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George Soros

 
George Soros

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George Soros



 
 
George Soros ( or , Hungarian ) (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest
Budapest

Budapest is the Capitals of Hungary of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commerce, Industry, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe....
, Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
, as György Schwartz) is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 currency
Currency

A currency is a Medium of exchange, facilitating the trade of goods and/or Service s. It is coins and paper bills used as money. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value....
  speculator
Speculation

Speculation is the assumption of the risk of loss, in return for the uncertain possibility of a reward. Only if one may safely say that a particular position involves no risk may one say, strictly speaking, that such a position represents an "investment." Financial speculation involves the trade, and short-selling of stocks, bond , commodity...
, stock investor, businessman, philanthropist
Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable organization....
, and political activist
Activism

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social change or politics change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversy argument....
.

Soros is estimated to be worth around $9.0 billion in net worth; he is ranked by Forbes
Forbes

Forbes is an United States publishing and mass media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published bi-weekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune , which is also published bi-weekly, and Business Week....
 as the 101st-richest person in the world.

Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management
Soros Fund Management

Soros Fund Management LLC, founded by George Soros, is a privately held corporation providing financial services and investment strategies for various funds including some controversial hedge funds such as the Quantum Group of Funds....
 and the Open Society Institute
Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute , a private operating and Grant foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democracy governance, human rights, and Economic reform, legal, and social reform....
 and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonpartisan foreign policy membership organization founded in 1921 and based at 58 East 68th Street in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C....
.






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Quotations


A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.

I think he's a man of good intentions. I don't doubt it. But I think he's leading us in the wrong direction.

Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman.

I give away something up to $500 million a year throughout the world promoting Open Society. My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it. But I can empower them. I can support them, and I can help them.

I'm not doing my philanthropic work, out of any kind of guilt, or any need to create good public relations. I'm doing it because I can afford to do it, and I believe in it.

The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.






Encyclopedia


George Soros ( or , Hungarian ) (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest
Budapest

Budapest is the Capitals of Hungary of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commerce, Industry, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe....
, Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
, as György Schwartz) is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 currency
Currency

A currency is a Medium of exchange, facilitating the trade of goods and/or Service s. It is coins and paper bills used as money. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value....
  speculator
Speculation

Speculation is the assumption of the risk of loss, in return for the uncertain possibility of a reward. Only if one may safely say that a particular position involves no risk may one say, strictly speaking, that such a position represents an "investment." Financial speculation involves the trade, and short-selling of stocks, bond , commodity...
, stock investor, businessman, philanthropist
Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable organization....
, and political activist
Activism

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social change or politics change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversy argument....
.

Soros is estimated to be worth around $9.0 billion in net worth; he is ranked by Forbes
Forbes

Forbes is an United States publishing and mass media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published bi-weekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune , which is also published bi-weekly, and Business Week....
 as the 101st-richest person in the world.

Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management
Soros Fund Management

Soros Fund Management LLC, founded by George Soros, is a privately held corporation providing financial services and investment strategies for various funds including some controversial hedge funds such as the Quantum Group of Funds....
 and the Open Society Institute
Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute , a private operating and Grant foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democracy governance, human rights, and Economic reform, legal, and social reform....
 and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonpartisan foreign policy membership organization founded in 1921 and based at 58 East 68th Street in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C....
. He is also one of three initial funders of Center for American Progress
Center for American Progress

The Center for American Progress is a Modern liberalism in the United States political policy think tank and advocacy organization. Its website describes it as "......
, and is represented on the board. His funding and organization of Georgia
Georgia (country)

Georgia is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest....
's Rose Revolution
Rose Revolution

The "Revolution of Roses" was a bloodless revolution in the country of Georgia in 2003 that displaced President Eduard Shevardnadze....
 was considered by Russian and Western
Western world

The term Western world, the West or the Occident can have multiple meanings dependent on its context . Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances....
 observers to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role has been greatly exaggerated. In the United States, he is known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush
George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
's bid for re-election in 2004.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker
Paul Volcker

Paul Adolph Volcker is an American economist. He was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve under President of the United Statess Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan ....
 wrote in 2003 in the foreword of Soros' book The Alchemy of Finance:
George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. The bulk of his enormous winnings is now devoted to encouraging transitional and emerging nation
Emerging nation

Emerging nation is the term given to a large number of newly independent African, Middle Eastern, and Asian nations in the 1960s. These were on the whole Socialism and were supported in varying degrees by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China....
s to become 'open societies,' open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but—more important—tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.


Biography


Family

George Soros, is the son of the Esperantist
Esperanto

is the most widely spoken constructed language international auxiliary language in the world. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L....
 writer Tivadar Soros. Tivadar (also known as Teodoro) was a Hungarian Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
, who was a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict....
 during and after World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
 and eventually escaped from Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 to rejoin his family in Budapest
Budapest

Budapest is the Capitals of Hungary of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commerce, Industry, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe....
.

