(Editor's note: CFP columnist Joe Klein got George Soros on the record before he shut off further questioning outside of the UN Millenium Village today.)
George Soros came to the United Nations today to announce an additional pledge of up to $47.4 million to the UN sponsored Millennium Villages Project. But that was not the big news he made today.
Soros, a multibillion dollar financier and currency manipulator, said in response to my question that he "can understand the sentiments" of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. He blamed the 'Days of Rage' in the streets on the "decision not to inject capital into the banks" but instead to relieve them of their bad assets, which in turn gave the banks "bumper profits that allowed them to pay bumper bonuses."
Was Soros putting words in the protesters' mouths? It seems so. The New York Times more accurately described the protesters in an article last Saturday this way: "Not all of them can articulate exactly why they are here or what they want." The Associated Press drew a similar conclusion in reporting: "It’s unclear exactly what the demonstrators want." One activist was quoted as saying that some of the protesters are "against Wall Street greed, others say they are protesting global warming and still others say they are protesting 'the man.'"
Soros seemed to confuse the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations with the much larger and more peaceful Tea Party protests when he mentioned, as a further justification for the protest, that there were many people "running small businesses" who have seen their businesses suffer as their credit card costs go up significantly in this bad economy.
Was Soros meaning to praise the Tea Party, which actually does consist of many frustrated small business owners as opposed to the anarchists and other losers populating much of the current anti-Wall street protest? I asked him to clarify which protests he was referring to. Soros responded that his words of support were meant for the current anti-Wall Street protests.
