Summary: The world changes as new great powers arise. The rules of international law and commerce will evolve to meet their standards of what’s right and proper. That new world order might have no place for the financial privateers, like hedge fund manager George Soros, who loot the world under the protection of the USA and other western powers. I suspect that future generations will look back on these men as colorful outlaws, wondering why we were too weak to restrain them.
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“The Sting of Betrayal: George Soros & Cristina Kirchner“
Bianca Fernet, at The Balloon
23 September 2014
This article is worth reading in full, with a hat tip for it to Wolf Street., who provides this introduction to the author: a “stilettos-on-the-ground American economist in Buenos Aires, antidote to economists who act like economics is too complicated to understand and who spout off buzzwords that make you feel inadequate. Her website The Bubble covers pop and econ topics in Argentina. ”
Excerpt:
And if you ever choose to study the modern history of economic crises, you will learn that in this tale George Soros is not so much a guest appearance, he is practically Evita’s Che Guevara (in the musical, not real life). This ever-present, vocal and proud force, bolding acting, taking strokes that in the short term brutally crush developing economy currencies and systems with the guiding principal that he was expediting market corrections and bringing to the fore economic dislocations that, if left to fester, would produce far more detrimental effects than the crisis and forced rapid correction. George Soros didn’t invent shorting and speculatively attacking weak currencies, but he certainly made it an art.
To understand how rich indeed is Mr. Soro’s relationship with economic crises, lake a look at some of the greatest hits from the 90s:
- 1992: George Soros breaks the Bank of England by short selling US $10 billion worth of GBP (pounds)
- May 1997: Soros’s Quantum Fund takes short positions in Thai baht, betting the dollar peg was unsustainable
- July 1997: George Soros attempts to “double play” the Malaysian economy by simultaneously shorting the pressured ringitt and the Malaysian Stock Market.
- October 1997: Soros’s Quantum Fund borrows in Hong Kong dollars and shorts the Heng Seng index futures, positioning itself to gain if the HK dollar depreciated and putting pressure on the market to make this happen
In addition to these noteworthy showstoppers, Soros is also suspected of having a hand in the 1997 collapses of the Indonesian rupiah, the Filipino peso, the South Korean won, and the Singapore dollar.
This is well-known history, which we in the West consider unremarkable — perhaps not commendable, but routine commerce. Others see it differently. To them Soros and his fellow hedge fund managers are modern privateers, pillaging under the flags (hegemonic power) of the western nations. It’s war, as described in Unrestricted Warfare (超限战, literally “warfare beyond bounds”), one of the great texts of 4GW. It was written in 1999 by two Colonels in the China’s Air Force, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. They describe the 1997 attack by western hedge funds on the currencies of Southeast Asia as the first example of this form of warfare in our age.
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When people begin to lean toward and rejoice in the reduced use of military force to resolve conflicts, war will be reborn in another form and in another arena, becoming an instrument of enormous power in the hands of all those who harbor intentions of controlling other countries or regions. In this sense, there is reason for us to maintain that the financial attack by George Soros on East Asia, the terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy by Usama Bin Laden, the gas attack on the Tokyo subway by the disciples of the Aum Shinri Kyo, and the havoc wreaked by the likes of Morris Jr. on the Internet, in which the degree of destruction is by no means second to that of a war, represent semi-warfare, quasi-warfare, and sub-warfare, that is, the embryonic form of another kind of warfare. …
Financial War
Now that Asians have experienced the financial crisis in Southeast Asia, no one could be more affected by “financial war” than they have been. No, they have not just been affected; they have simply been cut to the very quick! A surprise financial war attack that was deliberately planned and initiated by the owners of international mobile capital ultimately served to pin one nation after another to the ground–nations that not long ago were hailed as “little tigers” and “little dragons.” Economic prosperity that once excited the constant admiration of the Western world changed to a depression, like the leaves of a tree that are blown away in a single night by the autumn wind. After just one round of fighting, the economies of a number of countries had fallen back ten years.
What is more, such a defeat on the economic front precipitates a near collapse of the social and political order. The casualties resulting from the constant chaos are no less than those resulting from a regional war, and the injury done to the living social organism even exceeds the injury inflicted by a regional war. Non-state organizations, in this their first war without the use of military force, are using non-military means to engage sovereign nations.
Thus, financial war is a form of non-military warfare which is just as terribly destructive as a bloody war, but in which no blood is actually shed. Financial warfare has now officially come to war’s center stage — a stage that for thousands of years has been occupied only by soldiers and weapons, with blood and death everywhere. We believe that before long, “financial warfare” will undoubtedly be an entry in the various types of dictionaries of official military jargon.
