Chapter 28 Chapter 28 Richer than 42 countries

If Soros were a company, he'd be 37th on the earnings list.His income exceeds the gross domestic product of at least 42 U.N. member states and is roughly on par with the likes of Chad, Guadeloupe and Burundi.To put it another way, at $190,000 each, he could buy 5,790 Rolls-Royces, or pay over three years for each student at Harvard, Princeton, Naruto, and Columbia .Not a bad idea, some parents might say. " In the first quarter, the big move eastward George Soros, the wise man, never gave up hope of earning respect.Seven years have passed since The Alchemy of Finance was published, and while Soros is happy to see his views circulated in book form, he knows all too well that among his readers the scholarly interest buys There are very few people in this book. "The thing is," he told Anatoly Kanetsky, the economics editor of The Times, "everyone buys the book just to find out how to make money. I guess I should have foreseen that. 1994 When the book came out in paperback in May, Soros rekindled the expectation that readers would spend time studying his ideas and theories, not just hunting for money-making tips.

At the same time, Soros and Druckenmiller were trying to make a comeback in 1994, although they suffered a big loss in February.However, Quantum Fund will be Genen in the spring. The short sale of tech, a major biotech company, failed to help that goal, a small but not underestimated lapse that USA TODAY considered.Soros lost only about $10 million, which was pocket money for him, but other investors paid a heavy price.To that end, journalist Dan Dorfman writes: "Lesson for investors: It's foolish to jump into a stock just because you hear Soros is playing it." By June 22, 1994, Quantum Fund's assets were only 1% lower than at the beginning of the year.Of course, it can't be regarded as good news, because it shows that there is still the possibility that Soros will suffer the second year of loss in the history of his foundation.But compared with other hedge funds, Soros's performance is already impressive enough.Tiger's "Jaguar Fund" lost 11.5% over the same period, Leon Crowman's "Omega Fund" lost 23%, and Michael Steinhardt's foundation was 30%.

Reflecting the pressure Soros felt, he revealed in June that he had changed one of his sacred principles.For the past decade, Soros has never allowed his foundation to invest in the regions where he has his philanthropic foundations—Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.As late as January 1993, when a Financial Times reporter asked him if the ban meant he would not buy a bus factory in Eastern Europe, he replied emphatically: "Never. Actually, I put It's a conflict of interest." But now the situation has changed. In 1994, Soros made it clear to the managers of his investment funds that they could now invest in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.Soros' spokesman revealed in June, in the past 6 months. 139 million US dollars have been invested in Hungary and Poland.projects in the Czech Republic and Russia, and will seek further investment opportunities as part of "the normal course of our business activities".

Soros' recent investments include $45 million in new capital for Budapest's "First Hungary Fund."This is a fund mainly backed by institutional investors in the UK and US.It has investments in food processing, pharmaceuticals and clothing.Soros was on the board when it was founded in 1991, but resigned shortly after he felt it was in conflict with the work of his Budapest philanthropic foundation. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Soros explained his pivot.He said his philanthropic foundation was sufficiently strong and independent to withstand any pressure from his investments in the region.There are investment opportunities in the area that his fund should take advantage of.He added: "I've had this simple rule in the past: we don't invest where there are philanthropic foundations. The reason is that I don't want those foundations to be collateralized against my financial interests or vice versa. However, because of this The market in a region is actually developing and things have changed. I have no reason to deny my fund or my stockholders the possibility to invest there. Or deny those countries the opportunity to take advantage of some of them Fund.” However, Soros made it clear that while Quantum Fund now has the freedom to invest in these regions, he will not take money out of his own account to do so.

Maybe the philanthropist is trying to spark a new wave of "going with the crowd".Asked whether the Soros Foundation's offensive would lure other investors into Eastern Europe, Soros said it would do him little harm. Chapter 2 Troubled Autumn The news that came out at the end of June was that "Financial World" listed Soros as the number one winner on Wall Street in 1993.According to the magazine, Soros earned $1.1 billion in 1993.It's the first time a single person has earned that much in one year, and it's double that of second-place gainer Julian Robertson.

