George Soros fined $1.6 million for illegal stock manipulation in Hungary, October 2008, adds to his fine in Belarus, conviction in France

• Update 7/19/09, Budapest Times: Soros fights fine: "Sunday, 19 July 2009, "The Budapest Municipal Court will hear in December the appeal of New York-based Soros Fund Management against a record HUF 489 million (EUR 1.79 million) fine handed down by the Hungarian financial regulator PSZÁF in March.
  
• 
  
• In a short selling deal, the firm made a last-minute bulk sale of stock in the Hungarian bank OTP on 9 October last year. PSZÁF said the transaction led to the price of shares in Hungary’s largest domestic bank plummeting by over 14 per cent, and it went on to lose over half of its value.
  

• Soros Fund Management was set up by the Hungarian-born billionaire financier George Soros, although he no longer plays an active part in its running. The fine imposed on Soros Fund Management is the largest that the Hungarian financial regulator has ever imposed for a deal of this type. PSZÁF set the penalty at four times the profit it estimated that the firm had made from the deal." ****************
  

Budapest Times, 3/30/09: "Hungary's financial supervisory watchdog announced Friday it had slapped a 1.6-million-euro fine on an investment fund founded by US billionaire George Soros, for manipulating the market.

• The PSzAF said it had fined Soros Fund Management LLC for transactions on the Budapest stock exchange on October 9 that led to a "significant loss in value" of
  
• Hungarian OTP bank stocks, which fell in days from 4,000 forint (13.2 euros, 17.86 dollars) to 2,500 forint.

The PSzAF "is imposing a 489-million-forint fine on Soros Fund Management LLC... for violating the rules regarding the

• illegal manipulation of financial markets,"
  

the supervisory authority said in a statement on its Internet site.

• The Soros Fund has 30 days to pay this record fine.

The PSzAF said the fund started putting OTP shares up for sale at 4:27 pm on October 9, just minutes before closing.

• "The timing, the number and the effects of these transactions on the market point
  

• without any doubt to an illegal market manipulation," it added.

OTP, Hungary's biggest bank, was already hit hard by the financial crisis, like many other banks, but then saw its share value crumble in a few days after October 9.

In a statement Friday, Hungarian-born Soros responded he had been informed of the fine but insisted that he was not involved in the transactions."...Budapest Times, 3/30/09, "Soros Sorry over Decimation of OTP's Share Price" via Lucianne.com, American Thinker.

• From American Thinker, Lifson: "The principle financier of the Democrats, the man whose early support catapulted Obama into the lead for the nomination,
  

• the man who made billions from the stock market crash that changed
  
• everything in the fall campaign
  

(McCain was in the lead when the crisis hit),

• has been given a record fine by Hungarian financial authorities. AFP reports.
  

This is not the first time Soros has been fined for illegal market manipulation. That he is the most significant financial backer

• of the American left should serve as a clarion call to Americans. Do not trust this man." ************
  

• George Soros convicted of Insider Trading in France, 2002, Guardian UK

• Soros Institute fined $3 million for currency exchange violations by Belarus in 1997, NY Times

"Soros has often drawn criticism for speculating heavily on the collapse of fragile currencies."...6/14/2006, NY Times

"In 1979, he signed a consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a civil proceeding relating to his trading in the stock of an American computer manufacturer that was about to issue fresh shares. Commission officials contended that

• Mr. Soros had sold shares to push down the price of the new shares.

Mr. Soros acknowledged no wrongdoing, but agreed not to engage in similar practices in the future. Unlike American law, French law does not provide for civil enforcement actions

• in insider trading cases;
  

they may be pursued here only as criminal matters."...NY Times, 12/21/2002, "Soros is found guilty in France on charges of insider trading,"

.

NY Times hid Obama connection to ACORN, feared could tip election--testimony

• "A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19

• The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign

• because it would have been a “a game changer.”

Heather Heidelbaugh, who represented the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee in the lawsuit against the group, recounted for the committee what she had been told by a former ACORN worker who had worked in the group’s Washington, D.C. office. The former worker, Anita Moncrief, told Ms. Heidelbaugh last October, during the state committee’s litigation against ACORN, she had been

• a “confidential informant for several months to The New York Times reporter, Stephanie Strom.”

