Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – This is the story of George Soros, an American billionaire of Jewish descent. He is the founder and manager of the global investment company Quantum Group of Funds since the 1970s.
Unfortunately, the world knows him not only as a repeat investor, but also as a bringer of disaster. His various actions in the world of global investment have apparently had a negative impact on many countries. In Indonesia, his name is recorded as the trigger for the 1997 crisis which led to political chaos and the resignation of Suharto.
What’s the story?
Soros domino effect
“Stupid! This [Krisis] This is the plan of the Jews who are not happy with the progress of the Muslim Ummah.”
The curse words above quoted by columnist Daniel Moss did not come from the mouths of ordinary people, but were uttered by the number one person in the neighboring country, Malaysia’s 4th Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (1981-2003), 25 years ago.
Mahathir was extremely annoyed and even dared to play with religious sentiments. The reason is, in 1997-1998, his country, including Indonesia, fell apart due to the economic crisis which in his view was caused by a billionaire of Jewish descent named George Soros.
At that time, Soros was the founder and leader of the global investment management company, Quantum Group of Funds, since the 1970s. For approximately two decades until the end of the 20th century, Soros was able to provide investors with a 30% profit from the assets he managed. So, it is not surprising that Quantum Group of Funds was the best investment management company in the world at that time.
The beginning of Mahathir’s “Stupid” accusation refers to a sequence of crises that began with Soros’ company policies. Around the early 1997s, the Quantum Group of Funds speculated by borrowing large amounts of Thai Baht. The capital is also low, only US$ 1 billion.
Even so, in Rupert Hargreaves’ report in Business Insider, This speculation did not occur at the right time, and was proven to be just looking for profit.
When speculation was carried out in 1997, there was a strengthening of the US dollar currency in Thailand which eroded transactions with the Thai Baht. As a result, the Central Bank of Thailand reacted by raising interest rates, buying Baht with dollars on the foreign exchange market, and restricting foreigners’ access to Baht for several months.
Unfortunately, this policy actually makes Thailand ‘submissive’ to the US dollar. The Central Bank failed to control the exchange rate scheme and changed it to free floating. As a result, the Baht currency plunged 60%. This was the beginning of the Asian monetary crisis, which spread to neighboring countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia.
As a result, investment flows out of Thailand rapidly. It was at this point that Soros and his company made huge profits.
“There are many allegations of being the mastermind of the crisis because he placed large bets on the Baht and led to claims that Soros helped engineer the Asian crisis through his political connections,” he wrote. BusinessInsider
It’s actually not the first time Soros has done something like this. Five years before the 1997 Asian crisis, he did the same thing to England. As a result, the British economy was also ‘bleeding’, and he still made money.
Before and after the 1997 crisis, he was also recorded as carrying out similar actions that devastated a country’s economy. So, there are many allegations that this action is a conspiracy.
Interestingly, Soros is not a reliable economist. CNN International said that the economic policy of the man who was born on August 12 1930 was based more on instinct because according to him economic policy was difficult to explain using a scientific economic approach.
In the biographical book written by Michael T. Kaufman entitled Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire (2002), it is known that this perspective is caused by two things.
First, because he grew up under the occupation of NAZI Germany, so he has a different view of global politics and economics. Second, because he was influenced by the philosophy taught by someone who was considered his teacher, Karl Popper.
Thanks to Popper, Soros saw that scientific theories were invalid. So, during his career as an investor he tried to analyze world economic patterns and memorize them to read the situation.
When a crisis occurs, for example, Soros already knows what to do because the crisis has a similar pattern to the previous case. From here Soros issued policies based on intuition that he understood. And of course this policy often becomes a disaster for many countries, including Indonesia, which experienced the bitterness of those times.
Referring to data ForbesSoros is now the 380th richest person in the world with assets of US$ 6.7 billion or IDR 106 trillion. Even though he is now ‘bathing in money’, people will never forget his ‘sin’ all over the world. In fact, a news site Haarezt called him the most hated person in the world.
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Originally posted 2023-10-23 14:50:00.