Soros was once again on the cover of the magazine, this time sitting in front of a chessboard, looking as if he was thinking hard about his next move.In the middle of the magazine, there are many photos of him in various poses: he is on the phone, or he is wearing a pair of sandals and a red sweatshirt, lying on seven sofa chairs and reading an art book. "Financial World" also made the following evaluation of Soros's $1.1 billion income, not jokingly: "If Soros were a company, he would rank 37th on the income list. His income exceeded at least 42 The gross domestic product of a member of the United Nations, and roughly on par with countries like Chad, Guadeloupe, and Burundi. To put it another way, at $190,000 each, he could buy 5,790 Rolls Royce, or paying 3+ years of tuition per student at Harvard, Princeton, Naruto, and Columbia. Not a bad idea, some parents might say."

The magazine also noted that in 1993, Soros alone earned as much as McDonald's, which had 169,600 employees, earned that year.Perhaps most astonishing is the fact that nine of the magazine's top 100 earners were members of Soros' financial empire. Commenting on Soros' $1.1 billion income, The Guardian said: "We know billionaires all too well, but they are always the ones who own money-making assets like oil fields and fleets. These Possessions none of us may have ever owned, we can excuse ourselves or call those people lucky. But now there is a man who earns a lot of money as a salary, and we can't help but fantasize about being in the Become a man as rich as Soros this year."

The irony, of course, is that when Soros is once again on the cover of a magazine, he and the fund are fighting against the odds. In the fall of 1994, Soros was more busy than usual with his philanthropic foundation, which was his main job.Whether these institutions can outlast him, he is not sure, there are still many problems and troubles in them.Although Soros has tried to hand over much of the decision-making to the foundations' local leadership, it is self-evident that Soros and his money are what keep them alive and moving.However, Soros is more confident about whether his investment fund can continue to operate smoothly.He believed that, with good people and management systems, he had organized them sufficiently that they were in good working order.

Throughout 1994, the pressure to keep George Soros at the top of the financial industry continued to mount.Many investors have followed him in financial markets.Expect to learn some of his genius and become another Soros.In addition, in the autumn of 1994, such a story was transmitted inside and outside Wall Street: On the cliff of Rushmore (the head of the four American presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were carved. One by one There are still places for four heads on the opposite mountain, and the heads of George Soros and Warren Buffett (another big Wall Street financier) have begun to be chiseled into the rock. up."There's a lot of guys down there waiting to be chiseled up," said a senior investment manager connected to the story.

The media also put a burden on Soros.They "discovered" Soros, but they were unwilling to let him go easily.If Soros was an obscure gentleman two and a half years ago, he has now been dissected, measured, and judged.Soros was a rising star in 1992, but two years later some of the financial media, after witnessing his lackluster performance in 1994, declared him drowned.They started wielding their shovels to dig the graves of Soros and other hedge fund leaders, although the era of hedge funds seems to have only just begun. In earlier days, Soros might not have been bothered by the attention he received, but not now.He had risen so fast that he wanted to savor the joys of being at the top of the financial world.If 1994 had gone his way, he might have pulled back to tend to his charitable foundation and distance himself from his investing career.However, because of the setback in 1994, Soros felt that he had to devote some of his attention to investing.Those around him claimed that all he had to do was become an advisor to Stanley Druckenmiller: the truth was, Soros still found it impossible to walk away, especially when he Attention time.Throughout 1994, Soros had been seeking to stage a big play, and he did not believe his September 1992 move against the pound was a mere fluke.Once he did something like this, he could do it a second time, and it was just routine for him.

