1 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:12,320 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it could happen here a podcast where I 2 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:15,320 Speaker 1: just made my colleagues I can see them through the 3 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 1: zoom deeply uncomfortable by opening this podcast with with with 4 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,480 Speaker 1: a sound that you shouldn't make in the workplace. I'm 5 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: Robert Evans. Joining me today is Mia Wong and Garrison 6 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:29,640 Speaker 1: Davis me. I take it from here. 7 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 2: Oh boy, So it's been a you know, this is Okay, 8 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 2: So this, I guess is now like last week's Twitter thing. 9 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 2: But okay, so also not this is this is this 10 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 2: is not a Twitter thing? No, well it kind of is. 11 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,879 Speaker 1: It kind of is, but like let's not let's not 12 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: frame this as a Twitter thing. 13 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, okay, So what this is we we are okay, 14 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 2: we have been experiencing in the last you know, like 15 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 2: half decade, actually belonging from that, because it's like this 16 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 2: seventy eight years now, like the the sort of incredible 17 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 2: rise in casual American anti semitism and the level of 18 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,560 Speaker 2: anti semitism that you could just do in in sort 19 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 2: of public discourse and it's quote unquote fine. And one 20 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,240 Speaker 2: of the sort of biggest indicators of this is the 21 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:17,119 Speaker 2: like the the extent to which it's now socially acceptable 22 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 2: to just do the most like absolutely like unhinged, like 23 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 2: antisemitic conspiracy theories about George Soros. And specifically the thing 24 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 2: that specifically was like, Okay, I need to do this 25 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:38,520 Speaker 2: episode was last week Elon Musk like compared George Soros 26 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 2: to Magneto and then said, quote, you assume they are 27 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 2: good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the fabric, 28 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 2: the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity. And this 29 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 2: is just like the mainstreamline of the Republican Party now 30 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 2: like they just all do this. You can just sort 31 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 2: of I mean, and this and honestly like as bad, 32 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:03,720 Speaker 2: like you know, this is like the stuff that Elon 33 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 2: Musk is saying is unbelievably unacceptable. That's not even anywhere 34 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:10,640 Speaker 2: near as bad as it goes. Like it's pretty common 35 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 2: to just sho these people like talking about the Satan 36 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:17,880 Speaker 2: Sorrow's agenda and shit. Now like it's it has gotten 37 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 2: unbelievably unfathomably out of control. And so today I wanted 38 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 2: to take a look at, Okay, who George Soros actually is, 39 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 2: like the real human being and not the sort of 40 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 2: like caricature projection that has been created of him on 41 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,639 Speaker 2: the right, and I wanted to also sort of look 42 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 2: at why the right hates him so much. And you know, 43 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 2: Soros is kind of an interesting figure because he falls 44 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:45,760 Speaker 2: like right in the middle of like our two shows 45 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 2: about people, because he's not he's not really like a 46 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 2: cool person. He does cool stuff, but though he does 47 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 2: stuff that's cool sometimes, but he's not also like a 48 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 2: bastard properly. 49 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: So though he's done some bastardy stuff too. 50 00:02:57,440 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 2: Oh he has, We are going to talk about that. 51 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, he said, he's a Yeah, I mean. 52 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 2: Most of what this episode is about, he's. 53 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 1: I would say he's like twenty percent more complicated than 54 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 1: the average billionaire A on a more Yeah. 55 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,399 Speaker 2: I think I think like twenty or thirty percent. Yeah, 56 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 2: there's somewhere in that neighborhood. Yeah, you know, and I 57 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:21,959 Speaker 2: think there's three George Soros's. Two of them are real 58 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,400 Speaker 2: and one of them is fake. There is you know. 59 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 2: So George Soros is a billionaire philanthropist, right, and you know, 60 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 2: so that means that he has a sort of billionaire 61 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:33,640 Speaker 2: side and a philanthropist's side, and they are very often 62 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 2: working across purposes. Sometimes they're not working sometimes there he 63 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 2: aligns them together, sometimes he doesn't. And so the way 64 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 2: I've sort of structured this is like the first episode 65 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 2: we're gonna be talking about the sort of billionaire side 66 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 2: and how he did that, and the second episode is 67 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 2: going to be more about the philanthropist's side, and how 68 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 2: both of these basically have been kind of accidentally structured 69 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 2: in such a way that the right was like, oh 70 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:01,200 Speaker 2: my god, this is the perfect guy to do atise 71 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 2: medic conspiracy theories about. And then there's also the third 72 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 2: George Soros is like the one who's just literally the 73 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:11,640 Speaker 2: devil who the Republicans have made up And yeah, so 74 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 2: George Soros was born to a Jewish family in Hungary 75 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty, which is not not a good time 76 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 2: to be born into a Jewish family in Hungary. 77 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: No, really, there's not a good time to be born 78 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: to a Jewish and family in Hungary until like I'm 79 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: gonna get I'm gonna say sometime in the fifties. 