George Soros Analysis of the Global Markets

When addressing on Bloomberg an economic forum hosted in Sri Lanka in early January 2016, entrepreneur and billionaire George Soros said that the global market is faced with major crisis and asked investors to be extra vigilant. In his views, failure by China to establish new economic growth model and devaluation of its currency are some of the problems that are affecting other parts of the world. He further said that developing countries are faced with another crisis of increase in interest rates, and the situation is similar to what happened in 2008.

The hedge fund manager noted that in the first week of January, the stock, commodity and currency markets were already under pressure. Yuan was dropping in value and this raised concerns about the performance of China’s economy because it was shifting away from investment. The fund manager explained that the major problem facing China is adjustment, which results into a crisis. After observing the financial markets, George noted existence of a serious problem which makes him remember the 2008 financial crisis. In the past, the hedge fund manager had predicted similar catastrophe like 2008 situation, more so in 2011, when he analyzed the magnitude of Greece-born European debt.

Between 1969 and 2011, Soros’ hedge fund firm was recording annual average increase of 20 percent. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, George is estimated to have a net worth of approximately $27.3 billion. He started his career in NY City around 1950s, and in 1992, he was all over in the headlines for predicting that UK would devalue its pound, which earned him $1 billion. More information is found on http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-07/global-markets-at-the-beginning-of-a-crisis-george-soros-says, BloombergBusiness.

George Soros Philanthropy

George Soros began philanthropy back in 1979, where he offered scholarships to South African students of black origin under apartheid. In the 1980s, Soros played a critical role of undermining communism that was largely practiced in the Eastern Block. He founded Open Society where he serves as the chair. Open Society is a group of partners, foundations and projects that operate in more than 100 nations across the world. After Berlin wall fell, he formed a university in Europe that was supposed to promote critical thinking. Through the Open Society Foundations, he expanded his philanthropy to the U.S., Asia and Africa.

The foundations have supported several attorneys and paralegals to represent people who are arrested or detained illegally by authorities. Through his foundations, thousands of students are provided with school and college fees, mostly focusing on refugees who fled conflicts, students from marginalized groups and young Roma. Another major role played by George was to create an international system that brought accountability and transparency in different sectors including industries responsible for extracting natural resources. Info on https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/people/george-soros, Open Society Foundations.