Hedge fund operator controlling Democratic politicians, media
- From: Bret Ludwig <bretldwig@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:26:22 -0800 (PST)
Soros nation: Hedge fund operator controlling Democratic politicians,
media
By Cliff Kincaid
"Our media have treated us to endless replays of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attacking one another's corporate ties.
Obama said Clinton had been a corporate lawyer on the board of Wal-
Mart, while Clinton countered that Obama did favors for a slumlord who
contributed to his political campaign. But there's more to this than
charges and counter-charges and a desperate race for the White House.
It is apparent that both of these candidates are "corporate Democrats"
with substantial ties to the business community. But haven't we been
told by the media that the Republicans are the party of Big Business?
In fact, a review of the public record for the 2008 election cycle
shows that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in the top five of all
politicians, on the presidential and congressional levels, in
receiving financial contributions from the controversial, mysterious
and secretive hedge fund industry. Overall, data from the Center for
Responsive Politics shows that hedge funds prefer Democrats over
Republicans by a margin of 79-21 percent. Democrats have received $4.2
million and Republicans $1.1 million from hedge funds. What the hedge
fund operators want from the politicians is what all of us desire¯less
taxation, regulation and oversight. But they have the money to get
their way, even though they can hold the fate of entire nations and
their economies in their hands.
It is significant that one of the richest men in the world,
billionaire George Soros, is a hedge fund operator and convicted
inside trader who pours millions of dollars into the Democratic Party,
its front groups and candidates. He has put money into the coffers of
both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He will be able to pull the
strings if either is elected president.
The other Democratic candidate, John Edwards, has not received money
from Soros but actually worked for a hedge fund before he started
going around the country blasting special interests. He is number five
on the list of receiving hedge fund money.
One hedge fund pouring large amounts of money into Hillary Clinton's
political activities hired her daughter Chelsea. It is no surprise
that Senator Clinton has balked at supporting a congressional proposal
to tax hedge funds.
Soros has been in the news at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland. Reporters have been anxious to interview him, as if he is
some kind of disinterested observer of the political scene. But he has
a vested interest in seeing the U.S. economy go down. A story from
four years ago explained how Soros even then was selling dollars and
propping up the European currency, the Euro.
Soros is telling the meeting in Davos that the dollar may be out as
the world's reserve currency. In this context, it is quite significant
that Foreign Affairs, the publication of the Council on Foreign
Relations, published an article, "The End of National Currency,"
advocating that Latin America "dollarize" its currencies in order to
save the dollar against the Euro and a predicted Asian common
currency. But the ultimate "salvation" could come in the elimination
of the dollar by a common currency for the Americas. It doesn't take
much of an imagination to conceive of a global currency to further the
process of globalization.
The author, Benn Steil, writes that "National currencies and global
markets simply do not mix; together they make a deadly brew of
currency crises and geopolitical tension and create ready pretexts for
damaging protectionism. In order to globalize safely, countries should
abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the
source of much of today's instability."
Coming across as concerned about the meltdown, the Associated Press is
quoting Soros as calling for "a massive injection of regulation and
oversight of financial markets whose excessive freedoms" have led to
the current financial crisis. The AP reported from Davos that Soros is
saying that "Authorities ought to go in and examine the books" of
financial institutions involved in the subprime mortgage scandal. What
about Soros' books? What about the books of the secretive hedge funds
that are manipulating currencies and economies and pouring millions of
dollars into the political campaigns?
It is estimated that assets under management by hedge funds are
approaching $2 trillion. But nobody knows for sure. The Securities and
Exchange Commission currently oversees and regulates mutual funds and
many investment advisers, but it does not regulate hedge funds.
Soros is clever at diverting attention away from his financial and
political manipulations. Through his so-called Open Society Institute,
he financed a "Global Integrity Project" which was supposed to track
corruption, openness and accountability in the U.S. and other
countries. Yet, Soros himself was accused of various election law
violations in 2004 by the conservative National Legal & Policy Center,
which also documented how Soros groups have received millions of
dollars in U.S. taxpayer money. Three years later, the Federal
Election Commission (FEC) still has not ruled on the complaint against
Soros.
Soros seems to be above the law and above media scrutiny.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that hedge fund operator John
Paulson got a visit from Soros after Paulson had made about $4 billion
betting on a housing market collapse. Soros wanted to know how he had
done it. But Soros wouldn't talk to the Journal about his meeting with
Paulson. Why? How does he get away with a no-comment?
Soros plays it smart in many ways. He pours money into journalism
organizations, including the Center for Investigative Reporting, the
Fund for Investigative Journalism, and Investigative Reporters &
Editors, thereby guaranteeing that they won't investigate how and
where he gets his money.
Rather than focus attention on those who created and profited from an
$8 trillion housing bubble, there has been a terrible tendency by some
in the media, including conservative writers and bloggers, to blame
average Americans for taking out loans they couldn't repay. This
analysis ignores how the lenders made risky loans they knew couldn't
be repaid. Those who have bought a home know that you aren't supposed
to get a mortgage loan, even of the subprime variety, unless the
"experts" judge through a detailed analysis of your assets and income
that you were able to pay if the interest rates went up. In a real
sense, many were tricked into getting loans they couldn't handle. This
was predatory lending. As a result, an estimated 3.5 million
homeowners could default on their mortgages in the next 2 1/2 years.
The companies that made or assumed those loans received top credit
ratings from firms such as Moody's. Its stock is now in the $30 range,
compared to a 52-week high of $76. You know the U.S. is in trouble
when the stock price of the firm that is supposed to rate other firms
for credit-worthiness and financial stability is in sharp decline.
Now, Merrill Lynch is forecasting nationwide U.S. home prices could
decline 25-30 percent over the next three years. This is a terrible
blow to the middle class, who were counting on their homes being a
good investment for the future. Declining house prices could cost
people who hold on to their homes literally trillions of dollars.
To make matters worse, this scandal is leading to another problem¯the
invasion of the U.S. by the so-called "sovereign wealth funds," which
are foreign government-controlled. Some of them in the news are based
in China and various Arab states. They are investing tens of billions
of dollars in the Wall Street firms that are writing off their risky
subprime mortgages.
So the firms responsible for the problem get financial bailouts from
abroad, America loses more of its sovereignty, perhaps its currency,
and Americans lose their shirts and their homes.
Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans dicker about an economic stimulus
plan that apparently will not address the damage to America's economic
standing in the world and the dissipation of our sovereignty.
We are witnessing, writes Lou Dobbs in his new book, Independents Day,
the erosion of our rights "as global economic integration creates a
global interdependence that threatens to overwhelm our national
identity." Dobbs takes direct aim at the "internationalists" who "seek
the demise of national sovereignty around the world, the end of
borders, and an integration of commerce and economies..."
His book, released last November, cited the falling dollar and the
rise of the Euro and predicted "there is sufficient reason to expect
that the economy may be a central issue in the 2008 election..." He was
right on the mark.
If the Republican presidential candidates don't understand the growing
appeal of his message, then they will lose in November to the Soros-
backed corporate Democrats."<<
Cliff Kincaid is Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at
cliff.kincaid@xxxxxxxx
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/eu_soros_01_24.asp
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3173
.
- Prev by Date: Why Did John McCain Sell Out America?
- Next by Date: Re: Howard Ferstler drops in - for a moment
- Previous by thread: Why Did John McCain Sell Out America?
- Next by thread: Little Red Riding Hood - A Politically Correct Fairy Tale
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
