History of George Soros

George Soros (born August 12, 1930 in Budapest) is a financial speculator, investor and political activist, and Hungarian-born U.S. citizen.


On the other hand, is known for its support of various social movements within a philosophy of open society strongly influenced by Karl Popper's liberalism. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. During the 1980s, supported the trade union movement Solidarnosc in Poland, and the organization Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, in order to help end the political dominance of the Soviet Union in those countries.

His father was a lawyer of Jewish origin Tivadar Soros. Tivadar (then called Theodor) is known in the media related to the international language Esperanto as an editor and writer. In fact, George is often cited as one of the few native speakers of Esperanto but really your native language is Hungarian as such, was an important part of his father and his youth.

His father's work in Esperanto "Modernaj Robinzonoj" recounts his captivity as a prisoner of war during and after the First World War, his escape across Siberia and Russia's output to be reunited with his family in Budapest.

The family changed its name in 1936 from Schwartz to Soros, in response to growing anti-semitism with the rise of fascism. A Tivadar liked the new name because it is a palindrome and because it has a meaning. In Hungarian, "soros" means "next in line, or designated successor", and Esperanto is "rose". Though the family was of Jewish origin, religious observance was reduced.


When George was thirteen, Nazi Germany took military control of Hungary (March 1944) and began to exterminate Hungarian Jews. Soros's father organized a complicated scheme to hide the identity of the whole family and other Jews, enabling them to survive the Holocaust. The experience later told in a book called "Maskerado ĉirkaŭ la mort", first released by the publisher in Esperanto teacher Stafeto canary Juan Regulus Pérez.8 The book was later translated into other languages.

The Soros family also survived the Battle of Budapest, where Soviet and Nazi forces fought house to house within the city.

George's first steps in finance were suffered hyperinflation during the Hungary between 1945 and 1946. In 1946, George escapes from the Soviet occupation by participating in an Esperanto youth congress in Switzerland. Soros emigrated to England in 1947 and worked at various jobs while studying at the London School of Economics, where he graduated in Philosophy in 1952 while a student in London he became acquainted with the work of Karl Popper, who had a profound influence on his thought. In particular usually refers to the work "The Open Society and Its Enemies."

In 1956, Soros moved to the United States, where he began to accumulate a large fortune through an international investment fund founded and managed by himself, lives in New York and began working with F. M. Mayer in the areas of Arbitration (1956-1959) and later as a financial analyst with Wertheim & Co. (1959-63). During these years he developed the concept of reflexivity as a form of analysis in economics and social sciences.


Soros began a period of investment. Between 1963 and 1973, he worked at Arnhold and S. Bleichroder, reaching top management positions (vice president), and founded several hedge funds, with great success.

In 1973 he established himself and founded the Quantum Fund, which with various restructuring and currently managed by his sons, remains the main means of operation.

Its activities in the field of foreign exchange have given a great reputation, generally negative, as a speculator. He has defended his actions as a way to find the differences between real and perceived valuations of financial assets. One of his maxims is "is a trend whose premise is false, and bet your money against it."


In September 1992 Soros speculated against the pound bet a huge sum of money after the Bank of England was forced to devalue, which gave millions in profits for Soros.

In January 2008, Soros said the financial crisis of 2008 was the largest since the Second World War.

Today, with a net worth valued at about fourteen thousand five hundred million dollars (2011), was ranked by Forbes as the 46th richest person in the world.