PRESS RELEASE
`Star Witness' Soros Is Ignored by Democratic Senators Attacking London Oil Price Speculation
June 3, 2008 (EIRNS)—Megaspeculator George Soros, the British oligarchy's leading money conduit for corrupting the U.S. election process, was supposed to be cast as the "star witness" today at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on ... speculation! Oil price speculation and manipulation in particular. But instead of dominating a bunch of admiring Democratic Senators, Soros wound up being ignored by them, as they demanded hard information from other witnesses on the "London loophole" for investment banks' and hedge funds' massive speculation on oil prices, and how the United States could close it.
After a brief testimony in which he pontificated about a "bubble superimposed on an upward trend in oil prices," Soros sat virtually silent for two hours. Senators Cantwell (D-Wash.), Dorgan (D-ND), Nelson (D-Fla.), Snowe (R-Me.), and Carper (D-Del.) engaged in urgent colloquy about unregulated energy speculation on London's "offshore" futures markets, with law professor Michael Greenberger, a consultant to the Department of Justice, and Dr. Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America. Greenberger told the Senators that the sudden, intense pressure they have put on the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the past two weeks, to close down the "London loophole," was the only reason the wild upward "superspike" of oil prices was temporarily halted at $135/barrel on May 25, and has pulled back since to the range of $125/barrel.
Soros finally became uncomfortable at being pushed aside in the hearing, and interjected strong disagreement with Greenberger and Cooper. "I think this whole approach [focussing on speculation] is the wrong way of looking at it," Soros complained. "What is happening with the oil price is fundamentally a matter of demand and supply.... You have, oil fields around the world are aging. Consumption is growing by nations in the Third World. The recession will bring down the bubble, but only temporarily. The more important issue is the longer term, which is global warming."
So much for Soros the "market sage warning of a speculative bubble"!
Adding insult to the injury to the great speculator's British ego, Sen. Byron Dorgan then directed the first question to him in an hour: "You reportedly, with your hedge funds, made a profit of $3 billion last year. ... Did any of that come from speculation in oil?" "No, no!" said Soros. "And you're saying," pursued Dorgan, "that this price bubble will be wiped out by a recession, that we don't have to do anything about it?" "No, no," Soros repeated, and explained hurriedly that he really didn't know very much about oil futures markets at all!
After the hearing Soros received the statement "LaRouche Denounces British Drive To Control U.S. Presidency," in which he is prominently criticized. LaRouche commented that Soros's surprising isolation at the hearing could indicate that "the word is out, and some people are getting disgusted at what he's doing" politically. Asked if he was still funding Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, Soros said that that wasn't necessary any longer, and that he was now funding activities of the Democratic Party in general.
