Soros Says Obama ‘Has Lost Control’ of U.S. Economic Agenda

George Soros, a billionaire hedge- fund manager who has donated millions to Democrats, said Democratic President Barack Obama “has lost control of the agenda” on the U.S. economy, leaving it “now in the hands of the Republican Party.” Republicans “are going to pursue a very strong effort to cut services by refusing to have any tax increases,” Soros said in an interview with CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” program. “This agenda will be successful,” though it will be “more directed at cutting services and achieving the ideological purposes of the Republicans rather than to get the economy going,” Soros, 80, said, according to a transcript of the interview released by CNN. “This will have a negative impact on the economy.”

The U.S. government is facing a situation in which it may not be able to tap the bond market for funds, according to the Hungarian-born billionaire financier. “That’s more or less in the cards because we aren’t applying fiscal stimulus, because of the ideologies that the government can’t do anything right, so we can’t expect the government to help,” Soros said. “So you have idle resources, and the Federal Reserve is providing quantitative easing. Well, I think when it expires, they won’t give it any more.” The Federal Reserve’s so-called quantitative easing program is an effort to stimulate the economy and increase employment by purchasing government debt.

Soros also discussed the Middle East and praised Obama’s handing of the revolt in Egypt that led to the ousting of Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Soros predicted that Iran’s ruling regime also will topple within the year, though warned the situation there could become “very ugly” before this happens. “Opposition leaders could easily be killed through a false judicial process because the regime is fighting for its survival, because they know that they have committed such crimes that it’s either them or the people,” he said. “But I don’t think that they will be able to succeed.”

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