George Soros is a Hungarian-born American investor, author, left-of-center political donor, and philanthropist. Outside of his political giving and advocacy, he is best known for a set of currency trades that earned him the moniker “the man who broke the Bank of England.”811
Soros is one of the United States’ top political and advocacy donors, spending billions on campaigns, think tanks, start-ups, and nonprofits that promote his agenda. His principal philanthropic network centers on the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS), two multi-billion-dollar left-of-center advocacy grantmaking foundations. Through OSF and FPOS Soros has funded the vast majority of the most prominent left-progressive advocacy groups in the United States.8 While raising a Jewish family in hostile land, Tivadar’s survival skills were passed on to George Soros while he was a teenager.8 Soros says his father’s finest moment was printing false identity documents for Jewish family and friends during the Nazi occupation – free for those who could not afford it, and exorbitant pricing for those who could.18
After Hungary
After escaping Hungary, Soros moved to England to attend the London School of Economics in 1947.8 According to the New York Times, Soros decided to move to New York after a “lackluster” decade in London, and was ultimately hired by an investment firm. 8 Subsequently, Soros took three years off to write a book about his philosophical theories, which he felt would eventually give him an edge in the market. 8
In failed efforts to test his theories, Soros grew increasingly detached from the market, gave up on the book, and decided not to publish it. 11
Druckenmiller engineered a plan to “short” the British pound in 1992 when (together with Soros), he “broke the Bank of England.”25 Soros invested $10 billion in the operation, netting his Quantum Fund a $1 billion profit.28
Global Financial Crises
By the year 2000, Soros had been accused by some of causing financial crises in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and Russia.11 In a 1998 interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Soros said of his investment activities, “I am actually trying to do the right thing, but sometimes what I do, it has negative unintended negative consequence, as it did in Russia.”11 According to Soros, his theory of reflexivity focuses on “the gap between perception and reality,” which he claims to have “explored and exploited.”28
By the time of its closing, Soros’ Quantum Fund generated a yearly average return for investors of 30 percent.74 Soros says he was drawn to Karl Popper’s term “open societies”— societies wherein free exchange of ideas is allowed— after experiencing totalitarian oppression by both Hitler’s Germany and Soviet Russia in World War II-era and early Cold War-era Budapest, Hungary.74 Also writing, “Sentiment is likely to swing in one direction or the other.”74
In a 2009 lecture on capitalism’s relationship with open societies, Mr. Soros said, “The market mechanism may be flawed but the political process is even more so.”75 He has concluded that “Temporary solutions are much better than none at all.”75
Soros has argued that improperly regulated credit lies at the root of economic instability, saying, “Whether stock markets would prove inherently unstable if there were no credit involved remains an open question, because stock-market booms are always associated with credit expansion.”76 He concluded, “Excessive instability can be prevented only by some sort of regulation”.76 Soros supported the Occupy Wall Street movement because he was not happy with the bank bailouts during the economic crisis of 2009.77 He said he participated by “Establishing a network of foundations throughout the communist world.”77 Soros has said that the Western economic system of what he calls “international capitalism” will also collapse, however, because, “International capitalism in its present form has proven itself inherently unstable because it lacks adequate regulation.”POLITICO. November 14, 2016. Accessed December 01, 2016. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/democrats-soros-trump-231313.