relatives of Osama Bin Laden. Carlyle, one of the world's largest private equity funds, makes most of its money from its work as a defence contractor.

<snip>

So why is he so upset with Bush? The answer is simple. Soros is angry not with Bush's aims—of extending Pax Americana and making the world safe for global capitalists like himself—but with the crass and blundering way Bush is going about it. By making US ambitions so clear, the Bush gang has committed the cardinal sin of giving the game away. For years, Soros and his NGOs have gone about their work extending the boundaries of the "free world" so skilfully that hardly anyone noticed. Now a Texan redneck and a gang of overzealous neo-cons have blown it.

The rest: http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/2003/George-Soros-Statesman2jun03.htm

George Soros: “The billionaire trader has become eastern Europe’s uncrowned king and the prophet of “the open society”. But open to what? by Neil Clark, New Statesman, June 2, 2003

A review by Karen Talbot
Centre for Research on Globalisation 4jul03

<snip>

But all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. What of the NGOs Soros established and finances? Who are the other leaders of these groups? (Neil) Clark informs us that at Human Rights Watch, for example, there is Morton Abramowitz, U.S. assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research from 1985-1989` and now a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Warren Zimmerman former ambassador “whose spell in Yugoslavia coincided with the break up of that country”; and Paul Goble, director of communications “at the CIA-created Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (which Soros also funds).”

According to (Neil) Clark, Soros’ International Crisis Group “boasts such ‘independent’ luminaries as the former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinki and Richard Allen, as well as General Wesley Clark, once NATO supreme allied commander for Europe. The group’s vice-chairman is the former congressman Stephen Solarz, once described as ‘the Israel lobby’s chief legislative tactician on Capitol Hill’ and a signatory, along with the likes of Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, to a notorious letter to President Clinton in 1998 calling for a ‘comprehensive political and military strategy for brining down Saddam and his regime’.” So much for Soros’ opposition to Bush’s Iraq policies.

There’s more! Who are Soros’s business partners at the Carlyle Group---one of the world’s largest private equity funds, which makes most of this profit from defense contracts? They include the former secretary of state James Baker and Frank Carlucci, former defense secretary, George Bush, Sr, and “until recently, the estranged relatives of Osama Bin Laden.” Soros has invested more than $100 million in Carlyle, (Neil) Clark tells us.

<snip>

“Soros has made money in every country he has helped to prise ‘open’. In Kosovo, for example, he has invested $50 million in an attempt to gain control of the Trepca mine complex, where there are vast reserves of gold, silver, lead and other minerals estimated to be worth in the region of $5 billion. He thus copied a pattern he has deployed to great effect over the whole of eastern Europe of advocating ‘shocking therapy’ and ‘economic reform’, then swooping in with his associate to buy valuable state assets at knock-down prices,” according to (Neil) Clark.*

“The Soros strategy for extending Pax Americana differs from the Bush model, particularly in its subtlety. But it is just as ambitious and just as deadly,”

<snip>

Just read the entire thing here: http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/2003/George-Soros-Statesman2jun03.htm




Soros and Khodorkovsky

Sunday, November 16, 2003


On the eve of what was once Russia's most sacred holiday -- "Revolution Day," the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution still celebrated as "Day of Accord and Reconciliation." -- there was neither accord nor reconciliation at the Moscow offices of the Hungarian born American billionaire George Soros.
Instead, there were some 40 large men in camouflage gear with stun guns, hand trucks and moving vans at the Soros Foundation. They ordered the staff out of the building and then loaded documents and computer printouts from the past 15 years, as well as office equipment, onto their vans. The New York-based Soros Foundation that operates under the name "Open Society Institute" had spent more than $1 billion on charitable and educational projects in Russia during the past 15 years. This summer, George Soros said that he was closing out his Russian activities.

<snip>

In October, the chairman and CEO of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested. He is still in prison.

There was a lot to investigate. In an auction run by his own bank, Khodorkovsky paid only $309 million for Yukos -- early this year the company was worth $45 billion. In 1998, Khodorkovsky survived charges by U.S. investigators that he had helped launder $10 billion with his own bank and the Bank of New York.

Khodorkovsky, who is just 40 years old, is the richest man in Russia, worth over $15 billion. Share prices of Yukos plunged by 18 percent on his arrest and have only now begun to climb back with Khodorkovsky resigning from Yukos. He is charged with tax evasion, theft, forgery and fraud. And, what we have to remember is that the unfortunate Khodorkovsky is an oligarch -- a very rich man who helps control the policies of his country to become richer.

<snip>

Khodorkovsky nabbed Lord Rothschild of London and our own inimitable Henry Kissinger for his board of directors. Gifts to American charities began to flow. Khodorkovsky joined the advisory board of the U.S. Carlyle Group, a super rich private equity fund, where he conferred in Moscow with the former Secretary of State James Baker III and former President George H. W. Bush.

<snip>

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/datelinedc/s_165315.html


Soros... Also part of the National Endowment for Democracy and the CSIS. Urgh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bush's ouster. He has nothing to do with the value of the dollar.

Next time you suspect a freeper is lying to you, go out on a limb and use this simple test: is he speaking? Yes? Then he's lying.

He is only like 34th or so richest man on Fortune 500. He does not have that kind of power. He did not tank the British pound either. He played his savy and profited in the market. It would be interesting how they think this man could have such influence when entire countries cannot do such a thing.

Low interest rates in this country and huge deficits and the hundreds of billions of dollars of currency we have abroad are all factors.

it that rich.

because they both see the writing on the wall.

Snow is the one who has, like Reagan before, btw, instituted a cheap dollar policy, not Soros, and not Buffet.

but the reality is that we have a HUGE deficit which is also held in our own currency. that's a brave new world, as far as I understand.

so if right wingers want to blame Soros, I guess they have to ignore the fact that Clinton endorsed a strong dollar, while both Reagan and now Bush Jr. wants a weak dollar...

in part to make the deficit cost less, but at the same time, they will drive investors out of the dollar when they can get a better return on investments in other countries without the current instabiilty which is based upon the Bush policy of alienating everyone else and ruling by fear and ignoring international law and treaties and acting as though America is the only nation in the world who should be allowed to do whatever it wants and everyone else has to like it...

well, if they respond by saying, eat your deficit, then whose fault is that?

The Indonesian rupee or whatever is one thing, and the US dollar is another. Still, I'm sure that he and everyone else is shorting the dollar. Bush has certainly united the world against us, in many ways.

and all the investors who follow every move Soros makes.

To be perfectly fair, the US dollar isn't really worth that much on its own but Soros is purposefully wrecking our economy. Where Soros goes millions of investors follow. Greenspan can't print the money fast enough to keep up with these guys- and that's another mistake- stop printing the god-damn money- there's nothing backing it up! Everyone is dumping the dollar and switching to either gold, the Euro, or even a combination of the Euro & bartering (Chavez)- that's been a major factor in most of these wars and coups.

Wish I had time. Do you recall before 9-11, Tatyana Koryagina's briefing to the Russian Duma? About dumping the dollar because of a pending economic catastrophe in the US? I will vouch for you that this was indeed published because I read the original Russian article before 9-11. Anyway- here goes- do with it what you want but I find it very interesting. I don't think all the talk of a one-world government/one-world currency is total fantasy. I also leave you with an interesting Cecil Rhodes quote:

"...The objects one should work for are first the furtherance of the British Empire, the bringing of the whole uncivilized world under British rule, the recovery of the United States, the making of the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire." http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Rhodes.html


Mysterious predictions about some catastrophic event in the United States began to circulate in the electronic traffic and even were voiced by Russia's Pravda on Aug. 1 under the headline, "The Dollar and the U.S. Will Fall." Based on interviews with the Malaysian ambassador to Moscow and a group of Russian economists, the report was taken seriously enough for members of Russia's parliament, the Duma, to advise Russian citizens to cash out dollars. An adviser to the Duma's Commission on Economic Politics, Tatyana Koryagina, even specified late August or early September as the likely time for an attack on the United States that would lead to its economic collapse.

MARTIN AROSTEGUI IS A FREE-LANCE WRITER FOR Insight MAGAZINE.

