-This essay was disappointing. I mean this is very old news. -Joanna
And not analysis that Soros himself would necessarily disagree with. He's been quoted as saying his financial activities as a capitalist have no particular redeeming qualities-- he has basically refused the usual moral defenses of his own activities on that front:
A Soros quote-- "I don't particularly feel like defending currency speculation. I consider it a necessary evil. I think it is better than currency restrictions, but a unified [European] currency would be even better . . . I think that it behooves the authorities to design a system that does not reward speculators. When speculators profit, the authorities have failed in some way or another."
In some ways, he uses his own financial success as a critique of extreme market ideologies:
"The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right," he says. "I take the opposite position. I assume that markets are always wrong."
So Zizek is a bit behind the curve in emphasizing these contradictions, since the folks involved have already noted the same contradictions.
Nathan Newman