George Soros on Morality and Markets

In the last two years, you've been blamed for financial collapse

of Thailand,

Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and Russia.

Yeah. Uh, all of the, all of the above.

That, that's-

All of the above.

Yeah, yeah.

Are you that powerful?

Uh, uh, no, I think there's a great misunderstanding.

I am basically there to, uh, um, to make money.

I cannot and do not look at the social consequences of,

of what I do. As, as a competitor, I've got to

compete to win. As a human being, I

can... I, I am concerned about the society in

which I live.

Which George Soros am I talking to now, the amoral George Soros or the,

the moral George Soros?

Uh, it's one person. It's one person who

at one time engages in amoral activities and at

the rest of the, the time tries to be moral.

You're a

Hungarian Jew-

Mm-hmm

... who escaped the Holocaust-

Mm-hmm

... by posing as a, a Christian.

Right.

And

you watched

lots of people get shipped off to the death camps.

Right. I was 14 years old,

and I would say that that's when my character was made.

In what way?

That one should think ahead, one should understand and, and

anticipate events. Uh, and, uh, one,

one is threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil.

I mean, it was a, a very personal experience of evil.

My understanding is, is that you went out with this protector of

yours who swore that you were, uh, his

adopted godson.

Yes, yes.

Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property

from the Jews.

That's right.

Yes.

I mean, that, that sounds, uh, like an experience that would

send lots of people to the psychiatric couch

for many, many years.

Was it difficult?

Uh, uh, not, uh, not at all. Not at all.

Uh, maybe as a child you don't, you don't see the

connection.

Uh,

uh, but it was... it created no, no problem at all.

No feeling of guilt?

No.

For example, that, uh, "I'm Jewish, uh, and here I

am watching these people go. I could just as easily be there.

I should be there." None of that?

Well,

uh, uh, of course I could, uh, uh, I could be on the other side or I

could be the one from whom it, the thing is, is being taken away.

Uh, um,

but

there was no sense that I shouldn't be there because, uh,

that

was, uh,

uh...

Well, actually, a funny way, it's just like in markets

that if I weren't there,

of course I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would, would, would,

would

be taking it away anyhow. You know, it was the...

whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator.

The property was being taken away.

So the... I had no role in taking away

that property,

so I had no sense of guilt.