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

by Robert Slater

Overview

The bestselling biography of a legend—now fully revised with exclusive insights on Soros’s political and economic influence

This completely updated edition of Robert Slater’s 1996 biography features an array of new material, addressing the ever-widening circle of Soros’s influence. It includes exclusive new interviews with Soros and his closest advisors detailing their investing strategies in the coming years of liquidity and instability in the credit markets. It also examines and reports his thinking on his role in the 2004 U.S. elections, his infamous 2006 New York Times ad assailing General Petraeus's handling of the Iraq War, and his future plans for grant giving and political activism.

Arguably the most successful financial investor in the world, and a symbol of liberal political activism, George Soros is one of the most fascinating and polarizing figures of our time. He first gained fame through his phenomenal investing success, which made him known for his money management and financial acumen. In the last decade and a half, Soros has focused his abilities on the global political realm.

“An in-depth look into the mind of the master investor.”
—Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071608442
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	12/19/2008
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Robert Slater is the bestselling author of 30 books, including Jack Welch and the GE Way, Saving Big Blue, The Eye of the Storm, and Microsoft Rebooted.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 The World’s Greatest Investor
Chapter 2 A Boy and his Parents
Chapter 3 The Cellars of Budapest
Chapter 4 Like Freud or Einstein
Chapter 5 The Blind Leading the Blind
Chapter 6 Fascinated by Chaos
Chapter 7 Invest First and Investigate Later
Chapter 8 Putting My Money Where My Mouth Was
Chapter 9 A Quantum Leap
Chapter 10 The Identity Crisis
Chapter 11 The Imperial Circles
Chapter 12 Killing of a Lifetime
Chapter 13 Philosophical Speculator
Chapter 14 A Cheap Price for Freedom
Chapter 15 An Urge to Reveal Oneself
Chapter 16 The Big Crash
Chapter 17 It Takes Courage to Be a Pig
Chapter 18 Taming the Snake
Chapter 19 “The One-Way Bet”
Chapter 20 Black Wednesday
Chapter 21 King of the Hedge Funds
Chapter 22 The Guru
Chapter 23 A Common Virus Known as Hubris
Chapter 24 I’m a Hungarian Jew
Chapter 25 The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Chapter 26 Mr. Soros Goes to Washington
Chapter 27 Richer Than 42 Countries
Chapter 28 A Shift Toward America
Chapter 29 Financial Woes and a Foretaste of Politics
Chapter 30 George Bush in Soros’s Crosshairs
Chapter 31 Investor, Philanthropist, Philosopher, and 79 Years Old
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

This is Slater's 1994 bio of Soros, with its contents "refreshed" and another 25 percent or so of updated material added. Slater, who gained greater cooperation from and access to Soros and his colleagues for this edition, continues to portray him as a man of contradictions, a Jewish Hungarian survivor of the Holocaust who is ambivalent about his religious roots and makes public pronouncements but appears shy of publicity. A fabulously successful pioneer in hedge funds, Soros says he regrets not becoming a philosopher. Slater ascribes much of Soros's trading success to his ability to recognize economic trends, jump on them aggressively, and retreat when wrong before suffering irretrievable losses. He explains that Soros has emerged, since 1994, more focused on philanthropy and changing the world. Soros has donated over $5 billion to various causes and, says Slater, became active in American politics owing to his opposition to the Bush administration. It is only since 1994 that Soros has come close to fulfilling his ambition to be considered a man of ideas. Unfortunately, Slater's post-1994 section seems rushed or tacked on, and his subject's personal life remains in shadows. Nonetheless, Soros's stature makes Slater's work a required and recommended purchase for all libraries.
—Lawrence Maxted

Library Journal