Motör Militia and George Soros: Difference between pages

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{{dablink|"Soros" redirects here. For other meanings see [[Soros (disambiguation)]].}}
{{Infobox musical artist
{{Infobox Celebrity
| Name = Motör Militia
| name = George Soros
| Img = Sound of Violence promo, full sized.JPG|315px
| image = Soros talk in Malaysia.jpg
| Img_capt = Picture of the band's last known lineup, shot circa July 2004 for their debut album, '''''The Sound of Violence'''''<br/><br/>''From left to right: '''Salem Sulaibikh''', '''Abdulla Muijrers''', '''Mahmood Abdul Ghaffar''', and '''Yousef Hatlani'''.''
| Img_size =
| imagesize = 300px
| Background = group_or_band
| caption = George Soros speaking in [[Malaysia]]
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1930|08|12}}
| Origin = [[Saar, Bahrain|Saar]], [[Bahrain]]
| birth_place = [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]]
| Genre = [[Thrash metal]]/[[Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal]]
| death_date =
| Years_active = 2001-2004<br/>2005, 2007 - Present <small>(Reunions)</small>
| death_place =
| Label = [http://web.archive.org/web/20040615084459/http://sandstorms.cjb.net/ SandStorms Records]
| occupation = [[speculator]], [[investor]], [[philanthropist]], [[political activist]]
| Current_members = '''Mahmood Abdul Ghaffar''' - ''Vocals/Bass''<br/>'''Yousef Hatlani''' - ''Guitars''<br/>'''Abdulla Muijrers''' - ''Drums''<br/><br/>'''Hisham Ali''' - ''Guitars''<br/>'''Ahmed "Kheero" Abu Alkhair''' - ''Guitars''<br/>'''Abdulrazzaq "Atto" Awadh''' - ''Bass''
| salary =
| Past_members = Salem Sulaibikh - ''Live Guitarist''<br/>Mohammed Bukannan - ''Guitars''<br/>Khalifa Kamal - ''Guitars''<br/>Amer BuHussain - ''Guitars''
| networth = {{Gain}} $9.0 billion (''[[Forbes]]'')<ref name="forbesbillion">[http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_George-Soros_L9II.html The World's Billionaires -#97 George Soros], [[Forbes]], March 5, 2008</ref>
| spouse = Twice divorced (Annaliese Witschak and Susan Weber Soros)
| children = Robert, Andrea, Jonathan, Alexander, Gregory
| religion =
| website = [http://www.georgesoros.com www.georgesoros.com]
| footnotes =
}}
}}
'''George Soros''' ({{pronEng|ˈsɔroʊs}} or {{IPA|/ˈsɔrəs/}},<ref>[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6150320548187842685 Authors@Google: George Soros<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Hungarian {{IPA2|ˈʃoroʃ}}) (born [[August 12]], [[1930]], in [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]], as '''György Schwartz''') is a [[Hungary|Hungarian]]-born [[United States|American]] [[Speculation|financial speculator]], [[stock investor]], [[philanthropist]], and [[activism|political activist]].<ref>William Shawcross, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986919-1,00.html "Turning Dollars into Change,"] Time Magazine, September 1, 1997</ref>


Soros is famously known for "breaking the [[Bank of England]]" on [[Black Wednesday]] in 1992. With an estimated [[as of 2007|current]] net worth of around $9 billion, he is ranked by ''[[Forbes]]'' as the [[List of billionaires (2008)|99th-richest person in the world]].<ref name="forbesbillion"/>
'''Motör Militia''' (also known as '''Motor Militia''') is a [[Bahrain]]i [[Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal]]/[[thrash metal]] band. They are regarded as one of the first metal bands of their genre in the [[Persian Gulf]]/[[Middle East]] area to record and release a full length album of original material on an independent label <ref name="TaD">[http://www.tartareandesire.com/bands/motormilitia.html Tartarean Desire - Motor Militia - Thrash metal band from Bahrain<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>.


Currently, Soros is chairman of [[Soros Fund Management]] and the [[Open Society Institute]] and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]]. According to his own website, Soros claims his support for the [[Solidarity]] labor movement in [[Poland]], as well as the [[Czechoslovak]] [[human rights]] organization [[Charter 77]], contributed to ending [[Soviet Union]] political dominance in those countries.<ref>George Soros, [http://www.georgesoros.com/?q=about_george_soros A Biographical Note], dated May 2006.</ref> His funding and organization of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]'s [[Rose Revolution]] was considered by Russian and [[Western world|Western]] observers to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role has been "greatly exaggerated." In the United States, he is known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President [[George W. Bush]]'s bid for re-election in 2004. On [[BookTV]], [[November 12]], [[2007]], he said that he supports [[Barack Obama]] for the Democratic candidate in the 2008 election.
In 2003, Motör Militia built a following based on word of mouth promotion in their local and neighboring [[Middle East]]ern music communities. At the same time, members of the group began interacting with many other bands in their [[Music of Bahrain|local heavy metal scene]], organizing [[Do it yourself|DIY]] heavy metal and [[hard rock]] concerts at a pace faster than previously realized. This, in addition to the band's decision to play sets consisting almost entirely of original material (and subsequently recording and releasing it), influenced many local groups to do the same.


Former [[Federal Reserve]] Chairman [[Paul Volcker]] wrote in 2003 in the foreword of Soros' book ''The Alchemy of Finance'':
Popular for their atypical [[Cover version|cover]] song selections, live shows, and original compositions, the band remains well known in [[Middle East]]ern heavy metal and hard rock music communities despite performing a total of only 10 concerts in their known career.<ref name="TaD"/> Members of the band regrouped in 2007 after a two year long hiatus to resume songwriting and performing occasionally.
<blockquote>George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. The bulk of his enormous winnings is now devoted to encouraging transitional and [[emerging nation]]s to become 'open societies,' open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but - more important - tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.</blockquote>


== Biography ==
On Thursday, March 13th 2008, the band performed their first concert in over three years, debuting new material and a new live lineup.<ref name="MySpace">[http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11608467020&ref=mf Facebook event - Motor Militia concert]</ref>.
=== Family ===
George Soros is the son of the [[Esperanto | Esperantist]] writer [[Teodoro Schwartz]]. Teodoro (also known as Tivadar) was a Hungarian [[Jew]], who was a [[prisoner of war]] during and after [[World War II]] and eventually escaped from [[Russia]] to rejoin his family in [[Budapest]].<ref name=Kaufman>Kaufman, Michael T., Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire, Alfred A. Knopf: 2002</ref>{{pn}}


The family changed its name in 1936 from ''Schwartz'' to ''Soros'', in response to growing [[anti-semitism]] with the rise of [[Fascism]]. Tivadar liked the new name because it is a [[palindrome]] and because it has a meaning. Although the specific meaning is left unstated in Kaufmann's biography, in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], "soros" means "next in line, or designated successor", and in Esperanto, it means "will soar".<ref>Kaufman, Michael T., Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire, Alfred A. Knopf: 2002, p. 24</ref> His son George was taught to speak Esperanto from birth and thus is one of the rare [[native Esperanto speakers]]. George Soros later said that he "grew up in a Jewish home", and that his parents were "cautious with their religious roots".<ref>Slater, R.: "Soros: The Unauthorized Biography", page 30</ref> However, Soros's father was proud of his Jewish roots (which can be seen in his memoir on his experiences during the holocaust, ''Masquerade'').
==Biography==
===Formation (2001)===


George Soros has been married and divorced twice, to Annaliese Witschak, and to [[Susan Weber Soros]]. He has five children: Robert, Andrea, Jonathan (with his first wife, Annaliese); Alexander, Gregory (with his second wife, Susan). His elder brother [[Paul Soros]], an engineer, is a well-known philanthropist, investor, and New York socialite.


===Native Hungary, and move to England===
<gallery>
Image:Mahmood_%26_Khalifa_%40_Guitar_Club.jpg|Mahmoud and Jafar in the Guitar Ghetto playa Club
</gallery>


Soros was thirteen years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany took military control over [[Hungary]]<ref>[http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005458 Holocaust Encyclopedia]</ref>. Soros worked for the Jewish Council for two days<ref name=Kaufman/>, which had been established during the Nazi occupation of Hungary to forcibly carry out Nazi and Hungarian government anti-Jewish measures. Soros later described this time to writer [[Michael Lewis]]:
The band formed in mid-2001 under the name ''Black Star'',<ref name="TaD"/> when three [[High School]] students by the names of Abdulla Muijrers, Amer BuHussain, and Mahmood Abdul Ghaffar decided to create a group based on their similar musical tastes, and also to make up for the lack of [[Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal]] and [[hard rock]] musicians in their school, [http://www.ikns.edu.bh/ Ibn Khuldoon National School], a [[K-12]] institution located in [[Madinat 'Isa|Isa Town]], [[Bahrain]].
<blockquote>The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper...It said report to the rabbi seminary at 9 a.m....And I was given this list of names. I took this piece of paper to my father. He instantly recognized it. This was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, "You deliver the slips of paper and tell the people that if they report they will be deported.<ref>Michael Lewis, "The Speculator: What on earth is multibillionaire George Soros doing throwing wads of money around in Eastern Europe?", ''The New Republic'', 10 January 1994. See also Kaufman, Michael T., Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire, Alfred A. Knopf: 2002, p. 32-33</ref></blockquote>


To avoid his son's being apprehended by the Nazis, Soros's father paid a Ministry of Agriculture employee to have Soros spend the summer of 1944 living with him and posing as the godson. Young Soros had to hide his Jewishness even as the official was overseeing the confiscation of Jewish property.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E3DA1E3BF935A35751C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
Muijrers, a fifteen year-old [[Dutch people|Dutch]]-[[Bahrain]]i drummer who had been playing since 1997,<ref name="TaD"/> had recently quit the instrument in late 1999 until September 2001, when he met Ghaffar, another fifteen year-old who had started playing bass earlier that year and recently moved in to the country from [[Washington, D.C.]], through his high school's Guitar Club. Abdulla was subsequently inspired by Mahmood's ability to play bass and sing at the same time to take up his role as a drummer again.<ref name="TaD"/>
|title=He's Seen The Enemy. It Looks Like Him.
|accessdate=2008-07-28
|date=1998-12-06
|work=[[New York Times]]
|first=Timothy L
|last=O'Brien
}}</ref>


In the following year, Soros survived the [[battle of Budapest]] in which [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] and Nazi forces fought house-to-house through the city. Soros first traded [[currency|currencies]] during the Hungarian [[hyperinflation]] of 1945–1946.
Following this encounter, a friend of theirs in the same grade, a [[Keyboard instrument|keyboardist]] turned [[guitarist]] named Amer BuHussain, met with the two students and decided to share his admiration for the same musical genres with the others by proposing to form a band. Engaging in their similar tastes, they soon began to [[Jam session|jam]] together; performing primarily [[Black Sabbath]] and [[Motörhead]] [[Cover version|covers]].


In 1946, Soros escaped the Soviet occupation by participating in an [[International Youth Congress of Esperanto|Esperanto youth congress]] in the West.{{Fact|date=May 2008}}
[[Image:Black Star @ Talent Show '02.jpg|thumb|190px|left|''Black Star'' performing at the first annual Ibn Khuldoon Talent Show in June 2002.]]


Soros emigrated to [[England]] in 1947 and graduated from the [[London School of Economics]] in 1952. While a student of the philosopher [[Karl Popper]], Soros funded himself by taking jobs as a railway porter and a waiter at Quaglino's restaurant where he was told that with hard work he might one day become head waiter. He also worked in a [[mannequin]] factory, but was fired for being too slow at putting on the heads. He eventually secured an entry-level position with London merchant bank [[Singer & Friedlander]].
As ''Black Star'', they performed one concert<ref name="TaD"/>: their high school's first annual talent show in June 2002, an event itself proposed to the school by Muijrers. Their setlist consisted of one song, an original composition which was intertwined with a combination of various songs by heavy metal groups the members were influenced by, such as "[[One (Metallica song)|One]]" by [[Metallica]], "[[Peace Sells]]" by [[Megadeth]], and "[[Crazy Train]]" by [[Ozzy Osbourne]]. The performance was well received, and caught the attention of another guitarist in their school who also shared a liking for their genre of music, a student in their grade by the name of Khalifa Kamal. Kamal joined the group shortly thereafter, making them a four-piece lineup for the first time.


