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New George Soros on economics and society
For those who don't know who George Soros is, he made his fortune as a speculator. His central method of operation lay in forming theories about where self-perpetuating feedback would be operating and then laying large bets on it. He earned billions in this endeavour, and is particularly famous for breaking the Bank of England.

His economic theories are unorthodox. But an unorthodoxy that manages to generate (as I recall) compounded 40% interest per year (with spectacular failures as well as successes) over a period of decades is an economic theory worth paying attention to.

However he didn't keep his fortune. Instead he has given away billions of dollars to try to shore up social causes of particular interest to him. And he has put out a lot of energy trying to get others interested in his theories, both economic and social.

Sound interesting? Here is George Soros on [link|http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97feb/capital/capital.htm|the risks of capitalism]. And if that interests you, here are some [link|http://www.soros.org/textfiles/speeches/|more speeches] of possible interest.

Cheers,
Ben
New Kinda moots most political forum posts (?)
What can I say? Nice one, again!

[quote]
The open societies of the
West did not feel a strong urge to
promote open societies in the former
Soviet empire. On the contrary, the
prevailing view was that people ought
to be left to look after their own
affairs. The end of the Cold War
brought a response very different from
that at the end of the Second World
War. The idea of a new Marshall Plan
could not even be mooted. When I
proposed such an idea at a conference
in Potsdam (in what was then still East
Germany), in the spring of 1989, I was
literally laughed at.

The collapse of communism laid the
groundwork for a universal open
society, but the Western democracies
failed to rise to the occasion. The new
regimes that are emerging in the
former Soviet Union and the former
Yugoslavia bear little resemblance to
open societies. The Western alliance
seems to have lost its sense of
purpose, because it cannot define itself
in terms of a Communist menace. It
has shown little inclination to come to
the aid of those who have defended
the idea of an open society in Bosnia
or anywhere else.
[/quote]

I've seen Soros speak (media). We aren't listening. But a nice reminder that insight and reason aren't dead yet - just unPopular.
He's benevolent - and not even a despot. (Imagine if Billy and crew had been civilized and human?)



A.
New Interesting article. Have you read John Ralston Saul?

He's a Canadian philosopher, who's written about a lot of the same things over the course of the last ten years or so. A large part of his thesis goes back to the thesis of Socrates: "I at least know that I know nothing, which means I know more than you who does not realise that you know nothing."

In short, the truest state to be in is a state of doubt: doubt what you're taught, doubt what you're told, and doubt what you believe. Only by always questioning is it possible to advance the mind. Once a certainty is entertained, then the mind stops thinking and only calculates. This is much the same point the Soros makes in the first article you linked.

If you (or anyone else) wants to check out some of his works, I'd suggest The Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense, Voltaire's Bastards, and The Unconcsious Civilization to start with. The first is especially amusing; one entry starts like this:

Taylor, Charles:
Founder of the Harvard School of Business. Lenin's favourite economist after Marx.
Overall, I'd have to say that the book is a howler...

If any of you are interested in his take on Canadian political history, his book Reflections of a Siamese Twin is also well worth reading. In it, he takes some serious exceptions to the idea of American exceptionalism... which might make some parts of it interesting reading even for you Yanks who know absolutely nothing about Canadian history.


--
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* Jack Troughton jake at jakesplace.dhs.org *
* [link|http://jakesplace.dhs.org|[link|http://jakesplace.dhs.org|http://jakesplace.dhs.org]] [link|ftp://jakesplace.dhs.org|[link|ftp://jakesplace.dhs.org|ftp://jakesplace.dhs.org]] *
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     George Soros on economics and society - (ben_tilly) - (2)
         Kinda moots most political forum posts (?) - (Ashton)
         Interesting article. Have you read John Ralston Saul? - (jake123)

Besides, we all have spell check these days, right?
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