ICouldBeWrong

Who's to Blame for IndyMac's Failure?

Soros seems ok to me, although I don't agree with his politics, and I wish he would lighten up a bit and throw a few more jokes in his books.

He definitely didn't break the Bank Of England in '92 or cause the Asian currency crisis. Those things were going to happen with or without him, he just profited from the trend. If you are going to blame him for that you might as well hate anyway who has invested in a market or has funds in a pension plan.

He also appears to have done a lot of good for the world. e.g. Donating money for photocopiers in the former Soviet Union to help people spread information and communicate. He also has funded many artistic and scientific organizations, in the former Soviet Union, South Africa, and even Burma I believe. I find it hard to see that as a bad thing.

He does strictly separate business and philanthropy. He invested heavily in Russia during the beginning of the collapse in an attempt to stabilize the region and help it rebuild, that turned out badly and he lost money. So now he strictly separates business and charity, I can't say I blame him for it.

The reason he doesn't like Bush is because he thinks bush is leading the US towards fascism. He wants to make sure free speech and the rule of law is protected in the USA.

Personally I wish he would have funded Ron Paul rather than the Democrats, but as I said I don't agree with his politics.

Finally let me end with something slightly critical about Soros. The Quantum fund (best performing hedge fund over a 30year period IIRC) was founded by Soros and Jim Rogers. Soros is no dummy and he was very generous in describing how the global financial system works and how to run a hedge fund in his books. (Thanks George!). But Rogers left to do his own thing, and given the superior returns made by Rogers compared to Soros over the last 10 years I have to consider Rogers the better investor.