The family changed its name in 1936 from Schwartz to Soros, in response to growing anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews.This prejudice or hostility is usually characterized by a combination of Religion, Race , cultural and ethnic group biases....
 with the rise of Fascism
Fascism

Fascism is a Political radicalism, Authoritarianism Nationalism ideology that aims to create a single-party state with a government led by a dictator who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or Race ....
. Tivadar liked the new name because it is a palindrome
Palindrome

A palindrome is a word, phrase, palindromic number or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction . Composing literature in palindromes is an example of constrained writing....
 and because it has a meaning. Although the specific meaning is left unstated in Kaufmann's biography, in Hungarian
Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic languages unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries....
, soros means "next in line, or designated successor", and in Esperanto, it means "will soar". His son George was taught to speak Esperanto from birth and thus is one of the rare native Esperanto speakers
Native Esperanto speakers

Native Esperanto speakers are born into families in which Esperanto is spoken. Often one or both parents choose to use Esperanto as the main language in communicating with the children, who thus acquire the language in the way that other children acquire their native languages, so that their first word as an infant may be "Panjo" or "Pacjo"...
. George Soros later said that he grew up in a Jewish home, and that his parents were cautious with their religious roots. However, Soros's father was proud of his Jewish roots (which can be seen in his memoir on his experiences during the holocaust, Masquerade).

George Soros has been married and divorced twice, to Annaliese Witschak, and to Susan Weber Soros
Susan Weber Soros

Susan Weber Soros is the founder and director of the Bard Graduate Center for studies in the decorative arts, design, and culture in New York City....
. He has five children: Robert, Andrea, Jonathan (with his first wife, Annaliese); Alexander, Gregory (with his second wife, Susan). His elder brother Paul Soros, an engineer, is a well-known philanthropist, investor, and New York socialite.

Native Hungary, and move to England


Soros was thirteen years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany took military control over Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
. Soros worked for the Jewish Council for two days, which had been established during the Nazi occupation of Hungary to forcibly carry out Nazi and Hungarian government anti-Jewish measures. Soros later described this time to writer Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis may refer to:*Michael Lewis , American recording artist*Michael Lewis , American non-fiction author*Michael Lewis , British naval historian...
:
The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper...It said report to the rabbi seminary at 9 a.m....And I was given this list of names. I took this piece of paper to my father. He instantly recognized it. This was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, "You deliver the slips of paper and tell the people that if they report they will be deported.


To avoid his son's being apprehended by the Nazis, Soros's father paid a Ministry of Agriculture employee to have Soros spend the summer of 1944 living with him and posing as the godson. Young Soros had to hide his Jewishness even as the official was overseeing the confiscation of Jewish property.

In the following year, Soros survived the battle of Budapest
Battle of Budapest

The Siege of Budapest was a siege of the Hungarian capital city of Budapest, fought towards the end of World War II in Europe, during the Soviet Union Budapest Offensive....
 in which Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
, German and Hungarian forces fought house-to-house through the city. Soros first traded currencies
Currency

A currency is a Medium of exchange, facilitating the trade of goods and/or Service s. It is coins and paper bills used as money. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value....
 during the Hungarian hyperinflation
Hyperinflation

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00104, Inflation, Tapezieren mit Geldscheinen.jpgIn economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or "out of control", a condition in which prices increase rapidly as a currency loses its value....
 of 1945–1946.

Soros emigrated to England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 in 1947 and graduated from the London School of Economics
London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the University of London in London, England....
 in 1952. While a student of the philosopher Karl Popper
Karl Popper

Knight Bachelor Karl Raimund Popper Order of the Companions of Honour, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the British Academy was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics....
, Soros funded himself by taking jobs as a railway porter and a waiter at Quaglino's restaurant where he was told that with hard work he might one day become head waiter. He eventually secured an entry-level position with London merchant bank Singer & Friedlander.

Move to the United States

In 1956 he moved to New York City, where he worked as an arbitrage
Arbitrage

In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices....
 trader with F. M. Mayer from 1956 to 1959 and as an analyst with Wertheim and Company from 1959 to 1963. Throughout this time, Soros developed a philosophy of "reflexivity
Reflexivity (social theory)

In sociology, reflexivity is an act of self-reference where examination or action 'bends back on', refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination....
" based on the ideas of Karl Popper
Karl Popper

Knight Bachelor Karl Raimund Popper Order of the Companions of Honour, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the British Academy was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics....
. Reflexivity, as used by Soros, is the belief that the action of beholding the valuation of any market by its participants, affects said valuation of the market in a procyclical 'virtuous or vicious' circle.

Soros realized, however, that he would not make any money from the concept of reflexivity until he went into investing on his own. He began to investigate how to deal in investments. From 1963 to 1973 he worked at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, where he attained the position of vice-president. Soros finally concluded that he was a better investor than he was a philosopher or an executive. In 1967 he persuaded the company to set up an offshore investment fund, First Eagle, for him to run; in 1969 the company founded a second fund for Soros, the Double Eagle hedge fund
Hedge fund

A hedge fund is an investment fund open to a limited range of investors that is permitted by regulators to undertake a wider range of activities than other investment funds and also pays a performance fee to its investment management....
.

When investment regulations restricted his ability to run the funds as he wished, he quit his position in 1973 and established a private investment company that eventually evolved into the Quantum Fund. He has stated that his intent was to earn enough money on Wall Street
Wall Street

Wall Street is a street in lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It runs east from Broadway to South Street on the East River, through the historical center of the Financial District, Manhattan....
 to support himself as an author and philosopher - he calculated that $500,000 after five years would be possible and adequate.

