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"Millionaires and billionaires," President Obama says derisively, must make more "sacrifices" and live by the same rules the rest of America lives by. But there are seven little words that will never appear on the White House teleprompter: "And that means you, too, George Soros."
For all his (and his wife's) bashing of greedy Wall Street hedge-fund managers, Obama has shown nothing but love to the world's most famous hedge-fund mogul. The feeling is mutual and deep(-pocketed).
Soros and his family shelled out $250,000 for Obama's inauguration, $60,000 in direct campaign contributions and untold millions more to liberal activist groups pushing the White House agenda. While the class warrior-in-chief assails conniving financiers who exploit loopholes and corporate titans who imperil the planet, he lets the Soros exemptions to his attack-the-rich rules slide like butter on a hot plate.
This week, for example, Soros announced he was "quitting" the hedge-fund industry. The headlines emphasized his decision to return about $750 million to outside investors (a drop in his $30 billion bucket of personal wealth). He's reconstituting the business that landed him on Forbes magazine's "wealthiest people" list as a "family" interest. But the move has "self-serving politics" written all over it.
Over the past year, Soros provided coveted support for Obama and the Democrats' Byzantine financial "reforms" under the sweeping Dodd-Frank law. He preached to financial publications around the world about the need for increased regulatory controls over his industry. And in November 2008, while paying obligatory lip service to concerns about going too far, he submitted a statement to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that recommended: "The entire regulatory framework needs to be reconsidered, and hedge funds need to be regulated within that framework."
Frameworks for thee, but not for he, however.
Under Title IV of Dodd-Frank, hedge funds were required to abide by new registration and reporting requirements in an attempt to better police systemic risk (not that the feckless Securities and Exchange Commission has ever been able to fulfill that mission). To evade the regulations, Soros and other firms have used a recently passed rule allowing so-called family offices to shield themselves from both registration and disclosure rules that would have subjected Soros Inc. to a new "Financial Stability Oversight Council."
Somehow, in touting its one-year anniversary last week, there was nary a peep about the myriad loopholes and de facto waivers being granted to Obama's powerful benefactors whose names start with "S" and end in "-oros."
GOP Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama called Soros' hypocrisy out, telling Reuters this week: "It appears that Mr. Soros talked up financial reform only to sell it short. Don't be surprised to see his fellow Wall Street financiers follow suit."
This comes on top of the Obama administration's $2 billion offering in 2009 to Brazilian state-owned offshore oil-drilling company Petrobras -- in which Soros and his management company own an $811 million stake.
Offshore drilling for they, but not for the rest of the USA. Membership in the self-exempting progressive billionaires' club has its privileges.
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Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010).
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July 29, 2011 @ 7:33 am
How ironic that the very Dodd-Frank laws written by the Liberals to rein in the abuses of the Hedge Funds have now driven Soros out of the Hedge Fund business. He will now only invest as his family investor? Apparently he cannot stand the scrutiny. It’s time to rewrite his FAMILY EXEMPTION clause. Funny how these liberal Progressives and their deceiving sock puppet lawyers who are created more equal than the rest of us, always put in some trapdoor escape clause they can use to avoid paying their fair share of taxes and scrutiny.
Just follow Pinocchio’s strings back to the master puppet master who is again manipulating our markets with Pinocchio’s fear mongering Debt Ceiling crisis. Soon the markets will have fallen enough for Soros to invest his Billions at depressed prices, whereupon when Obama’s nose has reached the proper length he will suddenly have a revelation of financial and legislative responsibility? The markets will then rise and Soros can sell at a big profit with the manipulated American taxpayers 401K footing the bill. This is getting better than watching professional wrestling, only the American taxpayers cost of admission will cost many of us our homes and jobs.
Do you now understand how hicks from Arkansas and poor Community Organizers grow up to be millionaires after leaving office? They add new meaning to wealth redistribution, but that is all Socialist can do. Where is the wealth creation of their failed philosophy? They would financially devour even their own young.
LET THE AMERICAN EARNERS BE THE REAL SPENDERS
July 29, 2011 @ 9:26 am
excelant post my friend.
July 29, 2011 @ 9:54 am
Did Soros every become an American Citizen? If yes , I think he has forgotten the pledges he took!
July 29, 2011 @ 10:30 am
The suggestion in the article suggests he set up the lawmakers by campaigning for regulation and then shorting the market knowing it would sell off sounds like an accurate explanation. The reason stuff like this is possible is because people outside of govt, be they the bankers that set up the fed res for their benefit and safety of their “estates”, or hedge fund managers of today, are shifty and move much faster than govt. Thus they end up taking advantage of taxpayers by minipulating elected officials who likely have limited real knowledge of what they are trying to regulate. In other words they are swimming in a tank with a bunch of sharks and that includes political party enforcer sharks. And none of them will ever admit they were fooled by the lobbyists. To do such would be political suicide. An illustration of political suicide. Read my lips by B 1. (Part of the reason was the sharks smelled blood and did him in. What is surprising to me is the sharks were after B 2 over the war, but he still won re-election? This must illustrate how much resentment of the liberals exists in the nation? And even more so now aftter the really bad taste we have gotten from O!)
July 29, 2011 @ 11:13 am
‘Family’ reeks of the same tax dodge perpetrated by Foundations’. Ever notice how many tax-exempt, charitable ‘foundations’ distribute their wealth. Another ‘Family Plan’.