The crisis of global capitalism

George Soros

Why I looked at this book

George Soros has been very successful in financial trading, but he also bases what he does on his philosophical ideas, which are based on Karl Popper's philosophy. Hence I thought it would be well worth finding out what these ideas are, and how they apply to the current position of the world economy. Soros has written quite a few books, but this looked like a good one to start with to get an impression of how his philosophy influences his economic ideas.

First impressions

This book was written during the Asian financial crises of the late 1990's. In the West most people probably weren't that aware of what was happening, but clearly the problems then were a taste of what was to come in the global financial crisis a decade later, so it will be interesting to read Soros' analysis and possible solutions. One of the key ideas Soros deals with in this book is that of reflexivity: people react to what is happening and act based on expectations rather than just the current status. I'm not always persuaded by such 'economics is not like physics' arguments, but I'll see what he has to say.