Revisiting Emily Tamkin's `The Influence Of Soros' 2020 Book: Pt. 5

 

In her 2020 book, The Influence Of Soros, a U.S. senior editor of New Statesman magazine, Emily Tamkin, noted:

"...Soros...set up his own hedge fund in 1973. His fund was called the Soros Fund. He brought along Jim Rogers...They opened an office on Columbus Circle, not far from Soros's home at the time at 25 Central Park West. In 1978, the fund changed its name to Quantum Fund...(...around the time that Rogers left the fund.).

"By 1981, the fund had...assets worth $381 million. Soros had a personal fortune of $100 million...Soros said that his financial strategy was informed by his philosphy...When he believed there was opportunity ahead, he went in for the kill. In 1973, for example, the Arab-Israeli War had shifted tectonic plates in the defense industry...Soros...bought defense stocks and made money...

"...Soros met Susan Weber, twenty-five years his junior...in 1978, the same year he left Witschak, the two married in 1983...the same year of his first divorce...

"In 1979, Soros established The Open Society Fund as a charitable lead trust. His motives were not entirely altruistic. `A charitable lead trust is a very interesting tax gimmick.'.., he explained in the early 2000s...'...The principal that remains can be left [to one's heirs] without estate or gift tax. So this was the way I set up the trust for my children.'..."

Merchants of Death

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 7

Rothschild's De Beers Consolidated: Exploited Miners In South Africa

As The Rothschilds: A European Family book observed, in the 20th-century supporting the Zionist movement’s “settlements in Palestine and building the state of Israel became a project that a large part of the” Rothschild “family dedicated itself to.” Yet, some of the money that was used by the Rothschild Dynasty to fund this Zionist movement’s “project” in Palestine, apparently was obtained from the Rothschild family’s exploitation of the gold and diamond resources of countries like South Africa. As the same 1994 book recalled:
“…Throughout the 19th-century, all 5 Houses of Rothschild were involved in the precious metals trade…By virtue of its gold and diamond fields, South Africa became one of the domains in which the London branch operated. The Rothschilds occupied such an important position in this market that, from 1919 until the present day [in 1994] the world price of gold has been fixed on the New Court premises of the Rothschild Bank in London.
“…Diamonds were discovered near the South African town of Kimberley in 1870…Soon the rights to the mines were owned by only 2 firms…Under the leadership of Cecil Rhodes, one of the 2 firms tried to buy the other one out. The necessary capital was put up by the English House of Rothschild. In 1889, for the sum of 1.4 million pounds, the French firm was incorporated into a new company, De Beers Consolidated, which now held a monopoly of diamond mining in Kimberley. The Rothschilds were the company’s largest shareholders…”

In his 1962 book, The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait, Frederic Morton also indicated how the Rothschild Dynasty obtained in the 19th-century much of the wealth that was later used to help fund the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist activity in the 20th-century, in the following way:
“…In England, N.M. Rothschild & Sons invested heavily in Indian mines; it financed Cecil Rhodes’ diamond dominion in South Africa (a burly uncut diamond still lives on the mantel of the Partners’ Room in New Court, and the house is still connected with de Beers; its banking and loan operations covered most of South America. In France, de Rothschild Freres went into the electrical industries, developed the Mediterranean Railway, branched out to North Africa and exerted such control over the Baku oil fields in Russia that the French family was for a number of years a principal competitor of the Rockefeller trust. In Austria, S.M. Rothschild und Sohne extended its scope into Hungary through the famous 6 percent Gold Loan of 1881; the Creditansalt…grew to be a…giant subsidiary of the Family bank and became a financial force in every corner of the Habsburg realm…”

The Rothschild Dynasty also apparently obtained some of the surplus wealth, that it used to help fund the Zionist movement’s settler-colonist projects in Palestine, by profiting from its involvement with and investments in the weapons manufacturing industry and from war-profiteering. As Niall Ferguson recalled in his 1999 book The House of Rothschild: The World’s Bankers 1849-1999:

“There is no doubt that the Rothschilds had their own economic interests in…rearmament. In 1888 the London house issued shares worth 225,000 pounds for the Naval Construction and Armaments Company and subsequently issued 1.9 million pounds of shares and debentures to finance the merger of the Maxim Gun Company with the Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company…Natty [Rothschild] retained a substantial shareholding in the new Maxim-Nordenhelt company and exerted a direct influence over the firm’s management. The wider significance of this lies in the fact that Maxim-Nordenfelt’s flagship product was the lethal automatic gun, used to devastating effect against opponents of British imperial expansion from the Sudan to Matabeleland, and famously cited by Hilaire Belloc as the key to Euroopean hegemony. Similarly,…Rothschilds also financed the Vickers brothers’ takeover of the company (along with the Naval Construction and Armaments Company) in 1897…
“The Austrian Rothschilds also had an interest in the arms industry. In addition to their railway interests, they retained a substantial stake in the Witkowitz ironworks, which became an important supplier of iron and steel to the Austrian navy and later of bullets to the Austrian army…If the 19th-century imperialism had its `military-industrial complex’ the Rothschilds were unquestionably part of it…”