===Move to the United States===
The lineup, however, did not perform for the rest of the year due to collectively increased focus on their schoolwork, as well as BuHussain himself losing interest in guitar playing. Instead, they jammed occasionally, with Muijrers and Mahmood remaining serious about their musical endeavours.
In 1956 he moved to New York City, where he worked as an [[arbitrage]] trader with F. M. Mayer from 1956 to 1959 and as an analyst with Wertheim and Company from 1959 to 1963. Throughout this time, Soros developed a philosophy of "[[reflexivity (social theory)|reflexivity]]" based on the ideas of [[Karl Popper]]. Reflexivity, as used by Soros, is the belief that the action of beholding the valuation of any market by its participants, affects said valuation of the market in a procyclical 'virtuous or vicious' circle.<ref name="A">{{cite book|author=Soros, George|title=The New Paradigm for Financial Markets |publisher=Public Affairs, New York |year=2008|id=ISBN 978-1-58648-683-9 }}</ref>
Soros realized, however, that he would not make any money from the concept of reflexivity until he went into investing on his own. He began to investigate how to deal in investments. From 1963 to 1973 he worked at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, where he attained the position of vice-president. Soros finally concluded that he was a better investor than he was a philosopher or an executive. In 1967 he persuaded the company to set up an offshore [[investment fund]], First Eagle, for him to run; in 1969 the company founded a second fund for Soros, the Double Eagle [[hedge fund]].<ref name="A" />


When investment regulations restricted his ability to run the funds as he wished, he quit his position in 1973 and established a private investment company that eventually evolved into the [[Quantum Fund]]. He has stated that his intent was to earn enough money on [[Wall Street]] to support himself as an author and philosopher - he calculated that $500,000 after five years would be possible and adequate. Five years later, his [[net worth]] reached an estimated $11 billion.<ref name="A" />
===New lineup with a new name (January 2003)===
[[Image:Official LogoMM.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Guitarist Yousef Hatlani designed the band's logo, as well as all their album artwork, posters, fliers, and concert tickets<ref name="HaH" />.]]


He is also a former member of the [[Carlyle Group]].<ref name="A" />
By January 2003, the interest guitarists BuHussain and Kamal once had in the band was waining. Regardless, the band opted to perform at another of their school's events being held later in the month, "Sports Day" <ref name="TaD"/>, an annual occasion that dedicates an entire day to sporting events and competitions. At the same time, a 15 year-old [[Arab]]-[[United States|American]] guitarist in their school named Yousef Hatlani voiced his own interest in performing as a soloist at the event to the school's music teacher. Initially unaware of Black Star, he was told that a band was already slated to be performing that day. Intrigued, he asked for more information about the band, at which point the teacher gave him drummer Abdulla Muijrers' phone number.<ref name="TaD"/>
Out of his interest in performing, Hatlani did not hesitate to call, also knowing that the event was only a few weeks away. As he called, Muijrers mentioned that the group already had two other guitarists. However, because the group was in need of a more dedicated guitar player, he said they wouldn't mind seeing him play. As Yousef showed up for his first jam session, the band members were immediately impressed with both his equipment and with the intensity he portrayed musically.<ref name="TaD"/> He was speedily admitted into the band, despite the time period being the midst of their rehearsal sessions.


==Business==
As he was admitted, however, the atrophy of both BuHussain's and Kamal's interest in music caused them to suddenly quit. The band continued to rehearse undeterred as a three-piece, solidifying what would become their core lineup; with Mahmood on bass guitar and vocals, Yousef on both rhythm and lead guitar, and Muijrers on drums.


Soros is the founder of Soros Fund Management. In 1970 he co-founded the [[Quantum Fund]] with [[Jim Rogers]]. It returned 42.6% per year for the next ten years and created the bulk of the Soros fortune. Rogers retired from the fund in 1980. Other partners have included [[Victor Niederhoffer]] and [[Stanley Druckenmiller]].
It was also around this time that Muijrers and Mahmood had decided to rename the group in light of their new lineup. Their decision on a name came in a conversation over the phone: Mahmood had previously nicknamed Muijrers "motor" for his double bass grooves,<ref name="DT">[http://www.geocities.com/dtinterviews5/motormilitia1.htm Motor Militia<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and the two of them had decided on using that as the first part of their name. After not being able to come up with anything useful, Muijrers suggested pairing it with the word "militia", a decision brought on by him listening to the [[Metallica]] song "[[Metal Militia (song)|Metal Militia]]" at the time. The two quickly decided on the name "Motör Militia", taking to heart the meaning behind it: "Army of Speed". The umlaut was added later as a tribute to another of the duo's favorite bands: [[Motörhead]].


In late 2006, Soros bought about 2 million shares of [[Halliburton]].<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54532</ref>
===Sports Day and the Powerhorse Mega Jam (January - February 2003)===
[[Image:First Gig @ Sports Day.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Motör Militia performing for the first time on January 21st, 2003 at their High School's annual ''Sports Day'' event.]]


In 2007, the Quantum Fund returned almost 32%, netting Soros $2.9 billion.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16wall.html?ex=1366084800&en=1eee7351824a31ce&ei=5124
Following the jam sessions, the band performed their first gig under the Motör Militia name on [[January 21]], [[2003]] at [http://www.ikns.edu.bh/ Ibn Khuldoon National School's] ''Sports Day'', taking place in the [[Bahrain National Stadium]]. Their setlist, however, did not reflect the full-on [[thrash metal]] sound that the band would soon develop. Instead, it consisted primarily of [[Rock music|rock]] and [[hard rock]] covers, notably [[Audioslave|Audioslave's]] "[[Cochise (song)|Cochise]]" and [[Jimi Hendrix|Jimi Hendrix's]] "[[Voodoo Child (Slight Return)]]". An early, slower version of their song "[[The Sound of Violence (album)|End of Days]]" was also performed. Although the band had to end their set early due to a potential electrical hazard caused by an open water bottle sitting on the edge of one of the school's amplifiers, the performance was met with acclaim from the students and faculty alike.
|title=Wall Street Winners Get Billion-Dollar Paydays
|accessdate=2008-07-28
|date=2008-04-16
|first=Jenny
|last=Anderson
|work=[[New York Times]]
}}</ref>


===Currency speculation===
In the February following ''Sports Day'', Muijrers had read in the newspaper about a competitive gig called the "[http://www.powerhorse-usa.com/ Powerhorse] Mega Jam"<ref name="TaD"/> that was taking place the next day at a local [[go-kart]] circuit named ''Rally Town'' that was minutes away from his house where the group was jamming at the time. Because the band already had a full set list of covers rehearsed, they got in Muijrer's car and quickly rushed to the location in hopes of landing an audition. As they got there, they were told by officials that there was no problem with them performing at the gig. However, they would have to go on as the last local group of the evening.
On [[Black Wednesday]] (September 16, 1992), Soros became immediately famous when he [[short selling|sold short]] more than $10 billion worth of pounds, profiting from the [[Bank of England]]'s reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other [[European Exchange Rate Mechanism]] countries or to [[floating exchange rate|float]] its currency.


Finally, the Bank of England was forced to withdraw the currency out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and to devalue the [[pound sterling]], and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England."
The gig, however, revealed that the band did not rehearse enough for the event; missing many cues and generally not playing the songs well. In addition, there was a five minute power outage during the middle of their set that took away from their twenty-five minute time limit. The band then attempted to cover [[Slayer (band)|Slayer's]] "[[Angel of Death (song)|Angel of Death]]" near the end of their set, at which point they were told by the officials that their time limit was up, and that they had to leave the stage. The group then angrily packed up their equipment and left after arguing with the concert organizers for minutes.


''The Times'' of Monday, October 26, 1992, quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when [[Norman Lamont]] said just before the [[devaluation]] that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell."
===The second annual Ibn Khuldoon Talent Show (March - June 2003)===
[[Image:Mahmood & Muijrers @ Talent Show '03.jpg|thumb|left|235px|Mahmood and Muijrers (right) perform at their school's second annual talent show.]]


According to Steven Drobny,<ref>Steven Drobny, "Inside the House of Money", John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ, 2006.
A month after the Mega Jam gig, the band decided to get a second guitarist in hopes of expanding their sound. It did not take very long to find one, as they quickly asked their friend and senior Ibn Khuldoon student Mohammed Bukannan<ref name="TaD"/> to fill in for the time being. Bukannan, who had not being playing guitar for very long, agreed to the offer; and the group expanded into a four piece for the second time.
</ref> [[Stanley Druckenmiller]], who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound. "Soros' contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position," in accord with Druckenmiller's own research and instincts.


In 1997, during the [[Asian financial crisis]], then Malaysian Prime Minister [[Mahathir bin Mohamad]] accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish [[ASEAN]] for welcoming [[Myanmar]] as a member. Later, he called Soros a moron.<ref>[http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/97/1003/cs1.html A question of openness] (asiaweek.com)</ref> Thai nationals have called Soros "an economic [[war criminal]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/9812/04/malaysia.01/index.html|publisher=Time Magazine|title=Financier George Soros urges Mahathir's ouster|date=2008-12-04}}</ref>" who "sucks the blood from the people".<ref>[http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/nations/0,8782,98437,00.html Opportunity Lost] (asiaweek.com)</ref>
The band continued to rehearse for the upcoming high school Talent Show, which was months away--in the middle of June. Despite this, it was apparent that Bukannan's inexperience was not meshing very well with the band, and the band decided to keep looking for a permanent second guitarist while keeping Bukannan temporarily.


===Public predictions===
That June, Muijrers asked childhood friend and fellow musician Salem Sulaibikh to join the band permanently,<ref name="TaD"/> as he was impressed by his lead guitar skills. He agreed quickly, replacing Bukannan as the band made final preparations for the Talent Show. However, the group was soon told that no students from other schools were allowed to perform in the event--at which point they were forced to perform with their core lineup as a three piece once again.
Soros' 2008 book, ''The New Paradigm for Financial Markets'', describes a "superbubble" that has built up over the past 25 years and is now ready to collapse. This is the third in a series of books he's written that have predicted disaster. As he states:
{{quote|I have a record of crying wolf…. I did it first in ''The Alchemy of Finance'' (in 1987), then in ''The Crisis of Global Capitalism'' (in 1998) and now in this book. So it's three books predicting disaster. (After) the boy cried wolf three times . . . the wolf really came.<ref name="predict">"[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121400427331093457.html?mod=hps_us_at_glance_markets Soros, the Man Who Cries Wolf], Now Is Warning of a 'Superbubble'" by Greg Ip, B1, June 21-22, 2008 ''The Wall Street Journal''.</ref>}}


He ascribes his own success to being able to recognize when his predictions are wrong.
Even still, the event proved highly successful; solidifying the maturing band's presence in their high school and helping establish their growing following. Songs included covers of [[Black Sabbath|Black Sabbath's]] "[[Paranoid (song)|Paranoid]]", [[Van Halen|Van Halen's]] "[[Eruption (song)|Eruption]]", and [[Liam Lynch|Liam Lynch's]] "[[United States of Whatever]]" in addition to performing "Hole", which later appeared on their [[The Sound of Violence (album)|debut album]]. The group closed the show with [[Motörhead|Motörhead's]] "[[Ace of Spades (song)|Ace of Spades]]".