He is also a former member of the Carlyle Group
Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group is a global private equity investment firm, based in Washington, D.C., with more than $91.5 billion of equity capital under management....
.

Business


Soros is the founder of Soros Fund Management
Soros Fund Management

Soros Fund Management LLC, founded by George Soros, is a privately held corporation providing financial services and investment strategies for various funds including some controversial hedge funds such as the Quantum Group of Funds....
. In 1970 he co-founded the Quantum Fund with Jim Rogers
Jim Rogers

For other uses, see: James Rogers .James Beeland Rogers, Jr. is an United States investor and financial commentator. He is co-founder, along with George Soros, of the Quantum Fund, and is a college professor, author, world traveler, economic commentator, and creator of the Rogers International Commodity Index....
, which created the bulk of the Soros fortune. Rogers retired from the fund in 1980. Other partners have included Victor Niederhoffer
Victor Niederhoffer

Victor Niederhoffer , is a hedge fund manager, champion Squash player, best selling author and statistics.He studied statistics and economics at Harvard University and the University of Chicago ....
 and Stanley Druckenmiller
Stanley Druckenmiller

Stanley Druckenmiller formerly managed money for George Soros, and now dedicates himself to work full time at Duquesne Capital which he founded in 1981....
.

In late 2006, Soros bought about 2 million shares of Halliburton
Halliburton

Halliburton is a US-based oilfield services corporation with international operations in more than 70 countries.It is based in 1401 McKinney Street in Downtown Houston Houston, Texas, Texas, in the United States....
.

In 2007, the Quantum Fund returned almost 32%, netting Soros $2.9 billion.

Currency speculation

On Black Wednesday
Black Wednesday

In United Kingdom politics and economics, Black Wednesday refers to the events of 16 September 1992 when the Conservative Party Her Majesty's Government was forced to withdraw the Pound Sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism after they were unable to keep Sterling above its agreed lower limit....
 (September 16, 1992), Soros became immediately famous when he sold short
Short selling

In finance, short selling or "shorting" is the practice of selling a financial instrument that the seller does not own at the time of the sale....
 more than $10 billion worth of pounds, profiting from the Bank of England
Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and is the model on which most modern, large central banks have been based. Since 1946 it has been a Nationalisation institution....
's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism
European Exchange Rate Mechanism

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism, ERM, was a system introduced by the European Community in March 1979, as part of the European Monetary System , to reduce exchange rate variability and achieve monetary stability in Europe, in preparation for Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union and the introduction of a currency union,...
 countries or to float
Floating exchange rate

A floating exchange rate or a flexible exchange rate is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is allowed to fluctuate according to the foreign exchange market....
 its currency.

Finally, the Bank of England was forced to withdraw the currency from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and to devalue the pound sterling
Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
, and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England."

The Times of Monday, October 26, 1992, quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont
Norman Lamont

Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a former Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Kingston-upon-Thames , England....
 said just before the devaluation
Devaluation

Devaluation is a reduction in the value of a currency with respect to other monetary units. In common modern usage, it specifically implies an official lowering of the value of a country's currency within a fixed exchange rate system, by which the monetary authority formally sets a new fixed rate with respect to a foreign reference currency....
 that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell."

According to Steven Drobny, Stanley Druckenmiller
Stanley Druckenmiller

Stanley Druckenmiller formerly managed money for George Soros, and now dedicates himself to work full time at Duquesne Capital which he founded in 1981....
, who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound. "Soros' contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position," in accord with Druckenmiller's own research and instincts.

In 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad
Mahathir bin Mohamad

Malay titles#Tun Doctor Mahathir bin Mohamad was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making him Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister, and one of the longest-serving leaders in Asia....
 accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish ASEAN for welcoming Myanmar
Myanmar

Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia, or Indochina. The country is bordered by the People's Republic of China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, and the Bay of Bengal to the southwest with...
 as a member.

Public predictions

Soros' 2008 book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets, describes a "superbubble" that has built up over the past 25 years and is now ready to collapse. This is the third in a series of books he's written that have predicted disaster. As he states:

He ascribes his own success to being able to recognize when his predictions are wrong.

George Soros said the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis. We witnessed the collapse of the financial system[...]It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom.

Insider trading conviction

In 1988, he was asked to join a takeover
Takeover

In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company by another . In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the mergers and acquisitions of a private company....
 attempt of the French bank Société Générale
Société Générale

Soci?t? G?n?rale is one of the main European financial services companies and also maintains extensive activities in others parts of the world....
. He declined to participate in the bid but did later buy a number of shares in the company. French authorities began an investigation in 1989, and in 2002 a French court ruled that it was insider trading
Insider trading

Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other security by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company....
, a felony conviction as defined under French securities laws and fined him $2.3 million, which was the amount that he made using the insider information.

Punitive damages were not sought because of the delay in bringing the case to trial. Soros denied any wrongdoing and said news of the takeover was public knowledge.

His insider trading conviction was upheld by the highest court in France on June 14 2006. In December, 2006 he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg was established under the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 to monitor compliance by Contracting Parties....
, claiming that the 14-year delay in bringing the case to trial precluded a fair hearing.

