SOROS: THE MAN BEHIND THE MONEY

George Soros is one of the great enigmas of our time. He is the
consummate buccaneer, raking in billions of dollars through predatory
assaults on the financial markets, yet he behaves like a pinstriped
Robin Hood, ploughing his wealth into socially inspired causes. He
claims to be able to divine patterns in the markets, but often gets it
embarrassingly wrong. Consumed, or so he says, by self-doubt, he
nevertheless feels confident enough to preach to world leaders about
how to run their affairs.

Soros, 68, is in London next month for The Times/Dillons
Forum: a chance for critics and fans alike to pin him down
on the issues of the day. His new book, The Crisis of
Global Capitalism, a timely critique of the Asian crisis
and its implications, will be serialised in The Times later this month.

Soros leapt into the British psyche in September 1992 when the Bank of
England fought vainly to defend the pound against an assault by
currency speculators. It spent UKP12 billion shoring up sterling
against the mark before conceding defeat, leaving Britain to tumble
out of the European exchange-rate mechanism. Soros made almost $1
billion (UKP600 million) from Black Wednesday and became known as the
Man Who Broke the Bank of England. A mere whisper that Soros is buying
this or selling that can trigger a stampede. His utterances can send
currencies sliding or soaring.

Soros's luck has changed of late, but his pronouncements still make
headlines. In August a well-timed letter to the Financial Times sent
Russian financial markets reeling and had a knock-on effect in
Germany. Market analysts think that the Soros funds cannily sold huge
quantities of dollars against the mark, profiting handsomely as the
currency fell.

Born in Budapest in 1930 into a middle-class Jewish family, he
experienced both Naziism and Communism before emigrating to Britain in
1947. At the London School of Economics he fell under the influence of
Karl Popper, the philosopher and author of The Open Society and its
Enemies. Popper's writings gave Soros a conceptual framework in which
to seek out and predict imbalances in world markets. Placing huge bets
on what he thought might happen, and cashing in handsomely when it
went his way, made Soros his fortune. Popper's vision of an open
society - one that tolerates different views and interests - later
shaped Soros's philanthropic activities.

After graduating from the LSE, Soros endured a miserable stint selling
souvenirs in seaside resorts in Wales before joining Singer &
Friedlander, the City merchant bank. He had earlier worked as a
British Rail porter. Lacking the requisite old school tie, Soros found
his ambitions frustrated.

He decamped again in 1956, to New York, and worked on Wall Street for
13 years before branching out on his own. In 1969 he set up Quantum
Fund, registered in Curacao but run from Manhattan, and began
investing on behalf of wealthy private individuals, scouring the world
for mispriced assets.

Soros's line in global arbitrage was a spectacular success. A $1,000
investment in Quantum in 1969 would be worth more than $3 million
today, despite well-publicised setbacks. Quantum and its sister funds
are worth, perhaps, $18 billion.

By the late 1970s, Soros was rich enough to start thinking about
channelling his wealth into philanthropic ventures. He established his
first foundation, the Open Society Fund, in 1979, and today oversees
non-profit foundations and organisations in 31 countries. His agenda
spans education, publishing and human rights, as well as social, legal
and economic reform.

In Russia Soros distributed $20 million among 40,000 top scientists
and spent millions more on electronic communications and scientific
literature. A Russian foundation, set up in 1987, invested heavily in
educational reform, printing textbooks free of Marxist ideology. In
the United States Soros is channelling money into such social ills as
drug addiction, which he thinks should be treated as a public health
problem, not a crime. He has called for marijuana to be legalised for
medical purposes and has set up a $50 million fund to help immigrants
deprived of welfare benefits.

Soros's homespun brand of philanthropy is not always welcomed by
domestic authorities, however, many of whom consider him a meddler. On
another level he complains that he is not taken seriously, that his
theories are seen as merely the self-indulgent musings of a man who
has made a lot of money on the stock market.

Soros got it right with the pound in 1992, but his approach is hit and
miss. Quantum reputedly lost $600 million in two days when an $8
billion punt on the yen went awry. Soros lost about $650 million in
the October 1987 stock market crash - making him the biggest single
loser - when he shifted out of Tokyo and into Wall Street, just as the
latter caved in. He knew something was coming, but couldn't quite tell
where.

Soros enjoys reading and plays tennis and chess. Married to his second
wife, Suzan, he has five children, and homes in Manhattan and London.
A very private and intellectual man, he endured unwelcome publicity in
Britain in 1991, when a former butler took him to an industrial
tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal. It was alleged that the household
cook was given to chucking UKP500 bottles of ChE2teau-Lafite into the
evening goulash, a smear strenuously denied by Soros's entourage.

They say the financier rarely drinks wine and does not indulge in fine
cooking, except for the benefit of his guests. Soros himself has said:
"I don't have great material needs. I like my comfort but, really, I
am a very abstract person."

Patrick Davison, the aggrieved butler, portrayed Soros as a rather
absent-minded soul who used to set off on journeys, then ring his
office to find out where he was meant to be going. He once had to be
stopped from wandering off to a meeting in his slippers. Parcels used
to turn up from hotels all over Europe containing items Soros had left
behind.

In September 1997, with the Asian crisis erupting, Soros became
embroiled in a public slanging match with Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's
Prime Minister. Beset by economic problems, and with Malaysia
literally under a pall from the region's forest fires, Dr Mahathir
launched an attack on "immoral" financial speculators, and described
Soros as a "moron". Soros hit back, describing Dr Mahathir as "a
menace to his country".

Meltdown in Asia, and its toll on world markets, has given Soros deep
cause for concern - hence his critique of the current financial
turmoil. He talks of a "wrecking ball" effect and believes that the
world's entire economic system is under threat. His solution is to
call for restraints on the free movement of capital - ironically, for
one who made his fortune exploiting this very system. Who knows, it
may happen, but for now, there is money to be made, and Soros is not
one to miss out on the fun.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry