Talk:George Soros/Archive 2

message: I would prefer to delete this sentence:
Soros's critics contend that this event is an indicator of the quality of Soros's morality.
It may be true that they say this, but it is a bit like innuendo smears by proxy. --Blue Tie 22:09, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The fact that the world now knows of this event solely because Soros has told the story himself might be an indication of a high level of candor, but somehow I don't think that whoever wrote the sentence you quote had that particular inference in mind. Furthermore, this stuff about "moral qualities" isn't really supported by the source to which we're linked, where Horowitz et al talk about how they AREN'T making a moral judgment of the choices Soros made as a child. And, indeed, they seem at one point to be praising him for his candor as an adult.  --Christofurio 00:06, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Moral Qualities 

message: I think the "Quotes" section has grown out of hand... Wikipedia is not Wikiquotes (and we already have a link to the Wikiquotes page). Anyone else for transwiki-ing the bulk of quotations? -- Marcika 17:08, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think it is ok so far.  It is not too big yet.  But I would not want to see many more. --Blue Tie 17:28, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Quotes section too long 

message: I think that "Jewish-American financial speculator" in the intro has some very questionable overtones.  There's no question that each of the 4 parts is correct, the only question is whether they are important enough to be put in the intro.  It's something like a woman who would not want to be introduced as "Mrs. Thomas Smith."
Is the fact that she's married to a guy named Thomas a defining characteristic?
For Soros it's obvious that 'financial speculator' is a defining feature, American?  probably not, Jewish - certainly not for me.  Smallbones 15:33, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Nationality is required per wikipedia Manual of Style (biographies).  Ethnicity should generally not be emphasized in the opening unless it is relevant to the subject's notability.  So "American" must be included.  The question is:  Should "Jewish" also be included?   I do not know.  --Blue Tie 21:11, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jewish American in the intro 

message: I feel that a section in criticisms should be added about the book The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party, a book by far right authors David Horowitz and Richard Poe. The book outlines a near conspiracy theory about George Soros's plot to take over the world via the American Democratic party. Someone who has read the book should write a NPOV section about its points.
209.6.134.68 18:38, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Shadow Party 

message: There has been no mention of Soros circumventing the spirit of campaign finance reform through 527 groups.  Should it be put in?Decato 21:56, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I suppose you could put in an accusation to that effect. But probably shouldn't spend too much time on it, after all, there is no non-neutral view of what the "spirit" of the law is. The letters simply allow what they allow, and one either breaks a law or complies with it. The "spirit" is best left to exorcists. --Christofurio 14:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Political Criticsm  

message: Can anyone elaborate on how Soros actually undermined the Bank of England in the 90s? Some info /research on this please.
: Fascinating story. There are lots of good sources for it. Here's a link to a discussion at the BBC website, for example. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2259648.stm Am I helping somebody with their homework here? Never mind. You might look up Soros' name in the index of the book Inside the House of Money a collection of interviews and connecting material. The interviewer is Steven Drobny, who heads a macroeconomic research and consulting firm. The interviewees are a variety of influential people within the hedge fund industry and related fields.  
:Soros is not one of the book's interviewees, but several of them have stories to tell about him that bear on your question. 
:Any way, the gist of it was this. The UK was at that time part of the European Rate Mechanism, the system that evolved into the single currency, the euro. In accord with the ERM, the Bank of England was committed to keeping the value of the pound within a certain fixed trading range vis-a-vis the other currencies in the same system -- in particular, the Deutschemark. The result was that if the pound was in danger of falling out the bottom side of the band of permissible values, the Bank was committed to buying pounds, thereby increasing demand for them and pushing the price back into the band. Or (what amounts to the same thing) to raising the overnight interest rate.
: George Soros decided that the pound was over-valued, and the Bank of England couldn't keep supporting it. One important consideration was that about 90 percent of the country's mortgages were linked to the overnight rate. If the Bank of England raises the rates on Wednesday, homeowners would learn about it in a very non-theoretical context, by Friday. This persuaded Soros that it would be plitically impossible for the Bank to do what it had to do to keep within the ERM.
:So he sold the pound short. The idea was apparently that of a Soros employee named Stanley Druckenmiller. Soros embraced it, and pressed Stan to take a really big position -- so big that if the Bank had won, if the pound had gone up in value toward the high side of the band and Soros had had to cover his position, it is unlikely he'd be notable enough for an encyclopedia article today. 
: But the Bank lost. It had to stop buying, and let the pound fall out of the ERM. This probably prolonged the recession the UK was in at the time, but there have been good effects, as the BBC page I've linked you to above explains. And most Brits to whom I've spoken about the matter are happy that the pound still exists, and they aren't doing business in euros. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Christofurio (talk • contribs) 00:59, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bank of England Crisis. 

message: I just noticed this:
"George Soros has been married three times, to Annaliese Witschak and to Susan Weber Soros. He is now married to violinist, Jennifer Chun." from a few days ago.
Does anybody know this is true??  It's not in his bio at http://www.georgesoros.com, but that might be out of date.
I googled "Jennifer Chun" and soros and got 5 or so mentions of them as a couple, but no marriage announcements.  I'll delete this in a few days if there isn't any real confirmation. Smallbones 19:50, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Chun marriage???