Sports

In 2005, Soros joined a group of investors seeking to buy the Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball based in Washington, D.C., United States. The Nationals are a member of the National League East of Major League Baseball's National League....
 of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1903 ....
's National League
National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest existent professional team sports league....
. Although he was only a minority partner, some Republican lawmakers suggested that they might tamper with baseball's antitrust exemption if Soros had any interest at all in any baseball team, including the Nationals. Ultimately, real estate magnate Ted Lerner
Ted Lerner

The Lerner Family is a Washington, DC family of real estate developers. They are the children and family of Theodore Lerner, a Jewish entrepeneur....
 was selected as the new owner, though baseball stressed that political pressure was not a factor. In 2008, Soros' name was associated with AS Roma, an Italian soccer team. Some speculated that he had bought the club from the Sensi family
Franco Sensi

Francesco Sensi, Italian orders of merit, , was an Italy Petroleum tycoon. He was born in Rome, where he lived throughout his entire life, and he's been mayor of Visso, the city where his family came from....
. However, despite offers by the American businessman, the club was not sold.

Soros was also the main financial backer of Washington Soccer L.P., the group that owned the operating rights to Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer is the top-flight professional soccer league based in the United States, overseen by the United States Soccer Federation. The league is comprised of 15 teams, 14 in the U.S....
 club D.C. United
D.C. United

DC United is a professional association football club located in Washington, DC that participates in Major League Soccer, the United States' top-tier soccer league....
 when the league was founded in 1995. He divested himself of United in 2000.

Philanthropy


George Soros Billington
Soros has been active as a philanthropist since the 1970s, when he began providing funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town

The University of Cape Town , is a public university located on the Cecil Rhodes Estate on the slopes of Devil's Peak , in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa....
 in apartheid South Africa
South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
, and began funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain
Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain was the symbolic, ideological, and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991....
.

Soros' philanthropic funding includes efforts to promote non-violent democratization
Democratization

Democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarianism regime to a full democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system....
 in the post-Soviet states
Post-Soviet states

The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent state that split off from the Soviet Union in its collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991....
. These efforts, mostly in Central
Central Europe

Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern Europe and Western Europe Europe. In addition, Northern Europe, Southern Europe and Southeastern Europe may variously delimit or overlap into Central Europe....
 and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
, occur primarily through the Open Society Institute
Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute , a private operating and Grant foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democracy governance, human rights, and Economic reform, legal, and social reform....
 (OSI) and national Soros Foundation
Soros Foundation

A Soros Foundation is one of a network of national foundation s, mostly in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, which fund volunteer socio-political activity, created by George Soros, international financier and self-proclaimed philanthropist, and coordinated since early 1994 by a management team called the Open Society Institute....
s, which sometimes go under other names (such as the Stefan Batory Foundation
Stefan Batory Foundation

The Stefan Batory Foundation is the name of the national Soros Foundation in Poland. It was named after Stephen B?thory of Poland, the 16th-century King of Poland....
 in Poland
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
). As of 2003, PBS estimated that he had given away a total of $4 billion. The OSI says it has spent about $400 million annually in recent years.

Time
Time (magazine)

Time is a weekly United States newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. A European edition is published from London....
 magazine in 2007 cited two specific projects - $100 million toward Internet
Internet

The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information along multiple channels. Typically, a computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast array of available server and other computers by moving information from them to the computer's local memory....
 infrastructure for regional Russian universities
List of institutions of higher learning in Russia

The following is a list of university and other higher educational institutions in Russia:...
; and $50 million for the Millennium Promise
Millennium Promise

Millennium Promise is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2025. Its flagship initiative, Millennium Villages, is an integrated, community-driven strategy meant to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and provide communities with the basic tools and necessities to put themselves on the path toward self-sustain...
 to eradicate extreme poverty in Africa - while noting that Soros has given $742 million to projects in the U.S., and given away a total of more than $6 billion.

Other notable projects have included aid to scientists and universities throughout Central and Eastern Europe, help to civilians during the siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo

The Siege of Sarajevo was one of the longest sieges in the history of modern warfare conducted by the Serb forces of self-proclaimed Republika Srpska and Yugoslav People's Army , lasting from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996....
, and Transparency International
Transparency International

Transparency International is an international non-governmental organization addressing corruption. This includes, but is not limited to, political corruption....
. Soros also pledged an endowment of €420 million to the Central European University
Central European University

Central European University is a United States- and Hungary-licensed and accredited university based in Budapest, Hungary.Concentrating on the social sciences and humanities, the university pursues a mission of achieving excellence in teaching, research and policy in order to become a change-maker in the region and beyond....
 (CEU). The Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will , the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for :wikt:fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the h...
 winner Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He previously was a professor of economics where he developed the concept of microcredit....
 and his microfinance
Microfinance

Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to poverty or low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. The term also refers to the practice of sustainable delivering those services....
 bank Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral ....
 received support from the OSI.

According to National Review
National Review

National Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City....
 the Open Society Institute gave $20,000 in September 2002 to the Defense Committee of Lynne Stewart
Lynne Stewart

Lynne F. Stewart is an United States Radicalization activist. As an Lawyer she represented controversial, radical and often unpopular defendants, including black nationalists, members of the Weatherman , Mafia figures, and convicted terrorists....
, the lawyer who has defended alleged terrorists in court and was sentenced to 2? years in prison for "providing material support for a terrorist conspiracy" via a press conference for a client. An OSI spokeswoman said "it appeared to us at that time that there was a right-to-counsel issue worthy of our support."

