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The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

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Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#121

Post by IAmEveryone »

shrubble wrote: post #84

"I am there to make money; I cannot and do not look at the social consequences of what I do" - George Soros Someone who explicitly says that as a teenager, he enjoyed his time working for the Nazis while they were looting those targeted, is not going to be shamed over taking $1 billion in a trade. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWizajL7tA compilation of clips from 60 Minutes interviews, etc. (from 3m45s he tal…

Wikipedia: Tivadar [his father] saved not only his immediate family but also many other Hungarian Jews, and Soros later wrote that 1944 had been "the happiest [year] of his life," for it had given him the opportunity to witness his father's heroism.[

Stop lying.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#122

Post by fmvab »

colinmhayes wrote: post #116
fmvab wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“If it hadn’t been exploited by this person, someone else would have” I’ve only ever heard this line of reasoning used to justify something unethical. And in the case of software, we don’t admire the black-hat hackers that take advantage of exploits, do we? In fact, in that case it’s not even legal…

> I’ve only ever heard this line of reasoning used to justify something unethical. That doesn't mean it's not true. Soros's actions ending the peg helped the british people, whose government was throwing away billions of pounds trying to sustain the unsustainable peg.

Perhaps the outcome was better for Britain in the end, but I object to glorifying Soros on the grounds that his intentions were clearly to take money out of the system, and breaking the pound with a coordinated attack just doesn’t seem very ethical.

I also think that when people characterize moves like this as ‘brilliant’ it does a disservice to the word. I think many folks, if they tuned their attention to opportunities like this, had the big name firms in their Rolodex, and had questionable ethics, could have made this move. Maybe I’m missing it, but this seems like a pretty straightforward way to take advantage of the system.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#123

Post by epakai »

jddil wrote: post #75
Jyaif wrote: post #3

> For many, it was obvious that the pound sterling was overvalued > The Bank of England was finally forced to give up the fight a few hours after the attack, announcing its exit from the European monetary system with a devaluation of about 15% Sounds like George Soros just fixed a disequilibrium? How is he the bad guy in this story?

He's the boogey man to a large portion of society. He makes the left look slightly bad so any chance to showcase he's just an evil capitalist that steals grandmas money rockets to the top of HN.

Russia doesn't like him because he has been active in encouraging Ukraine's adhesion to the West. The amount of Soros Bad narrative since then (2015) has increased a lot.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#124

Post by rhexs »

Qub3d wrote: post #104
neves wrote: post #91

In Brazil the alt-right calls Soros a lefist billionare that finances communism around the world. Does this craziness exist in other places of the world?

George Soros conspiracy theories have been a dogwhistle for antisemitism used in right-leaning politics in the United States for decades.

No post body was provided.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#125

Post by colinmhayes »

fmvab wrote: post #122
colinmhayes wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve only ever heard this line of reasoning used to justify something unethical. That doesn't mean it's not true. Soros's actions ending the peg helped the british people, whose government was throwing away billions of pounds trying to sustain the unsustainable peg.

Perhaps the outcome was better for Britain in the end, but I object to glorifying Soros on the grounds that his intentions were clearly to take money out of the system, and breaking the pound with a coordinated attack just doesn’t seem very ethical. I also think that when people characterize moves like this as ‘brilliant’ it does a disservice to the word. I think many folks, if they tuned their attention to opportuni…

I really don't think intentions matter when contemplating moral questions, outcomes matter. Every economist was saying the peg would be broken, yet the bank of england was committed to throwing away money trying to save it. Every day they continued the british people were worse off. Soros was a hero in this story for being the person who convinced the bank of england to end their fools errand.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#126

Post by zhte415 »

jen20 wrote: post #28
astoor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's the bad guy of the story because he's a billionaire who made a $1.1Gb at the expense of the ordinary people living in the UK at the time. He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population. Note that the article author is a cryptocurrency cultist, so he'll be all in favour of unscrupulous people enriching themselves at the expense of oth…

> He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population. While this may be true, it is entirely the fault of the dumb UK mortgage market that does not provide for fixed-rate mortgages for the full term of the loan. In the US, 30 year fixed rates are the norm. In the UK you’re lucky to get 5 years fixed.

It's an effective regressive tax where lower income earners subsidise middle and high income earners. Is that what you're arguing for?

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#127

Post by bidirectional »

gregw2 wrote: post #119
bidirectional wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they? Spreads have tightened massively since the advent of HFT which has knock-on effects for the small investor both in terms of cheaper personal trading and lower costs for those managing their retirement/mutual funds (see Vanguard's opinion on HFT[1]). In terms of resources, Virtu is publicly traded and has a market cap of 6.3bn, Citadel was recently valued at 22bn, the total sector is maybe 100bn. Meanwhile o…

Spreads may have tightened, but payments for order flow suggest to me there's a new flavor of front running involved via HFT and dark pools. But I'm no expert.

How? No offence but it just sounds like conspiratorial nonsense based on some scary sounding terms.

Payment for order flow is an example of the incentives of retail traders, retail brokers and HFT market makers aligning. The market makers are able (and obligated) to improve prices because they have paid to receive flow they are almost certain is not toxic. Meanwhile they charge the likes of hedge funds higher prices as they can't guarantee the reasoning behind their trades (i.e. they may be about to have their faces ripped off).

The HFT firm takes their (tightened) fee for making a market, kicks some back to the retail broker, and because the broker earns money that way, they offer commission-free trading to the retail trader.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#128

Post by unmole »

bidirectional wrote: post #127
gregw2 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spreads may have tightened, but payments for order flow suggest to me there's a new flavor of front running involved via HFT and dark pools. But I'm no expert.

How? No offence but it just sounds like conspiratorial nonsense based on some scary sounding terms. Payment for order flow is an example of the incentives of retail traders, retail brokers and HFT market makers aligning. The market makers are able (and obligated) to improve prices because they have paid to receive flow they are almost certain is not toxic. Meanwhile they charge the likes of hedge funds higher prices…

> No offence but it just sounds like conspiratorial nonsense based on some scary sounding terms.

It's exactly that.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#129

Post by gadders »

mikeyouse wrote: post #111
gadders wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funding this lot for a start: https://nypost.com/2021/12/16/how-george-soros-funded-progre...

Ah yes, how nefarious - openly funding candidates that favor criminal justice reform to lower the prison population. Very 'bad'.

>>Ah, yes, funding DAs that let people out on cash-free bail so they can continue committing crimes that the people who donate aren't affected by because they are living a privileged life.

Fixed that for you.

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