Glenn Beck distorted comments George Soros made to accuse him of conspiring to “replace the capitalist system.” In fact, Soros was discussing what he perceived to be flaws in the international currency system, not “the capitalist system.”
Beck distorts Soros to accuse him of conspiring to “replace the capitalist system”
Written by Jeremy Holden
Published
Beck distorts comments to accuse Soros of conspiring to “replace the capitalist system”
Beck: Soros is “looking to replace the capitalist system once it's been destroyed.” During his Fox News show, Beck said, “I don't know if [George Soros] is a radical that's been trying to implement the Cloward and Piven strategy on collapsing the system.” Beck went on to claim that Soros is “one of the guys looking to replace the capitalist system once it has been destroyed.” Beck then aired portions of an interview Soros gave in 2009, purportedly to prove his claim:
SOROS [video clip]: I believe that basically the system is broke and needs to be reconstituted ... the system we have now has actually broken down, only we haven't quite recognized it. And so you need to create a new one. And this is the time to do it.
BECK: Yes, a new, a new, a new, new world order. What did I tell you a couple weeks ago? I said, look, America, they're using this time. What are you doing with your time? They're using their time to get filthy rich and create a new, new, new world order.
Soros said the international currency system -- not “the capitalist system” -- is “broken and needs to be reconstituted”
Soros: "[B]asically the system" of international currency “is broken and needs to be reconstituted.” Contrary to Beck's claim, Soros did not argue that “the capitalist system” is “broken and needs to be reconstituted.” The comments Beck aired come from a 2009 interview with The Financial Times where Soros discussed the current system of international currency exchange, which he said was “broken and needs to be reconstituted.” Soros was specifically asked, “Does there need to be some sort of new global currency deal.” He went on to discuss building on an existing system known as special drawing rights, an international reserve asset administered by the International Monetary Fund and weighted to the relative value of the currencies of four major economies, and which can be exchanged for hard currency on the international currency exchange market. From the Financial Times:
FT: Is there going to be a tipping point, a moment at which the dollar is fatally weakened? Or does it just sort of carry on?
GS: As long as the renminbi is tied to the dollar, I don't see how the decline in the dollar can go too far. Now, of course, to some extent it's very helpful because with the US consumers saving more and spending less, exports can be way for the US economy to be balanced. So, an orderly decline of the dollar is actually desirable.
FT: Does it, at some point, need also to decline against the renminbi? Does there need to be some sort of a new global currency deal?
GS: No. I believe that basically the system is broken and needs to be reconstituted. We cannot afford to have the kind of chronic and mounting imbalances in international finance. So, you need a new currency system and actually the special drawing rights do give you the makings of a system and I think it's ill-considered on the part of the United States to resist the wider use of special drawing rights. They could be very, very useful now when you have a global shortfall of demand.
[...]
FT: If America doesn't actively take part in this sort of renegotiation of global finance, what will happen? What's your nightmare scenario?
GS: Well, the Chinese will go bilateral. They already do it. They already have a clearing arrangement with Argentina and I think they're working on one with Brazil, and you will find that there will be more and more bilateral arrangements. So the dollar will remain the main international currency, but its use will decline. So I think that a world of bilateral relations is less desirable than a continuation of a multilateral system. But the system we have now has actually broken down, only we haven't quite recognised it and so you need to create a new one and this is the time to do it.