Comment by joostdevries | Hacker News Reader

Comment by joostdevries | Hacker News Reader

I'm not terribly interested in the views of a billionaire investor on the EU. I have to say though that I searched for the original interview in Wirtschaftswoche and Handelsblatt Online. And I did not find words as strong as "on the verge of a collapse". Those articles read "on the future of the EU [he] is pessimistic"

All the same the Schengen treaty is at risk with the current flood of immigrants. [1]

As far as the EU goes: I'm a Dutch citizen. And the NL have a long history of belonging to a coöperation of nations. Just after WWII it founed the BeNeLux. And it was a founding member of the EU later on. So I lived in a supra-national organisation for as long as I live. And I have to say that when I work here in the NL with people from France, Spain, Italy, Germany, ... I truly feel that we're all Europeans. It's some feeling of shared fate, shared history, shared culture, speaking their languages, intuïtively knowing their characteristic strengths and foibles. So as far as I'm concerned even if the current EU would fail we'll just start anew with an EU 2.0. Less expansionist and less idealistic probably. Sadder and wiser surely. But in my estimation the sense of a shared EU identity has become stronger than even the current vicissitudes or the meddling from billionaire investors.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/dutch-pm-says-r...

As a fellow european, I share your pragmatic and non-alarmist views.

The title of the piece is unfortunate.

The interview is rather more positive. It is clear that Soros supports the ideas behind the EU. He shares some specific concerns about some of the directions it is heading, but has ideas on how these should be addressed.

Regarding your point on "meddling from billionaire investors", note the question "You have retired from running your hedge fund and devote all your energies to your foundation." The foundation seems to me to share a lot of the hopes that you express about the EU.

For interest, Soros's six point plan for dealing with the refugee crisis is detailed in this article:

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2015/10/30/george-soros-and-t...

I think soros is an example of an expert in one field speaking out in other fields. Its not the first time.

You might want to reconsider after reading this article[1] about his 200.000 euro investment in 'Stem voor Nederland' to get the Dutch people to vote yes in the Ukraine referendum in april.

[1]: http://nos.nl/artikel/2082091-amerikaanse-miljardair-sponsor...

Well said!

Soros is definitely weird at times, and he is almost always too-certain. But your negative characterization of "billionaire investor" is a disservice to you and him. Rather than learn about the world by selling products or climbing a political ladder, he formed opinions and made bets. Massive, massive respect.

How does gambling in the finance market worthy of respect?

If we throw out, even if momentarily, that there's more to success in the markets than pure luck, then people who have succeeded have done so in a very pure way: you can only make money in trading by being right. When you're right as often and to the extent that someone like Soros is, you have insight that 99.9999% of people don't.

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