$oro$ $ecret$

UPDATE***

SPECIAL REPORT — GEORGE SOROS: GODFATHER OF THE LEFT

Liberal billionaire trying to give U.S. a liberal society it can’t refuse.

George Soros and the Alchemy of ‘Regime Change’
By Kyle-Anne Shiver *February 27, 2008 * American Thinker

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This was the original link to the following damning article which has since been scrubbed from the internet. Fortunately I saved it in a document back in March 2009 so here it is. Note that one of the guys who made billions off the current financial crisis is “Former maths professor James H. Simons, who has made billions… running computer-driven trading strategies.” Oh, kinda like the computer based withdrawals that hit the market in Sept 08 before the election, on a Thursday at about 11:00 in the morning and pulled out a whopping $550 billion in one hour and precipitated the crash? Or was that something else? Hmmm… – SW

‘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

$oro$

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.

Simons

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

John Paulson (no relation to Hank)

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. More - Kanjorski, Sept 2009: “$550 Billion was being drawn out in the matter of about an hour or two” – forward to the 2.20 mark on the video: http://boingboing.net/2009/02/09/rep-kanjorski-550-bi.html Why is Soros enjoying the global economic meltdown? http://www.americanissuesproject.org/soros George Soros see[k]s a global meltdown – Is this the guy behind the October surprise? New Book – The Crash of 2008 and What it Means: The New Paradigm for Financial Markets by (you guessed it) George Soros – aka “How I Did It and Why”.

“Obama is the second 9/11. He is the terrorist attack on the US.” – Rush Limbaugh, quoting an anonymous dinner guest

The financial crisis, in a nutshell

posted at 11:38 am on March 17, 2009 by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air

James Pethokoukis provides us a crystal-clear example of the reason for the economic crisis — and how our political leaders still haven’t learned from it.  He notes one small bank that has managed to weather the storm by lending carefully and within its means. Boston Bizjournal reports that East Bridgewater Savings has gotten federal attention for its fiscal responsibility, but not in the way you’d think:

Bad or delinquent loans? Zero. Foreclosures? None. Money set aside in 2008 for anticipated loan losses? Nothing. …  The bank even squeaked out a profit of $87,000. And its Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio was 31.6 percent, or more than three times higher than many community banks in Massachusetts. “We’re paranoid about credit quality,” [Joseph] Petrucelli said. The 62-year-old chief executive has run the bank since 1992.

That makes Petrucelli a man to emulate, right?  After all, with all the outrage over AIG’s performance, shouldn’t we cheer someone who knows how to correctly assess risk and keep his lending institution in the black?  Only if you don’t work for the federal government (emphasis mine):

The FDIC’s negative review of East Bridgewater Savings Bank’s loan volume is an anomaly in today’s current banking scene as lenders reel from their role in offering too many cruddy mortgage products to borrowers with weak credit.

Still, the FDIC slapped East Bridgewater Savings with a rare “needs to improve” rating after evaluating the bank under the Community Reinvestment Act.

Let’s get this straight.  We bail out the people who made all sorts of bad loans, and we punish the people who didn’t?  How’s that for accountability?

In all seriousness, the FDIC gave EBS a poor rating because it didn’t advertise its rates well enough.  It doesn’t have a website, which is apparently a sin for FDIC-insured lenders.  The FDIC said that EBS didn’t have any “financial or legal impediments” to widening its lending, a remarkable statement considering the taxpayer monies getting thrown at companies that did widen their lending practices and wound up broke as a result.

Pethokoukis uses this example to remind us how the CRA distorted lending markets and led to the housing bubble that devastated the economy:

How many East Bridgewaters are out there that knuckled under to the pressure and started handing out mortgages to whomever? I am not saying that CRA is the only factor here. There is plenty of blame to go around, regulators, Alan Greenspan, derivatives desks on Wall Street.  But to let CRA and its enablers off the hook is ridiculous.

How many, indeed?  We are going through all of this bailout nonsense and economic upheaval, and the federal government is busily setting us up for the next crash.

Soros eyes secretaries