{{quote|I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong… I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes. I very often used to get backaches due to the fact that I was wrong. Whenever you are wrong you have to fight or [take] flight. When [I] make the decision, the backache goes away.<ref name="predict"/>}}
===Friendly Violent Fun (June - October 2003)===
[[Image:End fvf1 .jpg|thumb|right|240px|Motör Militia finish performing to an audience of 1,000 at the self-organized [[DIY]] concert, ''Friendly Violent Fun'' (''FVF''). The concert holds the distinction of having the highest attendance rate of a non-endorsed [[hard rock]]/[[Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal]] event ever in the country.<ref name="HaH">[http://www.hardandheavy.net/eng/interviews/index.php?op=1&id=157 Interview: Motör Militia - 2006-12-03<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>]]


===Insider trading charges===
Following the reception they received from their Talent Show performance, the band focused its energy on ensuring a spot at the coming of Bahrain’s most successful local rock festival: The annual ''[http://www.accessgcc.com/gallerydetails.asp?hgalleryid=53 Dilstock]'', held in October. The band had submitted their portfolio and a demo tape to the organizer, although it was later announced that the show would be pushed back to December. It also became apparent that few [[Bahraini]] bands would be on the bill with the majority of the performers being [[England|English]] and [[Filipino people|Filipino]], the only local acts at the concert were [[progressive rock]] band [[Avatar (Bahraini band)|Avatar]] and [[hard rock]] band [[Dive (Bahraini band)|Dive]]. This fact frustrated the band and Muijrers in particular, who urged local [[Bahraini]] bands to unite and organize a new rock festival free of the limitations presented by a sponsored event, namely the censorship of songs and the time limits typically set forth by the organizer.
In 1988, he was asked to join a [[takeover]] attempt of the French bank [[Société Générale]]. He declined to participate in the bid but did later buy a number of shares in the company. French authorities began an investigation in 1989, and in 2002 a French court ruled that it was [[insider trading]] as defined under French securities laws and fined him $2 million, which was the amount that he made using the insider information.


Punitive damages were not sought because of the delay in bringing the case to trial. Soros denied any wrongdoing and said news of the takeover was public knowledge.<ref name=pbs>[http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_soros.html David Brancaccio interviews George Soros], ''Now'', PBS, September 12, 2003, accessed Feb. 8, 2007.</ref>
With this in mind, Muijrers began to devise the plans for such a concert. Eventually, the other bands that where due to play at a recently canceled concert held by Bahraini outlet of the volunteer organization [http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/index.shtml Lions Club], Bahraini Hard Rock groups [[Vulcan (band)|Vulcan]] and [[Illusions (band)|Illusions]], were notified--in addition to [[Avatar (Bahraini band)|Avatar]] and [[Dive (Bahraini band)|Dive]] taking part in the event as well. These four groups, along with Motör Militia, formed the final list of performers for the event.


His insider trading conviction was upheld by the highest court in France on [[June 14]] [[2006]].<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/14/business/soros.php Insider trading conviction of Soros is upheld (International Herald Tribune)]</ref> In December, 2006 he appealed to the [[European Court of Human Rights]], claiming that the 14 year delay in bringing the case to trial precluded a fair hearing.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/13/bloomberg/bxsoros.php Soros appeals conviction for insider trading, Billionaire takes French conviction to European court]
Upon choosing a name, Muijrers dubbed the concert ''Friendly Violent Fun'' - it being description of what he felt a [[Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal]] concert should be, and also a tribute to the late [[Exodus (band)|Exodus]] singer [[Paul Baloff]].<ref name="HaH" /> The phrase itself was lifted from one of [[Exodus (band)|Exodus']] songs, "[[Fabulous Disaster|The Toxic Waltz]]". The concert then became widely known by its abbreviation: ''FVF''.
(International Herald Tribune)December 14, 2006</ref>
[[Image:FvF 1 Promo.JPG|thumb|left|175px|The band during the time ''FVF'' was being advertised, October 2003. This image appeared in the local newspaper, the [[Gulf Daily News]].]]
An expansive indoors venue called the ''Falcon Hall'', located in [[Adliya|Adliya's]] [http://www.southtravels.com/middleeast/bahrain/palaceinnhotel/index.html Palace Inn Hotel], was soon chosen as the performance venue - as it could hold one thousand people easily. After [[October 23]], [[2003]] was chosen as the final date, the bands involved immediately began promoting the event by word of mouth and distributing hundreds of flyers that Yousef had illustrated as the sole graphics designer of the concert.<ref name="HaH" /> In addition to this, local newspaper the [[Gulf Daily News]] ran a two page article on the event.
[[Image:Rotation of DSCN0236.JPG|thumb|right|100px|One of the fliers advertising the concert.]]


===Sports===
As it turned out, ''FVF'' then became the most successful [[hard rock]]/[[Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal]] concert in the history of the country that
In 2005, Soros joined a group of investors seeking to buy the [[Washington Nationals]] of [[Major League Baseball]]'s [[National League]]. Although he was only a minority partner, some Republican lawmakers suggested that they might tamper with baseball's antitrust exemption if Soros had ''any'' interest at all in any baseball team, including the Nationals.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062701447.html Soros's Nats Bid Irks Republicans<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Ultimately, real estate magnate [[Ted Lerner]] was selected as the new owner, though baseball stressed that political pressure was not a factor.
was not supported financially by any outside sources;<ref name="TaD"/> an event that was funded solely by the bands involved, it ended up selling 1,400 tickets by the end of the night.<ref name="HaH" /> Fans embraced the new found freedom of song selection and performance the bands had, with no censorship of lyrics for performers or age limit set for attendance. It is still considered to be the pinnacle of local [[hard rock]] and [[Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal]] concerts in the country. Of note is that [[Lebanon|Lebanese]] [[pop star]] [[Nancy Ajram]] was performing in [[Manama]] on the same night, a concert which lead to riots where [[Islamic]] parties such as [[Al Wefaq]] attacked concert goers <ref name="WCB">[http://wcbstv.com/entertainment/entertainment_story_296202634.html]</ref><ref name="ANSW">[http://www.answers.com/topic/nancy-ajram#Criticism Nancy Ajram: Information and Much More from Answers.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>.
In 2008, Soros' name was associated with [[AS Roma]], the Italian [[soccer]] team. Some speculated that he had bought the club from the [[Franco Sensi|Sensi family]]. However, despite offers by the American businessman, the club was not sold.


==Philanthropy==
The concert also introduced the local heavy metal scene to Motör Militia, who famously opened their set with a cover of [[Slayer (band)|Slayer's]] "[[Raining Blood]]". The band's live show attracted over a thousand of the attendants,<ref name="HaH" /> filling the performance venue to the brim. Concert goers were enthralled by the band's setlist, performing many songs few bands had ever attempted before. This included [[Pantera|Pantera's]] "[[Fucking Hostile]]", [[Megadeth|Megadeth's]] "[[Peace Sells]]", [[Fear Factory|Fear Factory's]] "[[Soul of a New Machine|Martyr]]", and [[Metallica|Metallica's]] "[[The Four Horsemen (song)|The Four Horsemen]]". The band closed their twelve song set with [[Slayer|Slayer's]] "[[Angel of Death (song)|Angel of Death]]". The song choice reflected the maturity the band had developed, and showcased the [[thrash metal]] direction the band became famous for.
{{main|List of projects supported by George Soros}}


[[Image:George Soros Billington.jpg|right|thumb|[[George Soros]] (left) and [[James H. Billington]].]]
===Friendly Violent Fun 2 and 'Thrash on Ice' (November 2003 - March 2004)===
Soros has been active as a philanthropist since the 1970s, when he began providing funds to help [[African|black students]] attend the [[University of Cape Town]] in [[apartheid]] [[South Africa]], and began funding dissident movements behind the [[iron curtain]].
[[Image:Lucy-tom.jpg|thumb|right|215px|Mahmood (right) and Yousef performing at the second ''Friendly Violent Fun'' festival, ''FVF2''.]]
After the success of ''FVF'', there was much anticipation from the public for another concert of its kind. In response, Muijrers set out at the dawn of the new year to continue the festival's spirit with a second one to take place in a larger venue, host more bands, and contain a more elaborate light show. Over the course of a month, answers to the performance offers proved plentiful: nine bands had signed up to play at ''FVF2'' <ref name="TaD"/>, among them were heavy metal bands [[Backtorn]] and [[Bruttal]], and [[nu metal]] band [[All Good Children]]. In addition to Motör Militia, other performers from the first ''FVF'' included [[Dive (Bahraini band)|Dive]], [[Vulcan (band)|Vulcan]], and [[Illusions (band)|Illusions]].


Soros' philanthropic funding includes efforts to promote non-violent [[democratization]] in the [[post-Soviet states]]. These efforts, mostly in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]], occur primarily through the [[Open Society Institute]] (OSI) and national [[Soros Foundation]]s, which sometimes go under other names (such as the [[Stefan Batory Foundation]] in [[Poland]]). As of 2003, [[PBS]] estimated that he had given away a total of $4 billion.<ref name=pbs/> The OSI says it has spent about $400 million annually in recent years.
Although troubles initially arose in finding a venue to house such an event, Muijrers eventually settled with another large indoors venue located at the [[Al-Ahli (Manama)|Al-Ahli Club]] in [[Zinj, Bahrain]] that was normally used for traditional Arabic plays. In order to support the increased budget, Muijrers also involved [[Pepsico|Pepsi]] and [[Domino’s Pizza]] through [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/product-compint-0000928396-page.html Ahmadi Industries] to take part in the event. Strictly speaking, however, they did not sponsor the concert. Instead, they set up kiosks at the venue to sell food and beverages in exchange for a percentage of the profits.


''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine in 2007 cited two specific projects - $100 million toward [[Internet]] infrastructure for regional [[List of institutions of higher learning in Russia|Russian universities]]; and $50 million for the [[Millennium Promise]] to eradicate extreme poverty in Africa - while noting that Soros has given $742 million to projects in the U.S., and given away a total of more than $6 billion.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100powergivers/article/0,28804,1616375_1615711_1615683,00.html TIME 100, The Power Givers, George Soros, [[TIME Magazine]], May 14, 2007] accessed May 21, 2007 </ref>
After the date of [[February 19]], [[2004]] had been set, promotion for the event began. Once again, Yousef took it upon himself to design all the posters, fliers, tickets, and band passes - as he did for the first ''FVF'' <ref name="HaH" />.


Other notable projects have included aid to scientists and universities throughout Central and Eastern Europe, help to civilians during the [[siege of Sarajevo]], and [[Transparency International]]. Soros also pledged an endowment of €420 million to the [[Central European University]] (CEU). The [[Nobel Peace Prize]] winner, [[Muhammad Yunus]] and his [[microfinance]] bank [[Grameen Bank]] received support from the OSI.
While the concert was heavily promoted by fliers distributed throughout the country in addition to word of mouth, it ended up yielding only about 800 people by the time the concert finished--about half of what the first ''FVF'' had achieved. The primary reason for this was that the concert had taken place on the same day as a free [[Formula One]] [[drag racing|drag race]] event, in promotion of the F1 races that were happening later in the year, that attracted many of the freelancing attendants that day.
[[Image:Image(05).jpg|thumb|left|175px|The group performing at ''FVF2''.]]
Regardless of the attendance turnout, Motör Militia drew in many of the concert goers as one of the event's headliners. Their set list further established their presence in Bahrain, performing more songs that other groups had never attempted, such as [[Slayer]]'s "[[Seasons in the Abyss|War Ensemble]]", [[Pantera]]'s "[[Cowboys from Hell|Domination]]", and a mash-up of [[Metallica]]'s "[[The Four Horsemen (song)|The Four Horsemen]]" and [[Megadeth]]'s "[[The Mechanix]]" retitled to "The Four Mechanix" - its music was identical to [[The Mechanix]] while it used [[The Four Horsemen (song)|The Four Horsemen]]'s lyrics.


According to ''[[National Review]]''<ref>York, Byron, [http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200502170843.asp Soros Funded Stewart Defense], ''National Review Online'', accessed February 7, 2007 </ref> the Open Society Institute gave $20,000 in September 2002 to the Defense Committee of [[Lynne Stewart]], the lawyer who has defended alleged terrorists in court and was sentenced to 2⅓ years in prison for "providing material support for a terrorist conspiracy" via a press conference for a client. An OSI spokeswoman said "it appeared to us at that time that there was a right-to-counsel issue worthy of our support."
A month later, in March 2004, the band performed with local [[hard rock]] groups [[Armageddon (Bahraini band)|Armageddon]] and [[Backtorn]] at a low key concert called ''Thrash on Ice'' - appropriately being held in the [http://www.funlandcentre.com Fun Land Center Ice Rink], located in [[Bahrain]]'s capital city, [[Manama]]. Their setlist was similar to what had been performed at ''FVF2'', and the group still managed to attract a large audience - despite the initially low turnout and small space that made up the attendance area separate from the actual ice rink.


