The George Soros Connection to 'Occupy Wall Street'

by Robert Wenzel
Economic Policy Journal

Recently by Robert Wenzel: Yale Professor Disses Gold, Ron Paul

Until now, I have held back on making the accusation that some others have that George Soros has been a major influence on Occupy Wall Street, but when something becomes obvious, it's time to state it.

It is well known that Occupy Wall Street was launched by the curious group, Adbusters. There is a possible tie between Adbusters and Soros.

According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros' Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to a murky San Francisco-based operation known as Tides Center. Tides then gave Adbusters grants totaling $185,000. Was Soros responsible for the grants to Adbusters? That's unclear. Tides provides cover for its donors in the sense that it makes the donations to outfits such as Adbusters and it becomes unclear who may have directed Tides to do so. Reuters tried to link the Adbusters donations to Soros, but was attacked by Slate because, you see, Tides made the donations, not Soros, and who knows, maybe it was another Tides donor that caused the grants to Adbuster. Very murky stuff. Soros apologists, because the grants came from Tides, can attack day after day on the fact that money hasn't come from Soros directly and can argue that there is no proof that the money came from Soros at all. What can be argued is that, if Soros wanted to hide the fact that he was funneling money to Adbusters, then using Tides as a cover is a perfect method of doing so. The Tides funding of Adbusters is a dangling clue. It hints of Soros, but because of the shell game played, you can't tie it down and as Reuters learned, their report is now off the internet, if you try to make the jump, gunslingers are going to come after you charging that you haven't completed the links, when the very use of Tides prevents completion of links. Cute.

But, here's where things get real interesting. Where might Adbusters next take the merry band of muddied occupiers? On the frontpage of the Adbusters site, a "Robin Hood Global March" is being called for on October 29. What is the goal of this march? A Progressive income tax? Free healthcare? More subsidies for the poor? Nope. The occupiers are going to march for, get this, a Tobin Tax, that is, a 1% financial transactions tax. A bunch of occupiers, who have, it appears, gained most of their "wisdom" from the Communist Manifesto and, who likely wouldn't recognize a sophisticated financial transaction from an investment banker hailing a limo, are about to march for a complex financial transaction tax, at the behest of Adbusters. If you are scratching your head at this point, it is understandable, until you realize that a financial transaction tax is a pet project of, get this, George Soros.

In his 2005 book, George Soros on Globalization, Soros writes not only in favor of the tax, but discuses how to "mobilize public opinion" for such a tax:

The globalization of financial markets has given capital an unfair advantage over other sources of taxation, a tax on financial transactions would redress the balance...the tax ought to be extended to all markets, not just currency markets... Collection has to be worldwide, including tax havens. How could it be enforced? The collecting country must be given a portion of the proceeds...To mobilize public opinion of increased international assistance, the proposal must not only show how the money will be raised but how it will be spent.

Adbusters, thus, is putting out the call to promote a plan that Soros wants so bad, that in his book, he discusses paying off foreign governments, and mobilizing public opinion, to get the tax implemented. Here's Adbusters, preparing the muddy sheep for the march (My emphasis):

OCTOBER 29 – #ROBINHOOD GLOBAL MARCH

This is a proposal for the general assemblies of the Occupy movement.

Eight years ago, on February 15, 2003, upwards of 15 million people in sixty countries marched together to stop President Bush from invading Iraq … a huge chunk of humanity lived for one day without dead time and glimpsed the power of a united people's movement. Now we have an opportunity to repeat that performance on an even larger scale.

On October 29, on the eve of the G20 Leaders Summit in France, let's the people of the world rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediately impose a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades. Let's send them a clear message: We want you to slow down some of that $1.3-trillion easy money that's sloshing around the global casino each day – enough cash to fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world.

Take this idea to your local general assembly and join your comrades in the streets on October 29.

for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ

And there you have it, talk about Psych Ops. The people of Adbusters have tied together a march in an attempt to stop a war, with a demand for a Tobin Tax! Damn, I never got the connection before. Adbusters has further dumbed down the message, to the embarrassing point of calling the Tobin Tax, the Robin Hood Tax. Hey, even muddied sheep have heard of Robin Hood. The muddied sheep will march for Robin Hood.

It's fair to ask why a trader like Soros is so hot for a financial transactions tax. But once you understand the type of trader Soros is, the tax demand is obvious. Soros is a position trader. The financial transaction tax would hurt short-term traders/market makers, who trade on thin margins – the opposite of the position trader that Soros is. The tax would make markets less efficient and less liquid. Soros knows this, during a speech in 2001, he said:

I think there is a case for a Tobin tax ... (but) it is not at all clear to me that a Tobin tax would reduce volatility in the currency markets. It is true that it may discourage currency speculation but it would also reduce the liquidity of the marketplace.

With markets less liquid, the market makers that make the markets liquid and efficient will be hampered by a Tobin tax (they will now need a spread of over 1%) and this will create more profit opportunities for the position trading that Soros does.

And, thus, in the end, what you have is a bunch of clueless Utopian dreamers, marching and getting arrested for one of the greatest schemers this planet has ever seen. I assume Soros is getting a grand kick out of all of this.

Reprinted with permission from Economic Policy Journal.

October 20, 2011

©2011 Economic Policy Journal

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