80 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I will say that it gets way 81 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 2: like it it is way worse when he is born 82 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:42,280 Speaker 2: than it was in like even like the eighteen nineties, 83 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 2: which is like not a great time, but it's gotten 84 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 2: significantly worse. He is fourteen when the Nazis invade Hungary 85 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 2: nineteen forty four, and this is the point at which 86 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 2: we get to our first Soros conspiracy, which is that 87 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 2: there's this, there's this. 88 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:58,160 Speaker 1: It's a little more complicated than that. It's not really 89 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:01,320 Speaker 1: the Nazis, and well it's a little more complex than 90 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:08,480 Speaker 1: when extermination of the Hungarian Jewish community begins really in 91 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: nineteen forty four. 92 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And so there's a thing that happens. I 93 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:18,240 Speaker 2: don't know. He and his dad have a kind of 94 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:25,400 Speaker 2: complicated like set of things they survive. And there's a 95 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:26,920 Speaker 2: part of the story that gets picked up by the 96 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 2: right that gets if you've ever heard Alex Jones talk 97 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,039 Speaker 2: about sorows, like the second or third thing he will 98 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 2: say is that like Soros is a Nazi collaborator, was 99 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 2: like a willing collaborator with the Nazis, which is not true. 100 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 2: And also like he's fourteen, like you know, like I. 101 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: Don't really call even like fourteen year olds and the 102 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: Hitler youth willing collaborators because they're children. Yeah, you have 103 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:53,680 Speaker 1: to have a lion at some point, even with Nazis, 104 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:57,239 Speaker 1: where if their kids they're not really morally responsible either way. 105 00:05:57,839 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, and like, you know, so the speific thing that 106 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:01,400 Speaker 2: he does, there's these notices that are sent up by 107 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 2: the government that's like telling Jewish people to like go 108 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 2: like to a place and if you go to the place, 109 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:12,080 Speaker 2: you're gonna get routed up and killed. And basically, so 110 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:16,040 Speaker 2: the thing that actually happened is that so Georg Ros's 111 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:18,080 Speaker 2: dad is told to do this, and he gives it 112 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:19,960 Speaker 2: to George Soros and is like, go tell these people 113 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 2: that they've been called for this and that if they go, 114 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:25,480 Speaker 2: they're like they're gonna get taken away. And this has 115 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 2: been transformed by you know this that is this is 116 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 2: a nightmarish thing and these people are surviving. This has 117 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:33,160 Speaker 2: been transformed by a bunch of the worst people wh've 118 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,720 Speaker 2: ever lived into Nazi collaboration. Which is also you know, 119 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 2: the part of the story that never gets told, even 120 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:41,360 Speaker 2: even when people sort of like do the like dive 121 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 2: into like oh this is fake, is that the thing 122 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,160 Speaker 2: that like Soros's family spends the rest of the war 123 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:51,840 Speaker 2: doing is basically getting like counterfeit papers to Jewish families 124 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 2: that like says that they're Christian, and you know, they 125 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:56,880 Speaker 2: like they stay legitimately save a bunch of families from 126 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 2: dying in the Holocaust, and. 127 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: You know the ship that Joeanes pulls on them as 128 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: like part of this because of like the job this 129 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: guy who's like saving young George Soros has involves like 130 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: basically like itemizing stuff left behind by Jewish families forced 131 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:14,800 Speaker 1: out of their homes. He's like they were profiting off 132 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:17,080 Speaker 1: of the holl No, they were like doing whatever job 133 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,000 Speaker 1: kept them under the radar while they attempted to help. 134 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 1: Like it was the Holocaust, it was messy. Yeah, but 135 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: like it's almost like saying like Oscar Schindler took advantage 136 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 1: of slave labors. Well, no, it's actually what Schindler was 137 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 1: doing was not that. Yeah, Like he was using the 138 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 1: trappings of this slave labor system in order to rescue people. 139 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 1: It's quite different from just enslaving people. 140 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the thing that's really desturbing about the 141 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 2: stow right is like, Okay, like this is like Alex 142 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:47,280 Speaker 2: Joses Alex Jones, Right, he's just gonna say the worst 143 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 2: shit you've ever heard. But like this is like a 144 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:51,600 Speaker 2: thing that mainstream right wingers just say. Now, yeah, and 145 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 2: it's just unbelievably horrible and it sucks and it's just 146 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:01,920 Speaker 2: like not true. But fortunately for George Soros, his family 147 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 2: makes it through the Holocaust, well his immediate family does, 148 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 2: and they like get out and they end up in 149 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 2: the US. And this is where, Okay, this is something, 150 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 2: this is something that I think is very important to 151 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 2: the story that isn't told very much. So Soros is 152 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:25,400 Speaker 2: like a finance whiz, right, he is very very very 153 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:27,480 Speaker 2: good at finance. And we're gonna be talking a bit 154 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 2: about like how like the things that he figured out 155 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 2: to let him do this, because it's interesting. But he's 156 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,320 Speaker 2: also not from the sort of like American or the 157 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:39,200 Speaker 2: British financial elite, Like if I don't there's like a 158 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:42,079 Speaker 2: certain kind of person, right who like goes into finance, 159 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,120 Speaker 2: and you know it's like like like wasp frat brose 160 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 2: or like in bred British aristocrats, right, And George Soros 161 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:51,360 Speaker 2: is like a hung is a Hungarian immigrant, right. He 162 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:54,719 Speaker 2: he is not sort of from these people. He is 163 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 2: like and and you know this is this is gonna 164 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:00,440 Speaker 2: be a really big deal when he like goes up 165 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 2: against a British financial elite later on. But you know, 166 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:07,480 Speaker 2: he threw sort of like he's able