In September 2006, Soros departed from his characteristic sponsorship of democracy building programs, pledging $50 million to the [[Jeffrey Sachs]]-led [[Millennium Promise]] to help eradicate extreme poverty in Africa. Noting the connection between bad governance and poverty, he remarked on the humanitarian value of the project.<ref>[http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/us/13soros.html Philanthropist Gives $50 Million to Help Aid the Poor in Africa]</ref>
==='Rock Issues' and a Record Deal (April 2004)===
By April 2004, the band had garnered a strong local following and was beginning to establish themselves in other Middle Eastern heavy metal scenes--thanks largely to substantial word of mouth and internet promotion. It was around this time that guitarist Yousef Hatlani found out about a Middle Eastern heavy metal website and community based in [[Saudi Arabia]] called [http://www.sametal.org/ SA Metal] and began talking to one of its founders, Kamal Khalil (known online as "sledge hammer"<ref name="SA">[http://sametal.org/eng/modules.php?name=FAQ&myfaq=yes&id_cat=1&categories=General]</ref>). [[Image:Motor militia34.jpg|thumb|right|135px|Motör Militia on stage at "Rock Issues", the night they were signed by [http://web.archive.org/web/20040615084459/http://sandstorms.cjb.net/ SandStorms Records].]]He eventually invited Kamal to "Rock Issues" - a local [[Bahrain]]i [[DIY]] gig occurring on April 22nd that was to be held in the performance venue of a [[Thai]] restaurant called [http://www.awalhotel.com/baan/private.html Baan Saeng Thai], where Motör Militia were one of the main performers of the night. He agreed to come and arranged to interview the band after the concert.


He received honorary doctoral degrees from the [[New School for Social Research]] (New York), the [[University of Oxford]] in 1980, the [[Corvinus University of Budapest]], and [[Yale University]] in 1991. Soros also received the Yale International Center for Finance Award from the [[Yale School of Management]] in 2000 as well as the Laurea Honoris Causa, the highest honor of the [[University of Bologna]] in 1995.
Kamal arrived at the gig with other people associated with the website, watched the band perform, and went through with the interview. Impressed with their unique set list and stage presence, he also shed light on an independent record label he was starting named [http://web.archive.org/web/20040615084459/http://sandstorms.cjb.net/ SandStorms Records] and that he was interested in signing them. The band agreed to the proposition and were soon being promoted online by Kamal's website, eventually landing interviews with various online Indie Heavy Metal [[zine]]s.


===Political donations===
The following week, the band performed at another gig called "The Underground Asylum" that was being held in the same venue. Due to feeling confined to playing only [[Thrash metal]], live guitarist Salem Sulaibikh suddenly quit the band a week after that with an interest in forming his own group that would put more of an emphasis on [[Power metal]].


In an interview with ''[[The Washington Post]]'' on November 11, 2003,<ref name=deeppockets>Laura Blumenfeld, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24179-2003Nov10?language=printerSoros's Deep Pockets vs. Bush, Financier Contributes $5 Million More in Effort to Oust President], [[Washington Post]], November 11, 2003; Page A03 </ref> Soros said that removing President [[George W. Bush]] from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death." He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, "if someone guaranteed it", and many continue to state this as Soros's position even after Soros clarified the statement in a Q&A session at the end of his March 3, 2004 address to California's [[Commonwealth Club]].
===Allegations of Satanism in Bahraini Media (April - May 2004)===
Many [[Bahrain]]i heavy metal bands came under fire in late April 2004 when local publication the [[Gulf Daily News]] began writing a series of articles that accused local rock concerts of being covers for [[satanic rituals]]<ref name="HaH" /><ref name="DT" /><ref name="BM1">[http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=52332 BLABBERMOUTH.NET - Bahraini Metal Concert Organizers Affected by 'Devil Worship' Claims<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name="BM2">[http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=22158 BLABBERMOUTH.NET - Bahraini Politician: Satanists Are Staging Rock Concerts As A Cover For Devil Worship<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>.
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:GDN articles.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Left, the first [[Gulf Daily News]] article published on April 23rd, and right, the second one published two and a half weeks later.]] -->


Soros gave $3 million to the [[Center for American Progress]], committed $5 million to [[MoveOn]], while he and his friend [[Peter Lewis]] each gave [[America Coming Together]] $10 million. (All were groups that worked to support Democrats in the [[U.S. presidential election, 2004|2004 election]].) On [[September 28]], 2004 he dedicated more money to the campaign and kicked off his own multi-state tour with a speech: ''Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bush''<ref>[http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0928-16.htm Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bush]</ref> delivered at the [[National Press Club (USA)|National Press Club]] in Washington, DC. The online transcript to this speech received many hits after [[Dick Cheney]] accidentally referred to [[FactCheck|FactCheck.org]] as "factcheck.com" in the Vice Presidential debate, causing the owner of that domain to redirect all traffic to Soros's site.<ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2107809/ Cheney Drops the Ball]</ref>
The first of the articles was published the day after the "Rock Issues" concert took place. It claimed that members of the audience "danced until they were drunk with hysteria"<ref name="BM1"/>, despite the fact that no alcohol was served at the event<ref name="BM1"/>. It continued by saying that the police had attempted to shut down the concert but were unable to catch its attendants, who supposedly ran away. This also did not happen, as Motör Militia were scheduled to be among the last performers of the night, and the concert was still going on by the time they took the stage and after they ended their set. Furthermore, the interview with the band conducted by [http://www.sametal.org/ SA Metal] immediately after the concert did not indicate any altercations with the police<ref name="SAm">[http://web.archive.org/web/20040821125445/www.metalprovider.com/sametal/MM.htm interviews<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>.


Soros was not a large donor to US political causes until the [[U.S. presidential election, 2004]], but according to the Center for Responsive Politics, during the 2003-2004 election cycle, Soros donated $23,581,000 to various [[527 Group]]s dedicated to defeating President Bush. Despite Soros' efforts, Bush was reelected to a second term as president in [[U.S. presidential election, 2004]].
An article published two and a half weeks later revealed that the source of these claims was [[Bahrain]]i [[Member of Parliament|MP]] [[Mohammed Khalid]]<ref name="BM1"/>, who said he had secret meetings with two anonymous upper class [[Bahrain]]i's "who admitted to him that they worship the devil"<ref name="BM2"/> and also disclosed the activities that listeners of heavy metal participate in. The article claimed that acts included "screaming in cemeteries" and not bathing for a week before a concert is held<ref name="gdn">[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/GDN_articles.jpg]</ref>. A [[Blabbermouth]] article further revealed that the list of alleged acts included "perverted sex"<ref name="BM2"/> and the consumption of alcohol<ref name="BM2"/>, which is forbidden in [[Islam]]. It also claimed that they kidnap and murder little children<ref name="BM2"/>. The organizer of "Rock Issues", identified as Mohammed Ishaq - then also the drummer for local rock band [[Music of Bahrain|Illusions]], denied all claims, and added that "such allegations do a lot of harm to innocent people"<ref name="BM1"/>.


After Bush's reelection in 2004, Soros and other wealthy liberal political donors backed a new political fundraising group called [[Democracy Alliance]] which aims to support the goals of the U.S. Democratic Party.<ref>http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/FW1206.pdf</ref><ref>{{web cite|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/16/AR2006071600882_pf.html|title=New Alliance Of Democrats Spreads Funding
The stories quickly spread to various other Bahraini newspapers, including [[Akhbar Al Khaleej]], attempting to raise awareness on such activities throughout the Middle East. This chain of events swiftly made organizing rock and heavy metal concerts a much more difficult task than before, something that has hampered the [[Music of Bahrain|Bahraini heavy metal community]] even to this day<ref name="HaH" />. Yousef explained in November 2006 that there is now nothing abnormal with someone from the [[Bahrain]]i [http://www.bahraintourism.com/ Ministry of Tourism ] arriving at a heavy metal concert, "looking around, turning the house lights on and telling everyone that the show is over"<ref name="HaH" />.
|accessdate=2006-07-17 }}</ref>


Soros has been criticized for his large donations, as he also pushed for the [[Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act]] of 2002 which was intended to ban "soft money" contributions to federal election campaigns. Soros has responded that his donations to unaffiliated organizations do not raise the same corruption issues as donations directly to the candidates or political parties.
==='The Sound of Violence' (June - July 2004)===
''Main article [[The Sound of Violence (album)]]''


[[Harken Energy]], a firm partly owned by Soros, did business with George W. Bush in 1986 by buying his oil company, [[Spectrum 7]].
With a record deal in place and a growing fan base, the band made the decision to perform mostly original songs and keep covers at a minimum <ref name="TaD"/>. After performing in mid-May as a three piece at the Third annual Ibn Khuldoon Talent Show, Motör Militia started work in early June to write and rehearse more new material for the recording of an album. Quickly, the songs were written and reworked over the course of about two weeks. The group then compiled both their new and old material and booked time in a small recording studio located in an Industrial district of [[Bahrain]] named Salmabad, provided by a local sound & lights company called Hilwan.


His book, ''The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of The War on Terror'', was published in June
Reflecting their [[DIY]] ethics, the album was recorded with few overdubs and in roughly the same order as on the record - with all of the music recorded live in the studio in about three five-hour sessions (the vocals and guitar solos were recorded in separate sessions). Similar to what he had done for concerts in the past, Yousef designed all artwork for the album. The band financed the production themselves, while their record label kept promoting them online.
2006.<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2006/06/23/soros-billionaires-bush-cz_mm_0623bookreview.html Book review at Forbes.com]</ref>


====Activities in Eastern Europe====
More recently, however, Muijrers and Yousef have noted that they have always been disappointed with the production of the album and that the band would like to remaster it, given the opportunity <ref name="HaH" />.


According to [[Neil Clark (journalist)|Neil Clark]] (writing in the ''[[New Statesman]]''):
===Friendly Violent Fun 3 (July 2004)===
==='The Dark Reign' and hiatus (July 2005)===
''Main article [[The Dark Reign]]''


{{quote|(t)he conventional view, shared by many on the left, is that [[socialism]] collapsed in eastern Europe because of its systemic weaknesses and the political elite's failure to build popular support.
==='The PsT Tour'(Play Station Tripple Tour)and hiatus (July 2008)===
It is also said that Motor Militia is associated with Chadwarden in his "Pstripple" world tour. Which started on July 1 2008. The tour which involves playing "Wayo Ware Shuve it up ur ass gayme" and the speech of " aint talkin about dat wii shieet" was a three days tour which they went to the tanoor. They taught people how to see them "anaksha" and how to go "ma gay".


That may be partly true, but Soros's role was crucial. From 1979, he distributed $3m a year to dissidents including Poland's [[Solidarity]] movement, [[Charter 77]] in Czechoslovakia and [[Andrei Sakharov]] in the [[Soviet Union]]. In 1984, he founded his first [[Open Society Institute]] in Hungary and pumped millions of dollars into opposition movements and independent media|{{cite web | url = http://www.newstatesman.com/200306020019 | title = Soros Profile | publisher = the [[New Statesman]] | first = Neil | last = Clark | accessdate = 2007-06-06 }}}}
==Current status==
On September 5th, 2007, [[Singing|vocalist]] and [[Bassist]] Mahmood Abdul Ghaffar announced on his message board that he and [[drummer]] Abdulla Muijrers were getting back together to rejuvenate Motör Militia and begin songwriting on a new record to be titled ''"[[Al Nakba]]"''.<ref name="MM4">[http://www.moodymood.net/vb/showthread.php?t=166 The militia is back in business - .:: Moody Mood ::<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> [[Guitarist]] Yousef Hatlani assumed the position of the band's webmaster, and put up the band's first [http://www.myspace.com/motormilitiaband MySpace page] a day later. Due to the fact that Yousef still lives overseas in [[the United States]], the group will perform live with session musicians for the time being. However, he confirmed in the same announcement that he does still play guitar in the band and may record with the rest of the group by sending tracks over the Internet.


Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Soros' funding has continued to play an important role in the former Soviet sphere. His funding and organization of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia's]] [[Rose Revolution]] was considered crucial to its success by Russian and Western observers, although Soros has said that his role has been "greatly exaggerated."<ref>[http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/5/31/164945.shtml]</ref> [[Alexander Lomaia]], Secretary of the Georgian Security Council and former Minister of Education and Science, is a former Executive Director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation ([[Soros Foundation]],) overseeing a staff of 50 and a budget of $2,500,000.<ref>[http://www.oecd.org/document/49/0,2340,en_21571361_36507471_37001521_1_1_1_1,00.html]</ref>
As of yet, Mahmood is currently a student at the [[American University]] of [[Sharjah (city)|Sharjah]] - though he is in [[Bahrain]] until Winter Quarter begins in January. Muijrers is also currently living in the country, while Yousef is in [[Oregon]] studying at [[Portland State University]].<ref name="HaH" />.


Former Georgian Foreign Minister [[Salomé Zourabichvili]] wrote:
Nowadays, Mahmood also runs a message board called [http://www.moodymood.net/ Moody Mood.net], which sets out to inform users about the truths of Islam that he feels are misrepresented in Western media <ref name="MM2">[http://www.moodymood.net/vb/showthread.php?t=2 Al Salam Alyykum (peace be upon you) - .:: Moody Mood ::<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. He started the website after finding his faith in Islam again, stating that he considers himself "a true Muslim"<ref name="MM3">[http://www.moodymood.net/vb/showthread.php?t=32 Moody Mood's Epiphany - .:: Moody Mood ::<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. Muijrers additionally plays drums in a band called [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=179468026 Pangea], and their music can be found on MySpace.
{{quotation|These institutions were the cradle of democratisation, notably the Soros Foundation … all the NGOs which gravitate around the Soros Foundation undeniably carried the revolution. However, one cannot end one’s analysis with the revolution and one clearly sees that, afterwards, the Soros Foundation and the NGOs were integrated into power.|Salomé Zourabichvili, ''Herodote'' (magazine of the [[French Institute for Geopolitics]], April, 2008}}


Some Soros-backed initiatives have been banned in [[Turkmenistan]] and [[Russia]]. [[Ercis Kurtulus]], head of the [[Social Transparency Movement Association]] (TSHD) in [[Turkey]], said in an interview that "Soros carried out his will in Ukraine and Georgia by using these NGOs...Last year Russia passed a special law prohibiting NGOs from taking money from foreigners. I think this should be banned in Turkey as well."<ref>[http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/fund/2006/1011puppets.htm]</ref> In 1997, Soros closed his foundation in [[Belarus]] after it was fined $3 million by the government for tax and currency violations. Soros called the fines part of a campaign to "destroy independent society." <ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E0D91530F937A3575AC0A961958260]</ref>
==Members==
===Current members===
* Mahmood Abdul Ghaffar – [[Back up|vocals]], [[bass guitar|Bass]] (2001 – present)
* Yousef Hatlani – [[guitar]]s (2003 – present)
* Abdulla Muijrers – [[Drum kit|drums]] (2001 – present)
* Cha waden - [[ main Vocal ]] (2008 - Eternal)


===Former members===
====Activities in Africa====
* Amer BuHussain – [[guitar]]s (2001 – 2003)
* Khalifa Kamal – [[guitar]]s (2002 – 2003)
* Mohammed Bukannan – [[guitar]]s (March 2003 - June 2003)
* Salem Sulaibikh – [[guitar]]s (June 2003 - April 2004, July 2004)
* Yousif Mufeez – [[Session musician|Session]] [[Guitarist]] (July 2005)


The [[Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa]] is a Soros-affiliated organization.[http://www.osf.org.za/home/] Its director for [[Zimbabwe]] is Godfrey Kanyenze, who also directs the [[Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions]] (ZCTU), which was the main force behind the founding of the [[Movement for Democratic Change]], the principal indigenous organization promoting [[Regime change]] in Zimbabwe.
==Discography==
{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"
!'''Album Cover'''
!'''Date of Release'''
!'''Title'''
|-
|[[Image:Sound of Violence album cover.jpg|center|50px|]]
|July 22, 2004
|''[[The Sound of Violence (album)|The Sound of Violence]]''
|-
|
|Unreleased
|''[[The Dark Reign]]''
|-
|}


====Drug liberalization====
==References==
<div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
<references/>
</div>


Soros has funded worldwide efforts to promote [[Drug liberalization]]. In 2008, Soros funded a ballot measure in the state of [[Massachusetts]] to decriminalize [[marijuana]] possession known as the [[Massachusetts Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative]]. Of the $429,000 raised to promote the measure in 2007, Soros donated $400,000. Soros has also funded similar measures in California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada and Maine. <ref>LeBlanc, Steve, [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hQsksgZ-IN6nYS3jJ2NcqpufBlLgD92QQPS00 Soros behind Mass. effort to decriminalize pot], Associated Press, August 27, 2008</ref> Among the drug decriminalization groups that have received funding from Soros are the [[Lindesmith Center]] and [[Drug Policy Foundation]].<ref>[http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4416 http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4416], National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws</ref>
==External links==
===Official===
* [http://www.myspace.com/motormilitiaband Official MySpace Page]


===More Information===
====Death and dying====

* [http://www.tartareandesire.com/bands/motormilitia.html Tartareandesire.com Band Biography]
The Project on Death in America, active from 2001-2003, was one of the Open Society Institute's projects, which sought to "understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement."<ref>[http://www.soros.org/death Project on Death in America]</ref> In 1994, Soros delivered a speech in which he reported that he offered to help his mother, a member of the [[Hemlock Society]], commit suicide.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010622072255/http://www.soros.org/death/george_soros.htm]</ref> In the same speech, he also endorsed the [[Oregon Death with Dignity Act]],<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20020325032428/www.soros.org/death/george_soros3.htm]</ref> the campaign for which he helped fund.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_n20_v124/ai_20520550]</ref>
* [http://lelahelwebsite.chez-alice.fr/motormilitia.htm Lelahel Metal's Band Biography]

====Gun control====
Directly and through his organization Open Society Institute (OSI), he has funded various gun control organizations, such as the [[Tides Foundation]], the HELP Network and [[SAFE Colorado]]. He and seven friends founded their own political committee — ''Campaign for a Progressive Future'' — and spent $2 million on political activities in 2000, including providing the prime financial backing for the [[Million Mom March]]. OSI has supported UN efforts to create international gun control regulations and has singled out the United States for refusing to go along with other countries on international gun control measures.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}

==Philosophy==
{{Unreferencedsection|date=January 2008}}
=== Education and beliefs ===
Soros has a keen interest in [[philosophy]], and his philosophical outlook is largely influenced by [[Karl Popper]], under whom he studied at the [[London School of Economics]]. His Open Society Institute is named after Popper's two volume work, ''[[The Open Society and Its Enemies]]'', and Soros's ongoing philosophical commitment to the principle of [[fallibilism]] (that anything he believes may in fact be wrong, and is therefore to be questioned and improved) stems from Popper's philosophy. Some critics{{who}} argue that Soros' static political beliefs appear to conflict with the critical rationalism espoused by Popper, though Soros argues that these beliefs were arrived at through such rationalism. Soros does not consider himself religious, and has stated that he does not believe in God.<ref>Steve Kroft: Are you a religious man? Soros: No. Kroft: Do you believe in God? Soros: No. ''60 Minutes'', broadcast [[December 20]], [[1998]].</ref>

=== Reflexivity, financial markets, and economic theory ===
Soros' writings focus heavily on the concept of [[reflexivity (social theory)|reflexivity]], where the biases of individuals enter into market transactions, potentially changing the fundamentals of the economy. Soros argues that such transitions in the fundamentals of the economy are typically marked by disequilibrium rather than equilibrium, and that the conventional economic theory of the market (the '[[efficient market hypothesis]]') does not apply in these situations. Soros has popularized the concepts of ''dynamic disequilibrium'', ''static disequilibrium'', and ''near-equilibrium'' conditions.<ref name="A" />

Reflexivity is based on three main ideas<ref name="A" />:
# Reflexivity is best observed under special conditions where investor bias grows and spreads throughout the investment arena. Examples of factors that may give rise to this bias include (a) equity leveraging or (b) the trend-following habits of speculators.
# Reflexivity appears intermittently since it is most likely to be revealed under certain conditions; i.e., the equilibrium process's character is best considered in terms of probabilities.
# Investors' observation of and participation in the capital markets may at times influence valuations AND fundamental conditions or outcomes.

A current example of reflexivity in modern financial markets is that of the debt and equity of housing markets. Lenders began to make more money available to more people in the 1990s to buy houses. More people bought houses with this larger amount of money, thus increasing the prices of these houses. Lenders looked at their balance sheets which not only showed that they had made more loans, but that their equity backing the loans--the value of the houses, had gone up (because more money was chasing the same amount of housing, relatively). Thus they lent out more money because their balance sheets looked good, and prices went up more, and they lent more, etc. Prices increased rapidly, and lending standards were relaxed. The salient issue regarding reflexivity is that it explains why markets gyrate over time, and do not just stick to equilibrium--they tend to overshoot or undershoot.<ref name="A" />

=== View of potential problems in the free market system ===
Despite working as an investor and currency speculator, he argues that the current system of financial speculation undermines healthy economic development in many underdeveloped countries. Soros blames many of the world's problems on the failures inherent in what he characterizes as [[market fundamentalism]]. His opposition to many aspects of globalization has made him a controversial figure.

[[Victor Niederhoffer]] said of Soros: "Most of all, George believed even then in a [[mixed economy]], one with a strong central international government to correct for the excesses of self-interest."

Soros claims to draw a distinction between being a participant in the market and working to change the rules that market participants must follow.

In an interview regarding the [[economic crisis of 2008]], Soros referred to it as the most serious crisis since the 1930s. According to Soros, market fundamentalism with its assumption that markets will correct themselves with no need for government intervention in financial affairs has been “some kind of an ideological excess”. In Soros´ view, the markets´ moods — a “mood” of the markets being a prevailing bias or optimism/pessimism with which the markets look at reality — “actually can reinforce themselves so that there are these initially self-reinforcing but eventually unsustainable and self-defeating boom/bust sequences or bubbles”.<ref>Bill Moyers Journal, George Soros on the financial crisis, published October 10, 2008, at <nowiki>http://odeo.com</nowiki>, [http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10102008/transcript1.html full transcript] and [http://odeo.com/episodes/23475214-George-Soros-on-the-financial-crisis podcast]</ref>

===Views on antisemitism===
At a Jewish forum in [[New York City]], Soros partially attributed a recent resurgence of [[antisemitism]] to the policies of Israel and the United States, and to successful Jews such as himself:<blockquote>
There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and the [[Ariel Sharon|Sharon]] administration contribute to that. It's not specifically anti-Semitism, but it does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well. I'm critical of those policies... If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish. I can't see how one could confront it directly... I'm also very concerned about my own role because the new anti-Semitism holds that the Jews rule the world... As an [[unintended consequence]] of my actions... I also contribute to that image.<ref>[http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13428 jta.org]</ref>
</blockquote>
In a subsequent article for the ''[[New York Review of Books]]'', Soros emphasized that<blockquote>
I do not subscribe to the myths propagated by enemies of Israel and I am not blaming Jews for anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism predates the birth of Israel. Neither Israel's policies nor the critics of those policies should be held responsible for anti-Semitism. At the same time, I do believe that attitudes toward Israel are influenced by Israel's policies, and attitudes toward the Jewish community are influenced by the pro-Israel lobby's success in suppressing divergent views.<ref>Soros, George. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20030 "On Israel, America and AIPAC."] ''New York Review of Books'', April 12, 2007.</ref>
</blockquote>

