Monday, June 21, 2010

George Soros Stumbles in the Face of Tom Woods' Influenced Questioning

Dixie Flatline writes:
The first Chinese participant does a fantastic job of challenging George Soros, with what sounds to me, like an argument directly out of Tom Woods NYT bestseller, Meltdown. Now I haven’t read Meltdown, but I have caught all of Woods’ articles and speeches available online, and feel I can confidently make that assessment.

At 2:30, the Chinese participant mentions that markets can correct themselves, and Soros argues they cannot.

Notice how Soros stumbles when he talks about how markets are smarter than regulators, then claims that only regulators can stop perpetual market failure. And the questioner does a wonderful job of pointing out, that only expansion of the monetary base can provide the necessary environment for these large booms, and Soros starts blinking, which sometimes is a sign of discomfort (approx. 4:30)

Great video, and wonderful to see the oligarchs challenged, particularly in Asia, which is where the hope for rational, free market economics, specifically Austrian Economics, has enormous potential to take hold. As the flows of capital shift from the West to the East, its my feeling that change in economic attitudes will come where people have a healthy disrespect for the state, for propaganda, and the population generally values intellectualism, and savings.
Watch the video:

13 comments:

  1. "Your ideas are great, but your arguments are not very convincing."

    This is amazing!!!

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  2. The Chinese guy has obviously read either Tom Woods or Robert Murphy when he references the depression of 1920-21. They are the only economists writing about that episode.

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  3. Soros sees a bubble and he buys? That may or may not be good investment advice depending on how developed the bubble is and how ready it is to collapse. If you enter into a bubble too late you can potentially lose a lot of money.

    The fact that a bubble will collapse is inevitable. A bubble is specifically defined as unsustainable growth (most often brought on by easy credit policies).

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  4. I agree with the smart Chinese guys.

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  5. Austrian economics is a fraud. Don't be fooled.

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  6. P is different than non-P is a fraud. Don't be fooled.

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  7. why have you not read the most important book on the economic collapse written to date?

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  8. Anonymous is a fraud. =) Austrian economics is truth; it cannot be refuted because it is a product of scientific and logical inquiry as opposed to the derivations of charts and graphs and empirical statistics. Keynesianism is the fraud: government intervention is the real failure. However, even if government did not bring about economic catastrophe, the use of government violence, ie regulation, is immoral and evil.

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  9. Listening with care is an art. Soros said they parted because Jim Rogers worked for 8 as a securities analyst, but didn't had the attitude to work with 7 others. That's a subtle way to say that if you want to expand a firm, beyond a certain size, you need people in the office who are co-operative in a group and not Einzelgängers.

    Rogers is definitely not poor, but he is certainly not comparable to either Warren Buffet or George Soros in their success with investment activities.

    What Rogers often does on television is precisely that activity, where he is praised here: being an analyst of securities and market trends.

    For successful trading Rogers always acknowledges that he is a terrible market timer.

    The person who posted this video needs to work on his understanding of the English language.

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  10. i would DIE to hear woods, murphy, de soto, or any austrian economist debate george soros' lot. i have debates with my friends all the time; they study political science at school (while i'm in pharmacy) so their arguments always spawn from "well this happened, so this is how the government responded in order to correct it. therefore, the policy is legitimate"

    they make the fatal mistake, as soros did in his arguments, of judging policies by their intent and not their outcome! i constantly have to remind them of their fault :).

    woo drunken politics!!!

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  11. Soros spent his professional life since Rogers working without respite to increase his personal wealth and, more importantly, his power and political influence. Make no mistake, even his "charities" are part of an overall strategy (which is fair enough, they are HIS charities to set in motion and allow to operate as he pleases). He has invested significant efforts getting in "on the inside", entertaining, mixing, socialising, networking etc. with the important powerful people. He is making a mark as a primary influencer of world politics. So far, he has had some success in these activities.

    On the other hand, Rogers has spent a lot of his life, since working with Soros, engaging in other activities. For example, he travelled around the world on personal adventures twice, once with his wife. He was away for years. He wrote books about these experiences. He spent his time "on holiday". Basically, the guy moved on, realising that there is more to life than being recognised as "the greatest investor". He has had an interesting life since Soros. I guess he must figure that after the first few tens of millions his quality of life and his qualities as a human being were not going to improve greatly if he continued anaylsing and trading full time. If you like (from an Austrian point of view), he made a subjective valuation and acted upon it.

    Concluding. Comparison of Soros with Rogers or Buffet with Rogers in terms of who is a better investor is misleading. Rogers, in essence, retired years ago. Perhaps he is back in the game in a small way these days, but he does not appear to be fully committed. Meanwhile Soros and Buffet appear to have sunk themselves into a mire of cronism, big government and centralisation. Ugh! Both should know better...


    Sione

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  12. I couldn't agree more with GSoros, markets don't correct themselves. During the great depression, what ultimately enabled a sustain recovery was the fiscal stimulus triggered by the 2nd WW. We all love to give opinions, but facts speak louder and Soros track record speaks for itself.

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  13. To state Jim Rogers is not a great investor and basically say that Soros did only 1/9th percent of the work in the Quantum Fund which outperformed the S and P by thousands of percent is typical of Soros. Rogers was a great analyst, while Soros was convicted of insider trading as his "analysis".
    Soros stole from his own people in WW2 and its all been downhill from there. He makes western politicians seem like pastors. Color revolutions/rent a crowd, regime changes and much more.

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