Charlie Rose Science Series
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04/10/2008
George Soros
A conversation with George Soros
Keywords:
A conversation with George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management.
DVD
Charlie Rose DVDs on Amazon.
Charlie Rose DVDs on Amazon.
Audio
Audio available through Audible.com.
Audio available through Audible.com.
Transcripts
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Transcripts available through Voxant.
I love this website. Am on it all the time. Joe
Is this the famous Charlie Rose show? He interrupted the guest so often that I could barely stand watching half the show. What his claim to fame?
This interview was spoiled for me by Charlie's agressive interuptions. It was Soros' opinions and predictions that I was interested in, not Mr.Rose's. Rose's constant egoic attempt to sound ever so knowledgable was an iritant to what could have been an enjoyable interview.
Mr Soros is not alone in the game. He has powerful superiors who have used him to set a stage for a borderless, cashless global society. How otherwise would you explain him running away with so many crimes against humanity unpunished? Or how would you understand that he has never run out of cash? It is sad to see how many people fall after his soft spoken ness not withstanding how much misery he and his global elite have wrecked upon humanity. Basically Soros is Global Eliteâ??s broker and he and his superiors should be severely punished for their crimes period
Charlie Rose managed to silence even the bubbling George Soros with his frequent interruptions into Soros participation. Rude, unnecessary and disturbing to the viewers. Charlie Rose would be well served to learn to 'relax' during his shows. I speak with moderation on this subject since I feel strongly.
I have long felt that Charlie Rose interrupts his guests too frequently. He also delivers over-lengthy lead-ins. Mr. Rose sometimes sounds like he is trying to prove that he knows a lot about the topic at hand. We know that he is knowledgeable. It is boring to listen to him prove it so often. We want to hear the guests speak. Just my two cents.
Informative show on world- economic- crisis. Soros knows stuff even though his political views are very far Left. He has a bit of a know- it- all manner. But he does point to realities i.e. the declining power of the dollar: the flight from currencies: the commodity bubble: the crisis in the housing market: the foreclosure crisis: the need for more regulation on the part of the Fed: the fact that the U.S. is already in a recession: His attack on monetarist doctrine and his advocacy of the control of the growth of credit are his standard stuff. However he does not point to a clear way out of the crisis , and makes few 'positive recommendations'. I would also add. I think the criticisms of Charlie Rose for intervening in his guests' remarks are essentially incorrect. Rose is intelligent, informed and a great conversationalist in most of his shows. His faults are in my opinion in being too uncritical in questioning his guests.
I agree this interview was outstanding except it has some flaws.
Excellent interview oustanding work, I love the insight George Soros gives.
This is shananigans right here. As my dear friends Professor Gillis and Dr. Artimus Gordon have stated the schrobople line would have to drop for the bobojankoey to crash which it clearly has not done yet.
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Mr. Rose very nice discussion on the economy, as usual. One slight disagreement I have with Mr. Soros, is that the RICH African-American community has been hit most, the fact is as I have stated in past discussions with savvy economist guests, the poor African-American society paid heafty on the debacle of the economy whose genesis is the Iraq war propelled by the poor lending practices. The poor African-Americans are the one that lost most out. They are the ones that bought many of the sub-prime market housing, because many of the African-Americans have not so good credit or no credit history. Today, many of the African-Americans military personnels who have volunteered to fight in Iraq are victims, if not them directly their families are. == So, for reasons I stated above and past comments on forclosure victims I disagree with Mr. Soros that the RICH African-Americans are the victims of this market meltdown we are swimming in at the present moment. Never theless the interview is so nice it makes you listen to other conversations you have with this wise man.
I think that Charlie's 'interruptions' keeps the discussion up-beat and in tempo. It's indicative of a free-flowing stream-of-conciousness discussion...a straight up interview it isn't...but if it was...I wouldn't watch and drown in 60 minutes soundbites =), God forbid!
Jeez Charlie, Monday, April 14, 2008 EMBARRASSING to me to watch/hear you rudely interrupt and talk over thoughtful people - Soros is just one .... Please, occasionally, take the AIDS defensive position, e.g.: Staying seated with your mouth shut ! Watching you less and less, Ed
I caught the last part of a George Soros interview last week that I was sure was this, the latest one. Charlie Rose asked George if there was any advice he'd like to give in the few minutes remaining and George related an anecdote about his education, start in the world of finance, and the lessons he'd learned about successfully applying his talents. I didn't quite understand some of what he'd meant and thought to pick up the interview again here. Unfortunately, neither this interview (I listened in its entirety), nor the other three listed (of which I listened to only the last five minutes) contains any such anecdote re: meaningful personal advice. It doesn't look as if this segment was edited out of this video replay, but what do I know. Does anyone recall this information as part of the interview, and enough so to be able to explain it. Thanks. KS
If you are invested in Commodity Index Funds, as "Seattle Sun" must be, otherwise he wouldn't have been so irate by my earlier comment, then I would read the article that I referred to in my comment of April 13, 2008. I think it will be worth your time.