==Books==
===Authored or co-authored===
*''The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means'' (PublicAffairs, 2008) ISBN 978-1586486839
*''The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror'' (PublicAffairs, 2006) ISBN 1-58648-359-1
*With MoveOn.org,'' MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change'' Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004 ISBN 1-930722-29-X
*''The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power'' (PublicAffairs, 2003) ISBN 1-58643-217-3 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2004; ISBN 1-58648-292-0)
*''George Soros on Globalization'' (PublicAffairs, 2002) ISBN 1-58648-125-8 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2005; ISBN 1-52648-278-5)
*''Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism'' (PublicAffairs, 2001) ISBN 1-58648-039-7
*With Mark Amadeus Notturno, ''Science and the Open Society: The Future of Karl Popper's Philosophy'' (Central European University Press, 2000) ISBN 963-9116-69-6 (paperback: Central European University Press, 2000; ISBN 943-9116-70-X)
*''The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered'' (PublicAffairs, 1998) ISBN 1-891220-27-4
*''Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve'' (John Wiley, 1995) ISBN 0-471-12014-6 (paperback; Wiley, 1995; ISBN 0-371-11977-6)
*''Underwriting Democracy: Encouraging Free Enterprise and Democratic Reform Among the Soviets and in Eastern Europe'' (Free Press, 1991) ISBN 0-02-930285-4 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2004; ISBN 1-58948-227-0)
*''Opening the Soviet System'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990) ISBN 0-297-82155-9 (paperback: Perseus Books, 1996; ISBN 0-8133-1205-1)
*''The Alchemy of Finance'' (Simon & Schuster, 1988) ISBN 0-671-66338-4 (paperback: Wiley, 2003; ISBN 0-471-44549-5)

===Biographies===
*''Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire'' by Michael T. Kaufman (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) ISBN 0-375-40585-2
*''Soros: The Unauthorized Biography, the Life, Times and Trading Secrets of the World's Greatest Investor'' by Robert Slater (McGraw-Hill, 1997) ISBN 0-7863-1247-5

== Journalism ==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:TimeCoverSoros090197.jpg|right|thumb|''Time'' magazine cover, September 1, 1997 reading "Saint George and his unlikely crusades"]] -->
===Authored===
*George Soros, [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20030 On Israel, America and AIPAC], New York Review of Books, April 12, 2007.
*George Soros, [http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/03/13/200303130033.asp ''The Bubble of American Supremacy''], [[The Korea Herald]], March 12, 2003.
*George Soros, ''[http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm The Bubble of American Supremacy]'', [[Atlantic Monthly]], December 2003.
*George Soros, [http://assistivemedia.org/politics_and_public_issues/the_bubble_of_american_suprema.html ''The Bubble of American Supremacy''], audio recording of the Atlantic Monthly article via ''Assistive Media'', read by Grover Gardner, 18 minutes.
*George Soros [http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/stop-imf/2002q3/000687.html ''Soros on Brazil''], Financial Times, Aug 13, 2002.
*George Soros, [http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/4135.html ''Bitter Thoughts with Faith in Russia''], Moskovsky Novosti (Moscow News), translated from the Russian by Olga Kryazheva, February 27, 2000.
*George Soros, [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/soros.htm ''The Capitalist Threat''], Atlantic Monthly, February 1997

===About===
*Stephen Adams [http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/coverstory/a0033418.cfm "Furious George"] on Citizen - Family Issues in Policy and Culture
*John Authers, [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/304f1e6e-253b-11dd-a14a-000077b07658,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F304f1e6e-253b-11dd-a14a-000077b07658.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=&nclick_check=1 Book Review], "A successful prophet of the markets," [[Financial Times]], May 19 2008.
*Laura Blumenfeld, ''[http://www.msnbc.com/news/991865.asp?vts=111120030842&cp1=1 Billionaire Soros Takes On Bush]'', MSNBC, November 11, 2003
*Neil Clark [http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/2003/George-Soros-Statesman2jun03.htm Analysis of Soros' role in Eastern Europe] from "New Statesman"
*James Dellinger and Matthew Vadum, [http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/FW1206.pdf "George Soros's Democracy Alliance: In Search Of A Permanent Democratic Majority,"] Foundation Watch, December 2006
*[[Malcolm Gladwell]], "Blowing Up," [[New Yorker Magazine]], April 22 & 29, 2002, at [http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_04_29_a_blowingup.htm gladwell.com].
*John Horvath [http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/1292/1.html The Soros Effect on Central and Eastern Europe]
*Matt Welch, ''[http://www.reason.com/links/links120803.shtml Open Season on 'Open Society': Why an anti-communist Holocaust survivor is being demonized as a Socialist, Self-hating Jew]'' [[Reason (magazine)|Reason]] magazine, December 8, 2003
*[[Martin Peretz]], "Tyran-a-Soros: The Madness of King George," [[The New Republic]], February 12, 2007.
*[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986206-7,00.html TIME's 25 Most Influential Americans, [[TIME Magazine]] April 21, 1997]. Accessed May 21, 2007.
*[http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100powergivers/article/0,28804,1616375_1615711_1615683,00.html The TIME 100, The Power Givers, George Soros, [[TIME Magazine]] May 14, 2007] accessed May 21, 2007.

=== Scholarly perspectives ===
*{{cite journal |last=Bryant |first=C. G. A. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2002 |month= |title=George Soros's theory of reflexivity: a comparison with the theories of Giddens and Beck and a consideration of its practical value |journal=Economy and Society |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=112-131 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote= }}
*{{cite journal |last=Cross |first=R. |authorlink= |coauthors=Strachan, D. |year=1997 |month= |title=On George Soros and economic analysis |journal=Kyklos |volume=50 |issue= |pages=561-574 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote= }}
*{{cite book |title=The Volatility Machine: Emerging Economies and the Threat of Financial Collapse |last=Pettis |first=Michael |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0195143302 |pages= }}
*{{cite journal |last=Stone |first=Diane |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2007 |month= |title=Market Principles, Philanthropic Ideals and Public Service Values: The Public Policy Program at the Central European University |journal=PS: Political Science and Politics |volume= |issue= |pages=545—551 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote= }}

===Speeches===
*[http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9809/msg00082.html Testimony of George Soros to a congressional sub-committee, Sept. 15, 1998]
*[http://www.geocities.com/ecocorner/intelarea/gs1.html The Theory of Reflexivity Delivered April 26, 1994 to the MIT Department of Economics World Economy]
*[http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/events2007.htm "The Differences Between Natural and Social Science: Implications of Fallibility" at IISc Bangalore, January 5, 2007]

===Commentaries===
*[http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributors/contributor_comm.php4?id=27 George Soros' op/ed commentaries] for [[Project Syndicate]]


===Interviews===
===Interviews===
*[http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/06/12/segments/61077 The Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC) - Audio Archive: "George Soros on Freedom"]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20040821125445/www.metalprovider.com/sametal/MM.htm April 2004 Interview with SA Metal]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crash/interviews/soros.html frontline: the crash: interviews: george soros]
*[http://www.geocities.com/dtinterviews5/motormilitia1.htm June 2004 Interview with Death Thrasher Magazine]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wsw/tvprogram/sorosinterview.html Wall $treet Week with FORTUNE . TV Program | PBS]
*[http://geocities.com/headbangerzine/interviews/motor.htm August 2004 Interview with Headbanger Zine]
*[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1093/is_2_42/ai_54259871 Challenge: The international financial crisis - International ...]
*[http://www.moodymood.net/vb/showthread.php?t=311 November 2006 Interview with Hard and Heavy.net]
*[http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_soros.html NOW with Bill Moyers. Transcript. David Brancaccio interviews ...]
*[http://www.booknotes.org/Program/?ProgramID=1769 Booknotes with Brian Lamb. Transcript and streaming video.]
*[http://www.rocketboom.com/soros Rocketboom: The Age of Fallibility (Video, 2006)]
*[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6150320548187842685 Google Video: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google interviews George Soros (Video, 2006)]
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,218233,00.html Fox News Interview with Neil Cavuto, October 11, 2006] Video and text, accessed May 25, 2007.
*[http://imyo.com/component/content/article/10-interview-george-soros.html Interview with George Soros, September 5, 2000]

== References ==

{{reflist|2}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote|George Soros}}
*[http://georgesoros.com/ George Soros official site and blog]
*[http://www.soros.org/ Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations Network]
*[http://campus.fortunecity.com/pot/832/articles.html List of articles and speeches by and about George Soros]
*[http://www.campaignmoney.com/biography/george_soros.asp George Soros' Political Campaign Contributions]
*[http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2004/LIR.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&uniqueId=L9II&datatype=Person Forbes.com: Forbes 400 Richest in America]
*[http://www.stockpickr.com/port/George-Soros/ George Soros's current stock holdings]
*[http://www.livermorereport.com/blogs/georgesoros/ George Soros in SEC Filings]
*[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/10/18/041018fa_fact3?currentPage=1 The Money Man - New Yorker]
*[http://www.aworldtowin.net/reviews/SorosParadigm.html In depth review of The New Paradigm]
*[http://www.tickerspy.com/member.php?mid=-1029160&pid=-1 Soros Funds most recent holdings]

<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->

{{Persondata
|NAME= Soros, George
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Schwartz, György
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[speculator]], [[investor]], [[philanthropist]], [[political activist]]
|DATE OF BIRTH= [[August 12]], [[1930]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]]
|DATE OF DEATH=
|PLACE OF DEATH=
}}


{{Lifetime|1930||Soros, George}}
===Related Links===
[[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics]]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20040615084459/http://sandstorms.cjb.net/ SandStorms Records' old web page, via Archive.org]
[[Category:American Jews]]
[[Category:American billionaires]]
[[Category:American money managers]]
[[Category:American philanthropists]]
[[Category:Hedge fund managers]]
[[Category:Hungarian-Americans]]
[[Category:Hungarian Jews]]
[[Category:Insider trading]]
[[Category:American liberal activists]]
[[Category:People from Budapest]]
[[Category:Religious skeptics]]
[[Category:Stock traders]]
[[Category:Esperanto native speakers]]


[[ar:جورج سوروس]]
[[Category:Rock music groups]]
[[bs:George Soros]]
[[Category:Heavy metal musical groups]]
[[bg:Джордж Сорос]]
[[Category:Thrash metal musical groups]]
[[cs:George Soros]]
[[Category:2000s music groups]]
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Revision as of 00:05, 13 October 2008

George Soros
George Soros speaking in Malaysia
Born (1930-08-12) August 12, 1930 (age 93)
Occupation(s)speculator, investor, philanthropist, political activist
Spouse(s)Twice divorced (Annaliese Witschak and Susan Weber Soros)
ChildrenRobert, Andrea, Jonathan, Alexander, Gregory
Websitewww.georgesoros.com

George Soros (Template:PronEng or /ˈsɔrəs/,[2] Hungarian IPA: [ˈʃoroʃ]) (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, as György Schwartz) is a Hungarian-born American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist.[3]

Soros is famously known for "breaking the Bank of England" on Black Wednesday in 1992. With an estimated current net worth of around $9 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 99th-richest person in the world.[1]

Currently, Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. According to his own website, Soros claims his support for the Solidarity labor movement in Poland, as well as the Czechoslovak human rights organization Charter 77, contributed to ending Soviet Union political dominance in those countries.[4] His funding and organization of Georgia's Rose Revolution was considered by Russian and Western observers to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role has been "greatly exaggerated." In the United States, he is known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush's bid for re-election in 2004. On BookTV, November 12, 2007, he said that he supports Barack Obama for the Democratic candidate in the 2008 election.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker wrote in 2003 in the foreword of Soros' book The Alchemy of Finance:

George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. The bulk of his enormous winnings is now devoted to encouraging transitional and emerging nations to become 'open societies,' open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but - more important - tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.