to turn like 167 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:10,840 Speaker 2: a job doing door to door salesman into like a 168 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:12,800 Speaker 2: way into a firm, and he's able to sort of 169 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:14,440 Speaker 2: work his way up to a point where like he 170 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:18,800 Speaker 2: has suddenly like has his own hedge fund, and he 171 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 2: is really really good at this. He's one of the 172 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 2: sort of early people who does hedge funds. There's a 173 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:28,000 Speaker 2: great book called The Influence of Soros, Politics, Power, and 174 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 2: the Struggle for an Open Society by Emily Tampkin, who 175 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 2: did a lot of really great work, like interviewed Soros, 176 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:37,920 Speaker 2: interviewed an enormous number of the people who were around him, 177 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:40,880 Speaker 2: and I want to read a passage of this about 178 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 2: like how he figured out how to sort of beat 179 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:47,679 Speaker 2: the market. He's talking about this guy named Carl Popper, 180 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:49,960 Speaker 2: who's like a philosopher of science who also wrote this 181 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,840 Speaker 2: book called The Open Society that we'll talk about next 182 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 2: episode more. Popper's philosophy made me more sensitive to the 183 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 2: role of misconceptions in financial markets. Decades later, people believe 184 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:04,679 Speaker 2: that markets don't lie and shouldn't be and should be trusted, 185 00:10:04,679 --> 00:10:08,760 Speaker 2: but that isn't true. Sorow's knew markets react to humans 186 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:11,839 Speaker 2: and humans are fallible. Instead of looking at the money 187 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:14,640 Speaker 2: being made, or as Sebastian Malaby put it, in more 188 00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:17,440 Speaker 2: money than God, his book on the history of hedge funds, 189 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 2: the psychology that drove investors' appetites, Soros looked at how 190 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 2: one impacted the other, predicting that each would drive the 191 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,560 Speaker 2: other forward until the trust were so completely overvalued that 192 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:33,360 Speaker 2: a crash was inevitable. And this is this is really smart, 193 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:37,600 Speaker 2: like if you even today, right, you know, if you're 194 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 2: able to understand that, you know, like the way a 195 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 2: lot of hedgehoon people tend to think about the market 196 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,200 Speaker 2: as like the market, you know, especially in this period, 197 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 2: is this is this sort of dogmatic, neo lible thing 198 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:49,800 Speaker 2: of like the market is like a perfect condvance of 199 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 2: price signals and Sorow's just like no, it's made out 200 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 2: of people. And those people like get greedy. They have 201 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:00,800 Speaker 2: emotional stuff they like they give get into these like 202 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,320 Speaker 2: fomo like fear of missing out stuff. You know, they 203 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:08,360 Speaker 2: like intensely overvalue assets because everyone else sees the assets 204 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:11,840 Speaker 2: like expensive, so everyone like you know, rushes to buy it, 205 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:14,079 Speaker 2: and like this is something like like even now right, 206 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:15,440 Speaker 2: this is this is like a very smart way to 207 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:19,160 Speaker 2: understand finance. He's figured this out in like the seventies, 208 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 2: and if you, if you, if you're able to do 209 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:23,559 Speaker 2: this kind of stuff and like use this to understand 210 00:11:23,559 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 2: how the market works in the seventies, you are going 211 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:38,520 Speaker 2: to look like a god among men. And he starts 212 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:40,720 Speaker 2: a hedge fund in nineteen seventy three, but by nineteen 213 00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:43,559 Speaker 2: eighty one he has a fund that is worth three 214 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:47,000 Speaker 2: hundred and eighty one million dollars in like nineteen eighty 215 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 2: one money. I don't know what that is in modern money, 216 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:51,920 Speaker 2: but I assume it's a lot. I'm a hack of 217 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:53,160 Speaker 2: a fraud. I should actually figured this out. 218 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:55,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like a billion dollars. 219 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:58,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, And like he personally is like has like for 220 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:02,400 Speaker 2: himself like one hundred million dollars, right, and he you know, 221 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 2: at this point he starts to become sort of very 222 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:06,680 Speaker 2: famous in finance circles because you know, I mean he's 223 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:12,240 Speaker 2: just like absolutely destroying the market. Now, okay, this is 224 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 2: where things get. You know, up until this point, he's 225 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 2: kind of like he's been doing a lot of sort 226 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,040 Speaker 2: of finance stuff that's kind of shady, but it's mostly 227 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,199 Speaker 2: just been him, like ripping off other finance people, which 228 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,120 Speaker 2: I'm entirely okay with, like that's just very funny. But 229 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:33,320 Speaker 2: he starts to get into currency speculation, and in nineteen 230 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:36,080 Speaker 2: eighty five he has one of his big breaks, which 231 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:39,280 Speaker 2: is he predicts the Plaza Chords. Now, okay, Aplasa chord 232 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:41,760 Speaker 2: is something we've talked about on the show before, but 233 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 2: I need to talk about it a bit more because 234 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 2: unfortunately it's we have to talk about the Asian financial 235 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:49,600 Speaker 2: collaps this episode. And this is a like one of 236 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:51,640 Speaker 2: the key moments of the Asian financial collaps even though 237 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:55,240 Speaker 2: it was like a decade earlier. So in nineteen eighty five, 238 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 2: Ronald Reagan is trying to like revive the US as 239 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:04,600 Speaker 2: a domestic manufacturing industry because it's like dying, and you know, 240 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:06,240 Speaker 2: and the reason part of the like a big part 241 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:07,959 Speaker 2: of the reason is dying is that they're getting absolutely 242 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,120 Speaker 2: destroyed by sort of German and like West German and 243 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:15,680 Speaker 2: Japanese manufacturers. And part of what's happening here is that 244 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:20,440 Speaker 2: particularly Japan's currencies are worth way currency is worth way 245 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:22,880 Speaker 2: less than the dollar. This is called having a weak currency, 246 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:25,080 Speaker 2: and having a weak currency is really good for if 247 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:28,840 Speaker 2: you have like an export based manufacturing economy. And so 248 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:31,800 Speaker 2: Reagan basically like walks into a meeting with like the Germans, 249 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:34,280 Speaker 2: Japanese government, the British and like few other people and 250 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:37,400 Speaker 2: just basically just like not quite in so many words, 251 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,600 Speaker 2: but basically just says like you are all American military protectorates, 252 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:43,400 Speaker 2: and because you're all American military protectorates, like I can 253 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:45,439 Speaker 2: I can force you to increase the value of your 254 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:50,680 Speaker 2: currency like or else capital O, capital e. And they do, 255 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:52,640 Speaker 2: they comply, and this is this, this becomes this is 256 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:55,240 Speaker 2: a thing called the Plaza Cords and this this, you know, 257 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:57,559 Speaker 2: weakens the value of the dollar versus a bunch of 258 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:01,800 Speaker 2: other currencies. And this like literally handedly like restores the 259 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:06,400 Speaker 2: profitability of American manufacturing like through the nineties, which is 260 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:10,960 Speaker 2: really wild. But the the other the important thing for 261 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:14,120 Speaker 2: this story is that I I don't know how he 262 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,679 Speaker 2: did this, but like George Soros predicts that this is 263 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 2: gonna happen, and she makes an unbelievable amount of money 264 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:24,280 Speaker 2: basically like no, no, like basically doing currency speculation because 265 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:27,160 Speaker 2: he knows what, like currencies are going to increase in value, 266 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 2: which you know, he knows that like uh. For example, 267 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:32,320 Speaker 2: he knows that like the Japanese yen is going to 268 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,520 Speaker 2: increase in value. So he makes an enormous amount of 269 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:38,880 Speaker 2: money doing this stuff, and he gets very famous for 270 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:40,920 Speaker 2: like he'll like make it much of money, and then 271 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 2: I'll lose it again, and then he'll make it again. 272 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 2: And this all culminates in Okay, so they're they're okay. 273 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:59,479 Speaker 2: He starts taking ah, truly enormous bets, like against national currencies, 274 00:15:00,520 --> 00:15:02,520 Speaker 2: and there's one of these that's just funny, and there's 275 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:05,600 Speaker 2: one of these that's really bad. So we're gonna do 276 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:08,400 Speaker 2: the funny one first, which is so in nineteen ninety 277 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,200 Speaker 2: two Soros And this is the other part that they 278 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 2: ever gonna talked about. It's like it's not just Soros 279 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 2: doing this stuff. He has like allies because like as 280 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:17,480 Speaker 2: big as Soros as for MBA is right, he can't 281 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:20,720 Speaker 2: him and his ally is gonna take a fifteen billion 282 00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 2: dollars short position on the pound, and even he doesn't 283 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:26,280 Speaker 2: have like nobody like this is like fifteen billion of 284 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:28,960 Speaker 2: nineteen nineties money, right, Like you need a bunch of 285 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,840 Speaker 2: firms working together in order to do this. But he 286 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:35,000 Speaker 2: basically takes this massive bet the pound is gonna go down, 287 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:37,520 Speaker 2: and because of the way that these these bets work, 288 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:42,160 Speaker 2: like the actual value of the pounds like collapses, and 289 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:45,640 Speaker 2: the British Central Bank like like doesn't have enough. And 290 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 2: the reason we're able to do is they figure out 291 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:48,520 Speaker 2: that the British Central Bank doesn't have enough money to 292 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:50,440 Speaker 2: stop them, like they don't have enough money to like 293 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 2: maintain like they don't have enough reserves to like maintain 294 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,920 Speaker 2: the value of the pound. And so he gets like 295 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 2: completely blamed for this, even though again there's like other 296 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:02,720 Speaker 2: people involved in this, right, Like the front page of 297 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,880 Speaker 2: the Daily Mail is literally his face in the title 298 00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:10,840 Speaker 2: I made a billion crashing the pound baste, which is 299 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:13,240 Speaker 2: I okay, so like an anti British level, this is 300 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:20,040 Speaker 2: very funny. It's no, there's a bunch of arguments about 301 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,920 Speaker 2: like what does this mean for like the world economy 302 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:26,720 Speaker 2: and for national sovereignty. Soros thinks that like currency speculation 303 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:30,640 Speaker 2: is necessary evil and he has this sort. 304 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:32,880 Speaker 1: Of tay to think that when you're making that much money, 305 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:34,080 Speaker 1: yeah right, you know. 306 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:42,480 Speaker 2: Now, okay, this this like specific thing which is like 307 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:46,440 Speaker 2: a a a bank. A banker comes in and is 308 00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 2: able to manipulate the value of a currency. This is like, 309 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:55,800 Speaker 2: this is like absolutely like this is the fodder for 310 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:59,400 Speaker 2: like the absolute most paranoid fantasies of the anti Semitic right. 311 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:02,520 Speaker 2: Like it's this sort of like rootless cosmopolitan banker like 312 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:06,280 Speaker 2: attacks the good and righteous like noble people of Britain thing. 