'I'm having a very good crisis,' says Soros as hedge fund managers make billions off

[darrels joy]

'I'm having a very good crisis,' says Soros as hedge fund managers make billions off recession

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 5:13 PM on 25th March 2009
George Soros said the current economic crisis has been the culmination of his life's work

A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been 'stimulating' and the culmination of his life's work.

George Soros, who predicted the global financial crisis twice before, was one of the few people to anticipate and prepare for the current economic collapse.

Mr Soros said his prediction meant he was better able to brace his Quantum investment fund against the gloabal storm.

But other investors failed to take notice of his prediction and his decision to come out of retirement in 2007 to manage the fund made him $US2.9 billion.

And while the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the 78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year.

'It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life’s work,' he told national newspaper The Australian.

Soros is one of 25, top hedge fund managers from across Wall Street who have defied the credit crunch crisis to reap a total of $11.6billion (£7.9bn) last year.

The managers made their profit by trading above the pain in the markets, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha Magazine.

Former maths professor James H. Simons, who has made billions in hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, earned $2.5 billion running computer-driven trading strategies.

And John A. Paulson, who made his fortune by betting against the housing market, came in second earning $2 billion.









Big hitters: John Paulson and James H Simons were part of a group of 25 hedge fund managers who make a total of $11.6bn

The managers made the profit in a year when losses were recorded at two of every three hedge funds and when hedge funds lost an average of 18 percent, according to the New York Times.

Two of the three managers who tied for ninth place, at $250 million, are based in Britain and include David Harding of Winton Capital and Alan Howard of Brevan Howard Asset Management.

Another Brevan Howard employee Christopher Rokos also made the list.

The profit comes at a time when the U.S Government is scrutinising Wall Street pay and when hedge funds are facing proposals for new taxes on their gains.

Despite the global financial crisis, the combined pay of the top 25 hedge fund managers still managed to top every year before 2006.

Mr. Paulson said his pay was high, partly because he is the largest investor in his fund and that he did not receive a bonus.

He said the the pensions, endowments and other institutions which invest in his fund do not object to the profits he and his team make.

'In a year when all their other investments lost money, we’re like an oasis,' he said in the Times.

'We have investors who were invested with Madoff, and they can’t thank me enough.'

Alpha Magazine's 2008 Top Moneymakers

1 - James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp, $2.5 billion
2 - John Paulson, Paulson & Co, $2 billion
3 - John Arnold, Centaurus Energy, $1.5 billion
4 - George Soros, Soros Fund Management, $1.1 billion
5 - Raymond Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, $780 million
6 - Bruce Kovner, Caxton Associates, $640 million
7 - David Shaw, D.E. Shaw & Co, $275 million
8 - Stanley Druckenmiller, Duquesne Capital Management, $260 million
9 - (tie) David Harding, Winton Capital Management, $250 million
9 - (tie) Alan Howard, Brevan Howard Asset Management, $250 million
9 - (tie) John Taylor Jr, FX Concepts, $250 million
Profiles for hedge fund managers ranked 12 through 25 will be available tomorrow:
12 - James Chanos, Kynikos Associates
13 - Michael Platt, BlueCrest Capital Management
14 - Roy Niederhoffer, R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management
15 - John Horseman, Horseman Capital Management
16 - Paul Touradji, Touradji Capital Management
17 - Henry Laufer, Renaissance Technologies Corp.
18 - Kenneth Tropin, Graham Capital Management
19 - (tie) Pierre Andurand, Dennis Crema, BlueGold Capital Management
19 - (tie) Christopher Rokos, Brevan Howard Asset Management
22 - (tie) Christian Baha, Superfund
22 - (tie) Christian Levett, Clive Capital
24 - William Dunn, Dunn Capital Management
25 - Andrew Hoine, Paulson & Co.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...recession.html#

[darrels joy]

AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | April 2, 2009



In the final analysis, the grand total of money to be looted from American taxpayers as a result of Obama’s commitments at the G 20 conference could easily surpass trillions of dollars.