Biography

Family

George Soros is the son of the Esperantist writer Teodoro Schwartz. Teodoro (also known as Tivadar) was a Hungarian Jew, who was a prisoner of war during and after World War II and eventually escaped from Russia to rejoin his family in Budapest.[5][page needed]

The family changed its name in 1936 from Schwartz to Soros, in response to growing anti-semitism with the rise of Fascism. Tivadar liked the new name because it is a palindrome and because it has a meaning. Although the specific meaning is left unstated in Kaufmann's biography, in Hungarian, "soros" means "next in line, or designated successor", and in Esperanto, it means "will soar".[6] His son George was taught to speak Esperanto from birth and thus is one of the rare native Esperanto speakers. George Soros later said that he "grew up in a Jewish home", and that his parents were "cautious with their religious roots".[7] However, Soros's father was proud of his Jewish roots (which can be seen in his memoir on his experiences during the holocaust, Masquerade).

George Soros has been married and divorced twice, to Annaliese Witschak, and to Susan Weber Soros. He has five children: Robert, Andrea, Jonathan (with his first wife, Annaliese); Alexander, Gregory (with his second wife, Susan). His elder brother Paul Soros, an engineer, is a well-known philanthropist, investor, and New York socialite.

Native Hungary, and move to England

Soros was thirteen years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany took military control over Hungary[8]. Soros worked for the Jewish Council for two days[5], which had been established during the Nazi occupation of Hungary to forcibly carry out Nazi and Hungarian government anti-Jewish measures. Soros later described this time to writer Michael Lewis:

The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper...It said report to the rabbi seminary at 9 a.m....And I was given this list of names. I took this piece of paper to my father. He instantly recognized it. This was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, "You deliver the slips of paper and tell the people that if they report they will be deported.[9]

To avoid his son's being apprehended by the Nazis, Soros's father paid a Ministry of Agriculture employee to have Soros spend the summer of 1944 living with him and posing as the godson. Young Soros had to hide his Jewishness even as the official was overseeing the confiscation of Jewish property.[10]

In the following year, Soros survived the battle of Budapest in which Soviet and Nazi forces fought house-to-house through the city. Soros first traded currencies during the Hungarian hyperinflation of 1945–1946.

In 1946, Soros escaped the Soviet occupation by participating in an Esperanto youth congress in the West.[citation needed]

Soros emigrated to England in 1947 and graduated from the London School of Economics in 1952. While a student of the philosopher Karl Popper, Soros funded himself by taking jobs as a railway porter and a waiter at Quaglino's restaurant where he was told that with hard work he might one day become head waiter. He also worked in a mannequin factory, but was fired for being too slow at putting on the heads. He eventually secured an entry-level position with London merchant bank Singer & Friedlander.

Move to the United States

In 1956 he moved to New York City, where he worked as an arbitrage trader with F. M. Mayer from 1956 to 1959 and as an analyst with Wertheim and Company from 1959 to 1963. Throughout this time, Soros developed a philosophy of "reflexivity" based on the ideas of Karl Popper. Reflexivity, as used by Soros, is the belief that the action of beholding the valuation of any market by its participants, affects said valuation of the market in a procyclical 'virtuous or vicious' circle.[11]

Soros realized, however, that he would not make any money from the concept of reflexivity until he went into investing on his own. He began to investigate how to deal in investments. From 1963 to 1973 he worked at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, where he attained the position of vice-president. Soros finally concluded that he was a better investor than he was a philosopher or an executive. In 1967 he persuaded the company to set up an offshore investment fund, First Eagle, for him to run; in 1969 the company founded a second fund for Soros, the Double Eagle hedge fund.[11]

When investment regulations restricted his ability to run the funds as he wished, he quit his position in 1973 and established a private investment company that eventually evolved into the Quantum Fund. He has stated that his intent was to earn enough money on Wall Street to support himself as an author and philosopher - he calculated that $500,000 after five years would be possible and adequate. Five years later, his net worth reached an estimated $11 billion.[11]

He is also a former member of the Carlyle Group.[11]

Business

Soros is the founder of Soros Fund Management. In 1970 he co-founded the Quantum Fund with Jim Rogers. It returned 42.6% per year for the next ten years and created the bulk of the Soros fortune. Rogers retired from the fund in 1980. Other partners have included Victor Niederhoffer and Stanley Druckenmiller.

In late 2006, Soros bought about 2 million shares of Halliburton.[12]

In 2007, the Quantum Fund returned almost 32%, netting Soros $2.9 billion.[13]

Currency speculation

On Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), Soros became immediately famous when he sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds, profiting from the Bank of England's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency.

Finally, the Bank of England was forced to withdraw the currency out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and to devalue the pound sterling, and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England."

The Times of Monday, October 26, 1992, quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before the devaluation that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell."

According to Steven Drobny,[14] Stanley Druckenmiller, who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound. "Soros' contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position," in accord with Druckenmiller's own research and instincts.

In 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish ASEAN for welcoming Myanmar as a member. Later, he called Soros a moron.[15] Thai nationals have called Soros "an economic war criminal[16]" who "sucks the blood from the people".[17]

Public predictions

Soros' 2008 book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets, describes a "superbubble" that has built up over the past 25 years and is now ready to collapse. This is the third in a series of books he's written that have predicted disaster. As he states:

I have a record of crying wolf…. I did it first in The Alchemy of Finance (in 1987), then in The Crisis of Global Capitalism (in 1998) and now in this book. So it's three books predicting disaster. (After) the boy cried wolf three times . . . the wolf really came.[18]

He ascribes his own success to being able to recognize when his predictions are wrong.

I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong… I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes. I very often used to get backaches due to the fact that I was wrong. Whenever you are wrong you have to fight or [take] flight. When [I] make the decision, the backache goes away.[18]

Insider trading charges

In 1988, he was asked to join a takeover attempt of the French bank Société Générale. He declined to participate in the bid but did later buy a number of shares in the company. French authorities began an investigation in 1989, and in 2002 a French court ruled that it was insider trading as defined under French securities laws and fined him $2 million, which was the amount that he made using the insider information.

Punitive damages were not sought because of the delay in bringing the case to trial. Soros denied any wrongdoing and said news of the takeover was public knowledge.[19]

His insider trading conviction was upheld by the highest court in France on June 14 2006.[20] In December, 2006 he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that the 14 year delay in bringing the case to trial precluded a fair hearing.[21]

Sports

In 2005, Soros joined a group of investors seeking to buy the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball's National League. Although he was only a minority partner, some Republican lawmakers suggested that they might tamper with baseball's antitrust exemption if Soros had any interest at all in any baseball team, including the Nationals.[22] Ultimately, real estate magnate Ted Lerner was selected as the new owner, though baseball stressed that political pressure was not a factor. In 2008, Soros' name was associated with AS Roma, the Italian soccer team. Some speculated that he had bought the club from the Sensi family. However, despite offers by the American businessman, the club was not sold.

Philanthropy

George Soros (left) and James H. Billington.

Soros has been active as a philanthropist since the 1970s, when he began providing funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa, and began funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain.

Soros' philanthropic funding includes efforts to promote non-violent democratization in the post-Soviet states. These efforts, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, occur primarily through the Open Society Institute (OSI) and national Soros Foundations, which sometimes go under other names (such as the Stefan Batory Foundation in Poland). As of 2003, PBS estimated that he had given away a total of $4 billion.[19] The OSI says it has spent about $400 million annually in recent years.

Time magazine in 2007 cited two specific projects - $100 million toward Internet infrastructure for regional Russian universities; and $50 million for the Millennium Promise to eradicate extreme poverty in Africa - while noting that Soros has given $742 million to projects in the U.S., and given away a total of more than $6 billion.[23]

Other notable projects have included aid to scientists and universities throughout Central and Eastern Europe, help to civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, and Transparency International. Soros also pledged an endowment of €420 million to the Central European University (CEU). The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus and his microfinance bank Grameen Bank received support from the OSI.

According to National Review[24] the Open Society Institute gave $20,000 in September 2002 to the Defense Committee of Lynne Stewart, the lawyer who has defended alleged terrorists in court and was sentenced to 2⅓ years in prison for "providing material support for a terrorist conspiracy" via a press conference for a client. An OSI spokeswoman said "it appeared to us at that time that there was a right-to-counsel issue worthy of our support."

In September 2006, Soros departed from his characteristic sponsorship of democracy building programs, pledging $50 million to the Jeffrey Sachs-led Millennium Promise to help eradicate extreme poverty in Africa. Noting the connection between bad governance and poverty, he remarked on the humanitarian value of the project.[25]

He received honorary doctoral degrees from the New School for Social Research (New York), the University of Oxford in 1980, the Corvinus University of Budapest, and Yale University in 1991. Soros also received the Yale International Center for Finance Award from the Yale School of Management in 2000 as well as the Laurea Honoris Causa, the highest honor of the University of Bologna in 1995.

Political donations

In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003,[26] Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death." He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, "if someone guaranteed it", and many continue to state this as Soros's position even after Soros clarified the statement in a Q&A session at the end of his March 3, 2004 address to California's Commonwealth Club.

Soros gave $3 million to the Center for American Progress, committed $5 million to MoveOn, while he and his friend Peter Lewis each gave America Coming Together $10 million. (All were groups that worked to support Democrats in the 2004 election.) On September 28, 2004 he dedicated more money to the campaign and kicked off his own multi-state tour with a speech: Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bush[27] delivered at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The online transcript to this speech received many hits after Dick Cheney accidentally referred to FactCheck.org as "factcheck.com" in the Vice Presidential debate, causing the owner of that domain to redirect all traffic to Soros's site.[28]

Soros was not a large donor to US political causes until the U.S. presidential election, 2004, but according to the Center for Responsive Politics, during the 2003-2004 election cycle, Soros donated $23,581,000 to various 527 Groups dedicated to defeating President Bush. Despite Soros' efforts, Bush was reelected to a second term as president in U.S. presidential election, 2004.

After Bush's reelection in 2004, Soros and other wealthy liberal political donors backed a new political fundraising group called Democracy Alliance which aims to support the goals of the U.S. Democratic Party.[29][30]

Soros has been criticized for his large donations, as he also pushed for the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 which was intended to ban "soft money" contributions to federal election campaigns. Soros has responded that his donations to unaffiliated organizations do not raise the same corruption issues as donations directly to the candidates or political parties.

Harken Energy, a firm partly owned by Soros, did business with George W. Bush in 1986 by buying his oil company, Spectrum 7.

His book, The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of The War on Terror, was published in June 2006.[31]

Activities in Eastern Europe

According to Neil Clark (writing in the New Statesman):

(t)he conventional view, shared by many on the left, is that socialism collapsed in eastern Europe because of its systemic weaknesses and the political elite's failure to build popular support. That may be partly true, but Soros's role was crucial. From 1979, he distributed $3m a year to dissidents including Poland's Solidarity movement, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union. In 1984, he founded his first Open Society Institute in Hungary and pumped millions of dollars into opposition movements and independent media

— Clark, Neil. "Soros Profile". the New Statesman. Retrieved 2007-06-06.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Soros' funding has continued to play an important role in the former Soviet sphere. His funding and organization of Georgia's Rose Revolution was considered crucial to its success by Russian and Western observers, although Soros has said that his role has been "greatly exaggerated."[32] Alexander Lomaia, Secretary of the Georgian Security Council and former Minister of Education and Science, is a former Executive Director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation (Soros Foundation,) overseeing a staff of 50 and a budget of $2,500,000.[33]

Former Georgian Foreign Minister Salomé Zourabichvili wrote:

These institutions were the cradle of democratisation, notably the Soros Foundation … all the NGOs which gravitate around the Soros Foundation undeniably carried the revolution. However, one cannot end one’s analysis with the revolution and one clearly sees that, afterwards, the Soros Foundation and the NGOs were integrated into power.

— Salomé Zourabichvili, Herodote (magazine of the French Institute for Geopolitics, April, 2008

Some Soros-backed initiatives have been banned in Turkmenistan and Russia. Ercis Kurtulus, head of the Social Transparency Movement Association (TSHD) in Turkey, said in an interview that "Soros carried out his will in Ukraine and Georgia by using these NGOs...Last year Russia passed a special law prohibiting NGOs from taking money from foreigners. I think this should be banned in Turkey as well."[34] In 1997, Soros closed his foundation in Belarus after it was fined $3 million by the government for tax and currency violations. Soros called the fines part of a campaign to "destroy independent society." [35]

Activities in Africa

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa is a Soros-affiliated organization.[8] Its director for Zimbabwe is Godfrey Kanyenze, who also directs the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which was the main force behind the founding of the Movement for Democratic Change, the principal indigenous organization promoting Regime change in Zimbabwe.

