I think there's a lot of merit in an international economy and global markets, but they're not sufficient because markets don't look after social needs.
Interpretation
Global markets have benefits, but they fail to address social needs.
George Soros emphasizes the importance of recognizing the limitations of international economies and global markets. While he acknowledges the merits of these systems, he argues that they do not adequately meet social needs, suggesting that economic systems must be supplemented by social considerations to ensure the well-being of communities.
In practice
During a panel discussion on economic policy, one could reference this quote to highlight the importance of integrating social welfare into market strategies.
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.
What we know about the global financial crisis is that we don't know very much.
It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys. It's your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way.
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it - their shareholders would revolt at anything less.
It had been held that the economic system, any capitalist system, found its equilibrium at full employment. Left to itself, it was thus that it came to rest. Idle men and idle plant were an aberration, a wholly temporary failing. Keynes showed that the modern economy could as well find its equilibrium with continuing, serious unemployment. Its perfectly normal tendency was to what economists have since come to call an underemployment equilibrium.
The gap between rich and poor is widening dramatically. There's a hangar at the Cairo airport for private jets, billionaires are on the Forbes list, and Egypt's annual per-capita income is two thousand dollars. How can you sustain that?
When you save the life of anyone, a farmer, a teacher, a mother, they are contributing productively into the economy.
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