COPYRIGHT 2001 News World Communications, Inc.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1571/45_17/80681415/p4/article.jhtml?term=


Russian analysts are abuzz with talk of a coming U.S. economic crash. Some have stated that the collapse of the U.S. dollar is imminent. According to the recent testimony of Russian economist Tatyana Koryagina, the American dollar will soon be used as “wallpaper for toilet stalls.” In anticipation of a crash, Russia officially adopted the gold chervonet as legal tender on July 10. This is an unusual move, apparently modeled on what Lenin did 79 years ago in order to stem the tide of ruble inflation in the early Bolshevik economy.

This column has touched on the fact that Russia has been slowly phasing the U.S. dollar out of various economic sectors. Now we see that a new gold currency is being established, which the Kremlin hopes will drive the dollar out of Russia altogether. In fact, there has been talk about banning the use of U.S. currency. (An unwise idea, which would only make the dollar more romantic than ever.)

With regard to the Kremlin's move toward gold, economist Tatyana Koryagina told the Duma on June 29, "I am closely watching the measures taken by the President and the Central Bank. From the standpoint of pre-crisis measures, they are acting properly. It is possible that after August 19, the ruble might become a rather good currency.”

What does she think will happen before Aug. 19?

Pavl Bykov, writing in the Russian financial weekly, "Ekspert," also expressed satisfaction with Russia's move toward gold. "Withdrawing some amount of rubles from circulation and replacing them with chervontsy minted in the former Soviet Union ... is not a bad combination," wrote Bykov. "All the better if the chervonet manages to crowd out the U.S. dollar and Russians start using it as an alternative savings and currency."

<snip>
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24030


Pravda Wrote of Financial 'Attack' on U.S.

Consider the July 12, 2001, Page One report in Pravda – <snip>

The Pravda article was entitled "Will the Dollar and America Fall Down on August 19? That's the Opinion of Dr. Tatyana Koryagina, Who Very predicted the August Default in 1998."

This Pravda article was published about the same time as another strange event that took place in early July in the Russian State Duma.

The Duma held a conference entitled "On the measures to provide the development of Russian economy in the environment of destabilization of the world financial system."

The chairman of the Duma Commission on Economic Politics, Dr. Sergei Glazyev, headed the hearings.

<snip>

Tatyana Koryagina made a statement at the end of hearings – as a Russian expert in the shadow economy, shadow politics and conspirology.

She is a senior research fellow in the Institute of Macroeconomic Researches subordinated to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development (Minekonom). The main theme of the Duma hearings was the rapidly approaching economic crash of the United States.

The hearings focused on preparing recommendations for President Putin as to what Russia should to do to soften the consequences of this coming catastrophe.

<snip>

Here is an excerpt:

Pravda: All the participants at the hearings stated that America is a huge financial pyramid which will crash soon. Still, it is hard to understand how this could happen in the first and richest country of the world – without a war, without missile or bomb strikes?

Koryagina: Besides bombs and missiles, there are other kinds of weaponry, much more destructive ones. ...

Pravda: Well, economic theory. But how it is possible for you to give an exact date – August 19?

Koryagina: The U.S. is engaged in a mortal economic game. The known history of civilization is merely the visible part of the iceberg. There is a shadow economy, shadow politics and also a shadow history, known to conspirologists. There are forces acting in the world, unstoppable for countries and even continents.

Pravda: Just these forces intend to smash America on August 19?

Koryagina: There are international "super-state" and "super-government" groups. In accordance with tradition, the mystical and religious components play extremely important roles in human history. One must take into account the shadow economy, shadow politics and the religious component, while predicting the development of the present financial situation. Pravda: Still, I don't understand what could be done to this giant country , whose budget is calculated in the trillions of dollars.

Koryagina: It is possible to do anything to the U.S. ... whose total debt has reached $26 trillion. Generally, the Western economy is at the boiling point now. Shadow financial actives of $300 trillion are hanging over the planet. At any moment, they could fall on any stock exchange and cause panic and crash. The recent crisis in Southeast Asia, which touched Russia, was a rehearsal.

Pravda: What is the sense of smashing just America?