(end of part 7)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 6

Nathan Rothschild: Engaged in smuggling, profited from UK gov't link/bond speculation

During the first two decades of the 19th-century, the Rothschild Dynasty that began bankrolling the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialists by the end of the 19th-century also acquired its family wealth from an illegal smuggling business operation. As The Rothschilds: A European Family book recalled:

“Nathan [Rothschild] engaged in highly profitable smuggling: he had cash illicitly imported into France. Waiting at the French coast, his brother James [Rothschild] took receipt of the cash and used it to buy bills drawn on London that were on the market for below nominal value owing to the trade embargo. Nathan [Rothschild] then redeemed them in London at their face value.”

But, when a general of the early 19th-century UK imperialist government, named Wellington, invaded France and “needed French cash or bills draw on banks in Southern France,” Nathan Rothschild “decided to place his smuggling activities in the service of the British” imperialist “government;” and “his plan for supplying money to Wellington was carried out under the strictest secrecy,” according to the same book. In addition, “the link thus forged with the British government was to pay off for the Rothschilds” who “were entrusted with the payments of subsidies destined for the British allies” which were “transferred via the Rothschild Bank,” that received “risk-free commission,” according to The Rothschilds: A European Family book.

As a result, as the same book recalled:

“The five [Rothschild] brothers made their greatest profits after 1815 by speculating in bonds, by exploiting differences in quotations on the various exchanges and by conducting money transactions swiftly…In the first decades of the 19th-century the Rothschilds overtook all the other banks. They built up a monopoly on loans to the major European powers and established a second pillar for their business, namely railway construction, at an early date before the business in state bonds declined. Their wealth had reached an unprecedented size…”

By the second half of the 19th-century, Rothschild Dynasty members were profiting from their exploitation of the oil resources of Russia, which was then undemocratically ruled by a monarchical and institutionally anti-Semitic Czarist government. As The Rothschilds: A European Family book observed:

“…At around 1870 the French Rothschilds already had a stake in the importation of American crude oil to France. In this context the Rothschilds had oil refineries built in Fiume in Austria and in Spain.

“The need for cheap oil supplies for their refineries soon sparked the Rothschild’s interest in the oil fields around Baku in Russia…Within a short time the Rothschilds had become the second most powerful oil group in Russia…”

And by 1912, the Rothschild Dynasty that was funding the Zionist movement’s settler colonialists in Palestine owned stock in the Shell/Royal Dutch transnational oil corporation that profited from the exploitation of the oil resources of Dutch imperialism’s Indonesian colony. As the same book noted:

“…Oil had increasingly come to be used as engine fuel and this had prompted drilling for oil in Indonesia, a Dutch colony. This led to the company Royal Dutch being set up, which soon merged with the transport from Shell. The Paris House of Rothschild decided to join this new group, which became ever more powerful…In 1912 the Rothschilds swapped their holding in the Russian joint stock company [of Czarist Russia’s “second most powerful oil group”], worth a total of 27.2 million roubles, for shares in Shell/Royal Dutch…”

Shell/Royal Dutch: Oil firm owned by Rothschilds, profited from Dutch Imperialism

 (end of part 6)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 5

Meyer Amschel Rothschild: Profited From Funding Monarchist Military Attacks on French Revolution

Over 100 years before the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialists from Europe began establishing their settlements on Palestinian land that Edmond Rothschild financed and managed, the Rothschild family members began to accumulate so much surplus wealth from the financial deals the Rothschilds made with undemocratic European regimes, that by the early 1800’s the Rothschilds “increasingly came to be regarded as the epitome of dominance and exploitation," according to the 1994 book, The Rothschilds: A European Family, that Georg Heuberger edited. As the same book recalled:

“About 1764…Meyer Amschel Rothschild set up his own business as a dealer in coins and bills in Frankfurt…The deliveries he made to the…court of the Landgrave William of Hanau gave him the opportunity in 1769 to…acquire the title of Court Agent to said court…Shortly after being awarded the title of Agent to the Court of Hesse-Hanau, Meyer Amschel [Rothschild] married Gutle Schnapps, whose dowry was quite considerable…Alongside trading in coins…he also bought bills of exchange and worked as an agent procuring loans…

“The coin trade was of great significance for him…Wegener, who was in charge of the Hanau Coin Collection, later became director of the Hanau Country Treasury. It sold bills of exchange issued by the English government and redeemable in London. These bills were in payment for troops from Hanau that fought on the English side during the American war of Independence.