In the past few years, Soros has always believed that the British real estate market will be very prosperous.He's not terribly wrong, but he hasn't made a fortune from real estate deals, yielding just 17%.So, in the third week of November 1994, Soros announced that he would withdraw from the depressed British real estate market.Eighteen months earlier, he had agreed to invest $775 million in this market with Britannia.Today, Soros announced that the Quantum Foundation will sell half of his shares in the British Real Estate Fund to the "British Land".The latter enjoys the right of first refusal under the original agreement. Soros also made mistakes in investment, but he never shy away from it.What he wants to show is that the secret of his success is that he is better than most people at turning big mistakes into small ones, and small ones from nothing at an earlier time.Was his withdrawal from the UK real estate market an act in that sense? Soros had unwavering confidence in the dollar throughout 1994.While that confidence cost him a fortune at the start of the year, he believes the U.S. economy is gaining momentum and believes the U.S. government will continue to take steps to prevent the dollar from deteriorating.Soros is also confident that sooner or later the U.S. and Japan will resolve their trade disputes, which will lead to an appreciation of the dollar against the yen.However, the reality is that the dollar does not seem to be rebounding from various strengthening measures.Several intervention efforts by the Federal Reserve Bank and other central banks have also been unsuccessful. Even Soros's personal public relations efforts to address this have failed. On August 2, Soros defended the U.S. dollar in a TV program, asserting that the U.S. dollar should never be allowed to fall sharply, because it would destabilize the U.S. economy."If you're willing to let the currency depreciate too much, that's going to be extremely volatile because it's going to be inflationary and it's going to have an effect on the bond market," he said. Asked if he was buying dollars, Soros said: Vaguely, he said: "I'm not going to tell you. I can either buy or sell right now, I don't know in advance."Soros' failure in 1994 did not stop other traders from following in his footsteps and listening to his every word.So they all took note of Soros's Oct. 4 talk to Reuters.He said that he felt that the yen was likely to fall more sharply against the dollar, from 99.55 yen to 115 to 120 yen per dollar. Two days later, at a dinner meeting of managers of major financial institutions in New York, Soros' prediction of a sharp rise in the value of the dollar was the dominant topic.That night, the guests were so unnerved by Soros' words that they expected him to know exactly what he was talking about.Soros is right so many times; when a man sets himself up as a leader and makes public statements, his views seem to be vindicated by their own influence.Naturally, Soros has planted on the dollar before, but will he repeat the same mistake? This public comment by Soros revealed a disappointment with currency speculation in mid-1994. On October 3, "Business Weekly" published an interview and report on Soros.In it, when asked what lessons he had learned about currency markets from his setbacks at the start of the year, he said: "It's not a particularly lucrative time to speculate in currencies. Now, the past two or three years have seen Gone are the tensions, the imbalances that lead to massive flows of currency, and the biggest unresolved issue is the war of words between Japan and the United States over the balance of payments surplus. We think it will be resolved because the It makes a lot of sense. That's where we've been wrong since the beginning of the year, when we thought this was going to be fixed rather quickly than it was. It's ridiculous that we still think so exactly." Still, clinging to the hope that the dollar will rise in value appears to be a strategy that is increasingly showing its weaknesses.By early 1994, the dollar had hit a postwar era low. However optimistic Soros and Druckenmiller were trying to make out they were about 1994, the Financial World, The Wall Street Journal and others took a very different tone. "Traders Say Soros Blows Yen Again," was the headline in the November 10 issue of The Wall Street Journal.According to the newspaper, Soros Fund Management lost another $400 million to $600 million by betting again on the appreciation of the dollar against the yen, as it did in February. If the Soros financial machine had shown a certain weariness with the February setback, this time—November 1994—it was more defensive, angry, and vague. tone.Druckenmiller appeared before reporters again, but this time he spoke in far more general terms."Normally, we don't comment. But the current rumors are just ridiculous," he told the Wall Street Journal. While claiming that the Quantum Fund's net worth "has been down this year," he added, "We We were happy to announce our losses earlier in the year. However, it is ridiculous and baseless to say that we have some other level of loss in currency, where the Foundation still maintains a marginal gain".However, Drew Miller would not disclose any details on the size of the yen and dollars he owns. To outsiders, Soros's operating conditions are much better than those of his peers in the field of hedge fund investment.In 1994, the Quantum