Drug liberalization

Soros has funded worldwide efforts to promote Drug liberalization. In 2008, Soros funded a ballot measure in the state of Massachusetts to decriminalize marijuana possession known as the Massachusetts Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative. Of the $429,000 raised to promote the measure in 2007, Soros donated $400,000. Soros has also funded similar measures in California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada and Maine. [36] Among the drug decriminalization groups that have received funding from Soros are the Lindesmith Center and Drug Policy Foundation.[37]

Death and dying

The Project on Death in America, active from 2001-2003, was one of the Open Society Institute's projects, which sought to "understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement."[38] In 1994, Soros delivered a speech in which he reported that he offered to help his mother, a member of the Hemlock Society, commit suicide.[39] In the same speech, he also endorsed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act,[40] the campaign for which he helped fund.[41]

Gun control

Directly and through his organization Open Society Institute (OSI), he has funded various gun control organizations, such as the Tides Foundation, the HELP Network and SAFE Colorado. He and seven friends founded their own political committee — Campaign for a Progressive Future — and spent $2 million on political activities in 2000, including providing the prime financial backing for the Million Mom March. OSI has supported UN efforts to create international gun control regulations and has singled out the United States for refusing to go along with other countries on international gun control measures.[citation needed]

Philosophy

Education and beliefs

Soros has a keen interest in philosophy, and his philosophical outlook is largely influenced by Karl Popper, under whom he studied at the London School of Economics. His Open Society Institute is named after Popper's two volume work, The Open Society and Its Enemies, and Soros's ongoing philosophical commitment to the principle of fallibilism (that anything he believes may in fact be wrong, and is therefore to be questioned and improved) stems from Popper's philosophy. Some critics[who?] argue that Soros' static political beliefs appear to conflict with the critical rationalism espoused by Popper, though Soros argues that these beliefs were arrived at through such rationalism. Soros does not consider himself religious, and has stated that he does not believe in God.[42]

Reflexivity, financial markets, and economic theory

Soros' writings focus heavily on the concept of reflexivity, where the biases of individuals enter into market transactions, potentially changing the fundamentals of the economy. Soros argues that such transitions in the fundamentals of the economy are typically marked by disequilibrium rather than equilibrium, and that the conventional economic theory of the market (the 'efficient market hypothesis') does not apply in these situations. Soros has popularized the concepts of dynamic disequilibrium, static disequilibrium, and near-equilibrium conditions.[11]

Reflexivity is based on three main ideas[11]:

  1. Reflexivity is best observed under special conditions where investor bias grows and spreads throughout the investment arena. Examples of factors that may give rise to this bias include (a) equity leveraging or (b) the trend-following habits of speculators.
  2. Reflexivity appears intermittently since it is most likely to be revealed under certain conditions; i.e., the equilibrium process's character is best considered in terms of probabilities.
  3. Investors' observation of and participation in the capital markets may at times influence valuations AND fundamental conditions or outcomes.

A current example of reflexivity in modern financial markets is that of the debt and equity of housing markets. Lenders began to make more money available to more people in the 1990s to buy houses. More people bought houses with this larger amount of money, thus increasing the prices of these houses. Lenders looked at their balance sheets which not only showed that they had made more loans, but that their equity backing the loans--the value of the houses, had gone up (because more money was chasing the same amount of housing, relatively). Thus they lent out more money because their balance sheets looked good, and prices went up more, and they lent more, etc. Prices increased rapidly, and lending standards were relaxed. The salient issue regarding reflexivity is that it explains why markets gyrate over time, and do not just stick to equilibrium--they tend to overshoot or undershoot.[11]

View of potential problems in the free market system

Despite working as an investor and currency speculator, he argues that the current system of financial speculation undermines healthy economic development in many underdeveloped countries. Soros blames many of the world's problems on the failures inherent in what he characterizes as market fundamentalism. His opposition to many aspects of globalization has made him a controversial figure.

Victor Niederhoffer said of Soros: "Most of all, George believed even then in a mixed economy, one with a strong central international government to correct for the excesses of self-interest."

Soros claims to draw a distinction between being a participant in the market and working to change the rules that market participants must follow.

In an interview regarding the economic crisis of 2008, Soros referred to it as the most serious crisis since the 1930s. According to Soros, market fundamentalism with its assumption that markets will correct themselves with no need for government intervention in financial affairs has been “some kind of an ideological excess”. In Soros´ view, the markets´ moods — a “mood” of the markets being a prevailing bias or optimism/pessimism with which the markets look at reality — “actually can reinforce themselves so that there are these initially self-reinforcing but eventually unsustainable and self-defeating boom/bust sequences or bubbles”.[43]

Views on antisemitism

At a Jewish forum in New York City, Soros partially attributed a recent resurgence of antisemitism to the policies of Israel and the United States, and to successful Jews such as himself:

There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that. It's not specifically anti-Semitism, but it does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well. I'm critical of those policies... If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish. I can't see how one could confront it directly... I'm also very concerned about my own role because the new anti-Semitism holds that the Jews rule the world... As an unintended consequence of my actions... I also contribute to that image.[44]

In a subsequent article for the New York Review of Books, Soros emphasized that

I do not subscribe to the myths propagated by enemies of Israel and I am not blaming Jews for anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism predates the birth of Israel. Neither Israel's policies nor the critics of those policies should be held responsible for anti-Semitism. At the same time, I do believe that attitudes toward Israel are influenced by Israel's policies, and attitudes toward the Jewish community are influenced by the pro-Israel lobby's success in suppressing divergent views.[45]

Books

Authored or co-authored

  • The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means (PublicAffairs, 2008) ISBN 978-1586486839
  • The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror (PublicAffairs, 2006) ISBN 1-58648-359-1
  • With MoveOn.org, MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004 ISBN 1-930722-29-X
  • The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power (PublicAffairs, 2003) ISBN 1-58643-217-3 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2004; ISBN 1-58648-292-0)
  • George Soros on Globalization (PublicAffairs, 2002) ISBN 1-58648-125-8 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2005; ISBN 1-52648-278-5)
  • Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism (PublicAffairs, 2001) ISBN 1-58648-039-7
  • With Mark Amadeus Notturno, Science and the Open Society: The Future of Karl Popper's Philosophy (Central European University Press, 2000) ISBN 963-9116-69-6 (paperback: Central European University Press, 2000; ISBN 943-9116-70-X)
  • The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered (PublicAffairs, 1998) ISBN 1-891220-27-4
  • Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve (John Wiley, 1995) ISBN 0-471-12014-6 (paperback; Wiley, 1995; ISBN 0-371-11977-6)
  • Underwriting Democracy: Encouraging Free Enterprise and Democratic Reform Among the Soviets and in Eastern Europe (Free Press, 1991) ISBN 0-02-930285-4 (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2004; ISBN 1-58948-227-0)
  • Opening the Soviet System (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990) ISBN 0-297-82155-9 (paperback: Perseus Books, 1996; ISBN 0-8133-1205-1)
  • The Alchemy of Finance (Simon & Schuster, 1988) ISBN 0-671-66338-4 (paperback: Wiley, 2003; ISBN 0-471-44549-5)

Biographies

  • Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire by Michael T. Kaufman (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) ISBN 0-375-40585-2
  • Soros: The Unauthorized Biography, the Life, Times and Trading Secrets of the World's Greatest Investor by Robert Slater (McGraw-Hill, 1997) ISBN 0-7863-1247-5

Journalism

Authored

About

Scholarly perspectives

  • Bryant, C. G. A. (2002). "George Soros's theory of reflexivity: a comparison with the theories of Giddens and Beck and a consideration of its practical value". Economy and Society. 31 (1): 112–131. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  • Cross, R. (1997). "On George Soros and economic analysis". Kyklos. 50: 561–574. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Pettis, Michael (2001). The Volatility Machine: Emerging Economies and the Threat of Financial Collapse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195143302. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Stone, Diane (2007). "Market Principles, Philanthropic Ideals and Public Service Values: The Public Policy Program at the Central European University". PS: Political Science and Politics: 545–551. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)

Speeches

Commentaries

Interviews

References

  1. ^ a b The World's Billionaires -#97 George Soros, Forbes, March 5, 2008
  2. ^ Authors@Google: George Soros
  3. ^ William Shawcross, "Turning Dollars into Change," Time Magazine, September 1, 1997
  4. ^ George Soros, A Biographical Note, dated May 2006.
  5. ^ a b Kaufman, Michael T., Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire, Alfred A. Knopf: 2002
  6. ^ Kaufman, Michael T., Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire, Alfred A. Knopf: 2002, p. 24
  7. ^ Slater, R.: "Soros: The Unauthorized Biography", page 30
  8. ^ Holocaust Encyclopedia
  9. ^ Michael Lewis, "The Speculator: What on earth is multibillionaire George Soros doing throwing wads of money around in Eastern Europe?", The New Republic, 10 January 1994. See also Kaufman, Michael T., Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire, Alfred A. Knopf: 2002, p. 32-33
  10. ^ O'Brien, Timothy L (1998-12-06). "He's Seen The Enemy. It Looks Like Him". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Soros, George (2008). The New Paradigm for Financial Markets. Public Affairs, New York. ISBN 978-1-58648-683-9.
  12. ^ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54532
  13. ^ Anderson, Jenny (2008-04-16). "Wall Street Winners Get Billion-Dollar Paydays". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  14. ^ Steven Drobny, "Inside the House of Money", John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ, 2006.
  15. ^ A question of openness (asiaweek.com)
  16. ^ "Financier George Soros urges Mahathir's ouster". Time Magazine. 2008-12-04.
  17. ^ Opportunity Lost (asiaweek.com)
  18. ^ a b "Soros, the Man Who Cries Wolf, Now Is Warning of a 'Superbubble'" by Greg Ip, B1, June 21-22, 2008 The Wall Street Journal.
  19. ^ a b David Brancaccio interviews George Soros, Now, PBS, September 12, 2003, accessed Feb. 8, 2007.
  20. ^ Insider trading conviction of Soros is upheld (International Herald Tribune)
  21. ^ Soros appeals conviction for insider trading, Billionaire takes French conviction to European court (International Herald Tribune)December 14, 2006
  22. ^ Soros's Nats Bid Irks Republicans
  23. ^ TIME 100, The Power Givers, George Soros, TIME Magazine, May 14, 2007 accessed May 21, 2007
  24. ^ York, Byron, Soros Funded Stewart Defense, National Review Online, accessed February 7, 2007
  25. ^ Philanthropist Gives $50 Million to Help Aid the Poor in Africa
  26. ^ Laura Blumenfeld, Deep Pockets vs. Bush, Financier Contributes $5 Million More in Effort to Oust President, Washington Post, November 11, 2003; Page A03
  27. ^ Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bush
  28. ^ Cheney Drops the Ball
  29. ^ http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/FW1206.pdf
  30. ^ "New Alliance Of Democrats Spreads Funding". Retrieved 2006-07-17.
  31. ^ Book review at Forbes.com
  32. ^ [1]
  33. ^ [2]
  34. ^ [3]
  35. ^ [4]
  36. ^ LeBlanc, Steve, Soros behind Mass. effort to decriminalize pot, Associated Press, August 27, 2008
  37. ^ http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4416, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
  38. ^ Project on Death in America
  39. ^ [5]
  40. ^ [6]
  41. ^ [7]
  42. ^ Steve Kroft: Are you a religious man? Soros: No. Kroft: Do you believe in God? Soros: No. 60 Minutes, broadcast December 20, 1998.
  43. ^ Bill Moyers Journal, George Soros on the financial crisis, published October 10, 2008, at http://odeo.com, full transcript and podcast
  44. ^ jta.org
  45. ^ Soros, George. "On Israel, America and AIPAC." New York Review of Books, April 12, 2007.

External links


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