Ms. Moncrief had been providing Ms. Strom with information about ACORN’s election activities. Ms. Strom had written several stories based on information Ms. Moncrief had given her.

• During her testimony, Ms. Heidelbaugh said Ms. Moncrief had told her

• The New York Times articles stopped when she revealed that the Obama presidential campaign had sent its maxed-out donor list to ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office.

Ms. Moncrief told Ms. Heidelbaugh the campaign had asked her and her boss to “reach out to the maxed-out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN.”

Ms. Heidelbaugh then told the congressional panel:

“Upon learning this information and receiving the list of donors from the Obama campaign, Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that

• her editors at The New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, “it was a game changer.”’

• Ms. Moncrief made her first overture to Ms. Heidelbaugh after The New York Times allegedly spiked the story — on Oct. 21, 2008.

Last fall, she testified under oath about what she had learned about ACORN from her years in its Washington, D.C. office. Although she was present at the congressional hearing, she did not testify.

U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., the ranking Republican on the committee, said the interactions between the Obama campaign and ACORN, as described by Ms. Moncrief, and attested to before the committee by Ms. Heidelbaugh,

• could possibly violate federal election law, and “ACORN has a pattern of getting in trouble for violating federal election laws.”

• He also voiced criticism of The New York Times.

“If true, The New York Times is showing once again that

• it is a not an impartial observer of the political scene,” he said.

“If they want to be a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, they should put Barack Obama approves of this in their newspaper.”

• Academicians and journalism experts expressed similar criticism of the Times.

“The New York Times keeps going over the line in every single campaign and last year was the worst, easily,” said Mal Kline of the American Journalism Center. “They would ignore real questions worth examining about Obama, the questions about Bill Ayers or about how he got his house. Then on the other side they would try to manufacture scandals.”

• Mr. Kline mentioned Gov. Sarah Palin was cleared by investigators of improperly firing an Alaska State Trooper,

• but went unnoticed by The Times.

“How many stories about this were in The New York Times,” he asked.

• “If this is true, it would not surprise me at all. The New York Times is a liberal newspaper. It is dedicated to furthering the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of Political Science at Grove City College.

“People think The New York Times is an objective news source and it is not. It would not surprise me that if they had a news story that would have swayed the election into McCain’s favor they would not have used it.”

ACORN has issued statements claiming that Ms. Moncrief is merely a disgruntled former worker.

“None of this wild and varied list of charges has any credibility and we’re not going to spend our time on it,” said Kevin Whelan, ACORN deputy political director in a statement issued last week.

• Stephanie Strom was contacted for a comment, and The New York Times’ Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Catherine Mathis replied with an e-mail in her place.

Ms. Mathis wrote, “In response to your questions to our reporter, Stephanie Strom,

• we do not discuss our newsgathering and

• won’t comment except to say that political considerations played no role

in our decisions about how to cover this story or any other story about President Obama.”" "NY Times Spiked Obama Donor Story," The Bulletin, 3/30/09, via Lucianne.com

Newsweek Cover, in very small letters, 'Obama is wrong'

Political reporters now superfluous--EU Parliament member

The Telegraph UK, 3/26/09, by Daniel Hannan, Europeon Parliament member

• "The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever. Twenty-four hours ago, I made a three-minute speech in the European Parliament, aimed at Gordon Brown.

I tipped off the BBC and some of the newspaper correspondents but, unsurprisingly, they ignored me: I am, after all, simply a backbench MEP. (snip)

• How did it happen, in the absence of any media coverage?

• The answer is that political reporters no longer get to decide what's news."

"My Speech to Gordon Brown goes Viral" post from Lucianne.com

Soros: America's failure the culmination of my life's work

"A hedge fund manager who predicted the global (alternate link) credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been

• 'stimulating' and

• the culmination of his life's work.

George Soros, who predicted the global (alternate link) financial crisis twice before, was one of the few people to anticipate and prepare for the current economic collapse.

• Mr Soros said his prediction meant he was better able to brace his Quantum investment fund against the global storm.
  

