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Showing posts with label Soros. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soros. Show all posts
Soros linked to LightSquared Controversy

Soros linked to LightSquared Controversy

With one billionaire supporter of Obama linked to the Solyndra scandal, now there is another Obama supporter linked to the LightSquared problems. It seems clear why so many billionaires support big government because it provides all sorts of wealth transfers to them. From Fox News:

Billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros has been financially linked to LightSquared, which is at the center of allegations that the White House pressured a Pentagon commander to change his prepared congressional testimony to benefit the Virginia-based telecom company that once received a $90,000 investment from President Obama.
LightSquared is seeking to establish a new wireless broadband network that many, including Air Force Gen. William Shelton, believe could interfere with critical GPS systems used by the U.S. military. But Shelton, head of Space Command, confided to lawmakers that he thought his testimony had been leaked to LightSquared, and that he had rejected requests from the White House to downplay his concerns.
The company is being funded by private equity titan Philip Falcone, the founder of Harbinger Capital Partners, a hedge fund that has counted Soros as a "significant" investor since 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Soros also funds four groups that have lobbied on behalf of LightSquared in regulatory and policy fights. . . . .
A spokeswoman for Open Society Foundations did not respond to a request for comment. . . .


Also note how all this fits in with Obama's DOJ shutting down the AT&T - T-Mobile merger. Economist will tell you if competitors are upset about a merger, it is likely to be pro-competitive. If they are supportive, it is more likely that the reverse is true. In this case, Sprint is very upset about the merger. Yet, Obama's DOJ is stopping the merger. From Fox News:

Soros also funds four groups that have lobbied on behalf of LightSquared in regulatory and policy fights.
The Washington Examiner first reported this week that the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, which includes the Soros-funded groups Free Press, Media Access Project, the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission in April 2010 supporting Harbinger's attempt to become a national player in the wireless industry over the objections of AT&T and Verizon. . . . .


Note the claims over increased jobs by AT&T.

AT&T threw a wild card into the mix earlier this week. On the eve of the Justice Department suit, the company promised to return 5,000 call center jobs to the U.S., which had previously been outsourced abroad. The company also committed to maintaining the two companies’ existing call-center workforce of 25,000. . . .




Some more on Solyndra at Fox News:

Top executives from a bankrupt California solar energy company pleaded the Fifth Amendment more than a dozen times Friday in a congressional hearing that went nowhere but gave members the opportunity to pose dozens of questions about the loss of a half billion dollars in government loans.

Solyndra Inc. CEO Brian Harrison and the company's chief financial officer, Bill Stover, had notified the House Energy and Commerce Committee they were going to invoke their Fifth Amendment right to decline to testify to avoid self-incrimination.

That didn't mean lawmakers didn't have questions for the executives, leading to complaints from committee Democrats that House Republicans were badgering the witnesses.

The Supreme Court has ruled it's considered prosecutorial misconduct when the government calls witnesses with the flagrant intent of questioning them to invoke their Fifth Amendment, said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, who led the hearing, said that Democrats had agreed to the format ahead of time.

I agreed to the format. That doesn't mean I agreed to badgering the witnesses, said ranking committee member Diana DeGette, D-Colo.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., told Fox News that the members asked questions that they would have liked to have answers. But he said the executives used their Fifth Amendment rights becaise they feared their testimony would incriminate themselves. . . .
Soros gives back investor money so as to avoid Dodd Frank reporting requirements

Soros gives back investor money so as to avoid Dodd Frank reporting requirements

Soros gave back enough money to investors to avoid the new reporting requirements. From The Street:

George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager and philanthropist best known for breaking the Bank of England in 1992, will return capital to investors in order to avoid reporting requirements under the Dodd Frank reform act.

Soros will return money to investors by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing two people briefed on the matter. Soros Fund Management will focus on managing assets for his family, according to a letter to the firm's investors. Soros will turn 81 on August 12. . . .

Initial media reports trumpeted the end of Soros' 40-year career as a hedge-fund manager, although the billionaire investor's firm is far from being done. Soros will return less than $1 billion to external investors, a drop in the bucket compared to the firm's total assets of more than $25 billion.

The reason? Under new requirements from the Dodd Frank act, hedge funds are required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission by March 2012 if the fund continues to manage more than $150 million in assets for outside investors. The new requirements would call for funds to report information about the assets they manage, potential conflicts of interest, and information on investors and employees. The act allows an exemption for what the Commission considers "family office" advisers.