… Today, when nuclear weapons have already become frightening mantlepiece decorations that are losing their real operational value with each passing day, financial war has become a “hyperstrategic” weapon that is attracting the attention of the world. This is because financial war is easily manipulated and allows for concealed actions, and is also highly destructive.
Our privateers profit, even enjoy, their games. We shouldn’t expect the victims to like it. Now new great powers arise, and clearing away privateers and pirates is a common first move for such nations (today they sail the financial system, now the seas). That means revising the international rules that allow privateers to operate, and building global banking systems not under control of the western nations.
It’s already happening. Nothing can stop a new system from arising, either through evolution of the current system, development of a new system running in parallel, or a new system that replaces ours.
Our pirates are stars of our society, philanthropists, king makers of our politics, and gurus to whom we listen respectfully on whatever subjects they deign to lecture. Bigger than life, colorful lords of finance, even masters of the universe. Soon they’ll be extinct, unmourned by their victims.
That will not end financial warfare, any more than eliminating privateers eliminated naval combat. Nukes are (slowly) ending the forms of traditional war by States — forcing them to (like non-State actors) wage 4GW — as the US and Iran have against Iran (see below). But that’s a subject for another day.
For More Information
About financial warfare:
- Two essential texts in the theory and practice of financial warfare,11 September 2008
- Global Trends 2025: the National Intelligence Council’s 2025 Project, 24 November 2008
Financial war waged against Iran:
- The hidden objective of our alliance against Iran, 11 June 2012
- Threats to attack Iran are smoke. Sanctions on Iran are our tool. Weakening Iran is our goal., 14 June 2012
- Hegemon at work on Iran, doing what hegemonic powers do. No war needed – or likely., 17 July 2012
- Our crusade slowly crushes Iran, and reveals much about us, 8 October 2012
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FM,
Thanks for posting this article. Very informative. As with our long running debate over the efficacy of 4GW, how is this new?
How is George Soros any different than the robber barons of the 1890’s and the Captains of Industry in the early 1900’s?
Also, why should we assume that, this time, there will be a correction and “evolve to meet their standards of what’s right and proper.”
Mike
Mike,
As always in discussions of history, people ask if “this is new”? In the big sense, people don’t change so few things are new (e.g., nukes, the pill) — so history is like a dance, unchanging but always different in the details. Understanding history helps us better see our time by noting similarities to the past, and differences to our past.
Soros is different than his peers of the past in several ways. First, he “attacks” foreigners — like privateers, unlike our robber barons. That makes him more disruptive — people are often more angered by foreign foes than domestic ones.
Second, in scale. Soros brought down the currency peg (the “snake”) of a the UK — a major nation. I can think of no private citizens who did such a thing in the centuries before 1980.
Third, most of the robber barons built great commercial enterprises. Railroads, canals, the steel and oil industries (as always, there were rogue exceptions, like Jay Cooke). Hedge funds (and their cousins in private equity) build nothing. In that sense they are like privateers, not the 19th century lords of industry.
“Why should we assume that {the system will} evolve to meet their standards of right and proper”
Because that’s what powerful nations do with their power. But don’t assume China’s standards will be the same as your or mine. Their standards will meet their needs, as the standards America (and its allies) imposed on the world meet our needs (not, for example, those of Latin America).
re the whole Asian Contagion of 1997, did not the IMF also have a big role to play in it?
Pgrommit,
There was no direct role of the IMF in causing the 1997-98 EM event. There seldom is. They focus on advice (some good, some bad, usually ignored) and first aid after accidents.
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As economist Herb Stein remarked, “Trends that are unsustainable tend to end.” Clearly the exponential growth of pure finance robber barons, who as FM points out build nothing and create nothing and contribute nothing of any value to the society which supports them, seems unsustainable.
It would prove interesting if we passed out of capitalism into a world run by whuffy, or with a maximum income cap, or a minimum guaranteed income for all citizens, or with rapid replicators for all citizens able to manufacture any imaginable machine or electronic device, or with something like the Mondragon cooperatives organizing business. Time will tell.
I’ve always wondered as to why there haven’t been (more) firect attacks on some of the big players in person. Some of these people are directly responsible for the misery and destitution of thousands of (small) people. One should think that at least some of the bankrupted victims would consider assassination as fitting retribution. At the very least I would have expected the return of miliant groups in the mold of the RAF http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction we had in Germany.
MMK,
The Leftist insurgent groups in Europe were, I suspect, dependent on the Soviet Union for support. They are not typical phenomena of western history.