Koryagina: The U.S. has been chosen as the object of financial attack because the financial center of the planet is located there. The effect will be maximal. The strike waves of economic crisis will spread over the planet instantly and will remind us of the blast of a huge nuclear bomb.

Pravda: Did Russia's crisis of 1998 have this religious-mystical component?

Koryagina: ... The Russian crisis of 1998 was preconditioned by internal factors. Yeltsin's policy enlarged its consequences. Now we have President Putin, and this is a good choice.

Pravda: What do we have to do now?

Koryagina: Recommendations, compiled by the Duma Commission of Economic Politics after the recent Duma hearings, offer instruction on what should be done to escape the consequences of a world crisis inspired by a financial catastrophe in the U.S. This document will be sent – or has already been sent – to President Putin.

Pravda: What should Russian citizens do?

Koryagina: They should start changing their dollars for rubles. President Putin and the Russian Central Bank are already taking the necessary healthy measures. There are high chances that after 19 August the ruble will become a very good currency.

Pravda: Why 19 August, say, and not the 21st?

Koryagina: Some fluctuation in this date is possible. Serious forces are acting against THOSE WHO ARE NOW PREPARING THE ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES . August, with very high probability, will bring the financial catastrophe to the U.S. ... The last 10 days of August have especial importance from a religious-sensible point of view.



http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/9/16/103951.shtml

to increase longterm interest rates is causing the dollar to tank. We (as a country) are spending money like a bunch of drunken sailors. As we borrow more and more money from our creditors (Japan, China, Europe)and longterm interest rates remain low--this lowers the value of the dollar. At least this is how I understand it. Soros (or anyone else) would be wise to play this situation for a profit in the money markets. This is how the super rich stay rich-currency exchanges--it takes money to make money.

The US government controls the value of the dollar --- at least largely and when it wants to. Market forces play a role, but no other power could stand up to the the US government should it bring all its power to bear --- for the moment at least. By raising interest rates (and otherwise being fiscally responsible) and supporting the dollar, it could easily stop the slide and raise the dollar back to previous values. Raising interest rates is out of the question of course because then the whole potemkin village, shell of a recovery would collapse and Junior would be out on his ass.

Devaluing the dollar is a deliberate bushie policy. They believe that it will decrease the trade imbalance --- but Regean in fact proved that this is not true. Demand is just not elastic enough and there are not good substitutes. A lot of things just aren't made in the US anymore. (Besides the Chinese and some other trading partners have let their currencies devalue too --- showing just how ignorant, naive and stupid, the bushies really are.)

As for Soros being involved in a causal way, this is complete and utter nonsense. He like they is just making a few bucks off of events (if indeed he is). The difference is that most of them probably had advance notice --- which is how you really make the bucks.

Actually, if I am not mistaken, the Chinese currency is tied to the US dollar, so if the US dollar goes down, the Chinese yuan goes down with it... which is why the Chinese are buying so many dollars - to prop up their own currency.

to give the multinationals more profits. It make imports more expensive though which is why commodity price have risen. The
Fed is willing to bear with inflation because deflation is their biggest fear. Inflation is much higher than what the government says because they do not include things like health care premiums into their very outdated 'basket'. Soros has nothing to do with the dollar losing value but he is well aware of the consequenses of what is being done.

more about currency movements, you might subscribe to the free eletter put out by www.everbank.com.

You have to go to their worldcurrency markets page and sign up for "the daily pfennig" - written by Chuck Butler.

It's pretty interesting and it's amazing how well this guy predicts what's going to happen. Along the way - if you read for a couple of months - you can really get an idea of what moves currency markets and how they work. I also tried combing though the forex forums - but they are so technical and seem to have a very short time frame in mind.

Everbank does sell 10K cds in various currencies - but I've never received any calls or anything like that. I wish I'd purchased a cd back when I started reading the letter and the euro was at 1.03.

The letter is pretty entertaining too - the writer is a bit of a character I guess.

He is selling the dollar, like Warren Buffett and any number of other investors, speculators, multinational businesses, governments etc, and that all contributes to the general decline of the dollar, but he is simply a riding the tide that was started by the government, economy,and demand in the same way a single pebble is a plays a part in a mudslide, but is not the central mover of it.

of what is going on with the dollar.

