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.
Interpretation
A global economy thrives on the exchange of not just commodities but also innovative thoughts and financial resources.
George Soros emphasizes that the essence of a global economy lies in both the seamless exchange of goods and services and the even more crucial exchange of ideas and capital. This highlights the interconnected nature of economies today, where collaboration and innovation are driven by the free flow of knowledge and investment across borders.
In practice
In a business presentation discussing the importance of collaboration in international markets.
The securitisation of mortgages added a new dimension of systemic risk. Financial engineers claimed they were reducing risks through geographic diversification: in fact they were increasing them by creating an agency problem. The agents were more interested in maximising fee income than in protecting the interests of bondholders. That is the verity that was ignored by regulators and market participants alike.
The collapse of the global marketplace would be a traumatic event with unimaginable consequences. Yet I find it easier to imagine than the continuation of the present regime.
Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually.
We are the most powerful nation on earth. No external power, no terrorist organization can defeat us. But we can defeat ourselves by getting caught in a quagmire.
My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it. But I can empower them. I can support them, and I can help them.
The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.
The modern corporation must manufacture not only goods but the desire for the goods it manufactures.
I'm just saying that if you understand how the economic machine works, it just works like a machine. There are cause-effect relationships.
The value of a currency is, ultimately, what someone will give you for it - whether in food, fuel, assets, or labor. And that's always and everywhere a subjective decision.
An economy can survive with 10% of the population insolation. It can't survive when 50% of the population is in isolation.
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
There's nothing in Keynesian economics that would allow you to solve stagflation. But there's nothing in neoclassical economics that would allow you to solve stagflation, either.
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