Re: Soros & immiseration

[Daniel Davies <dsquared@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm not sure about this one either.  Paul Krugman apparently thinks that
Soros was part of a syndicate that staged the original bear raid on the Thai
baht (http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/xfiles.html , "Relativity Fund" is a
pretty transparent reference to Soros' Quantum Fund), which if true would
put some of the blame for the Asian crash onto him (though as Doug notes,
most of the blame goes to the IMF).  But even Krugman admits that the
evidence for this theory is pretty sketchy, and in general the activity of
currency speculation is one whereby the same group of players pass chips
back and forth between one another.

dd
-----Original Message-----
From: PEN-L list [mailto:PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Doug
Henwood
Sent: 07 September 2004 17:53
To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Soros & immiseration


I'd like to hear some arguments for how Soros has driven millions
into poverty. Breaking the pound actually did Britain a favor; the
rate at which the pound went into the ERM was way too high, and
helped push the country into recession. In Asia, the IMF turned a
problem into a crisis by forcing the usual austerity measures. As far
as I can tell, Soros made most of his money from other, less clever
speculators - not by squeezing the proletariat.

Doug