Stephen Roach has also been saying this - that it's the trade deficit that's causing the devaluation.

The main thing is that nothing is a huge problem as long as the decline is "orderly" but if it becomes "disorderly" then that's a big problem - a crash or something beyond the control of the various central banks (that is not just the fed but foreign central banks as well).

As long as interest rates are low on the dollar (as compared to other "safe" currencies) the dollar is going to devalue because people can put money in other currencies and receive more interest. Worldwide, aparently interest rates are starting to move up slightly (British Pound for example) or are already high (such as Austrailia and New Zealand) - so the dollar should continue to
devalue.

But from what I have read in the last year or so, is that the Federal Reserve is not a branch of our government, but a world central bank.


Gold, Dollars, and Federal Reserve Mischief

The mainstream financial press is now reporting the weakening of the
U.S. dollar as measured against other currencies. This is unsettling news, as a relatively strong dollar was considered a hallmark of the economic boom of the 1990s- a boom that had far more to do with rapid credit expansion than real increases in productivity. The value of the dollar is down 18% this year compared to gold, which acts as a bellwether for the health of paper money. Gold prices historically rise when faith in paper currencies erodes, as investors seek the intrinsic value of gold to protect themselves from the arbitrary actions of the world’s central banks, including our own Federal Reserve.

Gold is history’s oldest and most stable currency. Central bankers and politicians don’t want a gold-backed currency system, because it denies them the power to create money out of thin air. Governments by their very nature want to expand, whether to finance military intervention abroad or a welfare state at home. This expansion costs money, and the big-government politicians don’t want spending limited to the amounts they can tax or borrow. This is precisely why central banks now produce all of the world’s major currencies.

Yet while politicians favor central bank control of money, history and the laws of economics are on the side of gold. So even though central banks try to mask their inflationary policies and suppress the price of gold by surreptitiously selling it, the gold markets always cut through the smokescreen eventually. Rising gold prices like we see today historically signify trouble for paper currencies, and the dollar is no exception. Should the dollar continue to decline in value, America will find itself struggling to service our already massive debt load even as our foreign creditors become less interested in our dollars.


snip

Brilliant Austrian school of economics scholar Murray Rothbard asked a seemingly complex question in the title of his essay: "What has Government Done to our Money?" The answer turns out to be pretty simple: Government consistently debases our money. How and why it debases our money has everything to do with politics, and nothing to do with the laws of economics.

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2002/tst061002.htm

world. No one, including the central banks of Japan, the UK, or Euro can control the dollar. It is down because we are running a $500 Billion + current account deficit due to the fact that the Americans can't get enough of cheap imported goods and we export much less than we import. Our imports of oil products puts a huge amount of dollars into the system,into the hands of those who support terrorism. These dollars come back to our country fortunately when the countries involved buy US treasuries, agencies, and other investments of which the US must pay interest thus pushing our treasury into deeper debt. Because our rates are so low, and because we are the largest debtor nation in the world, many are investing elsewhere thus flooding the market with U S dollars.

Tax cuts for the rich and expensive wars have put us on the road to ruin by bleeding the treasury. Intelligent investors are hedging their bets.

Once again the ineptness of this administration has far reaching consequences that Chimpy doesn't realize or more likely doesn't care about.

The ONLY people Really getting fat now, are the already fat cats!(IMF and World Bankers, including the Federal Reserve Banks) The Fat Boys are buying up old once SOLID American corporations for pennies on the dollar and cosmetically boosting the Bushco's fuzzy stock market recovery in the process! Super Bankers are Playing Mad Monopoly without regulation now more than ever, since the Repubs control all three branches of our Government! Bush in three short years has turned America into a Huge Bottomless $hit Pit!

Bushco's enablers are just waiting to gobble up all the rest of the country's wealth they can grab, while the Fox is guarding the Hen House! The rip off artists who control the world's money flow, really did hit the TRIFECTA with Bushco! The Unpatriotic Rethugs are selling off every piece of America they can, to outfits like UBS Warburg, who BTW, now even owns Enron! The Warburgs even cooked up, and set, up the Federal Reserve system to begin with early last century! The Warburgs BTW, were Hitler/Bushco/Walker enablers before WWII!

