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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)

#61

Post by falcolas »

unmole wrote: post #56
falcolas wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that British labour was suddenly more price competitive That seems to translate to "workers were getting paid less and their savings were devalued" to me. Am I mistaken?

> That seems to translate to "workers were getting paid less and their savings were devalued" to me. Am I mistaken? Sure, that's one way to look at it. But then you have to ask yourself why countries deliberately try to devalue their currencies and why other countries get mad when that happens.

I don't know, why would workers whose compensation has been effectively cut be mad at some billionaire who did it to make more billions?

This isn't just about countries as an abstract. It's about the people and the impact on them.

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

#62

Post by vxNsr »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #49
jen20 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Interesting. In Canada you can only get up to 5 years fixed typically. Mortgage itself is 25 years but terms change every 5 usually. 30y fixed feels... Crazy. How much above market does it have to be for banks to take that risk??

People with a low risk profile today get 2-4% fixed rate. What’s it like in Canada?

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

#63

Post by [deleted] »

helen___keller wrote: post #51
Ferrotin wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Burry et al helped collapse it sooner and softer, and their profits came from the banks’ losses.

> Because Burry et al helped collapse it sooner and softer Could you not make the same argument for Soros? > their profits came from the banks’ losses. Where do you think that money came from? When mortgages go bad, the banks foreclose the property and sell it. When the banks go bad, the government props them up (in 2008) by buying their toxic assets The sale of those toxic assets let banks cover their bad positions,…

[deleted]

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

#64

Post by lotsofpulp »

vlovich123 wrote: post #48
Tenoke wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an unlocked door situation and it wasn't illegal. It's more akin to you betting on the wrong horse and being mad at the other guy who bet on the right one for losing your money when it's your fault for gambling instead of doing something else.

It wasn’t just a horse bet by my reading of the article. It was more like they noticed that there was an opportunity to hobble a horse if you and your buddies rush the field and that the odds makers were not anticipating this so you bet otherwise. You can marvel at the technical ingenuity of a heist like this but the ethics are dubious. The strongest counter is that the Bank of England wasn’t paying attention but tha…

When you go to buy or sell something, do you inform the seller or buyer that they are incorrectly pricing the product/service they are selling?

Do you let your counterparty know that you are willing to pay or sell at a price that is more beneficial to them?

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

#65

Post by thrwyoilarticle »

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?

In part because right wing media don't want to blame John Major & left wing media don't want to support a billionaire.

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

#66

Post by rvba »

> Even better, Soros managed to convince other investors and investment banks (JP Morgan, Bank of America, Jones Investment, …) that the pound sterling would collapse in the event of a massive and coordinated attack.

I wonder how this wouod be judged with current "insider trading" laws, but since it is a foreign country (even if ally) then probably nothing would be done.

Also the article doesnt seem to mention that Bank of England could stop their losses and stop trying to save the pound.

I have a feeling that actions of central banks are poorly discussed - in many ways those banks seem to be a source of recession (UK, Japan) or method of transfer of wealth to the rich (quantitative easing... seriously it is just pure evil).

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

#68

Post by timthorn »

thrwyoilarticle wrote: post #65
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?

In part because right wing media don't want to blame John Major & left wing media don't want to support a billionaire.

I don't think right wing media hold a particular candle for John Major.

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

#69

Post by vxNsr »

unmole wrote: post #43
pantulis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's more like being the target or victim rather than being the bad guy. I do not specially like or dislike Soros but do not think he is part of any conspiracy other than being an oligarch.

> other than being an oligarch. How on earth is Soros an oligarch?

Neoliberals today are trying that on as a term for anyone who they believe is too rich after seeing how it’s been used to demonize the Russian upper class (who in most cases are oligarchs).

As usual the actual meaning of word doesn’t matter, they’re after the feeling the word evokes.

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

#70

Post by jddil »

The Day the Bank of England was caught in an artificial pumping scheme is way more accurate of a title. But I guess anything to smear Soros and the "left" gets upvoted to HN nowadays.

Connection being the authoritative right sees Soros as the analog to the Koch bros.... not quite understanding we don't like capitalists anymore than the right likes socialists. But hey Soros === bad, leftist === bad so to the top of HN it goes. (please prove me wrong)

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