Comments on: Soros visits KL http://www.tianchua.net/en/2006/12/15/soros-visits-kl/ la vie existe grace aux choix Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:10:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: kittykat46 http://www.tianchua.net/en/2006/12/15/soros-visits-kl/#comment-315 kittykat46 Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:20:35 +0000 http://www.tianchua.net/en/?p=189#comment-315 Hi Tian, I never believed Mahathir's rant about Soros. The primary root cause of Malaysia's 1997 currency crisis was government mismanagement and lack of accountability. We created the vulnerability in the first place, the currency speculators simply moved in to exploit it. I wouldn't try to idealise Soros though. He first caught my attention after his successful 1992 bet against the Bank of England on the European currency exchange system. In his business dealings, he's essentially an amoral capitalist. He's not a criminal in the sense of an armed robber, but the outcome of his activities have caused a lot of misery. He's used his immense fortune to do some social good. But his philantrophy cannot cleanse the blood associated with the money in the first place. I would contrast his ill-gotten gains with two other extremely wealthy individuals. Warren Buffett built his fortune through very astute long term investments. Bill Gates build Microsoft into an immensely competitive organisation. I have no basic quarrel with capitalism, but how the profits are generated does matter. Hi Tian,
I never believed Mahathir’s rant about Soros. The primary root cause of Malaysia’s 1997 currency crisis was government mismanagement and lack of accountability. We created the vulnerability in the first place, the currency speculators simply moved in to exploit it.

I wouldn’t try to idealise Soros though. He first caught my attention after his successful 1992 bet against the Bank of England on the European currency exchange system. In his business dealings, he’s essentially an amoral capitalist. He’s not a criminal in the sense of an armed robber, but the outcome of his activities have caused a lot of misery.
He’s used his immense fortune to do some social good. But his philantrophy cannot cleanse the blood associated with the money in the first place.
I would contrast his ill-gotten gains with two other extremely wealthy individuals. Warren Buffett built his fortune through very astute long term investments. Bill Gates build Microsoft into an immensely competitive organisation. I have no basic quarrel with capitalism, but how the profits are generated does matter.

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