George Soros Battles Free Market Zealots With New Fund, Economic Journal: Newsweek

newsweek.com:

Large swaths of economics are going to have to be rethought on the basis of what's happened." So said Larry Summers, President Obama's chief economic adviser, in an interview in the weeks after the markets crashed a year ago. Yet to a remarkable degree, economic thinking hasn't changed very much at all. (Click here to follow Michael Hirsh).

Now financier George Soros is announcing a $50 million effort to speed things along.

Read the whole story: newsweek.com

Comments

[Lionsden]

I'm a "freest market" type. I'm for a free market, but I'm for tariffs, and protectionism (just like our founding fathers) In fact, so was Adam Smitth (Wealth of Nations).

Why doesn't Mr. Soros work to protect US manufacturing?

Why doesn't Mr. Soros work to eliminate H1B visas?

Why doesn't Mr. Soros work to stop US colleges and universities from hiring an unlimited supply of foreigner workers while Americans lose jobs and are underpaid?

It is these things which stab the American worker in the back.

I'll let you guess why.

[Itdoesnotmatter]

Iam afraid some people understanding does'nt go beyond the words "free, market and greed"

[Lionsden]

Itsdoes: you don't seem to know how this works. It will be a freer market with some greed, or an unfree market with some greed (generally more).

Those are your choices.

If you think anything else is available to humankind, then you are to be classified as a Utopian.

[Itdoesnotmatter]

Oh ! I understand but I also know excessive greed throws the baby out with bath water;
hence today's economy being bailed out by the government on behalf of all of the tycoons

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com/

[Lionsden]

Itdoes:

Oh, and along with the freer market is the freer citizen; and alternatively, along with the unfreer market is the less free citizen.

Unfortunately, these are our only choices until Kingdom come.

[mattyd123]

This guy is a globalist vulture picking at the carcass of the American economy. Probably short the dollar, make a billion.

[Lionsden]

Yup

[Democratuser]

We need more stimulus spending. More jobs programs. Lets pray that Obama can get it done. Millions of lower & middle class Americans are falling through the cracks. We need a bailout to help them, not the banks.

hat tip to http://financeopinionss.blogspot.com

lets get unemployment benefit extension passed

[MojoWorking]

I'm not sure what his motives are - but anything that questions this free-market hoo-haw is fine with me. I am tired of the "invisible hand of the free-market" shaking down me and my retirement funds.

If any of you actually read the article (which I doubt) its refreshing to see that this guy Minsky actually was predicting human behavior in unregulated markets --- basically greed and recklessness. Although he did leave out corruption. We need regulation and rules to protect us from ourselves.

Which brings us to the point of the article: Why has economics (or economists) failed to predict or save us from any of the major financial disasters ? Perhaps in a perfect world run by perfect emotionless robots a true free market might work. But the human factors of greed, recklessness, and corruption turn the free market into a boom-bust market. Thus we end our discussion of Econ 101.

[CommunistUtopia]

Soros is a multi-billionaire. In fact he is one of the top 25 richest people in the world. Yet he says he hates the free market. Something doesn't make sense here. Is he a liar or a just a con man?

[swift goat pet for truth]

Where does he say he hates the free market? Link Please.

I see him saying he is not pleased with the Crony Capitalism where government subsidizes incompetent billionaires. And that would be the story attached to this comment section.

[american-dolt]

I would guess what he says in Public, differs from his real views.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

He believes the markets should have regulation to prevent abuses.

[pipetoe]

Soros will line his own pockets...­This is an investment in Soros and Soros only.

[JulieSA]

He always does just fine betting on anything that makes the US weaker.

[lillibelle]

Yep. He should be in jail__.

[CaptainVideo]

The reality is that real world economies only have an invisible paw, not an invisible hand. The market mechanism is very powerful and works reasonably well a lot of the time, but it can go very badly off the tracks from time to time. In those cases the visible hand of the government is needed to put it back on the tracks.

[newyorkid]

Public Option Out? What where Connecticans thinking when voting for Joe the 2ionist? Anyone expecting anything better from a 2ionist?

[JulieSA]

Just say it. You don't like J3ws.

[newyorkid]

Public Option Out? What where Connecticans thinking when voting Joe the 2ionist? Anyone expecting anything better from a 2ionist?

[newyorkid]

Public Option Out? What where Connecticans thinking when they were voting Joe the 2ionist? Anyone expecting anything better from a 2ionist?

[jerrypl]

You have to admire Soros for spending his fortune on creating an institute to balance out the overly weighted influences of the Free Market Ideologues, who got it all wrong because they were never real believers in a true free market, but a bail out free market: socialize the losses and privatize the gains.

Soros made a great deal of his wealth by buying and selling currencies, I believe.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[JulieSA]

France convicted him in absentia.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

Funny how it took 14 years for it to go to trial and was punishment was fine supposed to be the amount he got from the supposed insider trading which was said by the court to be 2.3 million dollars. Were the people who invited him into the takeover bid also brought to trial? Btw Soros declined the takeover bid but bought shares in the company.

[glockman]

And just how did Mr. Soros make all that money?

[Haditup2here]

And just why are you asking such a question that you can find out by yourself? Did you ever hear about Google?

[falco]

He knows. It was a rhetorical question. And sometimes stating the obvious can get your comment axed. You know, when the facts get interpreted as sounding all conspiratorial.

[kidolympic]

the baffle for the billion dollar oan-oh ~~ it's-Geope­r-givin-oa­ns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSrDD3tcibU

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Could you try English next time?

[FarOutFish]

Nice film, however a commercial for a French automobile company relates to the subject, HOW?