Michael, . Just click on "More Info" and you get the entire interview. . Otherwise, I rarely find that Charlie interrupts too much. And I agree with many of Mr. Soros' points, but nobody's perfect people.
Mr. Soros message is simple: the captitalist theory that market forces are best for society in the long run is not always true. A minimum amount of intervention/regulation is required to control their swings. Mr. Soros is an articulate individual and I enjoy hearing him speak. Did Charlie Rose have a couple of drinks before the show? He seemed to be getting more red and aggravated during the second part of the interview.
Comment by R. Baum on Sunday, Apr 13 at 03:24 PM Quote This reminds me of the Hunt Brothers and Gold trading of a past era. It will probably end badly for all. UnQuote R. Baum you have NO CREDIBILITY the Hunt Brother had little to nothing to do with Gold. If you don't know that I doubt you know anything about the commodities markets. You don't know the difference between Ag and Au! Sorry No Credibility when it comes to commodities.
George Soros did not mention in his interview with Charlie Rose, I'm sure he knows, that speculators are behind the run up in Commodities Prices. There was a real eye opener article in a recent Barron's weekly titled, "Who's Behind the Bull Market in Commodities?" which points to the ineptitude of the regulators of the commodities markets. The major culpret is the allowence of Commodities Index Funds to be exempt from Contract Ownership Limits. A case in point is that Commodity Index Funds now own about 85% of the 2008 wheat crop. Wheat went from about $4 a bushel 3 years ago to $22 this year.Is the world eating that much more bread this year? The Commodity Regulators will not release the other Index Fund holdings probably because they fear a panic of selling. This reminds me of the Hunt Brothers and Gold trading of a past era. It will probably end badly for all.
I agree with much of what Allyn is saying, however simply laying the blame at the feet of over speculation is missing the point. Not only are all of these factors joined at the hip, the main point of Soros' argument was that it is the fundamental philosophy behind market capitalism that is faulty - markets are NOT as self correcting as the pundits believe they are. Also, if the current price of crude is not being influenced by a shortage of supply, it will be in the very near term! Wake UP! Yes, there are still an estimated 1 Trillion barrels of crude left in the ground, but this is not the problem. The problem is that once all of the sweet, lighter oil is pumped out, the heavier oil which is left takes more time and effort to extract, thus PRODUCTION of oil resources will peak and ultimately slow down. Yes there is oil, LOTS of oil. Demand continues to increase for it, unfortunately industry will not be able to provide and increasing supply for much longer. If this is not currently to blame for the rapid increase in price, then it will within the next year or so. Dont believe me? DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. Starting here would be a good idea: http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php
Allyne mentions a number of issues that are undermining the United States....... Mr Soros is concerned about a country that had it all and is losing much of it. I think that point came across in this interview and if you add the comments that were made in the Mr Peterson interview it is clear that The United States is in deep troubl....... I detect that many of those who post are deeply disturbed by what they see. In this regard they have reason to be seriously concerned. Your government and your regulators have let you down. And that is just two constituencies.
Charlie speaking over Soros and not letting him complete a thought.- Charlie was running scared because Soros was saying that the recession is going to be long and hard, and he doesn't want to hear that. No one does. ___|___ Yes, official unemployment is about 5%, but real unemployment is many times that number because the government stops counting people once their benefits run out, so the real numbers today are worse than in the 70s. ___|___ Yes, inflation has only been about 3% each year for the past twenty years, but real salaries have not kept up. In the last 17 years at work I did not receive a cost-of-living increase. That has been fairly typical for the country so we have less spending dollars than we did in the 70s during the oil crisis. ___|___ Everything that is happening now has been obvious since the 90s when Japan went through their meltdown. Everything that happened to them is now happening to us. This current crisis could have been solved in the past ten years without major impact, but instead of acting in the best interest of the public everyone allowed "greed is good" to be their rallying cry. ___|___ Soros pointed out that Capital Markets work but the Fed is responsible for keeping these inevitable bubbles small and controllable, and they failed to act in time. Soros mentioned the commodities bubble forming now, he mentioned wheat, rice, oil, etc... Charlie got obsessed about gold and totally missed what Soros was saying. ___|___ The price of housing went sky high because speculators drove the prices up beyond what the average person could afford, creating bizarre mortgage schemes along the way. The Fed did nothing to control that bubble, and prices will crash to below half their current levels leaving people upside-down on their mortgages. ___|___ The price of oil is over 100 bucks a barrel because of speculators driving up the price, not because of the Iraq war. There is no shortage, this is not Peak Oil, this is all being driven by commodity speculation. We are being ripped off at the pump by speculators, and the Fed does nothing to control this bubble that keeps growing. ___|___ The price of basic food is going through the roof as speculators drive up the prices. India has stopped exporting rice so that their populations can afford to buy the rice that they grow. Our food prices go sky high as speculators play their money games, and the Fed does nothing. ___|___ That was what Soros was trying to tell Charlie, if he would only have listened past his fear.
