George Soros Quotes - Page 5

I am for maximum supervision and minimum regulation.

When money is free, the rational lender will keep on lending until there is no one else to lend to.

The global crisis is caused by pathologies inherent in the global financial system itself.

These public-private partnerships are very, very dangerous. The most rotten part of the financial system in the US consisted of the government sponsored entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They really kicked off this crisis. The state should set the rules and enforce them - but not become involved as a market player.

Misconceptions play a prominent role in my view of the world.

The integration of Europe was very much led by a Germany that was always willing to pay a little bit extra to reach a compromise that everybody accepted, because Germany was so eager to get European support for reunification. That was called the "farsighted vision," which created the European Union.

The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.

A global economy is characterized not only by the free movement of goods and services but, more important, by the free movement of ideas and of capital.

The laissez-faire argument relies on the same tacit appeal to perfection as does communism.

If we care about universal principles such as freedom, democracy and the rule of law, we cannot leave them to the care of market forces; we must establish some other institutions to safeguard them.

At times of recession, running a budget deficit is highly desirable. Once the economy begins to recover, you have to balance the budget. But it will also need additional revenues. Should the government not receive them, we will all get punished with higher interest rates.

Markets can influence the events that they anticipate.

The concept of a general equilibrium has no relevance to the real world (in other words, classical economics is an exercise in futility).

A lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional. A lot of people in the financial system did a lot of damage without intending to.

Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test. The main difference is that the hypothesis that underlies an investment decision is intended to make money and not to establish a universally valid generalization.

If the bubbles contain a misconception, as they always do, then it can't be maintained forever.

I think there's a lot of merit in an international economy and global markets, but they're not sufficient because markets don't look after social needs.

I admire Chancellor Merkel for her leadership qualities, but she is leading Europe in the wrong direction.

As I discovered, there is a great deal of similarity between a boom-bust process in the financial markets and the rise and fall of the Soviet system.

What works for Germany can't work for the rest of Europe: No country can run a chronic surplus without others running deficits.

I am against market fundamentalism. I think this propaganda that government involvement is always bad has been very successful - but also very harmful to our society.

There is a well-established conviction that the central banks always do what is necessary to keep the system going and then afterwards you then take care of the legal aspects. In a crisis, you simply do not have time to think about such concerns for too long.

I called gold the ultimate bubble, which means it may go higher. But it’s certainly not safe and it’s not going to last forever.

Mankind's ability to understand and control the forces of nature greatly exceeds our ability to govern ourselves

If the terrorists have the sympathy of people, it's much harder to find them. So we need people on our side, and that leads us to be responsible leaders of the world, show some concern with the problems.