War Profiteering
The right's favorite boogeyman George Soros is buying shares in Halliburton. Some are indignant that Cheney and Rumsfeld are called "war profiteers" while Soros apparently gets a pass. "Only Republicans can be accused of war profiteering."
I really dislike semantic arguments but I'll pick this one up for a second. A profiteer is "makes or seeks to make an excessive or unfair profit" ... "by methods considered unethical". For example if you own shares in a military contracting company, you inflate fictional intelligence to start an unnecessary war, and you award your contracting company a no-bid contract in that war - that's profiteering, because those methods are considered unethical.
As far as I can tell Soros is not seeking profit unethically: he is legally purchasing stock on the open market. If Soros helps to start a war, encourages the spread of an existing war, or modulates his anti-war stance because he realizes that halting the war will dry up a Halliburton revenue stream then he will be profiteering.
I really dislike semantic arguments but I'll pick this one up for a second. A profiteer is "makes or seeks to make an excessive or unfair profit" ... "by methods considered unethical". For example if you own shares in a military contracting company, you inflate fictional intelligence to start an unnecessary war, and you award your contracting company a no-bid contract in that war - that's profiteering, because those methods are considered unethical.
As far as I can tell Soros is not seeking profit unethically: he is legally purchasing stock on the open market. If Soros helps to start a war, encourages the spread of an existing war, or modulates his anti-war stance because he realizes that halting the war will dry up a Halliburton revenue stream then he will be profiteering.