Everyone who invests money now in the Wall Street "Honey Pit", is living on the edge and taking a huge risk, long term! The Fat Cats are making the market boom now, to lure in the rest of the pension funds and to try and privatize Social Security if Bush wins in 04, so that they can steal it All, when the bottom drops out next time and it will! Bushco's enablers want to bleed every American even the unborn, of EVERY DROP of wealth they can, while the getting is good and the getting has NEVER been better, than it has in the last three years!!!

the same way...

Umm, Soros has pledged to contribute up to $15 million. While it is great that he will do that, I am pretty sure Soros’ $15 million pales in comparison to amounts given by Richard Mellon Scaife, Joseph Coors, Rupert Murdoch, Conrad Black and other right wingers. I am sure they each have just as much money the other way as Soros does on the left.

The only way a single person could tank the dollar would be if the US president, VP, Treasury Secretary or Fed Chairman said they wanted a weak dollar.

are afraid of someone, the more shrill and ridiculous the accusation. My recommended course of action, when confronted with such behavior, is to laugh uproariously and point at them, saying, "You believe everything you read? What a tool!" I guarantee, said repubic will turn tail and run. Like a cockroach when confronted with light, repubics hate the truth, and are less likely to go out seek it out. Really, you are performing a public service by pointing it out to them.

From the UK's The Independent

The pound surged against the dollar yesterday amid speculation that Warren Buffett and George Soros, the world's most famous speculators, are betting the US currency will plummet.Sterling powered to a five-year high against the dollar for a second day as concerns over the US current account deficit continued to outweigh evidence of a rebounding economy.Traders believe selling the dollar is a one-way bet, and some latched on to rumours that speculators were building "short" positions on the dollar - betting it will tumble in the coming months.One hedge fund manager, who asked not to be named, said: "I have heard that both Soros and Buffett are shorting the dollar. There's a growing belief on Wall Street that the dollar is looking like a one-way bet downwards."

A spokesman for Mr Soros, who famously "broke" the Bank of England when the pound crashed out of the exchange rate mechanism a decade ago, said he never commented on speculation. Mr Buffett was unavailable for comment.The surge in the pound to $1.7155, its strongest level since October 1998, was boosted after Merrill Lynch forecast the dollar would plunge a further 8 per cent by the end of next year.

Demand for the dollar has waned on concern the country will not attract enough capital to fund its record current account deficit, which is expected to break through 5 per cent of GDP this year.In a massive revision to its forecast issued on the eve of yesterday's Thanksgiving holiday, Merrill Lynch said the pound would hit $1.85 - which would be its highest level since 1992.The blue chip Wall Street bank said sterling would rise on signs of returning economic strength, rising interest rates and hope that the Government won't raise taxes before a 2005 election. But it warned that the surge in the pound would be short-lived as the concerns overhanging the UK - from a budget deficit, huge consumer indebtedness and a tight labour market - would come home to roost."Bubble trouble currencies such as the pound should continue to do well for now," it said. "But upsides in the currencies in these regions should end next year as tighter conditions threaten to burst credit bubbles and shape market expectations of lower rates." Merrill Lynch expects the dollar to tumble to $1.33 against the euro, a drop of 12 per cent from yesterday's $1.19 value. But it cut its forecast for the euro to surge to 80p against the pound - a level that would smooth sterling's entry into the single currency - to 73p.

A surge in the pound against the dollar will be a boon for British tourists but could cause headaches for both businesses and the Bank of England.Khuram Chaudhry, a strategist at Merrill Lynch, said: "UK investors may find company sales exposure to the US unfavourable in this scenario.A stronger domestic currency is likely to mean the Bank is less likely to raise interest rates aggressively." David Bloom, a global economist at HSBC who does not see the pound going much above $1.70, said any spike in the pound would be short-lived. "If you want to sell the dollar because you believe in the structural problems such as the current account deficit then you buy the pound but there's a downside because the UK is also looking a trade deficit, an indebted economy," he said. "If you think those factors will cause the dollar to fall then the pound should fall as well." He said the main beneficiary should be the euro, which has smaller deficits - despite the high-profile row over the stability and growth pact. He said HSBC was sticking with its historic forecast for a dollar-euro rate of $1.35. Mr Bloom warned that if the pound were to fall it could tumble even further than the dollar as there would be little interest from other countries to prop it up.