In September 2006, Soros departed from his characteristic sponsorship of democracy building programs, pledging $50 million to the Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey David Sachs is an United States economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's Columbia Mailman School of Public Health....
-led Millennium Promise
Millennium Promise

Millennium Promise is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2025. Its flagship initiative, Millennium Villages, is an integrated, community-driven strategy meant to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and provide communities with the basic tools and necessities to put themselves on the path toward self-sustain...
 to help eradicate extreme poverty in Africa. Noting the connection between bad governance and poverty, he remarked on the humanitarian value of the project.

He received honorary doctoral degrees from the New School for Social Research (New York), the University of Oxford
University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
 in 1980, the Corvinus University of Budapest
Corvinus University of Budapest

The Corvinus University of Budapest is a university located in Budapest, Hungary. The university offers degrees in multiple disciplines, but it is characterised by its programmes in economics and management....
, and Yale University
Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League....
 in 1991. Soros also received the Yale International Center for Finance Award from the Yale School of Management
Yale School of Management

The Yale School of Management is the graduate business school of Yale University and is located on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, Connecticut, United States....
 in 2000 as well as the Laurea Honoris Causa, the highest honor of the University of Bologna
University of Bologna

The University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating degree-granting university in the world:, the word 'university' being first used by this institution at its foundation....
 in 1995.

Political donations and activism


In an interview with The Washington Post
The Washington Post

The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C., United States and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877....
 on November 11, 2003, Soros said that removing President George W. Bush
George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
 from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death." He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, "if someone guaranteed it," and many continue to state this as Soros's position even after Soros clarified the statement in a Q&A session at the end of his March 3, 2004 address to California's Commonwealth Club
Commonwealth Club

The Commonwealth Club may refer to:*Commonwealth Club of California, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, is America's oldest public affairs forum, which are often broadcast on National Public Radio...
.

Soros gave $3 million to the Center for American Progress
Center for American Progress

The Center for American Progress is a Modern liberalism in the United States political policy think tank and advocacy organization. Its website describes it as "......
, committed $5 million to MoveOn
MoveOn

MoveOn is an American non-profit progressive, Modern liberalism in the United States public policy interest group and political action committee which has raised millions of dollars for candidates of the Democratic Party in the United States....
, while he and his friend Peter Lewis
Peter Lewis

Peter B. Lewis is the Cleveland, Ohio-area based chairman of Progressive Corporation.Lewis currently resides in Coconut Grove, Florida....
 each gave America Coming Together
America Coming Together

America Coming Together was a Liberalism, political action, 527 group dedicated to get out the vote activities. ACT did not specifically endorse any political party, but mostly worked on behalf of Democratic Party candidates....
 $10 million. (All were groups that worked to support Democrats in the 2004 election.) On September 28, 2004 he dedicated more money to the campaign and kicked off his own multi-state tour with a speech: Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bush delivered at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The online transcript to this speech received many hits after Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the George W....
 accidentally referred to FactCheck.org
FactCheck

FactCheck.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan website that describes its own goal as "[reducing] the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." It is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania, and is funded primarily by the...
 as "factcheck.com" in the Vice Presidential debate, causing the owner of that domain to redirect all traffic to Soros's site.

Soros was not a large donor to US political causes until the U.S. presidential election, 2004, but according to the Center for Responsive Politics, during the 2003-2004 election cycle, Soros donated $23,581,000 to various 527 Group
527 group

A 527 group is a type of American tax-exempt organization named after a section of the United States Internal Revenue Code, . A 527 group is created primarily to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office....
s dedicated to defeating President Bush. Despite Soros' efforts, Bush was reelected to a second term as president in U.S. presidential election, 2004.

After Bush's reelection in 2004, Soros and other wealthy liberal political donors backed a new political fundraising group called Democracy Alliance
Democracy Alliance

The Democracy Alliance is a donors collaborative established by a group of Liberalism political activists, labor unions and donors in the United States....
 which aims to support the goals of the U.S. Democratic Party.

Soros has been criticized for his large political donations, as he also pushed for the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the campaign finance....
 of 2002 which was intended to ban "soft money" contributions to federal election campaigns. While banning donations to the Democratic National Committee, no such restrictions exist on soft money donations to 527 organizations. (A 527 group is a type of American tax-exempt organization named after a section of the United States tax code, 26 U.S.C. § 527. A 527 group is created primarily to influence the nomination, election,appointment or defeat of candidates for public office.) Critics say this measure allowed Soros, in effect, to gain control over the Democratic party. Soros has responded that his donations to unaffiliated organizations do not raise the same corruption issues as donations directly to the candidates or political parties. They do, however, allow him to exert enormous control over the Democratic party.

