George Soros Quotes
When it comes to social consequences, they've got all different people acting in different ways, very difficult to even have a proper criterion of success. So, it's a difficult task.
It is sort of a disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.
I think there's a lot of merit in an international economy and global markets, but they're not sufficient because markets don't look after social needs.
As a society we can't live without moral considerations. We do have to protect the public good. And markets are not designed to do that, so we need a political process.
You need a government that believes in government. It also believes in markets and wants to give markets the best, the greatest opportunity, but is trying to govern well.
The pro-Israel lobby has been remarkably successful in suppressing criticism. Politicians challenge it at their peril because of the lobby's ability to influence political contributions.
Of course, speculation will always make a crisis worse. If there is a weak point, it will expose it.
I commissioned two political experts to advise me about what I could do to oppose the re-election of President Bush.
As I discovered, there is a great deal of similarity between a boom-bust process in the financial markets and the rise and fall of the Soviet system.
I called gold the ultimate bubble, which means it may go higher. But it’s certainly not safe and it’s not going to last forever.
The concept of a general equilibrium has no relevance to the real world (in other words, classical economics is an exercise in futility).
A lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional. A lot of people in the financial system did a lot of damage without intending to.
When you sell options, you get paid for assuming risk. That can be a profitable business, but it does not mix well with the risks inherent in a leveraged portfolio.
I put forward a pretty general theory that financial markets are intrinsically unstable. That we really have a false picture when we think about markets tending towards equilibrium.
I'm not doing my philanthropic work out of any kind of guilt, or any need to create good public relations. I'm doing it because I can afford to do it, and I believe in it.
The world is looking to us for leadership. We have provided it in the past; the main reason why anti-American feelings are so strong in the world today is that we are not providing it in the present.
If every rich person gave 50 percent of their wealth to charity, I would not say they should pay more taxes.
However, even a strong government can't perform miracles. It needs money from the taxpayers.
I have made it a principle to give advice that does not serve my personal interest but rather the common interests.
Financial markets ... resent any kind of government interference but they hold a belief deep down that if conditions get really rough the authorities will step in.
The anti-resource curse initiative has stronger legs than most and that has made me very enthusiastic.
Everybody says that I have a lot of power. But what does that power consist of?... Can I influence governments? I am beginning to be able to..." (1995)
The main obstacle to further progress on the resource curse is China, and to a lesser extent India.
As I like to put it, we have hit pay dirt. The effort to cure the resource curse is a good example of what private foundations working with NGOs can accomplish.