Foundation suffered its second worst year in history, with assets only up 32.9% from the previous year.However, some other hedge funds fell by 20-30% and lost customers: some other hedge funds had to close their doors.But these did not attract people's attention, and the financial media still focused on Soros.It still finds Soros mysterious and alluring, still trying to infiltrate the inner sanctums of his investment empire.The results often made Soros extremely unhappy. For example, in July 1994, the "Financial World" magazine, which listed Soros as the number one money maker in the United States in 1993, said in November that his performance in 1994 was useless.The cover of the magazine's Nov. 8 issue read: "Soros Leaky: Alchemist Loses His Sense of Touch." In the cover photo, Soros propped his right hand on his forehead, looking distraught, It seems to say: "How did you make such a mess? Soros has claimed that someone who invested in the Quantum Fund in 1993, when it had $5 billion in assets, made a 63 percent return. "Financial World" questioned this, saying that the figure was only 50%.It also disputed that Soros' Quantum Fund gained 1.6 percent in the first six months of 1994, saying it actually lost 9 percent.The magazine also mentioned another matter that might have troubled Soros.That is, as of the end of 1993, Quantum Fund owed Soros consulting and operating fees and interest to US$1.55 billion, equivalent to 25% of the fund's net assets.However, as long as the Quantum Fund performs well and Soros does not intend to collect the debt to make up for personal shortfalls, this "debt" does not mean any serious problems. The media attack on Soros continues. At the end of November, the newspaper reported that although the net asset value of Quantum Fund increased by 1% in 1994, the business volume was much lower than in the past.The net asset value of its stock fell from $22107.66 on December 31, 1993 to $17178.82 at the beginning of November 1994. The premium rate in China was 36% at the beginning of 1994, but fell sharply by 16% in early November.The implication is clear: investors are no longer happy to pay a lot of extra fees to be part of Soros' financial machine. Defenders of Soros have sought to put an account of this decline.In 1994, they claimed, hedge funds in general came under intense pressure.In this adverse situation, Soros did better than other hedge fund managers.It is only because the media is hyping up Soros that the stock premium of Quantum Fund is artificially made so conspicuous. By the end of 1994, fewer and fewer people were still asking this question: Is George Soros still so powerful?Although the performance of the Soros Fund Management Office is far from the glory of previous years, the answer to the question seems to be very clear. The events of mid-1994 did not dim Soros' reputation as the king of hedge fund investing.He is still regarded as a king due to his years of investment performance, enduring status as a super investor and unquestioned leadership in the field. The truth is, despite the ups and downs of 1994, Soros's influence is still enormous.Although it has been a long time since he announced that he would no longer run the day-to-day affairs of the Soros Fund Management Office, since he turned his main attention to philanthropy in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, he is still seen as a leader on Wall Street and London. The most influential force in the city.When asked whether any financial investor in New York or London is still going to follow Soros' footsteps, the answer is always yes. The feeling that still haunts people is that Soros and the other titans of hedge fund investing are so influential that their "size" and collective activity, however well coordinated, alone can have an impact on financial markets. The above behavior has an effect.For example, in the fall of 1994, when the amount of dollars held by hedge funds was so large and their desire to escape from danger was so great, it was actually Soros and other hedge funds in the minds of traders. The IMF increased the dollar's vulnerability.They emphasized that they always sell the dollar when it starts to stop falling.This weakens the dollar's position. Section 3 Long live understanding While some on Wall Street see Soros as extremely influential, such perceptions are far less concerning to Soros himself than what Washington recognizes him to be; Should be of interest to policy makers in the capital.But to his surprise, he found that they didn't think much of George Soros as a "foreign policy expert". His performance before the Congressional Banking Committee in early 1994 earned Soros the admiration of many.He began to convince himself that maybe the reasonable people would finally listen to him.What he couldn't understand, though, was that at the top of the egotistical financial organizations were people who simply didn't want to be told - certainly not just by a George Soros - what to do .Thinking of institutions like the Deutsche Bundesbank or the Bank of England gave Soros a sense of being underfoot.In this regard, New York's "Grant Interest Rate Watch" editor-in-chief George.Mr Grant commented: "Suppose you are a senior person at the Bank of England. Have three degrees and have written extensively, and all you have seen for a year and a half is Mr. George Soros saying you all Stupid, what do you think? Mr. Soros has fanned hostility against him in policy circles around the world." Soros also understood that he had not yet commanded the full respect of his peers. "He had a problem with influencing policy," Baron Wynne admitted, "and he gave a speech and felt like they still didn't listen to me, they didn't do what I told them.  … Soros is also well aware of avoiding speaking in areas in which he has little expertise.But once he has some kind of personal experience in a certain aspect, and he can sit and chat with leaders in politics and business, he feels that his views should be heard.He believed that the West was not very interested in opening up the closed societies of the East.He also believes that although Western countries once recognized and responded to the threats to freedom from fascism and communism, in the 1990s when these threats had disappeared, the West fell into panic. "We don't even realize the need for a new world order to replace the Cold War," he said in July 1994, "or that the world will be thrown into chaos if we don't." Sounding as though the mission of changing this laxity fell upon him, he said: "I find myself in the peculiar situation of an individual doing more for an open society than most governments ." He also mentioned that the Deutsche mark in the market began to fall after he claimed that the German central bank's high interest rate policy was unwise; Just stay within your own business."At times, Soros also approached the citadel of power, but just barely reached it.For example, in July 1994, he participated in an international conference in Washington, but did not have the opportunity to meet with the president, nor did he meet with congressional leaders. This meeting was exactly what Soros needed.As a last resort, he had to chat with the reporters.He urged the world's leading nations to agree on a new coordinated system that would help stabilize currencies. "We are in a very serious situation. Not only financially, but also politically," he said, adding that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was not enough glue for solidarity between Western countries, "We don't have any system (of coordinating policy and stabilizing exchange rates) today," "all exchange rate regimes have their drawbacks.They work for a while and then fail.So you have to be flexible and adjust the system all the time. In short, all Soros asked for was power.He had tasted it and loved the experience. "Power is intoxicating," he said, "and I've gained more power than I ever imagined, even if it's just the power to spend hard money when the supply of it is extremely tight. But this power to spend large sums of money did not satisfy Soros. He demanded more. "I wish people would listen to my point of view more. Apart from some things I do through my foundation, I have very little influence on Western policy in the former Soviet Union." He once said, "very Weird, why doesn't the White House use me, the rare resource it has?" It was clear to Soros confidant Baron Wien that the investor wanted to breathe the euphoric air of the White House.He said: "George might want to be Bernard Baruch. Bernard Baruch Rooke was a successful, wise man, and President Roosevelt would take his ideas from him. George also thought Clinton could take inspiration from him, or Warren Kerr do it. On September 27, 1994, something happened that seemed to encapsulate the disappointment Soros felt as he approached his sixth birthday.On this day, Hungary awarded Soros the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Republic, which is the second highest award in Hungary. Soros was awarded this honor for his contribution to the modernization of Hungary.However, a politician was awarded the Grand Cross, while the Middle Cross is awarded to "ordinary people". An ordinary person!This was not the endorsement that Soros, who had believed himself to be God since childhood, was expecting.So what exactly does he think of this treatment given to him by his country of birth?Proud of course.He had left the country since 1947 in search of a better life, and he did succeed; he gave some of it to his home country, which now pays him homage.It's just that this is not the kind of glory he has been pursuing, and he doesn't want to be treated as an ordinary person at all. Watch Soros in the fourth quarter George Soros: The man who screwed up the Bank of England, the man who wrecked the pound, the greatest investor in the world, the man who dictated the direction of the market. How do we understand these moving words?Many people feel awe of Soros, which is very natural.He left his peers behind by using his basic tools of the trade—his intellect, his computer, and his analytical talents.Of course, a kind of envy also arises from this, and it often expresses itself on those who have made a lot of money but are not strugglers or toilers.Some are also skeptical about how some people can amass huge sums of money simply by analyzing company reports, chatting with other investors, reading newspapers, and guessing. How did Soros do it?How did he earn so much money?These questions are easy to come to mind quickly, because it seems inconceivable that one can bypass the rough road we all have to walk to become a millionaire.But accumulating a large fortune was far from easy for George Soros, especially in his early years.Therefore, others have no reason to doubt it randomly. On the other hand, Soros himself -- even if he doesn't