At the G 20 summit in London, President Barack Obama won rave reviews from reporters, many of whom clamored like school kids for the chance to ask him a question at his news conference, but the official conference document proves that plans are being made for what can only be described as the further looting of American taxpayers in order to feed unaccountable and corrupt global entities.

This is not “global cooperation,” as so many in the media described it, but a massive new expansion of the power and authority of international agencies and institutions such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

By embracing the “global plan for recovery and reform,” which is how it was officially described, Obama explicitly endorsed International Monetary Fund (IMF) surveillance of the U.S. economy, creation of a global “Financial Stability Board,” the expanded use of a new global currency called Special Drawing Rights, a new global warming treaty, and costly fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This is in addition to the explicit and reported commitment of over $1 trillion in additional taxpayer money to the IMF and the World Bank.

The Special Drawing Rights proposal, which is a vehicle for further U.S. foreign aid to the rest of the world, was the brainchild of billionaire George Soros, who told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo that the G 20 conference was a “success.”

Dubbed the “Lenin of the 21^st Century” by the Ripon Forum magazine, because of his apparent transformation from super-capitalist into “neo-Marxist,” Soros waged an expensive but unsuccessful campaign to defeat President George W. Bush for re-election in 2004. He has been determined to install a puppet in the White House.

In addition to financing Democratic Party politicians and left-wing organizations such as the ACLU, he has subsidized a wide array of liberal causes, ranging from abortion rights to gay rights to legalization of dangerous drugs. Even former members of the terrorist Weather Underground, such as Bernardine Dohrn and Linda Evans, have appeared at functions sponsored by his so-called Open Society Institute or accepted its grants.

Soros had backed Obama for president in 2008, saying that he had “the charisma and the vision to radically reorient America in the world.” His prediction seems to be eerily coming true.

In the final analysis, the grand total of money to be looted from American taxpayers as a result of Obama’s commitments at the G 20 conference could easily surpass trillions of dollars. In a major understatement, the official conference document calls it “unprecedented and concerted fiscal expansion.”

But while Obama endorsed the document and its recommendations, the Congress of the United States can still have some say over whether some of the commitments he made are put into law.

Consider the commitment to the U.N. MDGs, for example. The document includes the statement that “we reaffirm our historic commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals…” This is, in fact, a disguised attempt to make then-Senator Obama’s Global Poverty Act the law of the land through executive action. This measure alone has been estimated to cost $845 billion and it was never passed by Congress because of public opposition. In similar fashion, the current Congress can also resist compliance with the U.N. mandate.

“We will support, now and in the future, to candid, even-handed, and independent IMF surveillance of our economies and financial sectors, of the impact of our policies on others, and of risks facing the global economy,” the document states. There is no exception for the U.S.

Hence, the IMF will now be in a position to officially monitor and pass judgment on U.S. economic policies. We have become like any other second- or third-rate power in need of global oversight and supervision.

The proposed “new Financial Stability Board (FSB)” will have a “strengthened mandate” and work with the IMF to “reshape our regulatory systems.” Among other things, its mission is to “assess vulnerabilities affecting the financial system, identify and oversee action needed to address them,” “promote co-ordination and information exchange among authorities responsible for financial stability,” and “monitor and advise on market developments and their implications for regulatory policy.”

The Financial Stability Board is the new name for a more powerful and expanded Financial Stability Forum, a body originally designed to “promote international financial stability through information exchange and international co-operation in financial supervision and surveillance.” Members of the group include the central banks of various nations, international financial institutions, and supervisors in important financial centers.

The document also states that “we call on the UN, working with other global institutions, to establish an effective mechanism to monitor the impact of the crisis on the poorest and most vulnerable.”

Is this the same U.N. that has achieved a reputation for corruption, fraud, waste, and incompetence? Is this the organization whose “peacekeepers” have been found guilty of the sexual abuse of women and children around the world? It is one and the same.

