The Soros Lectures: At the Central European University by George Soros

The Soros Lectures: At the Central European University Reviews

• 
  Brian Godsey

  Six stars, if that were possible.
  
  In 120 pages, this book managed to state most of my own theories about finance and political economy not held by the general public---markets are nowhere near efficient, financial bubbles are followed by irrational over-corrections, most people vote immorally to improve their own interests instead of for fairness or common good, the "invisible hand" exists but is not alone---and then takes all of the ideas several steps further, explaining how they work, what can be done, and what Soros himself has done to help it along.
  
  I knew nearly nothing about Soros before I read this book, but I was curious based on some news articles, so I got this book. What I now know is that Soros is one of two ubiquitously famous financiers/investors---Warren Buffett being the other---who is entirely worthy of any and all respect people give him. The five lectures contained in this book prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Soros' analysis of past events is correct, and he makes an incredible argument for his future predictions and prescriptions. To top it off, Soros announces (in October 2009) the creation of a new institute intended to rigorously study the status quo of economic knowledge---which Soros says is flawed, or at least severely incomplete---from all angles, including Soros' theories, but not exclusively. To show that Soros means what he says, he started the institute and then abdicated all power over it. This is akin to Warren Buffett begging for the U.S. to raise the estate tax---which he has done. Both of these truly great men have repeatedly given up power, wealth, and opportunity for the common good, actions that are unfortunately rare.
  
  Soros is my new idol; he may not be as successful with his investments as Buffett, but he's more aggressive in his fight for a better society.
  
• 
  Niran Pravithana

  หนังสือของโซรอสทุกเล่มมีคาแรกเตอร์เดียวกันหมด คือ กรูเขียนเพราะกรูอยากเขียน เมิงจะอ่านเข้าใจหรือไม่ก็เรื่องของเมิง
  เนื้อหาดีหรือไม่ สรุปไม่ได้ เพราะเข้าใจยากจนไม่แน่ใจว่าสิ่งที่เข้าใจนั้นถูกต้องหรือเปล่า
• 
  David

  George, a man who became self obscene rich, claim and gives speech all over the globe. And this book is about the speech he gave at Central EU University..Quick summary: i) He believes human are flawed, decisions are unwise, especially financial decisions and stock market decisions are flawed..He used a Flexivity term to describe as solution to make a better world due to human flaw, but environment has to be ii) Capitalism based...yet iii) Open Society is the basis to create Capitalism-enriched. First chapter he would think he is the philosopher and make you think his logic is legitimate such as what he called Behavior Finance...yet he bashed Bush for his barbaric act against Iraq and Middle East, yet he embraced Obama for his soft policy and peaceful foreign policy..As another summary: Soros is a thug who lives under the roof of two back to back evil regime: Bush and Obama on foreign policy and two rigged the country of USA financially by collaborating with the corporations and deep states...like a child who complain about father, but not the mother..yet his evil deeds continue under these two regime by funding massive freedom group, and to fuel foreign revolutions, so he can act as an economic killer to loot other countries' resources, and understanding how to belly flip foreign stock markets. His claim of Open Society based on his past horrible experience under Soviets and Germans make you feel sympathetic towards his "noble Cause"...but this is just facade that he does not want you to know he funded Ukraine revolution, anti-Trump women rally...this is his act is to directly fund revolutionary to create immediate effect of success...this goes against Prof Chua that US based fake democracy (not a pure democratic country based on the election process and also congressional decisions on many subjects)...cannot simply be exported to cast on Asian countries..since the cultural and political practice may not work...Check Open Society and you will find a lot secret ops that undergone to fuel foreign blood shed...
• 
  Edwin Setiadi

  This is a special one for me, not for the content but for the story on how I got the book: the physical book that I have is from none other than George Soros himself, albeit indirectly.
  
  So in 2010 George Soros visited Indonesia, and he brought along several of this book to give away to few people that he met, as a good gesture. And one of those people who received the book was someone who doesn't know who Soros was, doesn't have a slight interest on him, but knew that I would probably appreciate the book.
  
  Well, as a person who has a mild case (mild?) of tsundoku I finally read the book, 10 years later. And it's.... typical of Soros. I've read more books written by Soros that I would like to admit (three, three books), and every time I read his book I always have this hope that the next sentence would be the bomb that I've been waiting for, akin to his stature as a financial market legend.
  
  But "da bomb" never happened, and this book - or more precisely this lectures - seems to be no exception. Soros is one of a kind hedge fund manager, with a brilliant trader's instinct, but he's not a good writer and a vague philosopher at best. But that is precisely what makes him human, and it can even be the antidote to the boogeyman, market-crashing, democracy-interrupting [misleading] enigma that is forever attached to his name. Hey, even Gordon Gekko has a soft side as shown towards the end of Wall Street 2 movie.
  