Gee! Vera Kahn do you think that by repeating your message about 12 times is going to make a difference. Give the man a little slack after all the show is titled CHARLIE ROSE. Some times the show would be dull if he did not open his mouth.
What can we do about Charlie Rose interrupting his guests and changing the trend of thought. He doesn't seem to learn from this repeated criticism.
What can we do about Charlie Rose interrupting his guests and changing the trend of thought. He doesn't seem to learn from this repeated criticism.
Excellent interview with George Soros. I was hanging on every word as I have gotten internal red flags about our system of capitalism my whole working life. It's premise is faulty, there is nothing fair or equal about it, promotes greed and has corrupted our country through the use of this heinous system. Capitalism is a pyramid scheme. Our country's global dominance is now over, never to return. George Soros understands the workings of capitalism and he spoke truth about it like no one I have ever heard before. Charlie, you didn't like what he was publicly speaking, self professed capitalist that you are, elitest that you are. I'd like an hour of all him and no you.
If I have it right Mr Soros came from Hungary. From that part of Europe and others many very exceptional business people have come to the United States and Canada. In many cases they see something that those born here do not see. Both countries are all the better for their presence.
There are a lot of comments about Charlie talking too much or more than his guests. I am not seeing this. What I am seeing is that he draws out his guests and in the end we can draw some conclusions on the what the guest said. I like the variety of guests. One thing I would have liked to hear on Soros is his direct answer to where he is putting his money these days. He did not answer that question other than to comment about macro and micro investing. I guess Mr Soros can keep his thoughts on this close to his vest - knowledge being power and money and this being his career. So why disclose it. Charlie passed on Mr Soros's very broad comment. Maybe there is a reason for this.
What ever country this guy came from why doesn't he go back and meddle in their politics,this guy is dangerous to America, he was predicting doom last year and shortening the dollar to make hundreds of millions of dollars. Recessions are sociological especially when they start from the consumer, which this one has, who ever thought people would be predicting a depression at unemployment at 5.1 percent, In the late 70's unemployment was at 12%, inflation in the teens, the tech bubble of 2001 the markets lost over 2 trillion dollars of value, that was real peoples life saving, retirement money, and from the numbers I've read at most the market will rewrite off six hundred billion, you didn't see Soros predicting the end of the world then. He will do anything to get a democrat in the White House especially one that is beholden to the far-left as these candidates seem to be and been his socialized agenda and you can't start that type of agenda unless the people believe that the end of their economic security is a stake.
This was an exceptionally informative interview and Charlie as usual did an excellent job directing the conversation toward topics he thought his audience would be most interested in. In the interview Soros especially blames regulators for allowing bubbles to form and at the same time for risk to be under-priced. That he said eventually leads to "market breakdowns" and a bail-out by the regulators, such as the bail-out by the Federal Reserve of Bear Stearns. He said he saw an asset bubble developing in commodities as well as in China.
was looking forward to soros interview,since o'reilly has made him the anti-christ started to put me to sleep with that voice pattern. if you have insomnia,have charlie book kissinger and soros to be on together. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-oops, i fell asleep just remembering the interview. o'reilly better designate another devil( i think he's moving on to huffington(maybe a she-devil).
I must be missing something in the arguement. He argues that the job of the fed is to prevent asset bubbles like the housing bubble yet says the authorities must arrest the decline in housing prices (at 8:00). If the housing bubble was bad they why should we prop it up? This would make sure that homes remain unaffordable. How is this good for soceity? What is so dangerous about affordable housing?
The problem is house prices are to high due to phiney loans and phoney house prices. The Gov't needs to keep their slimy hands off the housing market. This is the only problem. Income have not kept up with house prices. House prices must fall to affordable levels.
I love the show, but I had to stop listening. Charlie talked 2X than the guest.