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=467972

Edit: Addendum:

Euro hits record against dollar

The euro has hit a record high against the dollar, defying recent political squabbles over the single currency and upbeat US economic data. The euro continued a long upward run to hit $1.98 in morning trading, up about two thirds of a percent, mainly at the expense of a weakening dollar. Faith in the US has been undermined by concerns over mounting deficits despite evidence of a return to growth. Global security concerns have also made markets wary of the US currency.

From:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3245956.stm




Dollar and Euro Game in Full Swing
05/27/2003 21:11
The dollar will inevitably grow against the euro

World-known financier George Soros has recently caused a commotion on the world financial market. Last week Soros announced that he was going to convert his currency assets in euro. Soros was "offended" with the American economic policy because of the dollar reduction against other leading currencies. Newspapers have published a great deal of articles and reports, in which it was said that Soros had speculated for the dollar decline. In addition to that, the dollar has recently reached the all-time low against the euro - $1,18 per one euro.

As a matter of fact, it is not the first time, when George Soros resorts to such measures. Ten years ago the financier made a similar announcement about the British pound. He started selling pounds sterling, although some people started buying them on exchanges all over the world, after the rate reached the lowest point. The British pound improved a bit later, and it turned out that those strange buyers were Soros's people. As a result, the financier managed to obtain a huge sum of pounds sterling that had been purchased at very cheap prices.

This brings up a question: why do market players make one and the same mistake twice? The answer to this question is simple: real players do not make any mistakes. Dilettantes play an important role on the Western financial market, they try to be fixed up to Soros in their activities. Their influence never lasts long, and they all basically lose in the end, giving away all their money to George Soros and the like.

<snip>

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/356/10110_.html


Soros bets against the dollar

David Teather in New York
Wednesday May 21, 2003
The Guardian

George Soros, the billionaire investor dubbed "the man who broke the pound", yesterday added to the mounting pressure on the dollar when he admitted publicly he was betting against the currency.
In an interview with US cable channel CNBC, Mr Soros disclosed that he had recently begun to sell. "I now have a short position against the dollar," he said. "I have listened to what the secretary of the treasury is telling me. Who am I to stand in the way?

"We continue to sell the US dollar against the euro, the Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar and gold."

Mr Soros played a significant role in forcing the pound from the European exchange rate mechanism in 1992 when he bet against sterling. His firm was said to have made $1bn after the pound was ejected.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,960213,00.html


Dollar plunges as Soros bets against it By Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent
29 November 2003

The dollar tumbled across the board yesterday, hitting an all-time low against the euro amid fears that Wall Street was betting against the US currency. The euro traded as high as $1.2018 - above $1.20 for the first time - as the dollar slid to new multi-year lows against sterling and the Canadian dollar and a six-month low against the Swiss franc....

With American markets shut for Thanksgiving, traders focused on a string of negative news on the dollar, including yesterday's report in The Independent that the leading financiers GEORGE SOROS and Warren Buffett had taken "short positions"....

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=468307


You can read more about this in one of the older LBN threads:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=211930#214167 Soros, by the way is a Carlyle guy. The old saying... Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!

They're just pissed because he's on our side and is giving money to liberal causes.

BRITISH GOVERNMENT NO MATCH FOR GEORGE SOROS



In 1992 the British pound fell so sharply that Britain was forced to leave the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). What do you think was behind this famous fall? Yes, you guessed it, professional money! The money in question was the Quantum Fund, run by the renowned speculator George Soros.

He and his analysts had spotted a potential weakness in the ERM. During the weeks before the massive sell-off of the British pound, George Soros was busy exchanging seven billion US dollars for German Deutschemarks.

When the time was right he moved in fast, selling the British pound. As the pound fell the Deutschemark rose, creating huge profits for Soros. As soon as news of this got out the other professionals followed suit. The onslaught was overwhelming and too much for Norman Lamont, the then UK Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In an attempt to halt the slide Lamont resorted to selling some of Britain's gold reserves. He put up interest rates three times during one day, but this was still no match for the professionals.

