In 1930， George Soros was born in Budapest， the capital of Hungary. In 1947， he moved to England and graduated from London School of Economics and Political Science.
George Soros wants to be the Bono of the financial world. He has a mission—to use his estimated 5-billion fortune and his fame to help tackle① what he sees as the failures of globalization.
The idea that a man who made billions betting on the financial markets sides with the anti-globalization movement might strike some as ironic. Soros is clearly genuinely② appalled at the damage wrought on vulnerable③ economies by the vast sums of money， which flow across national borders every day.
In person， he has the air of a philosophy professor rather than a gimlet-eyed financier. In a soft voice which bears the traces of his native Hungary， he argues that it is time to rewrite the so-called Washington consensus—the cocktail④ of liberalization， privatization⑤ and fiscal rectitude which the IMF has been preaching for 15 years.
Developing countries no longer have the freedom to run their own economies， he argues， even when they follow perfectly sound policies. He cites Brazil， which although it has a floating currency and manageable⑥ public debt was paying ten times over the odds to borrow from capital markets.
Soros’ open Society Institute has been pivotal in helping eastern European countries develop democratic societies and market economies. He has the advantage of an insider’s knowledge of the workings of global capitalism， so his criticism is particularly pointed. The Soros foundation’s network spent a lot of dollars on projects in education， public health and promoting democracy， making it one of the world’s largest private donors.
① tacklev. 对付，处理
② genuinelyadv. 真诚地，诚实地
③ vulnerableadj. 易受伤的，有弱点的，难防守的
④ cocktailn. 混合物
⑤ privatizationn. 私有化，非国营化
⑥ manageableadj. 可管理的，可控制的
乔治·索罗斯
1930年，乔治·索罗斯于匈牙利首都布达佩斯出生。1947年，他移居到英国，并在伦敦经济学院毕业。
乔治·索罗斯想成为金融界的博诺。他有一项使命，那就是利用他大约50亿英镑的财产和他的名声来帮助解决他所认为的全球化失败问题。
一个靠在全球金融市场上的投机赚了几十亿的人会支持反全球化运动，这对许多人来说是具有讽刺意义的。很明显，对于每天在各国之间流动的大量资金给经济脆弱国家造成的伤害，索罗斯从心底感到震惊。
索罗斯本人并不像一个目光敏锐的金融家，他更具有哲学教授的气质。带着匈牙利母语口音，他轻声地说，现在是修改所谓的“华盛顿共识”的时候了。他指的是国际货币基金组织15年来宣扬的自由化、私有化和财政透明的综合体制。
他说，发展中国家即使执行非常合理的政策，也不能再自由地控制本国经济。他援引巴西的例子说，尽管巴西实行了浮动汇率制和可控国债，但它向资本市场借款还是付出了比正常条件下高出１０倍的成本。
索罗斯的“开放社会研究所”在帮助东欧国家发展民主社会和市场经济方面发挥了重要作用。他具有业内人士的优势，了解全球资本主义的运行，因此他的批评会受到特别关注。索罗斯基金网络在教育、公共卫生、促进民主项目上花费了巨额资金，使索罗斯基金成为了世界上最大的私人捐助集团之一。