Soros: The Life, Ideas, and Impact of the World's Most Influential Investor

"A penniless survivor of the Nazi occupation of Hungary, George Soros is now one of the richest men in the world, and Robert Slater does an excellent job of helping us understand how Soros did it. . . . Slater distinguishes Soros from other great investors by explaining his mental processes . . . . He explains how Soros views markets as chaotic, not efficient, and very prone to boom-bust sequences. . . . Slater has written a fascinating volume."--Barron's The highly acclaimed bestseller updated to reveal Soros' role in our new economic and political era As a financial genius, global philanthropist, political activist, man of conscience, and the world's only investor with his own foreign policy--it cannot be denied that Soros is an enigmatic man of enormous influence. For more than four decades he has been so successful that he has been accused of directing the course of global markets and shaping the destinies of nations. Now, in this exhaustively updated and expanded edition of his 1996 bestseller, biographer Robert Slater separates fact from fiction to get at the truth about the mysterious figure of George Soros. Working from extensive interviews with Soros and those closest to him, Slater combines compelling biographical detail with scrupulous analysis to: Detail how Soros made his billions as a global currency trader and stock operator Chronicle his role in bringing down communism and establishing open societies to Eastern Europe and the former USSR Demystify Soros's macroeconomic approach to investing and his oft-misunderstood theory of reflexivity Explore his fanatical obsession with unseating George W. Bush in 2004 and his growing involvement with left-wing political activist groups Reveal George Soros's strategies for surviving and thriving in the chaos of today's credit markets