Soros Threatened By Trump

George Soros: Democracy now ‘in crisis’ because Trump won

Tré Goins-Phillips December 29, 2016 3:13 pm

George Soros (Peter Foley, Pool/Getty Images)

400Follow

• SHARE
• TWEET

Billionaire investor George Soros, known for his generous donations to progressive causes, believes democracy is “in crisis” because the United States elected “would-be dictator” Donald Trump.

“Democracy is now in crisis. Even the U.S., the world’s leading democracy, elected a con artist and would-be dictator as its president,” Soros wrote in a column for Project Syndicate, adding, “His cabinet comprises incompetent extremists and retired generals.”

In the liberal billionaire’s view, Trump, though unable to ultimately overthrow democracy in the United States, will inspire democratic instability around the rest of the world:

I am confident that democracy will prove resilient in the US. Its Constitution and institutions, including the fourth estate, are strong enough to resist the excesses of the executive branch, thus preventing a would-be dictator from becoming an actual one.

But the US will be preoccupied with internal struggles in the near future, and targeted minorities will suffer. The US will be unable to protect and promote democracy in the rest of the world. On the contrary, Trump will have greater affinity with dictators.

Unlike previous American presidents, who have rejected dictatorial regimes, Soros predicted the president-elect “will have greater affinity with dictators,” allowing “them to reach an accommodation with the U.S., and others to carry on without interference.”

“Trump will prefer making deals to defending principles. Unfortunately, that will be popular with his core constituency,” he charged.

In mid-November, Soros held a meeting with fellow progressive donors and think tank leaders to formulate a plan to “take back power” from the imminent Trump administration.

During the 2016 election, Soros donated $25 million to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and down-ballot Democrats beat Trump and other Republicans. With that kind of investment, it’s no wonder Soros is so frustrated by the Western rejection of progressive policy:

The rise of anti-EU movements further impeded the functioning of institutions. And these forces of disintegration received a powerful boost in 2016, first from Brexit, then from the election of Trump in the US, and on December 4 from Italian voters’ rejection, by a wide margin, of constitutional reforms.

Only time will tell how much power Soros will wield in Washington, D.C., once Trump takes over Jan. 20.

Very Uncomfortable Comparisons Between 1914 And Today.

Dominique Moisi: World at Risk of Another Global Catastrophe

Friday, 27 Jun 2014 08:59 AM

By Michael Kling

Share:

  Get Short Link |

  Email Article |

  Comment  |

   Contact Us  |

  Print  

|  A   A  

• inShare

Almost exactly 100 years ago the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand prompted a series of bad decisions by world leaders that caused World War I.

Some experts see striking and disconcerting similarities between 1914 and 2014.

The two time periods share one critical feature, warns Dominique Moisi, senior adviser at The French Institute for International Affairs, in an article for Project Syndicate.



That feature is "the risk that an increasingly complex security and political environment will overwhelm unexceptional leaders. Before they wake up to the risks, the situation could spin out of control."

In 1914, Europe’s leaders resigned themselves to war after failing to find compromises, he says. Historian Christopher Clark said they "sleepwalked" into war.

That kind of blundering leadership is now again a possibility, as conflict and uncertainty again threatens the world, Moisi argues, citing the Middle East, Ukraine and the East and South China Seas.

Just a year ago some observers saw China, with its growing power, as the 21st century equivalent of Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany and China's territorial claims as today's Balkans.

"Given recent developments in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, one could reasonably say that the entire world has come to resemble Europe in 1914," he notes. "In fact, the situation today could be considered even more dangerous."

At leas, they didn't have nuclear weapons in 1914, Moisi asserts. And the threat of "mutually assured destruction" that kept the bombs from being used has faded since the Cold War, at least partly because more countries have the weapon.

Possessing nuclear weapons is no longer preventing countries from heading toward war, he insists.

Another huge difference between 1914 and the present is that "Europe is no longer the center of the world." The real risks lie outside Europe, he points out, citing an emerging jihadist state in the Middle East, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and squabbles in the South China Sea.

The Economist magazine also sees "uncomfortable parallels" between now and the eve of World War I. Back then, experts said globalization and new technologies like the telephone, steamship and train tied countries together, and increased trade between Europe's economies made war impossible.

Today, the United States is like Britain was then, a waning superpower unable to guarantee security. China is Germany, an aggressive, rising superpower. And Japan is France, a declining regional power and ally of the world superpower.

Complacency is another dangerous similarity, according to The Economist.

"Businesspeople today are like businesspeople then: too busy making money to notice the serpents flickering at the bottom of their trading screens. Politicians are playing with nationalism just as they did 100 years ago."



Related Stories:

• Hulbert: 'Eerie Parallels' Between Current Dow Chart and That of 1929
• Yardeni Sees 'Scary' Parallel With 1929

© 2014 Moneynews. All rights reserved.

Housing Debacle Coming For The World. Seems They Learned Their Techniques From Us.

Roubini: Beware a Global Housing Market 'Train Wreck'

Monday, 02 Dec 2013 01:10 PM

By John Morgan

Share:

More . . .

A    A   |

   Email Us   |

   Print   |

   Forward Article

• 0
  inShare

Nouriel Roubini, the noted economist who correctly predicted the U.S. housing bubble and its collapse, now sees an impending housing market train wreck of global proportions, with housing markets in 18 countries vulnerable to a meltdown.

In a column for Project Syndicate, Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, wrote that "signs of frothiness, if not outright bubbles" are evident in Asia, Europe and emerging markets.

"What we are witnessing in many countries looks like a slow-motion replay of the last housing-market train wreck. And, like last time, the bigger the bubbles become, the nastier the collision with reality will be."



Roubini said the symptoms of overheated conditions include fast-rising home prices, high and rising price-to-income ratios and excessive levels of mortgage debt as a percentage of household debt.

He wrote that in developed countries, the housing excesses are being caused by very low interest rates fostered by a "wall of liquidity" from central banks.

In emerging markets, the housing bubbles are being formed by efforts to manipulate currency rates, high inflation, lack of other investment alternatives and rapid urbanization whereby housing demand is outstripping supply, Roubini notes.

According to Roubini, who is often bearish when it comes to investment assets like housing, equities and bonds, the affected overheated housing markets include those in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (London), Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Israel, Turkey, India, Indonesia and Brazil.

Roubini said the global economy's new housing bubbles may not burst immediately because easy money from central banks and anti-inflation policies are still feeding them.

"But the higher home prices rise, the further they will fall — and the greater the collateral economic and financial damage will be — when the bubble deflates," he predicted.

A two-bedroom Beijing flat now costs an average of $330,000 — about 32 years of salary for the average worker, The Telegraph reported.

"China's property moguls are uneasy — and fear the boom has become a bubble at risk of bursting," the Telegraph said.

In Australia, the biggest banks are providing easy loan terms that have helped to fuel record house prices, according to Bloomberg.

The proportion of Australian mortgages that represented more than 80 percent of a home's value surged in the third quarter to the highest since mid-2009. And mortgages in which borrowers pay only interest also risen to the highest in at least five years, according to figures cited by Bloomberg.



Related Stories:

• Nobel Winner Shiller Warns of 'Bubbly' Global Home Prices
• Bloomberg Global Poll Finds Growing Anxiety Over Asset Bubbles

© 2013 Moneynews. All rights reserved.