Soros: his plans and China's plans
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 31, 2016
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Billionaire George Soros speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF)in Davos, Switzerland. |
The billionaire George Soros is a wily investor. His analysis of market trends and what motivates investors is astute with decades of experience and success gambling big stakes against the weakest links in global markets.
Soros puts his money where his mouth is and this encourages other market players to seek to emulate him in speculative gambling.
In 1998 he moved markets by attacking weak currencies in Asia, leading speculators acting for global financial institutions to follow suit and cripple many economies. While the speculators earned fantastic bonuses and embarked on a hedonistic lifestyle, many millions or ordinary people faced penury from the collapse of their currency.
On special occasions Soros, however, takes an opposite stance, calling for a new Marshall plan - after the comprehensive investment and development plan of the United States that restored prosperity to Western Europe after World War II.
For example, in 1989, he proposed a Marshall plan for Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to draw them into the orbit of West European capitalism - but was ignored by policy-makers. Today, he proposes a Marshall plan for North Africa and the Middle East to tackle the migration crisis sapping away at the foundations of the European Union, as new border controls are imposed, and freedom of movement comes to an end.
Before he could speak, however, Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's hitherto, orthodox finance minister, surprisingly abandoned support for fiscal austerity and advocated his own Marshall plan to resolve the European migration crisis.
Thus, Mr. Soros turned his attention to China, identifying it, as an economic saboteur.
In fact, China's Five Year Plans are far bolder and more dramatic in their societal impact than any "Marshall Plan." For example, every year China faces urban migration far larger than that arriving in Europe from Syria and other countries.
Western economic orthodoxy argues that China still needs to complete its "transition" from a planned to a market economy.
One thing market advocates agree on is that China still requires profound and painful change - painful for the majority of the population that is. They say it must curtail its vast long-term investment and development plans - aimed at urbanization, modernization, and prosperity for all and make a fundamental shift towards a system of "consumer-led" capitalism.
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