Global Financial Crisis Looming, George Soros Warns

A new, global financial crisis is looming and threatening to jeopardize the European Union, as well as the world, according to investor, business magnate, philanthropist, and political activist George Soros.

In a speech in Paris to the European Council on Foreign Relations, Soros said the following, Bloomberg reports.

“We may be heading for another major financial crisis. It is no longer a figure of speech to say that Europe is in existential danger; it is the harsh reality.”

The transatlantic alliance between the United States and the European Union has, according to the Hungarian-American business magnate, been destroyed. This will inevitably have a negative effect on the world economy and jeopardize the future of the European Union.

According to Soros, the refugee crisis has made it possible for populists to gain power in the United States and in Europe, and these right-wing governments have put the European Union in a state of “existential crisis.”

“Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong,” Soros said, citing America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and Brexit as examples of the recent “destruction” of trade partnerships and political alliances between the U.S. and the European Union.

All of this is “bound to have a negative effect on the European economy and cause other dislocations,” according to Soros.

According to the Business Insider, George Soros, who was a teenage Jewish refugee who barely escaped persecution by the Nazis, has been one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest critics. Known as the investor who “broke the Bank of England,” Soros has supported refugees and a liberal world order through his philanthropic efforts.

Throughout his career, the Business Insider noted, Soros, a prolific investor, has been compared to the likes of Warren Buffet. After fleeing Hungary for England, Soros studied philosophy at the London School of Economics under Karl Popper. In the 1950s, he moved to New York City and started working for various trading firms.

Soros Fund Management, a former investment management firm now structured as a family office, was founded in 1970. In the 1990s, Soros made a bet against the British pound, which earned him $1 billion in 24 hours. After the 2008 financial crisis, the Hungarian-American billionaire pledged $50 million for the Institute of New Economic Thinking.

In 2016, Soros returned to trading, expecting to profit from political uncertainty. That did not end well for the billionaire, the Business Insider noted, who lost $1 billion after the surprise U.S. elections.

The future does not look bright, not just for Soros, but for the world, he claims.

The dollar, which is surging, will – along with capital flight from emerging markets – propel the world into a new economic crisis, Soros claims. Emerging economies like Turkey and Argentina, which are “struggling to contain the fallout from runaway inflation,” Bloomberg notes, will play a part in this, according to Soros.

The billionaire has proposed a solution. The European Union, in Soros’ opinion, needs to abandon the clause which obliges member countries to join the single currency.

“The euro has many unresolved problems and they must not be allowed to destroy the European Union,” Soros said, adding that his plan to save Europe from disaster is n EU-funded Marshall Plan for Africa. Worth about 30 billion Euros a year, this plan would, Soros claims, ease migratory pressures Europe has been facing.