But other investors failed to take notice of his prediction and his decision to come out of retirement in 2007 to manage the fund

• made him $US2.9 billion.(alternate link)
  

And while the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the 78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year.(alternate link).

• 'It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life’s work,' he told national newspaper The Australian. (LINK)
  

Soros is one of 25, top hedge fund managers from across Wall Street who have defied the credit crunch crisis to reap a total of $11.6billion (£7.9bn) last year.

The managers made their profit by trading above the pain in the markets, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha Magazine.

Former maths professor James H. Simons, who has made billions in hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, earned $2.5 billion running computer-driven trading strategies.

And John A. Paulson, who made his fortune by

• betting against the housing market, (alternate link) came in second earning $2 billion.

The managers made the profit in a year when losses were recorded at two of every three hedge funds and when hedge funds lost an average of 18 percent, according to the New York Times.

• Two of the three managers who tied for ninth place, at $250 million, are based in Britain and include David Harding of Winton Capital and Alan Howard of Brevan Howard Asset Management.
  

Another Brevan Howard employee Christopher Rokos also made the list.

The profit comes at a time when the U.S Government is scrutinising Wall Street pay and when hedge funds are facing proposals for new taxes on their gains.

Despite the global financial crisis, the combined pay of the top 25 hedge fund managers still managed to top every year before 2006....

• 'In a year when all their other investments lost money, we’re like an oasis,' he said in the Times....

Alpha Magazine's 2008 Top Moneymakers (Alternate link, Daily Mail Info Services)

• 1 - James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp, $2.5 billion
• 2 - John Paulson, Paulson & Co, $2 billion
• 3 - John Arnold, Centaurus Energy, $1.5 billion
• 4 - George Soros, Soros Fund Management, $1.1 billion (LINK)
  
• 5 - Raymond Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, $780 million
• 6 - Bruce Kovner, Caxton Associates, $640 million
• 7 - David Shaw, D.E. Shaw & Co, $275 million
• 8 - Stanley Druckenmiller, Duquesne Capital Management, $260 million
• 9 - (tie) David Harding, Winton Capital Management, $250 million
• 9 - (tie) Alan Howard, Brevan Howard Asset Management, $250 million
• 9 - (tie) John Taylor Jr, FX Concepts, $250 million Profiles for hedge fund managers ranked 12 through 25 will be available tomorrow:
• 12 - James Chanos, Kynikos Associates
• 13 - Michael Platt, BlueCrest Capital Management
• 14 - Roy Niederhoffer, R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management
• 15 - John Horseman, Horseman Capital Management
• 16 - Paul Touradji, Touradji Capital Management
• 17 - Henry Laufer, Renaissance Technologies Corp.
• 18 - Kenneth Tropin, Graham Capital Management
• 19 - (tie) Pierre Andurand, Dennis Crema, BlueGold Capital Management
• 19 - (tie) Christopher Rokos, Brevan Howard Asset Management
• 22 - (tie) Christian Baha, Superfund
• 22 - (tie) Christian Levett, Clive Capital
• 24 - William Dunn, Dunn Capital Management
• 25 - Andrew Hoine, Paulson & Co." via Michael Savage and the Drudge Report
  

Thousands protest Obama at Cincinnati Tea Party

• View of Fountain Square in Cincinnati, 3/15/09, photo by R. Sayre sent to Instapundit
  

Obama adds another hater to his private army of 'czars'

• "Obama Appoints Green Czar" REPORTS ONLY TO THE OBAMA GROUP--Began career as street agitator trying to get cops fired, KINDRED SPIRIT of Obama group.
  

Made his name videotaping cops for later use to weaken the police force and its effort to protect citizens.

• (MichaelSavage.com) "The newly appointed special advisor for green jobs, enterprise and innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality is Van Jones, founder and director of the San Francisco-based Bay Area Police Watch.

Police Watch describes itself as "an organization that assists survivors of police misconduct and brutality." Jones founded the group in 1993 as a hotline and lawyer-referral service for victims and survivors of police abuse. A 1993 graduate of Yale Law School, Jones also is founding president of Green For All and a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress. Green For All says its mission is to build an "inclusive, green economy" that will solve "the ecological crisis" and lift millions out of poverty."