Charlie, you have a terrific program but I must echo the sentiments other viewers have expressed. That is, please endeavor to listen more and talk less. Viewers are interested in hearing what your guests have to say and when they're often interrupted they lose their train of thought or don't finish their point. Please accept this in the constructive spirit that it is intended. Thank you.
In re-stating Soros's point, Charlie framed it as the proposition that "capital markets" don't work. These sort of statements are misleading. The distinction between "free markets" and "non-free markets" - a left over ideological distinction from the global struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union - is too dated to be useful today. All but a very few transactions between people within in markets require institutional infrastructure to function at all - the rule of law, trust, reputation, information, etc. Without these preconditions, there would be no markets. Economists - even Milton Friedman before he passed away came to realize how important - helped by the work of Ronald Coase on transaction costs - institutions were to markets working at all. So the real debate today isn't about free markets and non-free markets, but about what the ideal institutions are in any given condition for the operation of a market. That's the key question.
I tried to watch the interview on this site, but it cuts off after about 8 minutes. Please, reinstall the whole interview.
Wonderful show last night Charlie. Both guests were very interesting. I think the comments here boil down to recognizing that the Bush administration has always planned to corporatize America. This is what I like about your program every night. It is the only program I can find that really promotes creative thinking. Keep up the good work.
Mr. Soros has many qualities and he simply has a wonderful mind. He is a great manager. Soft spoken and fair. It is rare that I have the opportunity to be so impressed and look up to a leader in the financial arena. He has much to contribute to America and our market thinking. I wish we could have Mr. Soros and Mr. Volcker leading us. What a great country we could have had. Excessive leverage is the tool of the greedy. What has been done to the economy and financial markets is a moral crime. Now he is quite right the bubbles need to be managed but who is capable to do it? and the leverage needs to be slowly deflated.
I have heard on your show, George Soros, Ted Turner, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, and others who have benefited from the economic system all warning that the system is in crisis. We need to stop this country's propensity to deal with issues by going to war. Instead, its time to hunker down and address our economic competitiveness and the financial mess in Wall Street. It would not hurt to look at climate change and our entitlement timebomb as well. Instead Bush and company focus on creating more terrorists keeping the world in a constant state of war. When will this nightmare end?
In case someone actual reads and edits the comments - unlikely, based on the spam on some of them..... YOUR RSS IS BROKEN! http://www.charlierose.com/rss/videos hasn't worked or been updated for some time now, please fix it.
I think we should stop blaming China. Who we should blame is the American Elite Barons who were in charge and who have been pocketing much of the profits. They did it either through selling stock options or taking high salaries and bonuses to drain away the earnings and profits of Global companies for themselves. Instead of sharing the effort by producing better schools, health care and taking care of our elderly. The Barons have been supported by the Fed, the politicians. The majority of people living in America for all they care can end up like poor Chinese or Indians. On top of that no one forced the ignorant Americans to buy their cheap good and produce a trade deficit to be financed. Also most Americans wanted to drive big cars without thought about the cost of oil. When do we all begin to think for the good of the majority and the country? We are living through the most corrupted form of capitalism ever possible. Who will eat all the 45 trillion dollars of derivatives? By the so call brain power that we needed to lead us into this problem. Please bring back Paul Volcker to the Fed so we can maybe find our civilization once again.
Yes I realized that some of the interviews are ruined because the guests with the great intellect are interrupted while they are trying to make an important point. Like Soros or Volcker who we rarely get a chance to hear a long interview. The main networks always give meanless one minute sound bites. Thanks for your consideration. With movie starts I don't care but with thoughtful people like Mr. Soros or Mr. Volcker it is important for us to clearly listen to their finished thoughts.
Soros did not directly address Peak Oil. He did mention how the people are shifting away from currencies and investing in commodities which is forcing an abnormally large commodities bubble, but this does not entirely explain the massive price increase per barrel; Peak Oil is to blame here and its consequences are going to only compound everything Soros was talking about. What do you guys think?
Soros did not directly address Peak Oil. He did mention how the people are shifting away from currencies and investing in commodities which is forcing an abnormally large commodities bubble, but this does not entirely explain the massive price increase per barrel; Peak Oil is to blame here and its consequences are going to only compound everything Soros was talking about. What do you guys think?
I've been a fan of the Charlie Rose show for a decade or more. Charlie, please resist the temptation to interrupt your guests. Mr. Soros is a brilliant financial mind. I would have preferred that you let him play his thoughts out more freely. I love the show and the intent of this comment is purely constructive.
