SOROS: Devil or Angel?

I was gonna write about my liking to the Brits’ greasy spoon caffs (and how splendid they are conventionally as per my judgment) but since I ought to stumble upon "the man who broke the Bank of England (BoE)" on Black Wednesday back in 1992 (16th September) during my research for an anti-globalist paper, I may as well opt to devote this entry to evoke George Soros. Although I've heard a lot about the guy, I never really put pieces of his info together thus here I am endeavouring to do so.

Long story short, Soros was born in the 1930s in Budapest. He is a Jewish, billionaire financier, financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist/ altruist, liberal political activist and philosopher. His institute and foundations aim to provide funds and aid to transitional and emerging nations around the world. His major interest is apparently in philosophy, largely influenced by Karl Popper (whom he studied under during his years at the London School of Economics and Political Science – LSE). He is also an infamous author with tons of honoured doctoral degrees from universities globally (well, in finance mainly), popularised several concepts of disequilibrium and reflexivity (social theory: observing or investigating the behaviour of oneself and often others, simultaneously).

He became instantly renowned when he sold short more than US$10bn worth of British pounds (and bought German marks), profiting from the BoE’s reluctance to either raise interest rates to levels comparable to ERM (of the EMS) or to float the currency. Ultimately the BoE was forced to withdraw the pound sterling out of the ERM and devalue it, which as a result Soros earned an estimated US$1bn worth of pounds in the process. Beyond that, he was also accused to be personally responsible for financial collapses in Eastern Europe and SE Asia, where he stated “As a market participant, I don’t need to be concerned with the consequences of my financial actions.”

Gosh, how unethical is that. Not illegally wrong, of course, but resembling acts such as when wealthy businessman/ politician attempted to evade taxes akin to the current Thai PM’s condemnation – EVIL!! ...Despite the fact that he is an active philanthropist, Soros’ funds (esp. hedge funds like the Quantum Group of Funds) are extremely controversial and operated in such suspicious ways e.g. applying pressure on currencies to make profits out of speculative strategies. Shady and very devious indeed.

Anyhow, he is indubitably not an anti-globalist since the market fundamentalism has helped him gaining most of his fortune (currently net worth of nearly US$11bn) but he opposes many aspects of globalisation that undermines healthy economic development in less-developed economies. He believes in a mixed economy, where there is a strong central international government to correct for the excesses of self-interest. He somehow manages to draw a distinction between being a market participant (to advance his own self interest economically = wealth creation) and working to change the rules that those participants must follow (lobbying for a drastic overhaul of the feeble global financial system). He pointed out in his “George Soros on Globalization” book (2002) that the globalisation of markets without a corresponding strengthening of international political and social arrangements (interventions) has led to a very lopsided social development.


Is he playing good cop/ bad cop roles all by himself? Or he is just trying to impersonate "Robin Hood," reckoning he would steal from the rich (say, countries' foreign reserves) to give to the poor (in forms of aid and fellowships)?