313 00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:08,000 Speaker 2: And this is how it gets framed in the press, 314 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:10,000 Speaker 2: who are like the press is I mean it's the 315 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,800 Speaker 2: British press, right, Like the British are not known for, 316 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:17,280 Speaker 2: you know, not being anti Semitic, so they just like 317 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,359 Speaker 2: go wild with this. But you know, like this particular 318 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:24,800 Speaker 2: thing he's doing against the British. Part of what's happening here, right, 319 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:27,159 Speaker 2: is there's this sort of there's this kind of like 320 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:31,280 Speaker 2: national populist equation thing going on here, where there's this 321 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:33,760 Speaker 2: assumption that like the Bank of Britain, like the bank, 322 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:37,520 Speaker 2: like the British Central Bank is like an entity that 323 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 2: is identifiable with like an ordinary person in Britain, and 324 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:45,600 Speaker 2: like no, like the British Central Bank is run by 325 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:49,840 Speaker 2: just unbelievably in bred aristocrats, right, and you. 326 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,320 Speaker 1: Know I think they're pretty believably in bred. 327 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:54,560 Speaker 2: Oh that's fair. 328 00:17:56,440 --> 00:18:00,240 Speaker 1: We're just talking about like like zero point five six 329 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,800 Speaker 1: of a Habsburg unit, you know, a hack. The Habsburg 330 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:06,399 Speaker 1: is the international unit for measuring how inbred someone is. 331 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:11,399 Speaker 2: If you're if you're unaware, Yeah, yeah that that seems 332 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:13,520 Speaker 2: like a reasonable amount of inbred for these specific people. 333 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 2: But you know, like but this is what I was 334 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:16,960 Speaker 2: talking about, Like at the very beginning, I was talking 335 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,440 Speaker 2: about sort of like Sorrow's not being from this sort 336 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:24,480 Speaker 2: of like normal class of finance people. And the thing is, 337 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:26,440 Speaker 2: like the normal class of finance people are fucking terrible 338 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:29,199 Speaker 2: at their jobs, right, like these amber British aristocrats and 339 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,719 Speaker 2: like the fucking American like cocaine frat boys like like 340 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 2: just like doing lines of cocaine off each other's as cracks. 341 00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 2: Like these people all suck at their jobs. And George 342 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:40,400 Speaker 2: Soros is like smart and is good at his job. 343 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:44,439 Speaker 2: And so she just like absolutely goes through these people 344 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:47,720 Speaker 2: like a fucking flaming chainsaw, and she just like, you know, 345 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 2: and the maneuvers that he's doing here, she just like 346 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 2: absolutely humiliates all of the people at the at the 347 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 2: British Central Bank. He's humiliating like and not just those 348 00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:00,720 Speaker 2: guys too, it's humiliating the Tories. He's humiliating like all 349 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:05,000 Speaker 2: of the people who are seriously important in the real economy, 350 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 2: in the sort of real British economy. And he can 351 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:12,440 Speaker 2: do this right because like his opponents are you know, 352 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:14,879 Speaker 2: people who are like they're they're they're promoting, they're like 353 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:16,840 Speaker 2: they're they're they're okay, they take in like their people 354 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:18,639 Speaker 2: from college, right, and they're promoting the base off how 355 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:23,040 Speaker 2: good they are at golf. And so when when he 356 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,000 Speaker 2: just sort of like like walks in and just makes 357 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:28,520 Speaker 2: it like makes like billions of dollars just like destroying 358 00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:33,720 Speaker 2: these people, he makes just a permanent enemy of a 359 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 2: very very powerful like faction of the British ruling class 360 00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 2: and the British ruling class. Like I don't know, they 361 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:43,560 Speaker 2: they it is hard to find people who will beat 362 00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 2: the British ruling class in an anti Semitism off. And 363 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:48,040 Speaker 2: this is this is one of the things that sort 364 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:51,160 Speaker 2: of you know, if you're looking at like why Sorrow 365 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 2: specifically is the guy who all of these sort of 366 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,199 Speaker 2: right wing conspiracies wind up being about, like part of 367 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,679 Speaker 2: it is because he pisses off these specif people. 368 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, these guys who's like dads were all friends with 369 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: the King of England, who was like a close personal 370 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,439 Speaker 1: buddy with Hitler. Like there it's a bunch of like, 371 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:12,920 Speaker 1: it's a bunch of guys who are already pretty bigoted 372 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:15,880 Speaker 1: and then they get beaten at their own stupid financial game. 373 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:19,080 Speaker 1: And so like the fact that it's a Jewish dude 374 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:21,879 Speaker 1: who does it means that they're going to be even 375 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:24,800 Speaker 1: more racist than they already were. And the fact that 376 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:30,400 Speaker 1: there's plenty of international anti semitism and that George Soros 377 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: after this starts funding liberal and you know, vaguely progressive 378 00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:36,920 Speaker 1: causes like yeah, it's not this is not a it's 379 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:38,840 Speaker 1: not surprising that this is the way things went. 380 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:43,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, and again, like I can't under 381 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,720 Speaker 2: emphasize the extent to which this is also very specifically 382 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,439 Speaker 2: the reaction to British media class. Who I mean, we 383 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 2: know now that those people are psychos, Like we have 384 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:56,720 Speaker 2: seen them see a transperson at a boat race and 385 00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,680 Speaker 2: like like ten years ago and like like draw a 386 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:01,879 Speaker 2: gi things circling them in a boat and making it 387 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,160 Speaker 2: a front page news story. Those people in the nineties 388 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 2: were like sure, they are biological biologically better at navigation. 389 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,960 Speaker 2: That is that has actually been improved. Yeah, but then 390 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,040 Speaker 2: they're like justice, they're they're they're just a sort of 391 00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:22,040 Speaker 2: feral and like terrifying lead bigoted then as they are now. 392 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:25,639 Speaker 2: And this means that like like just if you're a 393 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 2: regular British person and you are like walking down the 394 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:32,840 Speaker 2: street and there's a newspaper sand you are seeing like 395 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 2: like they truly unbelievably terrifying anti Semitic shit, like just 396 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:43,400 Speaker 2: literally everywhere. And this this will have no consequences whatsoever. 