America will bounce back, as long as it continues to create conditions that attract the best sober brains, allows their ideas or advice to prevail, and eschews some of the ill-advised policies of short-sighted dim-witted neocons that detract it from the main business at hand. No system left totally unregulated will attain equilibrium. Nothing in nature behaves that way. If we leave markets to their whims - there will always be excesses and wild, painful, corrective swings. If we wish to minimize the pain - to contain the tendency for 'irrational exuberance' followed by crushing doom and gloom, we need some properly calibrated regulatory mechanisms. All financial models are based on assumptions about the world and human behaviour - no matter how fancy the economic theory or the language and concepts borrowed from mathematics and physics used to describe them. Of late, some of this language - especially the mathematics, used to price or hedge risk and the associated financial instruments - has become so arcane that only a few people (and even fewer regulators) can follow it or recognize when boundary conditions or the limits of validity of the assumptions and the models have been exceeded. Letting the market self-correct in such situations may involve too much pain for individual companies and people. In such instances, collective action through government or regulatory agencies helps to spread the pain around and brings enough resources to bear to save the day. Most adults understand that all models have their limitations in their ability to truly represent nature under all conditions. There is always a need for people to step in and right things when systems encounter conditions outside their domain of validity.
If you enjoyed the George Soros interview with Charlie Rose then you will also enjoy the following threads at the Elite Trader Forum since we have been discussing the same subject for a number of years. If you are going to check only one item on the enclosed list then I suggest that you read the article Itâ??s 2008. The U.S. Has Dragged the World into a Depression. Here is some interesting debate on these related subjects: Central Banks and the US Dollar. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81958 The US dollar and the biggest default in history. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121313 Over 75 years ago Wall Street Crashed; but today the New Crash is already underway... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=117003 The economic impact of the current Exodus from the United States. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123740 The Euro, Now. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49981 The "New Asian Currency" - similar to the Euro. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68758 The New United States Currency - The New US Dollar. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86842 Refco and Financial Derivatives Market Meltdown. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57218 I wrote an article right after the November 2004 presidential election and the article was finally published in February 2005. My mindset has not changed since that time. Maybe you will find interesting that particular article, since I wrote the article from the point of view of November 2008; forecasting the coming worldwide economic depression. Published on February 2005 on Brazzil magazine. Itâ??s 2008. The US Has Dragged the World into a Depression. By Ricardo C. Amaral http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1878959#post1878959 .
Three perceptive posts. Alice's ending too prophetically. Shrub rattled his saber at Iran in the nightly news. Debilitating, morally, financially, militarily and . . . . It's all so hopelessly in the toilet, it's hard to give a damn. We will get what we deserve. The M-I-O complex, it's insatiable egregious greed will out. Soros's imperfect markets driven by unregulated greed will fulfill Marx/Lenin prediction that capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction.
Soros is 100% right. The central banks have no choice but to step in and save the global financial system from collapse. This is like the old wild wild west. Leverage has reached unsustainable levels and the sharks are out to force a collapse. As central banks step in to save financial institutions, they will insist on gradual de-leveraging, a process that can only be done through the sale of assets hence the pressure on markets just as folks are seeing their real-estate assets decline. Even if Bernanke dances in perfect step (and he is doing a damn good job so far), the damage to US (and some european) economy will be devastating. At times of great turmoil governments use external enemies to pacify the public. I expect Bush to attack Iran.
L. Novotny's insight seems on track. Americans have unwittingly relinquished their democracy, power to the corporate giants who have no passion whatsoever about the state of our nation. Yet neo-feudal systems, like ours, can be overthrown albeit with a well orchestrated, excruciating painful plan of action. Without that, we are quickly doomed to devolving into a "developing country" economy. Hope Soros can shed some light on this dark moment in American culture, history. We are like rats on a wheel--forgetting that history has lessons we dare not repeat but it seems we may.
Hello! 1./ It appears that the globaliser is being globalised meaning the ruined USA econo- mi is being saved and will be bought out by China Sovereign Fund and others. It is almost tragic-comedy , USA looked at China as a huge market but the trade unbalance show that USA had become a market for the huge china industry. We all know that the countries power is in its industry. /England ,industrial revolution/ So how does USA plans to stay a world leader? Industries are in Asia , jobs are moving to Asia and no leadership,but lot of greed and corruption /Enron +..../ 2./ It even appears that USA is invaded by same aliens ,and I don't mean the space type and are working on the destruction of it. The Bush group is working on specific trade directives but they start to work against USA. The growing power of the corporations I believe is going forward to the past. Meaning: the state have secondary purpose and the controlling interest is in the hand of the corporations so we have arrived to the feudal system where Knights and Warlords /CEO of the corporations/ are ruling and or fighting for total power. /like Micro- soft./ Regards.