Any of your kids in these?
Oh and they're waiting for your atheist/Islamic souls at the end of this road.
Posted on 02/27/2005 7:59:17 PM PST by jb6
Jeddah: George Soros is warning all oil-producing countries about pegging their currencies and oil revenues to the dollar.
"The US dollar is weak, and is expected to deteriorate more," said Soros.
The famous currency trader and financier warned Russia and other oil-producing countries to sell their oil and price it in euros rather than US dollars, because the US dollar continues to fall against the euro.
The US dollar poses a danger to oil-producing countries and their economies, he said.
Many central banks intend to peg their currencies to the euro and increase their balances of European currency against the dollar.
Soros's remarks came during at a press conference on the sidelines of the Jeddah Economic Forum, which ended on Monday.
Soros rejected allegations by some economists who held him responsible for the collapse of financial markets and creating an economic crisis in South East Asia.
He was accused of leading an international campaign to weaken currencies of a number of South East Asian countries when he withdrew his funds from Asian stock markets in 1997.
Soros said he sold all his Malaysian and Asian currencies six months ahead of the crisis, and has insisted he had nothing to do with the carnage in the markets.
Soros attributed the crisis to short-term investments in stock markets and the property boom as many investors withdrew their funds and pumped them into real estate.
Ironically, Soros's comments about the dollar may find support from at least one of his old antagonists.
In an interview with Gulf News last month, Dr Mahathir Mohammad, former prime minister of Malaysia, also warned against relying too much on the US dollar.
"Why are we clinging to the US dollar when we know we are going to lose money [as it declines in value]?" Dr Mahathir said.
He and Soros clashed in 1997, when Mahathir blamed global currency traders for the decline in the Malaysian currency
Or he's trying to facilitate it. Look who his audiance is.
Oh come on. :)
I think he's trying to facilitate it. That reporter had Soros pegged way back in March of 2004.
The Chinese are doing a nice job.
This man Soros is a really dangerous scoundrel!
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/datelinedc/s_143947.html
Well hooray for us then.
"The Chinese are doing a nice job."
They are a foreign government. It's a lot easier for a gov't to do (support their own currency) than a guy with a few billion dollars to maniuplate the dollar.
Additionally they can't support it forever. Cracks will appear a la Argentina and they will have to float their currency.
Any of your kids in these?
Oh and they're waiting for your atheist/Islamic souls at the end of this road.
M'kay?
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soros ping
I think that a reasonable policy is to diversify - a given country should keep its reserves in a basket of currencies, let us say 40% dollars, 30% euros, 10% yens, 10% yuans, 7%pounds and 3% swiss francs. The percentage should be changed once a while depending on the health (trade and budget balance first) and size of the particular economies.
Yes you are correct in what he is trying to do. He's short the dollar but he may have miscalculated the dollar's true underlying strength.
The reason the dollar has weakened these past few years is because the Treasury and the Fed wanted it to be weaker, a little weaker. A little inflation was the better alternative than a prolonged collapse in the capital markets.
Japan and China need American markets to sustain their levels presently. The only way they can begin to wean themselves from the US market is to find other markets and those markets do not exist and will take a couple of decades to create.
The markets to be created are India and in China's case its own, meaning they have to raise the standard of living of the populations in India and China. When the latter happens the markets will have to drastically change because the goods will not be as cheap as labor costs must rise.
For now the USA is in a sweet spot and will be for quite some time.
As far as Soros, I think his shorting the US Dollar may be his Waterloo. It's time he lost a trade.
Excellent insight, thanks. Yes, it is a game of 'dare' and yes it's time he got squeezed.
I think several people answered your question already but I wanted to add in case no one else has yet, that the IRS can't look at Mr. Soros' books because they are kept by an offshore company that has no US citizens in its employ.
The IRS can only look at Mr. Soros's personal income taxes.
It does matter because oil producers keep large balances in banks that are denominated in dollars.
The balances in those accounts lose value when the dollar weakens against other currencies.
If Soros can convince those account holders to convert their dollars to Euros then he wins because he is short the dollar.
He hasn't yet but he's trying. It may be his downfall, the dollar may destroy him.
Dollar decline helps the Yen carry trade. Bond traders in the internation banking cartel making out very well.
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