Earlier today Reuters published what appears to be a file obituary of the investor and philanthropist George Soros. He is not in fact dead, but this gave us a sneak peak at they’re prepared to publish in the event that he does die.
It’s a remarkably ungenerous assessment of Soros’ life, starting with the “predatory” in the lead. I think Soros would tell you that there’s nothing paradoxical about his combination of wealth and political views. He has an unusually acute awareness of the fact that even though amassing his wealth required skill, he couldn’t have done it outside the supportive context of functional social institutions and his entire philanthropic career has been dedicated to bolstering and spreading those institutions. He believes his success as an investor reflects the fact that the stronger forms of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis are false, and that policy conclusions related to the undesirability of unconstrained financial markets follow from this falseness. You may not agree with his political views (certainly I don’t agree with all of them) but this is all spelled out quite clearly in his fairly extensive writings on public affairs.
