GEORGE SOROS' OWN WORDS

GEORGE SOROS

George Soros is chariman of Soros fund Management and chairman

of Open Society Foundations,, a pioneer of the hedge fund industry

and author of many financeal books.

December 28, 2016 he wrote, “Open Society Needs Defending”.

These are his words;

Well before Trump was elected President og the United States, I sent

holiday greetings to my friends that read, “These Time Are Not

Business As Usual. Wishing you the best in a troubled world.”

I the need to give the rest of the world the message but first you

need to know who I am and what I stand for.

I am a Hungarian Jew, born 1930, who became a U.S. Citizen

after WW II. I suffered through the occupation of Hungary by Hitler. I

learned early it is important to understand the kind of political regime

is in control.

In 1947 I left Communist Hungary to go to England as a student

of the London School of Economics under the influence of Karl

Popper, a philospher. I soon developed my own philosophy built on

fallibility and reflexivity. I distinguished beteen two political

regimes, one which the people elected leaders who were to look after

those peoples interest. This I called an open society, the other where the

ruler manupulated the people to serve the rulers interest, which I called

the closed society.

I found the classification too simplistic, there are too many variations .

Even so I fnd the to types of regime types useful.

I became an active promoter of the open society and a opponent of

the closed society.

I find the current sitituation. remember this is 2016, very painful,

open societies are in crisis and various forms of closed societies ,

like fascist dictatorships to mafia states, are on the rise. My explanation

is that elected officials failed to meet voters aspirations an this failure

led voters to be disenchanted with democracy and capitalism. Rather

simply said, voters felt the elected officials had stolen their democracy.

When the Soviet Union collapsed the US emerged the sole remaning

superpower, equally committed to democracy and free markets.

Since then has been the globalization of financial markets that are said

to increase total wealth. Even if the winners compensated the loosers, the

winner would have some left overs.

Very misleading, it ignored the fact that winners seldom compensated

the looser. The potential winners spent big money promoting their

plan and was a victory to free interprise and globalization spread.

Globalization has had far reaching econmic and political consequences.

It has closed a gap between rich and poor nations. It benefited large owners

of capital who are less than 1% of the population. It had a large effect

on Europe.

I was a supporter of the Eeuropean Union and regarded it a

idea of an open society. It was called “Piecemeal Social Engimeering”.

Something went wrong, debtors had difficulties meeting obligations

to creditors who set conditions debtors had to obay.

Germany came out as the hegemontic power in Eutope but failed,

Lehman Brrrother failed, then Brexit, then Trump.

Democracy is now in crises, the leading democracy elected a con

artist and would be dicator as its leader. Eventhough Trump has toned

down his rhetoric he has not changed his behavior nor advisers. His

cabinet comprises incompetent extreamist and retired generals.

OK. What is ahead?

I am confident democracy will prove resilent, recover, in the US, it's Constitution and institutions are strong enough to ressist excesses of

the executive branch and prevent a dictator. US has struggles and

targeted minorities will suffer, be unalbe to promote democracy in other

countrys, Trump will become more frindly with 'dictators' , allowing

them to carry on without interference.

I was particularly concerned about the fate of the European Union being

in danger of coming under Vladinir Putin whi is not a beneficiary

of the recent developments. He is concerned and working hard to

correct his regimes weakness. He tried to take control of social

media, spread misinformation and fake news. A brilliant move. This

I feel helped get Trump elected.

With economic growth lagging and the refugee crisis out of control

EU is on the verge of breakdown.

Abstract: November 7, 2018 by Harrison H. from

Project Syndicate, www.project-syndicate.org, George Soros'

own words, titled “Open Society Needs Defending” dated

December 28, 2016.