In April 2008, Soros hosted an event in his apartment that had guests such as David Brock
David Brock

David Brock is an American journalist and author and the founder of Media Matters for America. He was a conservative journalist during the 1990s....
 of the self-described progressive watchdog group Media Matters
Media Matters

Media Matters can refer to:* Media Matters , media relations and PR firm in Kansas City, Missouri* Media Matters for America, media and information center founded by author David Brock...
 and liberal commentator Paul Begala
Paul Begala

Paul Begala is a political consulting, a political commentator, and a former advisor to President of the United States Bill Clinton. He gained national prominence as half of the political consulting team Carville and Begala....
. Brock described that the plan intends to raise $40 million to run political attack advertisements against the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain
John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior senator United States United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election....
, through a group called The Fund for America and Progressive Media, whose key backer, according to politico.com, is Soros. Commentator Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (commentator)

William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an United States presenter/radio personality, author, syndicated columnist and self-described "traditionalist" political commentator....
, who on numerous occasions has accused Soros of secretly backing what O'Reilly feels are "far-left" political causes, repeated Soros "wants to buy America" after learning about the event.

Activities in Eastern Europe

According to Neil Clark (writing in the New Statesman
New Statesman

The New Statesman is a United Kingdom left-wing politics magazine published weekly in London. The current editor is Jason Cowley, whose appointment was announced on 16 May 2008....
):

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Soros' funding has continued to play an important role in the former Soviet sphere. His funding and organization of Georgia's
Georgia (country)

Georgia is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest....
 Rose Revolution
Rose Revolution

The "Revolution of Roses" was a bloodless revolution in the country of Georgia in 2003 that displaced President Eduard Shevardnadze....
 was considered crucial to its success by Russian and Western observers, although Soros has said that his role has been "greatly exaggerated." Alexander Lomaia, Secretary of the Georgian Security Council and former Minister of Education and Science, is a former Executive Director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation (Soros Foundation
Soros Foundation

A Soros Foundation is one of a network of national foundation s, mostly in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, which fund volunteer socio-political activity, created by George Soros, international financier and self-proclaimed philanthropist, and coordinated since early 1994 by a management team called the Open Society Institute....
,) overseeing a staff of 50 and a budget of $2,500,000.

Former Georgian Foreign Minister Salomé Zourabichvili
Salome Zourabichvili

Salom? Zourabichvili is a Georgian people politician, former Foreign Minister of Georgia and a former diplomat in the French service....
 wrote:

Some Soros-backed initiatives have been banned in Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is a Turkic peoples country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic ....
 and Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
. Ercis Kurtulus, head of the Social Transparency Movement Association (TSHD) in Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
, said in an interview that "Soros carried out his will in Ukraine and Georgia by using these NGOs...Last year Russia passed a special law prohibiting NGOs from taking money from foreigners. I think this should be banned in Turkey as well." In 1997, Soros closed his foundation in Belarus
Belarus

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north....
 after it was fined $3 million by the government for tax and currency violations. Soros called the fines part of a campaign to "destroy independent society."

In Bulgaria, there is the .

Activities in Africa

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa is a Southern African organization which "collaborates with other organizations on issues surrounding the rule of law, democracy building, human rights, economic development, education, the media, and access to technology and information....
 is a Soros-affiliated organization. Its director for Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....
 is Godfrey Kanyenze, who also directs the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is the dominant central trade union federation in Zimbabwe. The general secretary of ZCTU is Wellington Chibebe and the president is Lovemore Matombo....
 (ZCTU), which was the main force behind the founding of the Movement for Democratic Change
Movement for Democratic Change

Movement for Democratic Change may refer to:* Movement for Democratic Change , a Zimbabwean political party that split in 2005* Movement for Democratic Change ? Tsvangirai, the larger current formation of the party...
, the principal indigenous organization promoting Regime change
Regime change

"Regime change" is the replacement of one regime with another. While it is widely believed that the term was first coined by former President of the United States Bill Clinton, use of the term dates to at least 1925....
 in Zimbabwe.

Drug policy reform

Soros has funded worldwide efforts to promote drug policy reform
Drug policy reform

Drug policy reform is a term used to describe proposed changes to the way most governments respond to the socio-cultural influence on perception of psychoactive substance use....
. In 2008, Soros donated $400,000 to help fund a successful ballot measure in the state of Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
 known as the Massachusetts Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative
Massachusetts Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative

The Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative, also known as Massachusetts Ballot Question 2, was an initiated state statute that replaced prior Criminal law penalties with new Civil law penalties on adults possessing an ounce or less of marijuana....
 which decriminalized possession of less than 1 oz (28g) of marijuana in the state. Soros has also funded similar measures in California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada and Maine. Among the drug decriminalization groups that have received funding from Soros are the Lindesmith Center
Lindesmith Center

The Lindesmith Center was an Open Society Institute project which has conducted research related to drug reform. It was founded in 1994 by Ethan Nadelmann with financial support from George Soros....
 and Drug Policy Foundation.

Soros donated $1.4 million to publicity efforts to support California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
's Proposition 5
California Proposition 5 (2008)

California Proposition 5, or the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act was an initiated state statute that appeared as a ballot measure on the November 2008 ballot in California....
 in 2008, a failed ballot measure that would have expanded drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation

Drug rehabilitation is an umbrella term for the processes of medical and/or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on Psychoactive drug such as alcoholic beverage, Medical prescription, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines....
 programs as alternatives to prison
Prison

A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or internment and usually deprived of a range of personal Freedom ....
 for persons convicted of non-violent drug-related offenses.