<snip>

http://www.tradetowin.com/associates/profit_trading/undeclared_secrets/Undeclared_Secrets.htm


That's because these other financiers have used their talent and capital to do well by doing good -- in troubled times they were the strong hands who turned panic into opportunity. But Soros is different: In recent times of chaos in the global markets, Soros' strong hands always seem to hold a smoking gun. He has profited not by quelling panic, but by promoting it.

Soros is best known as the man who broke the Bank of England. His bear-raid on the British pound in 1992 precipitated the collapse of the European monetary system, and resulted in the transfer of billions of pounds from Her Majesty's Treasury to Soros' coffers. He's said to have done it again in the Asian currency crises of 1996 and 1998.

His failures have been just as spectacular, and just as controversial. During the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, since known as Black Monday, Soros became intensely bearish -- he dumped S&P 500 futures on the opening the following day, thus personally contributing to its aftermath, Terrible Tuesday. Of course, the market recovered later in the day, and never again traded much lower. This year, Soros found technology stocks too hot to handle, and dumped them into the spring's Nasdaq crash -- the Composite Index now stands more than 25% above the panic lows.

<snip>

In the European monetary system crisis of 1992, the Bank of England was struggling to defend sterling's price against the German mark as part of its duties under the decades-old Bretton Woods Agreement. Soros took a very public position that the post-Cold War world had changed thanks to the inflationary effects of Germany's reunification, and that the traditional currency relationships would have to change, too.

He forecasted a chaotic break, and then put the theory of reflexivity to work: He risked billions shorting sterling, driving its price lower. He used financial markets to "affect the so-called fundamentals which they are supposed to reflect." Soros, and other speculators who piled on after him, forced sterling down in such a massive assault that the Bank of England could no longer afford to support it. Finally the Bank cried "uncle" and the monetary system was shattered.

<snip>

http://www.thestreet.com/comment/openbook/1041598.html

To be in the EU or not...

Notice $ quoted in pounds but no other
Europen currency?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2259648.stm

Sunday, 15 September, 2002, 13:25 GMT 14:25 UK
Lessons learned on 'Black Wednesday'

By Evan Davis
BBC Economics Editor Ten years ago the pound was forced
out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a system for tying
its value to that of other European currencies. Black
Wednesday, as 16 September 1992 came to be known, provided
one of the most memorable failures of post-war British economic policy.

It was the defining failure of John Major's government;
it was a huge boost to Euro-scepticism; it made currency
traders like George Soros rich.

The dollar is tanking in general because the Free World does not want to invest in Totalitarian Nations...not good for business.

In specific, the dollar is tanking because Bushevik poicies realize, like low interest rates, a falling dollar helps cover up the economic shambles left from their looting.

The dollar has fallen from 107 yen to 105 yen in just the last couple of weeks, and in the past few months, it's come down from 120 yen.

I keep a close watch on the exchange rates, because I work almost entirely with Japanese clients. A weak dollar is actually good for me personally, since my pay is figured in yen per word.

However, it's an indication of a weak U.S. economy.

to prop up our credit card economy. Pretty soon the dollar will be fit to be used for toilet paper.

Bush is the one tanking the dollar. Soros can't be worth more than $40 billion or so total.

The budget deficit alone is $500 billion and the trade deficit is also several hundred billion.

Soros knows that idiotic budgetary policies enacted by Bush would trash the dollar, and he placed his bets accordingly and is making a killing, along with Buffett.

If you want to blame someone for the dollar's plunge, blame the Moron in Chief.

and more. All the assets of the Former Republic of America are now the implicit property of the Emperor and the Imperial Family.

He probably has access to at least $40 billion in Black Ops monies to inflate the stock market, pay off Iraqis and Afghanis, murder opponents, spy on them, etc.

No, this lies directly at the feet of the Imperial Family and their cronies.

That's what I call committment to get Bush out! <sarcasm directed at Soros>

Basic macroeconomics says that a large deficit will devalue your currency.

Soros is being attacked by wingnuts because he is a traitor to their Oligarchy. He actually believes in Democracy and is too rich to be silenced.