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George Soros HonFBA (born György Schwartz on August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist. [7] [8] As of October 2023 [update] , he had a net worth of US$6.7 billion, [9] [10] having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations , [11] of which $15 billion has already been ...
- Tivadar Soros (father)
- Paul Soros (brother)
- Overview
- Early life
- Financial career
- Philanthropy and political activism
George Soros (born August 12, 1930, Budapest, Hungary) Hungarian-born American financier, author, philanthropist, and activist whose success as an investor made him one of the wealthiest men in the world. He was also known as a powerful and influential supporter of liberal social causes.
Soros, who was born into a prosperous Jewish family, had his upbringing disrupted by the Nazis’ arrival in Hungary in 1944. The family split up and used false papers to avoid being sent to concentration camps. In 1947 they moved to London. Soros studied philosophy under Karl Popper at the London School of Economics, but he abandoned his plans to be...
In 1973 Soros established the Soros Fund (later Quantum Endowment Fund), a hedge fund that subsequently spawned a range of associated companies. His daring investment decisions caused the funds to grow rapidly, but not all his gambles succeeded. He correctly foresaw the worldwide stock market crash of October 1987—but wrongly predicted that Japanese stocks would fall hardest of all.
Soros’s status as an almost mythical financier was established in September 1992 when the British government devalued the pound sterling. Through his Quantum group of companies, Soros had sold billions of pounds during the days preceding devaluation, much of it purchased with borrowed money. Afterward Soros bought back pounds, repaid the money he had borrowed, and made a profit of about $1 billion. Others also profited from the pound’s fall, but the scale of Soros’s operations dwarfed those of everyone else, and the gambit earned him the nickname “the man who broke the Bank of England.” In 1994, however, his instincts appeared to fail him—at least temporarily—as he speculated that the dollar would rise in value against the Japanese yen. Instead, the dollar fell all year, and the Quantum Fund reportedly lost hundreds of millions on a single day in February.
In 1984 Soros used some of his profits to create the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic organization that included a network of foundations. Much of the initial work focused on eastern Europe—starting with Hungary, where he awarded scholarships, provided technical assistance, and helped modernize schools and businesses. Even though Hungary was still a communist state, Soros obtained guarantees that his foundation could operate without government interference.
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As the Cold War ended and the Soviet regime collapsed, Soros established foundations in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, and Yugoslavia. Some critics argued that he was being inconsistent—condemning “short-termism” in Western governments while making money from short-term currency speculation. However, he continued to spend significant sums to help establish democracy in eastern Europe and elsewhere. In the early 21st century Open Society Foundations was active in more than 70 countries. In 2017 it was reported that Soros had given some $18 billion to the organization in recent years, making it one of the world’s largest philanthropic groups.
Soros was also involved in political activism and other philanthropic efforts. In 2003 he provided start-up funding for the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, and he pledged millions of dollars to groups such as MoveOn.org to oppose the reelection of Pres. George W. Bush, a Republican, in 2004. He later was a prominent supporter of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, and he donated to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and to Joe Biden in 2020. In 2010 Soros gave $100 million to the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch. With his support of Democrats and liberal causes, Soros frequently drew criticism from Republicans and conservatives, and he was often the focus of unfounded conspiracy theories.
Soros wrote several books, including The Alchemy of Finance (1987), The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered (1998), and The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means (2008). He was the subject of the documentary Soros (2019).
Jan 4, 2024 · George Soros is a legendary hedge fund manager who is widely considered one of the most successful investors of all time. Soros managed the Quantum Fund, a fund that achieved an average annual...
Sep 6, 2019 · 6 September 2019. Getty Images. He's a Jewish multi-billionaire philanthropist who has given away $32bn. Why does the hard right from America to Australia and from Hungary to Honduras believe...
Apr 2, 2014 · Who Is George Soros? Investor and philanthropist George Soros survived Nazi occupation followed by Communist-rule in Hungary in the mid-1940s and emigrated to London. There he studied...
Apr 17, 2024 · George Soros Hungarian-born American financier, author, philanthropist, and activist whose success as an investor made him one of the wealthiest men in the world. He was also known as a powerful and influential supporter of liberal social causes. Soros, who was born into a prosperous Jewish family,
George Soros - Open Society Foundations. Founder. Under George Soros’s leadership, the Open Society Foundations support individuals and organizations across the globe fighting for freedom of expression, accountable government, and societies that promote justice and equality. 2:11. Personal History.
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