397 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 2: Uh yeah, it's all good, nothing bad ever happens. And 398 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 2: speaking of no consequences, I do you know what we 399 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:56,879 Speaker 2: can promise about about training services? Twenty three minutes in? 400 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:11,520 Speaker 2: You know, look you're welcome, Damnan. Okay, we're back and 401 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 2: we have to talk about Okay. So the doing it 402 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 2: to the British economy was mostly just really funny because 403 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:20,640 Speaker 2: the British economy is going to be fine. And it's 404 00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:23,000 Speaker 2: the funny part about she was doing it to the 405 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 2: British economy is that this actually unfortunately helps the British 406 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 2: economy because it forces the British to like abandon some 407 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,959 Speaker 2: truly spectacularly not very good financial policy they were doing. 408 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 2: But then he does it to Thailand, and that is 409 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 2: a lot less justifiable. So it in this is five 410 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:54,000 Speaker 2: years later, this is nineteen ninety seven. Sous brings in 411 00:22:54,200 --> 00:23:00,680 Speaker 2: some economists, Arminio Fraga, like Roddy Joe's David Kowitz. Uh 412 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 2: he he brings He's bringing in people who are sort 413 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:09,400 Speaker 2: of experts in like developing market uh economics. And that's 414 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:12,720 Speaker 2: never no one has ever brought in a developing market 415 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 2: economist for like a good reason. And what they what 416 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:22,840 Speaker 2: they realize is that they start doing analysis of Southeast Asia, 417 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,359 Speaker 2: like the Southeast Asian markets, and they realize very quickly 418 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:32,200 Speaker 2: that Thailand is fucked. They they figure out that Thailand 419 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:36,840 Speaker 2: has Thailand has his currency pegged to the dollar and this, 420 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:39,119 Speaker 2: but you know, they don't have the reserves support this, 421 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,040 Speaker 2: and the tie like actual tai currency isn't strong enough 422 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:45,600 Speaker 2: to maintain like like stay being pegged to the dollars. 423 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 2: It's not a strong enough currency. And so they do 424 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:53,080 Speaker 2: a two billion dollars short of of of like Thailand's currency. 425 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,119 Speaker 2: And I mean, I'm gonna read from the Influence of 426 00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 2: Sorrows again about like the process of this. It was 427 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 2: a debate we had. Jones told me we'd gone to 428 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:05,879 Speaker 2: work in Asia, and here you are taking large scale 429 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,600 Speaker 2: short positions in countries with institutional fragility. Going for the 430 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 2: juggular in the United Kingdom was one thing doing the same, 431 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 2: and Thailand was another. The Bank of England would surely recover. 432 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 2: Thailand was a developing economy and it was unclear what 433 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:24,240 Speaker 2: impact outside investors could have. Soros has justified speculation with 434 00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 2: the idea that it could serve as a kind of 435 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:30,959 Speaker 2: warning to governments. Look, Thai government, the bot needs to devalue. 436 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,879 Speaker 2: Change your policy now before a currency collapses, devastating for 437 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:38,000 Speaker 2: your people. The trouble is the Thai government didn't do this. Instead, 438 00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:40,480 Speaker 2: it spent months using Bank of Thailand reserves to buy 439 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:42,879 Speaker 2: Tai bot. When it finally ran out in early summer 440 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,760 Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven, the value of the bot plunged thirty 441 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,520 Speaker 2: two percent against the dollar and millions of people lost 442 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,840 Speaker 2: Thai people lost their livelihoods. The Soros fund made seven 443 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:53,360 Speaker 2: hundred and fifty million dollars. 444 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little bit like me being like, look, yes, 445 00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:00,520 Speaker 1: I made a lot of money selling heroin to those 446 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,439 Speaker 1: middle schoolers. But really, when you think about it, it 447 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,560 Speaker 1: was a warning to those schools that it was too 448 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,480 Speaker 1: easy for me to bribe the janitor to sell heroin 449 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,600 Speaker 1: to kids there. You know, I was actually performing a 450 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,760 Speaker 1: public service. So true, Robert, It is just like that, 451 00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:18,760 Speaker 1: you know. 452 00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:21,160 Speaker 2: To be fair, you know, I'm not going to every money. 453 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,280 Speaker 2: I'm not going to finish that thought. That's probably for 454 00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:23,720 Speaker 2: the best. 455 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:27,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, we need we need one person to remain uncanceled 456 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:28,760 Speaker 1: here to keep the lights on. 457 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:32,480 Speaker 2: Oh God, doesn't have to be me. 458 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:34,640 Speaker 1: Oh no, yeah, no, legally it does. 459 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,240 Speaker 2: It's really bad. Yeah, no more joking, but yeah, we can't. 460 00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:40,000 Speaker 2: We can't suffer any other jokes. 461 00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:44,840 Speaker 1: Yes, somebody's gotta upload this episode. 462 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:47,080 Speaker 2: All right here, here, here, here's the next joke. Soros 463 00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 2: actually doesn't make money off of the speculation, if off 464 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,040 Speaker 2: of a speculating in Southeast Asia, because he loses basically 465 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 2: the same amount of money taking like a long position 466 00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 2: in Indonesia. 467 00:25:57,920 --> 00:25:59,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, the same thing happened to me when I took 468 00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:03,719 Speaker 1: a long position on doing cocaine in my bathroom with 469 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,200 Speaker 1: the money that I made selling drugs to all those kids. 470 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:10,840 Speaker 1: You know, we're a lot alike, him and me, we're 471 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:11,399 Speaker 1: a lot of like. 472 00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,320 Speaker 2: Well, okay, to be fair, to be fair, and this 473 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:16,720 Speaker 2: is okay, this is the thing. The reason I wanted 474 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:20,119 Speaker 2: to talk about this specifically is that, like, okay, like 475 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:25,359 Speaker 2: to this day, if you look under sort of if 476 00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:27,360 Speaker 2: you if you every once in a while, someone someone, 477 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:30,000 Speaker 2: there'll be a tweet that's like, what did George Sorrows do? 478 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,600 Speaker 2: And immediately there will be a bunch of people talking 479 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:36,360 Speaker 2: about how he like deliberately destroyed all of the economies 480 00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:40,440 Speaker 2: in Southeast Asia. Yeah, and that's not really what happened. 