George Soros vs. the Bank of England
Planet Money
NPR
4.6 • 29.8K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2024
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1992, Soros' fund set its sights on the British pound, betting that some time in the fall of that year, the pound would plummet in value. Opposing them in this trade was the Bank of England, which was determined to keep its currency stable. The financial battle that followed was intense and proved to be a watershed moment in the balance of power between markets and governments.
On today's show, we speak to Robert Johnson, a former managing director at Soros' fund, for a blow-by-blow account of those fateful days in 1992.
This episode was hosted by Keith Romer and Alex Goldmark. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Martina Castro. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Laurel Wamsley, and I cover personal finance for NPR. That means I report on some of the questions that might keep you or your loved ones up at night. Like, will I ever be able to buy a home? What about retirement? As interest rates drop, where should I put my money? Economic headlines can be confusing, but NPR is here to help you make sense of them. To support this coverage, please give today at |
| 0:21.6 | donate.npr.org. In the recent flurry of cabinet nominations, Donald Trump has been proposing, |
| 0:28.3 | one name stood out to us. Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. And that's because |
| 0:33.8 | Scott Besson has worked in finance for decades, including for George Soros' hedge fund back in the 1990s. |
| 0:40.7 | And it just so happens that when the announcement came out, we were most of the way through making an episode about George Soros' hedge fund back in the 1990s. |
| 0:49.8 | Our show about something that happened three decades ago turned out to be way more topical than we thought it would be. |
| 0:55.6 | Now, what we made is not exactly the Scott Besson Origin story, but, you know, come for the Treasury Secretary backgrounder. |
| 1:03.3 | Stick around for the epic finance story. |
| 1:05.6 | Or just come for the epic finance story. |
| 1:07.7 | Either way, here is the show. |
| 1:10.1 | This is Planet Money from NPR. |
| 1:15.3 | The name George Soros means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some folks, |
| 1:22.5 | he is primarily known as a philanthropist for his support of human rights and democracy around |
| 1:26.8 | the world. |
| 1:32.0 | Here is Soros on Fresh Air in 2006 talking about the foundations he funds. |
| 1:41.0 | Basically, the function is to support civil society in holding governments accountable. |
| 1:47.2 | Soros has also become kind of a boogeyman and scapegoat to folks on the right for his support of progressive policies. Often this has a fairly overt anti-Semitic tinge. For example, |
| 1:53.7 | this 2010 clip from Glenn Beck. You have to see who's behind the puppets. Who is choosing the |
| 1:59.6 | puppets and the players? Who's the puppet master? |
| 2:03.9 | George Soros. Today, we are going to go back in time before all of those versions of Soros, |
| 2:10.5 | to the story of how George Soros made his name in the first place, which was in finance. In particular, |
| 2:16.7 | we are going back to this one trade that his |
... |
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