Jeremy on Soros

George Soros is a financier turned philanthropist with a fascinating biography. Just as important to my story, Soros is the sponsor and driving force behind the Open Society Institute. (Again, like Heves, the “s” must be pronounced “sh.” Think “Shorosh.” And know that the name is rather poetic. In Hungarian, the word means “next-in-line.” In Esperanto it means “will soar.”)

Born to a Hungarian family of Jewish background that spoke Esperanto at home, he survived World War II in Budapest and fled the Soviet occupation in 1947 to attend the London School of Economics. He emigrated to America in 1956 and soon after started investing. His hedge Fund returned 3,365% between 1970 and 1980. I think even Investor Earl would be impressed!

Soros topped out at $11 billion at one point, but now you have to scroll to Page 2 of the Forbes List to find his $8.5 billion fortune. He amassed his fortune by bringing a unique philosophy to investing. One of his LSOE professors Karl Popper impressed him with the concept of “reflexivity.” In short, “true” and “false” is too simplistic. You can get a better understanding of reality if you consider your own biases. And you can make a buck if you understanding global biases/misconceptions before others do.

He earned a fortune of enemies, especially with currency speculating. He made a billion dollars in one day when he ”broke” the Bank of England in 1992. Thailand, too, was caught flirting with bad economic policy. Soros was called an “economic war criminal” after the baht collapsed in 1997. At home, the American right regularly calls him a “meddling moneybag.” But, hey, anyone who Bill O’Reilly finds disagreeable must be a friend of mine. And if these nutbags are against him? Wow.

Like Robin Hood and the Robber Barons before him, Soros has dedicated himself and his fortune to good causes around the world. He won fame for supporting Solidarity, the Rose Revolution and other anti-communist uprisings since 1980. His grants helped keep Soviet scientists working while the government collapsed in 1989. Today, his influence reaches in America and abroad.

Stateside, Soros is one of the most important champions of liberal policies, especially with his checkbook. He supported numerous left-leaning platforms in the 2004 election. My favorite story is that when Cheney misspoke in a pre-election debate, challenging viewers to double check his fact at the wrong website address, Soros quickly propped up the other domain name, with his own article “Why We Must Not Re-Elect President Bush” atop the page. His biases are perhaps visible through his anti-drug-war, pro-gun-control stance.

But abroad, his influence is stripped of political tilt. Instead, the goals are simply the promotion of democracy, open societies and education. He created and financed the Central European University in Budapest. It’s an American-accredited English-medium graduate school that draws students from across Eastern Europe and around the world. (Mariah and I met the Ukranian Anton, a CEU student, last year on our adventure back into the USSR. Just last week I found him, of all places, on Facebook.)

And most importantly for our purposes, Soros created the Open Society Institute to continue his progressive advocacy abroad. The two main offices are New York and Budapest, the later office being in the same downtown office complex as CEU. My assignment with the Justice Initiative is just one of the operational arms of OSI. “Promoting rights-based law reform, building knowledge and strengthening legal capacity worldwide” fits well into the greater OSI goals of promoting democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform around the world.

I think a summer in the OSI will be an amazing opportunity to learn from professional advocates from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experiences. I’m excited to be a part of a mission that’s bigger than myself – that couldn’t be a more stark transition from the self-centricism of the first-year of law school. So game on, let’s embark once again on making the world a little better, one day, one smile at a time.

(And here’s my open society disclaimer. This spring I read Soros on Soros and The Bubble of American Supremacy. Both are clear, concise and intriguing. Beyond that, though, I must admit to an over-reliance on Wikipedia and a proclivity to label myself liberal and progressive. So I bought into the “open society” concept and offer you a slew of links so you handcraft an opinion of your own on one, of many, ways of looking at the world. Enjoy the adventure.)