Death and dying

The Project on Death in America, active from 2001-2003, was one of the Open Society Institute's projects, which sought to "understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement." In 1994, Soros delivered a speech in which he reported that he offered to help his mother, a member of the Hemlock Society, commit suicide. In the same speech, he also endorsed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, the campaign for which he helped fund.

Philosophy


Education and beliefs

Soros has a keen interest in philosophy
Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, and has stated that he entered finance to be able to support himself as a philosopher. His philosophical outlook is influenced by Karl Popper
Karl Popper

Knight Bachelor Karl Raimund Popper Order of the Companions of Honour, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the British Academy was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics....
, under whom he studied at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the University of London in London, England....
 (LSE). His Open Society Institute is named after Popper's two volume work, The Open Society and Its Enemies
The Open Society and Its Enemies

The Open Society and Its Enemies, is an influential two-volume work by Karl Popper written during World War II. Failing to find a publisher in the United States, it was first printed in London, by Routledge, in 1945....
, and Soros's ongoing philosophical commitment to the principle of fallibilism
Fallibilism

Fallibilism is the philosophical doctrine that all claims of knowledge could, in principle, be mistaken. Some fallibilists go further, arguing that absolute certainty about knowledge is impossible....
 (that anything he believes may in fact be wrong, and is therefore to be questioned and improved) stems from Popper's philosophy. Soros does not consider himself religious.

Reflexivity, financial markets, and economic theory

Soros' writings focus heavily on the concept of reflexivity
Reflexivity (social theory)

In sociology, reflexivity is an act of self-reference where examination or action 'bends back on', refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination....
, where the biases of individuals enter into market transactions, potentially changing the fundamentals of the economy. Soros argues that such transitions in the fundamentals of the economy are typically marked by disequilibrium rather than equilibrium, and that the conventional economic theory of the market (the 'efficient market hypothesis
Efficient market hypothesis

In finance, the efficient-market hypothesis asserts that financial markets are "informationally efficient", or that prices on traded assets, e.g., stocks, bonds, or property, already reflect all known information....
') does not apply in these situations. Soros has popularized the concepts of dynamic disequilibrium, static disequilibrium, and near-equilibrium conditions.

Reflexivity is based on three main ideas:
  1. Reflexivity is best observed under special conditions where investor bias grows and spreads throughout the investment arena. Examples of factors that may give rise to this bias include (a) equity leveraging or (b) the trend-following habits of speculators.
  2. Reflexivity appears intermittently since it is most likely to be revealed under certain conditions; i.e., the equilibrium process's character is best considered in terms of probabilities.
  3. Investors' observation of and participation in the capital markets may at times influence valuations AND fundamental conditions or outcomes.


A current example of reflexivity in modern financial markets is that of the debt and equity of housing markets. Lenders began to make more money available to more people in the 1990s to buy houses. More people bought houses with this larger amount of money, thus increasing the prices of these houses. Lenders looked at their balance sheets which not only showed that they had made more loans, but that their equity backing the loans--the value of the houses, had gone up (because more money was chasing the same amount of housing, relatively). Thus they lent out more money because their balance sheets looked good, and prices went up more, and they lent more, etc. Prices increased rapidly, and lending standards were relaxed. The salient issue regarding reflexivity is that it explains why markets gyrate over time, and do not just stick to equilibrium--they tend to overshoot or undershoot.

View of potential problems in the free market system

Despite working as an investor and currency speculator, he argues that the current system of financial speculation undermines healthy economic development in many underdeveloped countries. Soros blames many of the world's problems on the failures inherent in what he characterizes as market fundamentalism
Market fundamentalism

Market fundamentalism is an expression used by critics of laissez-faire capitalism to denote an unjustified and exaggerated belief that free markets provide the greatest possible equity and prosperity , and that any interference with the market process decreases social well being....
. His opposition to many aspects of globalization has made him a controversial figure.

Victor Niederhoffer
Victor Niederhoffer

Victor Niederhoffer , is a hedge fund manager, champion Squash player, best selling author and statistics.He studied statistics and economics at Harvard University and the University of Chicago ....
 said of Soros: "Most of all, George believed even then in a mixed economy
Mixed economy

A mixed economy is an economic system that incorporates a mixture of private and government ownership or control, or a mixture of capitalism and socialism....
, one with a strong central international government to correct for the excesses of self-interest."

Soros claims to draw a distinction between being a participant in the market and working to change the rules that market participants must follow.

In an interview regarding the economic crisis of 2008, Soros referred to it as the most serious crisis since the 1930s. According to Soros, market fundamentalism with its assumption that markets will correct themselves with no need for government intervention in financial affairs has been “some kind of an ideological excess”. In Soros´ view, the markets´ moods — a “mood” of the markets being a prevailing bias or optimism/pessimism with which the markets look at reality — “actually can reinforce themselves so that there are these initially self-reinforcing but eventually unsustainable and self-defeating boom/bust sequences or bubbles”.