• (Of course these are just word games used to beat and enslave the US economy. Why not, the pansies in congress are willing to give up without a fight). sm

NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC in business with Obama group via GE lobbyists & bailout

• GE's IMMELT via Obama: 'CAPITALISM WILL BE RESET.' IT WILL CHANGE 'FOREVER.'

"While many companies hire lobbyists to win earmarks, General Electric’s unmatched lobbying force has secured a tax increase — or its equivalent — in President Barack Obama’s budget.

• Labeled “climate revenues” and totaling $646 billion over eight years, this line item in Obama’s budget has inspired confidence in GE Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt. As Immelt put it in a letter this week,
  
• he believes that the Obama administration will be a profitable “financier” and
  
• “key partner.”

On page 115 of Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget is Table S-2, titled “Effect of Budget Proposals on Projected Deficits.” The chart forecasts the costs of Obama’s spending proposals and the added revenue of his proposed tax increases. It also forecasts, beginning in 2012, billions of dollars a year in “climate revenues.” This budget line, which has struck fear into some lawmakers from coal-dependent states, could spell salvation for GE in these times of uncertainty.

• How can Obama generate “climate revenues”?
  

• By forcing companies to pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

A tax on greenhouse gas emissions could accomplish this, but Obama’s preferred policy — and the approach embraced by a few congressional bills in recent years — is called “cap and trade.” In short, cap and trade requires businesses to spend “credits” to pay for their emissions. Businesses can buy or sell these credits, and the market — not the government — would directly set the price of a credit. Government would initially auction them off, generating revenue.

• GE — a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which advocates cap and trade —
  

• leads the push for greenhouse gas restrictions.

In the fourth quarter of 2008 as the company’s stock fell 30 percent, GE spent

• $4.26 million on lobbying — that’s $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
  

• In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying.

Reviewing their lobbying filings, you might think you were looking at Al Gore’s agenda.

• GE’s specific lobbying issues included the “Climate Stewardship Act,” “Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,”
  
• “Global Warming Reduction Act,” “Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,” “Low Carbon Economy Act,” and
  
• “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.”

This isn’t altruism or public relations. GE has started a joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which invests in — and hopes to manage the trade in — greenhouse gas credits. But these investments and this trading floor are of basically no use and

• nearly no value without government restrictions on greenhouse gases.

• Hence the lobbying, buttressed by generous campaign contributions:
  

Employees and executives gave $1.35 million to politicians in the past election while GE’s political action committee shelled out $1.55 million. About 64 percent of this $2.9 million went to Democrats, with Obama easily the top recipient of GE money.

• Obama’s budget includes the payoff,
  

promising to start a multibillion-dollar greenhouse gas industry by 2012. In a letter this week,

• GE’S Immelt told shareholders that current events present an “opportunity of a lifetime,” because
  

• “capitalism will be ‘reset.’ ”

Immelt wrote: “The interaction between government and business

• will change forever.
  

In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.”

• In short, GE plans to get rich by being one of the government’s closest partners — which it has always been, thanks to its unmatched lobbying efforts.

The environmentalist at this point might respond, “Well, good for GE. if they can get rich while helping the planet, more power to them.” But this ignores important issues. First, restraining greenhouse gas emissions will cost Americans dearly. Gas, electricity and heating prices will all go up. The prices of manufactured and shipped goods will go up. A Clemson University report on similar cap-and-trade proposals forecast a 1 percent decline in he U.S. gross domestic product by 2015 if they were implemented.

There are environmental costs, also, to such a focus on greenhouse gases:

• Ethanol’s damage to water supplies, soil health and air quality are the fruit of government pushing the product as a climate-friendly fuel.

When the lobbying fingerprints of GE and other well-connected firms are considered, it’s not hard to conclude that the policy that will finally emerge

• won’t be the one that is best for the planet and least bad for the economy, but the one
  

• that is best for General Electric."
  

dcexaminer.com, 3/4/09, Carney

A brief time out from brainwashing children about Obama

from NY City Tea Party, Berman Post photo. With the proviso that the poster does not like using children in political settings or as News sources (as the NY Times does)but made this 1 exception.