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August 21, 2008
Rank hypocrisy from George Soros
Liberal financier and backer of far left groups like Moveon.org George Soros has been caught in one of those "Do as I say not as I do" moments.
It seems that Soros, who is a huge proponent of global warming theory, purchased an $800 million stake in a Brazilian oil company. From the Wall Street Journal:
But as one of the world's most successful investors and speculators, Mr. Soros seems to have a different set of standards when it comes to his own wallet. His moral indignation takes a back seat to the profit motive. To wit, the billionaire do-gooder has purchased an $811 million stake in Petrobras, "making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company," according to Bloomberg News on Friday, "his investment fund's largest holding."It's not only that Petrobras is a fossil fuel company. The more interesting aspect of the Soros investment is that Mr. Soros's Petrobras investment cannot be profitable if the company does not exploit its Tupi oil field, the largest offshore find in the hemisphere. Indeed, Petrobras is rapidly emerging as a world leader in technology to exploit such no-no reserves, while Brazil has thousands of miles of pristine coastline and a large indigenous population. Is Mr. Soros not outraged that he will be funding corporate interests that threaten these? Apparently not as long as there is money to be made that will go into his own pocket.
Ed Lasky adds:
Of course, in supporting Democrats who oppose offshore drilling, he is also investing in a way that will profit when the oil prices rise -- which they will have to do if our domestic offshore oil resources are not tapped. Petrobas -- his largest single investment -- is one of the world's leading oil companies whose future is heavily leveraged to its offshore drilling deposits in Brazil-that are apparently vast. Petrobas is now developing very advanced technology involving offshore drilling-technology American risks losing if our own companies are not allowed to develop our deposits that lie offshore. Maybe he just does not care about developing nations spoiling their own evironments.
Soros certainly knows about offshore investing-his hedge fund is registered and domiciled in an offshore tax haven -- obscuring both its investors and its investments.