In the name of holding big banks accountable, therefore, Obama has put the U.S. in the hands of “global institutions” that are somehow supposed to help provide a “global solution” to the “global crisis.” If anything, the record demonstrates that these institutions make human problems worse, not better.

Nevertheless, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared that “A new world order is emerging and with it we’re entering into a new era of international cooperation.”

But viewed in another light, Obama has sold out the sovereignty of the United States and has laid the groundwork for the death of the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant currency. While President Bush started this insidious process of holding G 20 meetings, Obama has taken the process much further down the road. It is truly unprecedented.

The “London Summit ― Leaders’ Statement,” dated April 2, 2009, was only nine pages, and there were some vague and confusing statements in it. But much of it was both understandable and frightening, if reporters would only take the time to bother to read it.

“We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250 billion into the world economy and increase global liquidity, and urgent ratification of the Fourth Amendment,” the document says. Basic research would disclose that this is a reference to Special Drawing Rights, a so-called international “reserve asset” which under the Obama plan would evolve into a kind of new global currency based on the willingness of the U.S. and other countries to dramatically increase funding of the IMF. In the words of the IMF, a Special Drawing Right is “a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members.” That means that its worth is based in part on claims to U.S. taxpayer dollars. It is a new form of foreign aid.

The reference to ratifying the Fourth Amendment (of the IMF Articles of Agreement) means that Obama has agreed that the U.S. will vote to greatly expand the use of SDRs. But the Congress can have a say in this.

This proposal had been demanded by billionaire leftist George Soros.

Indeed, according to a news account in advance of the London meeting, he had come up with the specific $250 billion figure.

As we had documented years ago, Soros has long viewed Special Drawing Rights as a variation of a global tax to finance more foreign aid. Expanding the use of SDRs is another obvious effort to drain wealth away from the United States.

The two annexes to the G 20 document are full of detailed recommendations for regulating such matters as pay and compensation at financial institutions and “international standards in relation to tax transparency.” One of the main objectives is to reduce the ability of people and corporations to avoid high tax rates.

“We reaffirm our commitment to address the threat of irreversible climate change, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and to reach agreement at the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009,” the document states. This is a commitment to sign a new global warming treaty that could cost the U.S. economy even more trillions of dollars. But this agreement would also require Congressional approval.

In a virtual throwaway line, the document calls for extending “regulation and oversight to all systemically important financial institutions, instruments and markets,” including “for the first time, systemically important hedge funds…”

If such a proposal were actually implemented, and there are strong doubts that it ever would be, such supervision could possibly shed some light on the mysterious behind-the-scenes activities of George Soros himself, one of Obama’s biggest backers, who was convicted of insider trading in France.

While decrying the lack of regulation, Soros has made billions of dollars operating a secretive off-shore financial hedge fund and manipulating international financial markets and foreign currencies.

Known as “the man who almost broke the Bank of England” and described by some as “extremely evil,” Soros engaged in a complex financial transaction that resulted in the Bank of England losing billions of dollars defending the British pound before having to devalue it. He has controversial investments in places like Colombia, where the banks have been penetrated by drug cartels eager to launder their drug money.

In a major court case filed by the law offices of David H. Relkin, Soros has recently been charged with “money laundering, bankruptcy fraud, and bid rigging” and of having a “pattern of money laundering activities” that includes the investment in the Colombian bank and using an off-shore tax haven that protects the identity of investors from disclosure. A Soros representative was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that the lawsuit was completely without merit.

The Soros role in the U.S. housing market collapse continues to be the subject of speculation, interest and even Congressional hearings. The collapse of the financial system in mid-September greatly damaged the electoral chances of John McCain and Sarah Palin, who were ahead in the polls at the time, and paved the way for Obama’s victory.

In 2008, Soros was once again on the list of highest-paid hedge fund managers, according to Institutional Investor magazine’s Alpha publication. He made $1.1 billion during the economic collapse and recession.

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Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at cliff.kincaid@aim.org

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obama-...-loot-america/