481 00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:43,439 Speaker 1: And that would be for one thing, too much to 482 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:46,160 Speaker 1: put on one guy fucking around with a cup. 483 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,040 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And I wanted to actually kind of walk 484 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:52,720 Speaker 2: through this a little bit in depth just because okay, 485 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,560 Speaker 2: there's a really really easy way to think about the 486 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,439 Speaker 2: economy that is bad. It leads you into anti Semitic traps, 487 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,520 Speaker 2: which is like, hey, here is like one banker who 488 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 2: wanted to make money, and because he wanted to make money, 489 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:07,919 Speaker 2: he like destroyed all these economies. And like, on the 490 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,679 Speaker 2: one hand, yeah, like like Sorrow's betting against like the 491 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,199 Speaker 2: tai currency is bad, right, like this is this is 492 00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:16,240 Speaker 2: not a thing you should have been doing. On the 493 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:18,200 Speaker 2: other hand, you know, okay, so that's like the sort 494 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:20,760 Speaker 2: of level one thing. But the thing about that, you know, 495 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:22,080 Speaker 2: this is the sort of this is the sort of 496 00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 2: like great Man, anti anti Semitism theory of collapse. And 497 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:26,560 Speaker 2: this is the theory that a lot of the sort 498 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:30,560 Speaker 2: of regional leaders take, you know, because and this and 499 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:33,120 Speaker 2: this is sort of a crucial thing, right, this position 500 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:36,800 Speaker 2: very conveniently allows them to just like not think about 501 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,720 Speaker 2: capitalism in general or like their role in this in 502 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:45,000 Speaker 2: this crisis, which is not insignificance. And so in order 503 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,360 Speaker 2: to figure out what what actually happened here, we need 504 00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:50,520 Speaker 2: to look at so so Sorow sort of like tip 505 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:54,439 Speaker 2: like tip some dominoes, right, but the dominoes were already 506 00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,560 Speaker 2: there and they were going like regardless even if Soros 507 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:59,080 Speaker 2: had never existed, right, Like, they were going to fall. 508 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,560 Speaker 2: And they're going to fall because ironically of the plaza coords. 509 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,760 Speaker 2: So you know, when we talked about the plaza courds earlier. 510 00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:09,840 Speaker 2: The US forces Japan to increase the value of its 511 00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,880 Speaker 2: currency relative to the dollar. Okay, so this is great 512 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:16,720 Speaker 2: for the American economy. This nukes the Japanese economy, I 513 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:18,880 Speaker 2: mean the Japanese economy, you know. And we'll talk about 514 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:20,639 Speaker 2: this in a bit too. It was already kind of 515 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:23,440 Speaker 2: doing bad. When the US does this and its manufacturer 516 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 2: economy just like implodes it. It guts the Japanese economy. 517 00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 2: It has The Japanese economy has never recovered from this. 518 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,520 Speaker 2: It probably will never recover really into what it was. 519 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,600 Speaker 2: And you know, the effect this has is that now 520 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,080 Speaker 2: the government of Japan has to figure out how to 521 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 2: grow their economy without having any way to make money 522 00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:50,760 Speaker 2: that grows your economy. But now they have a stronger currency, 523 00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 2: and so their solution is, Okay, what did they all 524 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,320 Speaker 2: the central banking people look around each other and they go, 525 00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 2: what is a strong currency good for housing speculation? And 526 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 2: so they they start like they start, they start slashing 527 00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:08,800 Speaker 2: interest race, and they start basically building an entire economy, uh, 528 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 2: based on the assumption that housing prices will always go up, 529 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 2: and so you should just take out loans so you 530 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:15,880 Speaker 2: could buy houses because the value of the housing will 531 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:20,120 Speaker 2: because you know, highing prices will always go up, so 532 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 2: you can you can have all of these assets based 533 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,719 Speaker 2: and mortgages. H This is this may may or may 534 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,840 Speaker 2: not be sounding familiar to everyone who literally thousand and 535 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 2: eight I and so you know, in in like in 536 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:33,760 Speaker 2: like nineteen eighty two, the entire Japanese economy implodes sort 537 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:39,320 Speaker 2: of again because they they literally built the two thousand 538 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 2: and eight machine. And so this this forces the US 539 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,920 Speaker 2: to do something called the reverse Plaza Cords, where they 540 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,120 Speaker 2: take the original Plaza records and they reverse it and 541 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,000 Speaker 2: they increase the value of the American dollar. American manufactury 542 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,240 Speaker 2: dies like it's never recovered, it's never coming back. And 543 00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:59,800 Speaker 2: this for a this kind of this stabilizes the Japanese 544 00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 2: a to be a little bit, but it means that 545 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,120 Speaker 2: the US now no longer has a functional economy. And 546 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 2: so we do. Our solution to this is we need 547 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:09,760 Speaker 2: two thousand and eight. Right, we build an entire economy 548 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,640 Speaker 2: also on the Japanese model of currency speculat of you know, 549 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,520 Speaker 2: of like housing price speculation, ceculation of like or like 550 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:19,120 Speaker 2: the rising prices of like stocks. Right, we build an 551 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:24,680 Speaker 2: economy completely made a bullshit. But you know, okay, but 552 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:26,480 Speaker 2: what does this have to do with the Asian market collaps? Okay? 553 00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:28,320 Speaker 2: The problem is that like all of the countries and 554 00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:30,920 Speaker 2: in East Asia and like Southeast Asia also do this. 555 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:32,880 Speaker 2: They also do the thing where they're like, oh, we're 556 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:34,600 Speaker 2: gonna we're gonna, we're gonna ba We're okay, so our 557 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 2: manufacturing economies are declining, right, so we're gonna we're gonna 558 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:41,520 Speaker 2: base our entire economy on housing prices going up. And 559 00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,720 Speaker 2: you know that's and it's not George Soros. That's the 560 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:50,320 Speaker 2: thing that actually destroys like the sort of that's something 561 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,560 Speaker 2: that like that like actually destroys all of these economies. 