  But then, just when I nearly wrapped up this book, there it was. Da bomb. Lecture 5 is so good it’s worth one additional star just for this chapter alone. It showed that in 2010 Soros could summarise in a clear manner the problems in international finance and politics since the days of the Bretton Woods up until the 2008 crisis and its aftermath. And the predictions that he made a decade ago in lecture 5? He nailed almost every single one of them. That’s the Soros that I’ve been waiting for, and I’m sure glad I stick with the book till the end.
• 
  Steven Siswandhi

  Good introduction to Soros. Brief and sensible. When you read through it you'll get the feeling of reading a master's thinking: there's that clarity that can pierce through any enigma. Be it international finance and politics, investment strategy, and so on, he made it look easy.
  
  Many people wanna read his stuff to get investment advice but unfortunately he doesn't give much. Instead what he gave are quasi-philosophical concepts that he claimed to be derived from his famous mentor Karl Popper. To me his 'philosophy' just sounds like common sense. Nevertheless, probably that's what served him well all this time; a certain disrespect for the prevailing theories of the day (such as the efficient market hypothesis) and a belief in his own ideas. The rest is just gut instinct and brave risk taking. Perhaps that's his entire investment philosophy.
• 
  Joshua Cheong

  This book expanded my view beyond the efficient market hypothesis and the neo-classical production function. The theory of reflexivity is one possible exploration of alternatives to economics - since my interaction with people from the Institute of New Economic Thinking which Soros and a few others founded, I am realising that a new era of economics in development which I believe would enable better pricing for private equity and venture capital funded assets.
• 
  Josiah R

  His talk on reflexivity was interesting and what I was most anxious to hear more about. But the lecture on Popper's open society was confusing. In fact I find the man confusing ... on the one hand, he was heavily influenced to believe in strong protection for individual rights due to his experiences with the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships, but appears to promote heavy-handed regulation as the solution to certain social problems, which seems like a remarkable contradiction.
• 
  Orban

  An eye opener book definitely.
  
  Ideas, like the reflexivity were deep inside me in an unconscious way. Soros explained it well. I would recommend this book to those who would like to understand better the underlying forces shaping our markets. This book has opened doors for me.
  It also helped me to clear the false accusations targeting Soros himself, which are obviously not true.
• 
  Jane

  Lucid, easy to read, and should be read by a majority of people to understand financial and political market interplay and current events in the context of the 2010 aftermath of the financial crisis. The first chapter is the densest and one should study/take notes to help make subsequent reading even more clear, but one will get meaning out of it in a casual read.
• 
  Paul McKinlay

  Heavy read that requires focus... but is short and broken up so manageable. Will re read some of the lectures again for sure. Interesting to read his predictions and suggestions from 10yrs ago and how they’ve played out
• 
  Karl

  You can find the audio for free online. The one on reflexivity is genuinely good. The rest so and so.
• 
  Pedro Polanco

  Abstractions just compelling enough to warrant consideration of exploring, if not shifting, my societal paradigm
• 
  MJ Jabarian

  interesting introduction inside one of the greatest minds of the world of finance. Really enjoyed the audio.
• 
  Isha

  Enkele interessante inhoudelijke punten maar de Nederlandse vertaling kon me niet bekoren
• 
  Frank

  Soros covers a variety of disciplines, from philosophy to economics to politics. Soros is no doubt a smart guy who's really thought through financial markets, as well as his own theories.
  
  There was one point in the book where he went all "Spiderman" and mentioned how with great power and money comes great responsibility or something like that. While I agree that he's done some great things for great causes with his wealth and power, he was all about insider trading and short selling to GET his wealth and power. Despite this, his philanthropy is impressive overall.
  
  Nevertheless, he has some good insights. Unfortunately, I'm not properly versed in financial market vocabulary to fully understand everything he's talking about, but this is well worth a read for those interested in free markets, bubbles, and ideas like "market fundamentalism."
• 
  Murciaspain

  George soros has a Non unique view of economy. He simply wants to get richer. No secret about it .warren buffet wants to get richer too but he stresses in a fair playing field
  Soros thinks that we need to take advantage of Any playing field If we see a hole we take advantage. Warren tries to close the holes. I read both and both have served me well. I'm a little fish in a little pond but a fat fish
• 
  Ajay

  I was surprised by this book. I agree with a LOT of how Soros thinks about markets, and I agree with a lot of his diagnoses about problems with markets and government. I can't bring myself to share his optimism about the solution though, it seems overly simplistic a lot of the time.
  
  Still though, given that I opened it expecting to be unable to finish it, I liked this book quite a bit.
• 
  Damian

  I lived this lecture series. Soros is ipen and insightfull. He exposes his train of though on his view of modern economy and society, and his take on the effects of the economic crisis. I am not sure how much I share on some of his ideas, but he is certainly challenging many of the accepted (and flawed ) paradigms commonly accepted.
• 
  Bruce

  Interesting look into the mind of Soros. His economic theory is interesting but his social commentary is the real reason to read this book. Reading between the lines I see a man who would like to break down world governments by any means possible so he can build them up into his vision of utopia. He's a sick puppy.