Table Of ContentPRAISE FOR SOROS
“This well-written book on Soros’s remarkable career is a must-read.
It provides powerful and valuable insights into Soros the investor, philoso-
pher, philathropist, political activist, policy advisor, and, most important,
the tireless innovator who always seeks to make a difference.”
—Mohamed A. El-Erian, co-CEO and co-CIO, PIMCO, and #1 best-
selling author of When Markets Collide
“He who would be great need contemplate the masters. Investors who
want to thrive in today’s volatile markets need to explore the psyches of
the world’s greatest investors. Dine with them frequently if you can. If you
can’t, the next best thing is to read Soros by Robert Slater. When the
market crashes all around you, grab this book, find a quiet spot to curl up,
take a deep breath, and see chaos give way to lucidity, and loss to gain.”
—Robert E. Wright, curator for the Museum of American Finance, and
author of One Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of
What We Owe
“The concepts George Soros advances are ones that have to be read and
thought about. Slater nails it perfectly and captures the Soros character.
Anyone serious about business, finance, and the future needs to read
this book.”
—Robert Dilenschneider, founder of The Dilenschneider Group, and
author of Power and Influence
“Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and George Soros—the
great Jedi master of risk-taking. In his compelling, lucid, engaging,
straightforward, and highly relevant Soros, Robert Slater takes you inside
the mind of a global investing genius and delivers priceless, timeless, and
peerless insights into Soros’s financial acumen and wide-ranging altruism.”
—David Darst, Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist
for Morgan Stanley’s Global Wealth Management division, and author of
The Art of Asset Allocation
“Robert Slater explores the common thread among George Soros’s many
achievements, showing how Soros’s philosophy influenced his investment
approach, philanthropy, and politics. The result is a fascinating portrait of
a complex, great man.”
—Byron Wein,Chief Investment Strategist, Pequot Capital Management
SOROS
The World’s Most Influential Investor
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S O R O S
The World’s Most Influential Investor
ROBERT SLATER
New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London
Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi
San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
Copyright © 2009 by Robert Slater. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States
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ontents
C
Preface vii
Chapter 1 The World’s Greatest Investor 1
Chapter 2 A Boy and His Parents 17
Chapter 3 The Cellars of Budapest 27
Chapter 4 Like Freud or Einstein 35
Chapter 5 The Blind Leading the Blind 41
Chapter 6 Fascinated by Chaos 47
Chapter 7 Invest First and Investigate Later 59
Chapter 8 Putting My Money Where My Mouth Was 69
Chapter 9 A Quantum Leap 79
Chapter 10 The Identity Crisis 85
Chapter 11 The Imperial Circle 91
Chapter 12 The Killing of a Lifetime 99
Chapter 13 A Philosophical Speculator 109
Chapter 14 A Cheap Price for Freedom 117
Chapter 15 An Urge to Reveal Oneself 135
Chapter 16 The Big Crash 143
v
vi Contents
Chapter 17 It Takes Courage to Be a Pig 149
Chapter 18 Taming the Snake 157
Chapter 19 The One-Way Bet 167
Chapter 20 Black Wednesday 175
Chapter 21 The King of the Hedge Funds 185
Chapter 22 The Guru 191
Chapter 23 A Common Virus Known as Hubris 199
Chapter 24 I’m a Hungarian Jew 211
Chapter 25 The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre 221
Chapter 26 Mr. Soros Goes to Washington 225
Chapter 27 Richer Than 42 Countries 233
Chapter 28 A Shift Toward America 243
Chapter 29 Financial Woes and a Foretaste of Politics 259
Chapter 30 George Bush in Soros’s Crosshairs 279
Chapter 31 Investor, Philanthropist, Philosopher, and
78 Years Old 297
Notes 319
Index 329
re ace
P f
G
eorge Soros was a vastly different figure in 2008 from the
person I researched and wrote about in the mid-1990s in my
book SOROS: The Life, Times & Trading Secrets of the World’s
Greatest Investor. Back then, Soros was undeniably the world’s
greatest investor, and he was becoming a revolutionary kind of finan-
cial philanthropist. After SOROS appeared, however, he entered
American politics in a big way, seeking to unseat President George
Bush in the 2004 presidential election; and he employed his financial
philanthropy in whole new ways that gave him even more influence
over vast numbers of people. Moreover, in his quest to be recognized
first and foremost as a philosopher, he had, since the mid-1990s, writ-
ten numerous books spelling out his financial strategies and warning
readers about imminent dangers to the global economy.
So different had he become, so much better known but still only
on the surface, that I concluded I ought to update the book in order
to round out this vastly more complicated, more controversial, and
more publicly exposed George Soros.
When McGraw-Hill and I agreed to produce this revised, updated
version of my earlier Soros book, we agreed that I would freshen up
the original text where possible and add a number of chapters that
summarized Soros’s life and career from 1996 to 2008.
When I began that task, I simply assumed that Soros would con-
tinue to steer clear of my book project, as he had when the original
book was published in 1996. Was I ever wrong! As soon as I began the
research for the updated version, I went through what I thought would
be the motions of contacting Soros simply to let him know that I was
updating my book. I said, naturally enough, that I hoped to be able to
vii