Views on antisemitism

At a Jewish forum in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, Soros partially attributed a recent resurgence of antisemitism to the policies of Israel and the United States, and to successful Jews such as himself:
There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon
Ariel Sharon

is a former Israeli Prime Minister of Israel and military leader. Sharon served as Prime Minister from March 2001 until April 2006, though he was unable to carry out his duties after suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006, when he fell into a coma and entered a persistent vegetative state....
 administration contribute to that. It's not specifically anti-Semitism, but it does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well. I'm critical of those policies... If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish. I can't see how one could confront it directly... I'm also very concerned about my own role because the new anti-Semitism holds that the Jews rule the world... As an unintended consequence
Unintended consequence

Unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the results originally intended in a particular situation. The unintended results may be foreseen or unforeseen, but they should be the logical or likely results of the action....
 of my actions... I also contribute to that image.
In a subsequent article for The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books

The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs published in New York City....
, Soros emphasized that
I do not subscribe to the myths propagated by enemies of Israel and I am not blaming Jews for anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism predates the birth of Israel. Neither Israel's policies nor the critics of those policies should be held responsible for anti-Semitism. At the same time, I do believe that attitudes toward Israel are influenced by Israel's policies, and attitudes toward the Jewish community are influenced by the pro-Israel lobby's success in suppressing divergent views.


Books


Authored or co-authored

  • The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means.
  • The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror (PublicAffairs, 2006) ISBN 1-58648-359-1
  • With MoveOn.org, MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004 ISBN 1-930722-29-X
  • The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power (PublicAffairs, 2003) ISBN 1-58643-217-3 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2004; ISBN 1-58648-292-0)
  • George Soros on Globalization (PublicAffairs, 2002) ISBN 1-58648-125-8 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2005; ISBN 1-52648-278-5)
  • Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism (PublicAffairs, 2001) ISBN 1-58648-039-7
  • With Mark Amadeus Notturno, Science and the Open Society: The Future of Karl Popper's Philosophy (Central European University Press, 2000) ISBN 963-9116-69-6 (paperback: Central European University Press, 2000; ISBN 943-9116-70-X)
  • The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered (PublicAffairs, 1998) ISBN 1-891220-27-4
  • Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve (John Wiley, 1995) ISBN 0-471-12014-6 (paperback; Wiley, 1995; ISBN 0-371-11977-6)
  • Underwriting Democracy: Encouraging Free Enterprise and Democratic Reform Among the Soviets and in Eastern Europe (Free Press, 1991) ISBN 0-02-930285-4 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2004; ISBN 1-58948-227-0)
  • Opening the Soviet System (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990) ISBN 0-297-82155-9 (paperback: Perseus Books, 1996; ISBN 0-8133-1205-1)
  • The Alchemy of Finance (Simon & Schuster, 1988) ISBN 0-671-66338-4 (paperback: Wiley, 2003; ISBN 0-471-44549-5)


Biographies

  • Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire by Michael T. Kaufman (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) ISBN 0-375-40585-2
  • Soros: The World's Most Influential Investor by Robert Slater (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2009) ISBN 978-0-07-160844-2
http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=0071608443

Journalism


Authored

  • George Soros, , New York Review of Books, April 12, 2007.
  • George Soros, , The Korea Herald, March 12, 2003.
  • George Soros, , Atlantic Monthly, December 2003.
  • George Soros, , audio recording of the Atlantic Monthly article via Assistive Media, read by Grover Gardner, 18 minutes.
  • George Soros , Financial Times, Aug 13, 2002.
  • George Soros, , Moskovsky Novosti (Moscow News), translated from the Russian by Olga Kryazheva, February 27, 2000.
  • George Soros, , Atlantic Monthly, February 1997


About

  • Stephen Adams on Citizen - Family Issues in Policy and Culture
  • John Authers, , "A successful prophet of the markets," Financial Times
    Financial Times

    The Financial Times is a United Kingdom international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and is printed at 24 sites....
    , May 19 2008.
  • Laura Blumenfeld, , MSNBC, November 11, 2003
  • Connie Bruck, , , January 23, 1995
  • Neil Clark from "New Statesman"
  • Malcolm Gladwell
    Malcolm Gladwell

    Malcolm Gladwell is a British-born Canadian journalist, author, and pop sociologist, based in New York City. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996....
    , "Blowing Up," New Yorker Magazine, April 22 & 29, 2002, at .
  • John Horvath
  • Matt Welch, Reason
    Reason (magazine)

    Reason is a libertarianism monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation.Reason was founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander as a more-or-less monthly Mimeograph machine publication....
     magazine, December 8, 2003
  • Martin Peretz
    Martin Peretz

    Martin H. Peretz, also known as Marty Peretz, , is an United States publisher. Formerly an Professor#Assistant professor at Harvard University, he purchased The New Republic in 1974 and took editorial control soon afterwards....
    , "Tyran-a-Soros: The Madness of King George," The New Republic
    The New Republic

    The New Republic is an United States magazine of politics and the arts. It is published semimonthly and has a circulation of approximately 60,000....
    , February 12, 2007.
  • . Accessed May 21, 2007.
  • accessed May 21, 2007.


Scholarly perspectives



Speeches



Commentaries

  • for Project Syndicate
    Project Syndicate

    Project Syndicate is an international not-for-profit Print syndication and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesman, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and encourages networking among its members....


Interviews

  • Video and text, accessed May 25, 2007.


External links

  • from The New York Review of Books