George Soros on the Economic Crisis

In an interview during a CNN show, Global Public Square (GPS), the host Fareed Zakaria talked about the financial crises with George Soros asked him what he would do to end or help this financial crisis.

Soros pointed out that the marked needed a kind of government guarantee now. And that this generally was now recognized, which meant that the institutions would have a kind of insurance backing though government guarantee that must be regulated. However, Soros did not believe in more but improve regulations.

When Zakaria asked Soros if he though that he had or in general that rich people would have undue influence in politics in America, Soros responded with a clear, yes! He added that he meant that there were other rich people who had influence. However he wouldn’t and that he would try not to abuse and that he thought, that he wouldn’t misuse his money.

Soros specified by saying he wouldn’t use his money to gain political influence for his private interests, which was what many rich people had done, and what, in a sense, market fundamentalism did, because it was in the interests of people who had a lot of money but were only willing to pay as little taxes as possible.

Then Soros explained that he actually believed that there was a need for taxation and that this anti-taxation position was actually false, because the government was supposed to provide services, and those services would cost money. And that somebody would have to pay for it.

He continued by noting that he thought that, in many ways, this had brought home the decline in America's position in the world, because we had over-consumed. The Chinese had produced a lot more than they would consume, so they had built up reserves. We had built up debts while the Chinese had built up assets.

In other words, as I see Soros response, the republican government, starting with Ronald Regan, has, with the help of market fundamentalism, cheated the American governmental treasury out 70% of the tax-revenue needed to run a responsible government by continuously lowering taxes, especially on the wealthiest in the United States of American. Moreover, the mentality of the American people of over-consumption has lead to the current crises. Only a fundamental change in these behaviors can lead the world to a stable economy again.