More generally, people take oppression quietly. That is the rule in history, with astonishingly few exceptions.
People take oppression up to a point. It depends if that point has been reached. At moment lashing out at bosses, colleagues and others.
Winston,
I believe history refutes your pleasant theory. There are no obvious limits to how much oppression people will take. Rebellions occur, but not by extreme oppression.
Iran still in sight as US not really in drivers seat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs9IXbBEVF4
One Woman Helped Prevent Iran War
http://www.hangthebankers.com/us-ambassador-to-un-admits-the-plan-is-to-overthrow-assad/
US ambassador to UN admits the plan is to overthrow Assad
http://www.citylightspodcast.com/deep-politics-in-the-age-of-bush-and-obama/
DEEP POLITICS
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/26313-machiavelli-and-oligarchic-democracy
Machiavelli and Oligarchic Democracy
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/10/22/the-147-companies-that-control-everything/
The 147 Companies That Control Everything
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-14/corruption-is-perceived-as-greater-where-income-gaps-are-big
Is the U.S. as Corrupt as the Third World?
http://www.businessinsider.com/financial-advisor-insights-june-14-2013-6
JACK BOGLE: The Financial Industry Has Too Much Power Over Corporate America
http://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/sp20090513.html
The Culture That Gave Rise To The Current Financial Crisis
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/investment_manager.html
An Investment Manager’s View on the Top 1%
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/investment_manager_2014.html
An Investment Manager’s 2014 Update on the Top 1%
http://www.salon.com/news/economics/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/09/17/retirement_heist_interview&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29_7_30_110
The theft of the American pension
Rebellion occurs when middle classes get involved and conflict between elites can also be a player.
Rebellions on a national scale are rare in history. Successful rebellions are even rarer. Generalizing on these rare events is inherently dubious.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.larouchepub.com%2Feiw%2Fpublic%2F2013%2Feirv40n11-20130315%2F22-26_4011.pdf
Philip Marshall,
Author of ‘Big Bamboozle,’ Dead
http://larouchepac.com/al-qaeda-executive
The Al Qaeda Executive
US already had a peaceful rebellion against robber barons. The Progressive Era.
Something similar also happened in Norway and Sweden.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2012/01/26/how-swedes-and-norwegians-broke-power-1-percent
How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
Also about the Navy Analyst:
http://www.juancole.com/2012/08/plot-to-provoke-war-with-iran-thwarted-by-navy-analyst.html
Plot to Provoke war with Iran thwarted by Navy analyst
They tried to provoke Iran again. This time British did it:
“Anyway, the UK was plainly wrong to be ultra provocative in disputed waters. ”
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2007/murray290307.html
Iran and Iraq: Fake Maritime Boundaries
http://www.mintpressnews.com/video-spoon-fed-terror-threat-truth-khorasan/197066/
VIDEO: A ‘Spoon-Fed’ Terror Threat: The Truth About Khorasan
“Once it served its purpose of justifying the start of the bombing campaign in Syria, the Khorasan narrative simply evaporated as quickly as it materialized,” Intercept writers reveal.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/story-war-foretold-fighting-isis/197013/
Story Of A War Foretold: Why We’re Fighting ISIS
Nafeez Ahmed examines how the rise of ISIS was both predicted and evitable, and argues the West’s current military campaign is already being used to neuter mass surveillance reforms at home and will likely produce further political destabilisation in the region.
A continuation of what Wesley Clark described?
By the way, rising cancer rates in Saudi Arabia. I think because of DU. Not only getting it via air currents from theaters near them;but also from food grown in India and Pakistan, two countries also affected by air currents. Saudis too stupid to put two and two together!
Did you know Tasmanian Devils and US soldiers have something in common?
http://rense.com/general87/down.htm
Downwind Airflow Maps Of
US DU War On Afghanistan
http://eyreinternational.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/at-last-the-british-mod-admit-to-the-dangers-of-depleted-uranium/
http://petereyrepatch.blogspot.com/2009/12/uranium-weapons-does-anyone-care-about_09.html
The Deceit of Depleted Uranium use in Afghanistan – Part 1. By Peter Eyre
“tumors in the colon have increased during the past two years among citizens under 35, who account for a quarter of patients with this condition.”
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/healthy-living/2014/09/22/Colon-cancer-most-common-in-Saudi-Arabia-.html
Colon cancer most ‘common’ type of cancer in Saudi Arabia
http://www.arabnews.com/news/523586
Kingdom records 11% annual rise in cancer diseases
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