Business Wk Reviews Soros

["John Gelles" <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

	Robert Dowling (managing editor BW international editions)
	reviews (12/21/98 pg 30) "The Crisis of Global Capitalism",
	George Soros' plea -- to infuse ruined economies with fresh
	resources from the major Western countries and Japan.
	He would also like to see currency speculation curbed.

	Dowling recounts the many faces of Soros: (1) Billionaire
	hedge fund boss. (2) Monetary statesman who advises those
	in power (and out) how to save places where his funds are
	major players. (3) Philanthropist, spending millions on private
	foundations in and for democracy in central Europe and
	Russia. (4) Radical American right-to-die and medical-
	marijuana legalization reformer.

	Dowling makes sense of these varied efforts --
	they represent fear that governments (i.e., politicians)
	are asleep at the switch -- crises develop because
	of the vacuum existing in world democratic leadership.
	Someone must fill it. Why not himself.

	(When wasn't there a vacuum? -- Gelles is thinking.)

	The hard edge of Soros new book is the call for a
	loan guarantee fund to prevent depression where it's
	not yet taken hold, and to turn markets in Asia, Russia
	and Latin America into attractive places for
	investment again.

	Dowling approves of the idea IF, and only if, it actually
	averts and/or rescues the world from depressions. Since
	we cannot know this in advance, he really disapproves
	of taking the risk. How big a guarantee does Soros
	recommend? About $150 billion to start.

	The above ends Dowling's views on Soros -- but the
	review is longer and all is well worth reading.

	Like me, Soros suggests politicians will not rise to the
	occasion. This real pessimism, if justified, makes his
	ideas (like mine) largely a mental exercise. If not -- if
	there is reason for optimism, he ought to get mad as
	hell and shout his message louder. Better still, he
	should get together with Krugman and put on a duet
	-- a very loud one.

	And both of them ought to consider tax relief and
	individual estate accounts (IEA's **). As it is, they
	have nothing to say to the middle class that the latter
	can take to the bank.

	     John Gelles       jjgelles@xxxxxxxx
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