4 ms·

If a car dealer knowingly sells you a lemon, is it a consensual exchange? I don't think was Soros did was absolutely unethical, but its ridiculous to pretend th

If a car dealer knowingly sells you a lemon, is it a consensual exchange? I don't think was Soros did was absolutely unethical, but its ridiculous to pretend that it was squeaky clean. One party thought this to be an ordinary transaction; the other party knew it would debase the currency.

edanm 12y ago
I think the poker analogy is a better one. Two parties took a bet, as in a poker game. They each though they were doing the right thing. Turns out, one of them had a winning hand and one of them didn't. But since everyone knew the nature of the game, and everyone knew they were making bets, why is it unethical? Really, I would think more anger should be placed on the politicians who got monetary policy so drastically wrong. Or maybe anger is wrong - maybe I should say "learn from this". Because heaping anger on someone who outplayed you is a great way to mask the fact that you need to learn.
- fabulist 12y ago
  Its not that I think Soros should be "blamed" per say, it just doesn't speak highly of his character. He put profits before the wellbeing of the British people. Clearly he doesn't feel an ethical obligation to them. I would have. But you're right. Judging Soros gets us nowhere, drawing lessons from this does.
SixSigma 12y ago
Except it was the BoE that was selling lemons. Sorros knew they were and exchanged them for oranges while he could.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- ZenPro 12y ago
  As a Brit, this comment made me smile because of how accurate it was. Black Wednesday was probably topped only by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sale_of_UK_gold_reserves,_1999%E2%80%932002 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sale_of_UK_gold_reserves,_1999%... in the buffoonery stakes.
  - SixSigma 12y ago
    Fellow Brit Some think the gold selloff was an under the radar bailout http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/revealed-why-gordon-brown-sold-britains-gold-at-a-knock-down-price/ http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/...
    - ZenPro 12y ago
      Great link.
CocaKoala 12y ago
In this analogy, what are the lemons and who is the car dealer?
fleitz 12y ago
Keep in mind that the dealer was making the offer to sell, so it's like a push pull or drag sale. So dealer makes an offer saying "We will give you $10,000 for any clunker, no quantity restrictions, if it has wheels and starts we'll give you $10,000" so Mr. Soros thinks to himself, this is a rediculous offer and starts buying everything on craigslist for less than $10,000. He rolls up with 100 lemons and the dealer buys them, then has a press conference saying he has $15 billion dollars on hand an will buy all the lemons in the world for $10,000 a piece. So George Soros goes and finds $30 billion lemons and it turns out that the gov't couldn't (or didn't want to) come up with $15 more billion for lemons. Yes, the tax payer got fleeced, but the transactions were made in good faith by people who thought buying lemons for $10,000 was a good fucking idea, and was elected on a fucking platform of buying lemons for $10K.

edanm 12y ago

I think the poker analogy is a better one. Two parties took a bet, as in a poker game. They each though they were doing the right thing. Turns out, one of them had a winning hand and one of them didn't. But since everyone knew the nature of the game, and everyone knew they were making bets, why is it unethical? Really, I would think more anger should be placed on the politicians who got monetary policy so drastically wrong. Or maybe anger is wrong - maybe I should say "learn from this". Because heaping anger on someone who outplayed you is a great way to mask the fact that you need to learn.

fabulist 12y ago
Its not that I think Soros should be "blamed" per say, it just doesn't speak highly of his character. He put profits before the wellbeing of the British people. Clearly he doesn't feel an ethical obligation to them. I would have. But you're right. Judging Soros gets us nowhere, drawing lessons from this does.

SixSigma 12y ago

Except it was the BoE that was selling lemons. Sorros knew they were and exchanged them for oranges while he could.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ZenPro 12y ago
As a Brit, this comment made me smile because of how accurate it was. Black Wednesday was probably topped only by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sale_of_UK_gold_reserves,_1999%E2%80%932002 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sale_of_UK_gold_reserves,_1999%... in the buffoonery stakes.
- SixSigma 12y ago
  Fellow Brit Some think the gold selloff was an under the radar bailout http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/revealed-why-gordon-brown-sold-britains-gold-at-a-knock-down-price/ http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/...
  - ZenPro 12y ago
    Great link.

CocaKoala 12y ago

In this analogy, what are the lemons and who is the car dealer?

fleitz 12y ago

Keep in mind that the dealer was making the offer to sell, so it's like a push pull or drag sale. So dealer makes an offer saying "We will give you $10,000 for any clunker, no quantity restrictions, if it has wheels and starts we'll give you $10,000" so Mr. Soros thinks to himself, this is a rediculous offer and starts buying everything on craigslist for less than $10,000. He rolls up with 100 lemons and the dealer buys them, then has a press conference saying he has $15 billion dollars on hand an will buy all the lemons in the world for $10,000 a piece. So George Soros goes and finds $30 billion lemons and it turns out that the gov't couldn't (or didn't want to) come up with $15 more billion for lemons. Yes, the tax payer got fleeced, but the transactions were made in good faith by people who thought buying lemons for $10,000 was a good fucking idea, and was elected on a fucking platform of buying lemons for $10K.