From William Engdhal, “The Secret Financial Network Behind George Soros,” 1996 (Executive Intelligence Review):

[Note I: I mentioned Engdahl’s piece about Soros and Rothschild earlier, with the disclaimer that EIR is a Larouche outfit often labeled conspiracist and anti-Semitic, but nonetheless acknowledged to have produced good research. This piece, as I found it on the net, is not extensively sourced, which is why I’ve not previously linked it. However, having recently found old newspaper articles substantiating at least a part of the material, I’m going ahead and posting it.

Note II: Soros has a variety of interesting business associations. He has ties with Jim Rogers, through the Quantum Fund, which Rogers left to form his own group; with Rees-Mogg, the British journalist and Agora associate/writer; and with James Goldsmith, the Anglo-French financier, who was at one time Rees-Mogg’s primary financial backer. But, Goldsmith, a speculator and corporate raider in the 1980s, was vehemently opposed to GATT and the drive to globalize in teh 1990s, which seems to rather complicate the economic hit-man narrative. Rogers’ pronouncements, as much as I’ve followed them, often directly contradict Soros’ public statements.

Thus, in my opinion, while there could well be collusion at work among some (or even all) of these entities, from the record, at least, the situation is much muddier. For instance, if you look at what Goldsmith has to say about globalization in the 1990s, he is anti-agribusiness, anti-nuclear power, and anti-GATT. That diverges sharply from Engdahl’s general premise, which is best exemplified in the shock-doctrine advocated by Soros in Russia, via economist Jeffrey Sachs (the best account of which is by journalist Ann Williamson, who testified on the matter to Congress).

The truth is, many people advocate many kinds of things from ideology. That ideology is often shared by their business associates, since people with shared ideologies usually end up working in the same place. That doesn’t automatically mean they are all working hand-in-glove, or even know each other more than superficially. Even the joint ownership of a fund or corporation, unless it is over a long period of time, does not have to imply that the owners are all in agreement with each other’s financial goals. That said, there are suggestive connections noted in this piece that are relevant both to the debt crisis in Europe and to the ongoing manipulation of the markets, which is why I want to link the piece, despite the problems with it that I’ve noted.

Here’s an excerpt relevant to the situation in Poland:

“Poland: In late 1989, Soros organized a secret meeting between the “reform” communist government of Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Rakowski and the leaders of the then-illegal Solidarnosc trade union organization. According to well-informed Polish sources, at that 1989 meeting, Soros unveiled his “plan” for Poland: The communists must let Solidarnosc take over the government, so as to gain the confidence of the population. Then, said Soros, the state must act to bankrupt its own industrial and agricultural enterprises, using astronomical interest rates, withholding state credits, and burdening firms with unpayable debt. Once this were done, Soros promised that he would encourage his wealthy international business friends to come into Poland, as prospective buyers of the privatized state enterprises. A recent example of this privatization plan is the case of the large steel facility Huta Warsawa. According to steel experts, this modern complex would cost $3-4 billion for a western company to build new. Several months ago, the Polish government agreed to assume the debts of Huta Warsawa, and to sell the debt-free enterprise to a Milan company, Lucchini, for $30 million!.

Soros recruited his friend, Harvard University economist Jeffery Sachs, who had previously advised the Bolivian government in economic policy, leading to the takeover of that nation’s economy by the cocaine trade. To further his plan in Poland, Soros set up one of his numerous foundations, the Stefan Batory Foundation, the official sponsor of Sach’s work in Poland in 1989-90.

Soros boasts, “I established close personal contact with Walesa’s chief adviser, Bronislaw Geremek. I was also received by [President Gen Wojciech] Jaruzelski, the head of State, to obtain his blessing for my foundation.” He worked closely with the eminence gris of Polish shock therapy, Witold Trzeciakowski, a shadow adviser to Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz. Soros also cultivated relations with Balcerowicz, the man who would first impose Sach’s shock therapy on Poland. Soros says when Walesa was elected President, that “largely because of western pressure, Walesa retained Balcerowicz as minister.” Balcerowicz imposed a freeze on wages while industry was to be bankrupted by a cutoff of state credits. Industrial output fell by more than 30% over two years.

Soros admits he knew in advance that his shock therapy would cause huge unemployment, closing of factories, and social unrest. For this reason, he insisted that Solidarnosc be brought into the government, to help deal with the unrest. Through the Batory Foundation, Soros coopted key media opinion makers such as Adam Michnik, and through cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, imposed a media censorship favorable to Soros’s shock therapy, and hostile to all critics.

Russia and the Community of Independent States (CIS): Soros headed a delegation to Russia, where he had worked together with Raisa Gorbachova since the late 1980s, to establish the Cultural Initiative Foundation. As with his other “charitable foundations,” this was a tax-free vehicle for Soros and his influential Western friends to enter the top policymaking levels of the country, and for tiny sums of scarce hard currency, buy up important political and intellectual figures. After a false start under Mikhail Gorbachov in 1988-91, Soros shifted to the new Yeltsin circle. It was Soros who introduced Jeffery Sachs and shock therapy into Russia, in late 1991. Soros describes his effort: “I started mobilizing a group of economists to take to the Soviet Union (July 1990). Professor Jeffery Sachs, with whom I had worked in Poland, was ready and eager to participate. He suggested a number of other participants: Romano Prodi from Italy; David Finch, a retired official from the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. I wanted to include Stanley Fischer and Jacob Frenkel, heads of research of the World Bank and IMF, respectively; Larry Summers from Harvard and Michael Bruno of the Central Bank of Israel.”

Since Jan. 2, 1992, shock therapy has introduced chaos and hyperinflation into Russia. Irreplaceable groups from advanced scientific research institutes have fled in pursuit of jobs in the West. Yegor Gaidar and the Yeltsin government imposed draconian cuts in state spending to industry and agriculture, even though the entire economy was state-owned. A goal of a zero deficit budget within three months was announced. Credit to industry was ended, and enterprises piled up astronomical debts, as inflation of the ruble went out of control.

The friends of Soros lost no time in capitalizing on this situation. Marc Rich began buying Russian aluminum at absurdly cheap prices, with his hard currency. Rich then dumped the aluminum onto western industrial markets last year, causing a 30% collapse in the price of the metal, as western industry had no way to compete. There was such an outflow of aluminum last year from Russia, that there were shortages of aluminum for Russian fish canneries. At the same time, Rich reportedly moved in to secure export control over the supply of most West Siberian crude oil to western markets. Rich’s companies have been under investigation for fraud in Russia, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal of May 13, 1993.

Another Soros silent partner who has moved in to exploit the chaos in the former Soviet Union, is Shaul Eisenberg. Eisenberg, reportedly with a letter of introduction from then-European Bank chief Jacques Attali, managed to secure an exclusive concession for textiles and other trade in Uzbekistan. When Uzbek officials confirmed defrauding of the government by Eisenberg, his concessions were summarily abrogated. The incident has reportedly caused a major loss for Israeli Mossad strategic interests throughout the Central Asian republics.

Soros has extensive influence in Hungary. When nationalist opposition parliamentarian Istvan Csurka tried to protest what was being done to ruin the Hungarian economy, under the policies of Soros and friends, Csurka was labeled an “anti-Semite,” and in June 1993, he was forced out of the governing Democratic Forum, as a result of pressure from Soros-linked circles in Hungary and abroad, including Soros’s close friend, U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos.”