mean to -- does raise our doubts about him.He keeps telling us that he finds it easier to make money than to spend it; he loves to put on a mystery; he provides us with a book about his investment "secrets", so many explanations are faltering ; he announced he had found a theory to explain financial markets, but then said it wasn't a theory at all because it didn't apply in every situation.There are times when it seems that Soros is happy to have a glimpse into his inner financial way so that we can get a little satisfaction and agree to leave him alone for a while; Hopefully we can appreciate the reasons for his success.No matter how enigmatic and inscrutable Soros may be, in one way or another he has made his maneuvers available to the public to observe.And amazed by his success.People also try to put their skepticism aside when focusing on Soros' operations.They want to believe that Soros is not an accidental creation of nature, he can be imitated, and they can also become money-making machines.Having said all of this, a closing remark: It is the fundamental power in his hands that drives others to dream of Soros's heights. Section 5 Around 1997 In 1997, George Soros devoted much of his time and energy to his philanthropic work.He hopes one day he can turn his charitable foundation over to someone else, as he did with his business practice nearly a decade ago.He still longed to be recognized as a great philosopher, a reputation he claimed would flatter him more than being seen as a money-maker. "I would like to change the world by advancing our understanding of it," he told an audience at his alma mater, the London School of Economics, on September 21, 1995. As of February 1997, Soros's money-making career was still smooth sailing.Today, his "flagship" Quantum Fund ($4.93 billion in investment) and other funds owned by the "Quantum" group have a total investment of $15 billion.Soros proudly boasted that in the 27-year history of Quantum Fund, it has always been generally regarded as the most outstanding performance among investment funds. In early 1997, Forbes magazine pegged Solo's fortune at $2.5 billion. In his teens, Soros spent $350 million a year on his goal of building open societies in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and other parts of the world.The network of foundations he finances spans 25 countries, including South Africa and Haiti. In the mid-90s, Soros decided to expand his philanthropy to the United States.He is dismayed by what he sees as America's inaction to help Eastern Europe move toward open societies.This dissatisfaction led him to think about America's social and economic problems. "I'm starting to pay more attention to the country I live in because I feel that the relatively open society we have here is in jeopardy," he wrote in The Washington Post on February 2, 1997. wrote in an article. However, he admitted that his philanthropic activities in the United States would not be as high-profile as in Eastern Europe. "In the United States, I am not in such a position. I am just one of many participants, and I don't think our activities are so unique. In Eastern Europe We were the first to start, and here we are just joining a huge crowd." Soros gave $1 million to a series of programs to help prisoners rebuild their lives.One of the programs helps female inmates find housing after they get out of prison, and the other helps first-time offenders of nonviolent crimes find work after they get out of prison.One of his controversial claims is for a "smarter" US drug policy, saying heroin and certain other illicit drugs should be prescribed for the treatment of registered drug users."Cracking down on drug abuse as a crime is doing more harm than good, hindering effective treatment and sending too many people to prison," he wrote in the Post. Thanks to this radical reform proposal, Solskjaer Ross has drawn criticism from Washington politicians and media columnists.But he didn't back down. "I look forward to the day," he wrote in the Post. "The drug control policies in this country better reflect the ideals of an open society." In that article in Minutes of Philanthropy, Soros predicted that his philanthropic foundation would last only 10 years after his death.He also hopes that he will soon be freed from the day-to-day oversight of these foundations.He said: "I am no longer involved in the actual decision-making of my business, and I want to get out of the decision-making of the foundation. What I want to create is an organization that can operate without me. In business, I have Do it. I still have a way to go when it comes to the Mercy Foundation. In addition, in February 1997, Soros also launched an attack on Western capitalist society, accusing it of sharing wealth with poor countries in the future.In an interview with CNN, he stated that the West always leaves poor people like the people of Eastern Europe behind. "The notion that the market system is perfect is dangerous," he told CNN, "because in reality the market is very unstable. Also, it doesn't lead to an optimal allocation of resources, it tends to make the rich richer. 还是在2月份，在于《大西洋月刊》上发表的一篇文章中，索罗斯对西方进行了更多的指责，宣称："我相信，开放社会的主要敌人不再是共产主义威胁而是资本主义威胁。"他认为，在消除了共产主义威胁之后，开放的社会如今正面临着一个来自内部的威胁一一一他称之为"过度膨胀的个人主义"。 针对索罗斯的上述言论，批评家们称他是个虚伪的家伙，因为他攻击的是那些他在其中借助于西方金融市场而赚了几十亿美元的国家。但是，索罗斯对此不屑一顾。"说这只是个已发家致富的家伙，因必不必将其放在眼里当然很容易，"他对CNN评论道，"可是，我赚了这么多钱的事实正证明了市场的不完美。我察觉到了并利用了这点，这就是我的致富之道。"