 These frantic scenes from brokerage in London are from what has come to be called Black Wednesday. That day, the 16th of September 1992, the pound collapsed. Currency traders in big banks have been waiting for this day. They had expected the pound to weaken against other European currencies, thanks to runaway inflation in the UK. So many currency traders built up what has been called short positions on the pound, where they would gain if the pound lost value. And when Black Wednesday hit, currency speculators made billions of dollars in just a few hours, while the British Treasury lost massive amounts of money trying to defend the pound. Most big players kept quiet about it. After all, no one wanted to take credit for a financial raid which would cost the British people over $6 billion, except one man, George Soros, head of a relatively unknown but rich hedge fund called Quantum, consciously and deliberately made himself the face of the raid on the pound. Soros arranged an interview in the London Times where he claimed that he had made $2 billion by shorting the pound. He boasted that in the run-up to the pound's collapse, his hedge fund must have been the single biggest factor in the market. Now, why would Soros want to position himself as a ruthless speculator, who could single-handedly destroy one of the world's most powerful currencies? For that, we will have to go back to his childhood. Soros was born in Budapest and grew up during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. His Jewish family changed their name and pretended to be Christians to escape the concentration camps. In 1944, when he was just 14 years old, Soros posed as the son of a Hungarian official and sometimes accompanied him to Jewish homes confiscating their property. Half a century later, his older brother Paul told New Yorker magazine how traumatic that experience was, knowing that they might be shot and thrown into the Danube River if their false identities were ever exposed. George Soros, on the other hand, dealt with this double life by developing an extreme sense of unsentimental detachment. At the same time, he also developed a hatred for authoritarian governments, extreme nationalists and any kind of suppression of freedom. In this, his ideological guru was Karl Popper, philosopher of science and advocate of open societies. In 1984, Soros decided to spend some of his billions to promote his philosophy in the countries that were at that time in the socialist bloc. His objective was to push capitalist ideas in the former communist world. As the socialist bloc began to disintegrate towards the late 80s, followed by the end of the Soviet Union, Soros wanted to have a bigger say in helping Eastern Europe and Russia negotiate with the new reality. But he soon discovered that no one really wanted to hear what he had to say. That is when Soros decided that he needed to be famous, to be able to spend his money the way he wanted. That brings us back to Black Wednesday and why George Soros decided to take credit for it and why, since then, he has made publicity and reach a key part of his strategy. His sudden fame made it easier for him to talk directly to top leaders in former communist countries. Soros' biggest success was in Ukraine, where his foundation played a big role in helping a pro-market, pro-capitalist candidate win the presidential elections of 1994. In this, he was virtually acting like an unregistered representative of the international institutions like IMF and World Bank. Evelyn Hufkin, a board member of the World Bank in the 1990s, had this to say about George Soros' role in Ukraine. The bank cannot support election campaigns of reformers. In Ukraine, Soros did. Soros and his team helped Ukraine negotiate a $4 billion IMF loan and ensured that Ukraine launches pro-market economic reforms. Soros replicated this model across Eastern Europe throughout the early 90s, pushing pro-market reforms by placing his people in key positions of power. So how did a ruthless financial wizard and an anti-communist to boot who wanted to promote capitalist ideas in the socialist world become enemy number one of the global right wing? I'm so tired of the left pretending like we've picked George Soros to be our boogeyman. Every time this man spends money, it is towards an effort that is going to undo American civilization. It is because for the late 1990s, Soros decided that communism was no longer the biggest threat to his so-called open society. The biggest threat now was the role of Western powers in undermining democracy in the developing world. Soros believes that the USA is an anti-democratic force in the world. He had opposed George Bush's war against Iraq and once stated that the main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States. Soros has also opposed Israel's role in the Palestinian region and has funded organizations which call for sanctions against Israel. He has been opposed to all right-wing governments across the world, many of which are close allies of the United States. Most importantly, Soros has called for regulation of international finance to protect democracies where finance capital is trying to push for free market reforms. He has called himself a passionate critic of market fundamentalism. This is what makes the right-wing hate Soros and there are hundreds of conspiracy theories about him, some of which are pushed by the mainstream media and influential social media personalities. There's two things that I want to talk to you about before we got in here besides the election. In no particular order, aliens and George Soros. Soros has used his various foundations to support groups that are campaigning against right-wing governments across the world. And he has funded media entities which fight for press freedom and has also given his money to groups which fight fake news generated by the right-wing ecosystem. Does that make Soros a progressive force for global good? Soros obviously believes he is. People like me who look at billionaires with suspicion will disagree. Ultimately history will decide and as Soros himself once wrote, he will submit to the judgment of history. That's the show today. If you have liked this video, show it by pressing the like button and do subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon so that you get to know when we upload a new video. Until next time, goodbye.