“Contact with the men in charge of the Court Coin Collection thus afforded Meyer Amschel [Rothschild] the opportunity to acquire bills from the Hanau Treasury and resell them for redemption in London. This trade in bills was highly profitable…”

So, not surprisingly, when the undemocratic monarchical European governments attacked the revolutionary government of France in the early 1790’s, Rothschild family members and their business partners were apparently able to profit from the resulting war. As The Rothschilds: A European Family book noted:

“In 1792 Austria and other countries attacked France…At the outset of the war Meyer Amschel succeeded, together with two business partners…, Wolf Loeb Schott and Beer Nehm Rindskopt, in concluding a contract with the Imperial Army. They provided the money to pay the soldiers as well as grain and equipment for the army during its operations in the Rhine/Main region against the French…The profits were…so considerable that between 1792 and 1795 Meyer Amschel moved…to the highest class of taxpayer in the tax estimates of the Jewish community…From now on, Meyer Amschel’s 3 eldest sons, Amschel, Salomon and Nathan, were also active in his business…”

The same book also observed that, by 1800, Meyer Amschel Rothschild “was well on his way to getting a foothold in the door of the uppermost class of court Jews;"  and “the breakthrough for Meyer Amschel” Rothschild “came in 1803 when he succeeded for the first time in floating a bond for the state of Denmark.” Then, after Meyer Amschel’s son, Nathan Rothschild, married the “daughter of the prominent London merchant, Levy Barent Cohen” in 1806, the Rothschild Dynasty’s family gained access to the “financial elite of early 19th-century London,” because Nathan Rothschild’s father-in-law (who died in 1808) “was the center of a kinship network linking” some of “the most important families in London’s financial sector,” including “the Montefiores, the Mocattas and the Goldsmids.”

Nathan Rothschild:  Member of early 19th-Century UK financial banking elite

According to The Rothschilds: A European Family book:

“The Mocattas were among the richest traders in London, while the Goldsmid brothers dominated the English bond market up until 1810. Members of the Cohen and Montefiore families were stockbrokers.”

And after the head of the leading Goldsmid bank shot himself in 1810, Nathan Rothschild “was soon to fill the vacuum this left behind in the London banking world,” according to the same book.

Rothschilds Mansion in UK (photo by Pam Brody)

(end of part 5)

Is Cambridge's Draper Laboratory Profiteering From War Research?

According to the tax-exempt and “non-profit” Draper Laboratory Form 990 financial filing for 2015, between June 27, 2015 and July 1, 2016 the Strategic Systems weapons technology development program of Draper Laboratory earned over $67 million more in revenues from its contract work than what it spent to do the contract work; between June 2015 and July 2016, Draper Laboratory’s Strategic Systems program’s revenues exceeded $445 million, while the Strategic Systems program’s expenses were only just under $378 million. Draper Laboratory’s 2015 Form 990 financial filing also noted that its Strategic Systems program has “been responsible for all of the U.S. Navy’s strategic guidance systems and are currently extending MK6 system life to 2042 through an extensive modernization effort that utilizes common processor and other key technical innovations to improve reliability and system performance” and has “also developed the guidance system for the air force peacekeeper ICBM.”

The National Security and Space program of the “non-profit” Draper Laboratory also earned more from its contract work than what it spent to do the work. Between June 2015 and July 2016, for example, Draper Laboratory’s National Security and Space program revenues of over $158 million exceeded its expenses of over $139 million by $19 million.  And Draper Laboratory’s 2015 Form 990 financial filing described the weapons technology development work of its National Security and Space program in the following way:

“Draper delivers national security systems and combat solutions as a highly valued government partner and design agent for our sponsors’ most difficult problems. We provide trusted, reliable mantime intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), extreme miniature solutions for precision engagement, highly accurate guided aerial delivery, soldier-centered solutions, secure electronic and communications, and early intercept guidance for missile defense engagements. We help our sponsors to clarify their requirements, establish government owned designs and create system prototypes…”

From all of its sources of revenues between June 2015 and July 2016 (including income from dividends on the corporate stock it owns, for example), Draper Laboratory’s total revenues were over $676 million; which exceeded its total expenses (that included $1 million spent on lobbying) of over $639 million by nearly $37 million, although Draper Laboratory claims to be a “non-profit” organization. And during the same period, the value of Draper Laboratory’s net assets increased from over $364 million to over $379 million. In addition, between October 2014 and September 2016 the annual dollar amount of Pentagon weapons technology development contracts awarded Draper Laboratory increased from $273 million to $360 million, making it the 73^rd-largest recipient of U.S. war research contracts in 2017.