562 00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:56,040 Speaker 2: And you know, and I wanted to sort of run 563 00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:57,320 Speaker 2: through this, and you know, this is like a lot 564 00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,800 Speaker 2: of like sort of econ shit, right, But the reason 565 00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:01,920 Speaker 2: I wanted to run through this is that I think 566 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:06,479 Speaker 2: I think he gets at the sort of truly the 567 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:11,560 Speaker 2: truly horrifying thing about how our economy works that is 568 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 2: really difficult to face, and is I think it's at 569 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,200 Speaker 2: least a part of why people really really want there 570 00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:21,920 Speaker 2: to just be one guy who is running anything everything, 571 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 2: whether that's the CIA, whether that's Soros, whether that's like 572 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:30,440 Speaker 2: the New World Order. Yeah, right, because if there's if 573 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,000 Speaker 2: there's like a guy who's doing this, right, you can 574 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:36,720 Speaker 2: stop him. But the great horror of this world is 575 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:39,320 Speaker 2: that there is no deep state, right, there is no sataniscoball, 576 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 2: there's no one pulling the strings at all. The only 577 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,040 Speaker 2: thing that is there is just sort of the cold, 578 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,600 Speaker 2: lifeless and inexorable death logic of capital, and that logic 579 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:49,840 Speaker 2: is moving all of us, right, all you know, the 580 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,800 Speaker 2: people who are doing the conspiracies, insofar as they exist, 581 00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:55,840 Speaker 2: are being moved by this. All of the rulers are 582 00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:58,239 Speaker 2: being moved by capital. All of us, the subjects, are 583 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:03,240 Speaker 2: being moved by capital. But that like sucks, right, Like 584 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:06,160 Speaker 2: the fact that all of these economies are destroyed not 585 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,520 Speaker 2: by like the individual actions of people, but by the 586 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,040 Speaker 2: fact that, like returns are less good in Thailand than 587 00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,800 Speaker 2: they are in China. And this is just sort of 588 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,080 Speaker 2: the inectable logic of the entire economic system we have. 589 00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:22,360 Speaker 2: This is, you know, this is absolutely terrifying, and faced 590 00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:24,760 Speaker 2: with this sort of reality, right, like, people who want 591 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:27,560 Speaker 2: to protect capitalism because you know, they have a bunch 592 00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 2: of assets in it, right, retreat into this sort of 593 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,480 Speaker 2: like they you know, they they use Soros as a 594 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,040 Speaker 2: smoke screen for like why everything is suddenly going wrong. 595 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,760 Speaker 2: But sort of simultaneous to this, right, this is also 596 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:47,200 Speaker 2: a real problem for George Soros because he's, like, you know, 597 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,479 Speaker 2: when he's not sort of in his role as like 598 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,680 Speaker 2: capital He's like not a piece of shit. He's like 599 00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:59,800 Speaker 2: a person who wants the world to be better. And this, 600 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:05,200 Speaker 2: you know, this causes a sort of there was a 601 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,880 Speaker 2: contradiction in his ideology, right, which is that he wants 602 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 2: the world to be a better place, and simultaneously he's 603 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 2: also a capitalist, and these two things are sort of 604 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,479 Speaker 2: warring with each other. Even as early as even as 605 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,200 Speaker 2: early sort of the nineties, he's giving speeches about how 606 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:20,840 Speaker 2: like his open society that he wants. It's just sort 607 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:23,480 Speaker 2: of like this liberal democratic society of like laws and 608 00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:27,040 Speaker 2: norms and human rights. The greatest danger Twitter ceased to 609 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,480 Speaker 2: be communism, it's now capitalism. But he can't do anything 610 00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:34,440 Speaker 2: about it because he is also a capitalist. And next episode, 611 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:39,160 Speaker 2: we're going to watch Soros like through his philanthropic endeavors, 612 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:42,080 Speaker 2: attempt to solve the problems that his economic system has 613 00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:47,040 Speaker 2: caused and fail catastrophically and become the sort of boogeyman 614 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:51,440 Speaker 2: and the the anti sementic spector of every conspiracy theory 615 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:51,880 Speaker 2: in the world. 616 00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:57,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, so check out that next time. And you know, 617 00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,720 Speaker 1: if you're hanging out around Clark Middle School and you 618 00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:05,120 Speaker 1: have forty dollars. I can hook you up with some 619 00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:08,399 Speaker 1: some of that sweet black tar, so you know, give 620 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:10,959 Speaker 1: me a ring. My phone numbers posted in the show 621 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:17,000 Speaker 1: notes of every episode It. 622 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:19,320 Speaker 2: Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media. 623 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,120 Speaker 2: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 624 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:25,239 Speaker 2: coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 625 00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,640 Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 626 00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,359 Speaker 2: find sources for It could Happen Here, Updated monthly at 627 00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:34,640 Speaker 2: coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.