"We have relied until now on other exemptions from registration which allowed outside shareholders whose interests aligned with those of the family investors to remain invested in Quantum," the letter continued, according to the Bloomberg report. "As those other exemptions are no longer available under the new regulations, Soros Fund Management will now complete the transition to a family office that it began eleven years ago." . . .

My son Maxim has top two most read news stories today at Fox News

Soros helping Mark Dayton raise money for Minnesota recount

Soros helping Mark Dayton raise money for Minnesota recount

From the left wing Talking Point Memo:

As Minnesota Public Radio reports, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mark Dayton has a very special fundraiser coming up, to help pay for his efforts in the state recount. The headliner at the December 13th event will be none other than former President Bill Clinton.

But that's not all. It will also be held in New York, at the home of George Soros. . . .
The Soros Empire

The Soros Empire

There doesn't seem to be anyone who balances out the impact that Soros has.

Almost every major liberal organization, think tank or media outlet has been the beneficiary of Mr. Soros' largesse. The Nation magazine, Mother Jones, Media Matters, MoveOn.org, NPR and the Center for American Progress - all together they have received tens of millions of dollars from the financier. They serve as front groups and propaganda vehicles to promote Mr. Soros' brand of transnational socialism.

He has poured hundreds of millions into the former communist bloc. The former Soviet empire has thus become the Soros empire. Mr. Soros has worked behind the scenes to destabilize and influence governments such as Croatia, Slovakia, Serbia, Georgia, Kosovo and Ukraine. In the process, he has plundered countries' natural resources. . . .
Should a donor to NPR be telling them what the reporters he pays for should be investigating?

Should a donor to NPR be telling them what the reporters he pays for should be investigating?

First there is the question of whether it is even proper for NPR to take a donation from someone as left wing as Soros. Soros, who funds organizations such as Media Matters, has an obvious agenda. The fact that he is telling NPR what general topics the reporters he is paying for will investigate is also troubling. My question is what states these investigative reporters will be located. Will they be spread around randomly? Will each state get one? Will they primarily be in Republican states?

billionaire liberal icon George Soros has donated $1.8 million to hire 100 new reporters for 50 of its member stations.

The money will go to launch a project called Impact of Government, which Soros' Open Society Foundation says will "bring greater transparency and accountability to the workings of state capitals across the country."

The group, which describes its mission as building "tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens," calls it a response to the decline in news coverage of state legislatures. . . .
George Soros has spent $45.4 million to move the judiciary to the left

George Soros has spent $45.4 million to move the judiciary to the left

Is there anything that Soros isn't spending his money to move the country to the left on?

During the past decade, a lavishly funded, highly coordinated campaign has been under way to shift America's judiciary fundamentally to the left by keeping conservative judges off state courts. This campaign is being orchestrated and funded by the Open Society Institute (OSI), the political arm of billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros. According to a study released this week by the American Justice Partnership, OSI has spent at least $45.4 million to promote the so-called merit selection system and reduce the influence of citizens and their elected representatives when it comes to picking judges. . . .
Soros on companies getting money from government

Soros on companies getting money from government

I find Soros' claim of justified resentment ironic given the amount of money that the Obama administration is giving to Soros. For example, the money given to drilling for oil off of Brazil.

The big profits made by some of Wall Street’s leading banks are “hidden gifts” from the state, and taxpayer resentment of such companies is “justified”, George Soros, the fund manager, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“Those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers,” Mr Soros said. “These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don’t think that those monies should be used to pay bonuses. There’s a resentment which I think is justified.” . . .


I like this:

“With the too-big-to-fail concept comes a need to regulate the payments that employees receive,”


Why just regulating what employees receive? Why not what the shareholders like Soros makes? Does this mean that the government can regulate what Soros makes?
Infamous Lancet Study Funded by George Soros

Infamous Lancet Study Funded by George Soros

Right before the 2006 general election, the Lancet came out with a study claiming that 650,000 Iraqis had died in the war and it aftermath. The study got worldwide attention, much of it unquestioning. Well, it turns out that almost half the study was "funded by the antiwar billionaire George Soros." My problem isn't the funding, my problem is that the source of the funding wasn't revealed when the study came out immediately before the election. What is even worse is that this fact is not considered newsworthy by most of the media now. A Google news search on the term "Lancet Soros study 650,000" got only six news hits (The Times of London, The Spectator in the UK, The New York Post, Fox News, Wired News, and one other minor source). Trying "Soros Lancet Iraq" got only 15 news hits, but some of those were columnists and not news stories.
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