107-463: George Soros HonFBA (born György Schwartz ; August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. As of October 2023, he had a net worth of US$ 6.7 billion, having donated more than $ 32 billion to the Open Society Foundations , of which $ 15 billion has already been distributed, representing 64% of his original fortune. In 2020, Forbes called Soros
214-618: A Reuters story, "Soros: not a funder of Wall Street Protests ", was published after several commentators pointed out errors in an earlier Reuters story headlined "Who's Behind the Wall St. Protests?" with a lead stating that the Occupy Wall Street movement "may have benefited indirectly from the largesse of one of the world's richest men [Soros]". Reuters's follow-up article also reported a Soros spokesman and Adbusters ' co-founder Kalle Lasn both saying that Adbusters—the reputed catalyst for
321-401: A bave . Bave diameters for tussah silk can reach 65 μm. See cited reference for cross-sectional SEM photographs. Silk has a smooth, soft texture that is not slippery, unlike many synthetic fibers . Silk is one of the strongest natural fibers, but it loses up to 20% of its strength when wet. It has a good moisture regain of 11%. Its elasticity is moderate to poor: if elongated even
428-437: A Jewish wife in hiding. On one occasion, rather than leave the 14-year-old alone, the official took Soros with him while completing an inventory of a Jewish family's confiscated estate. Tivadar saved not only his immediate family, but also many other Hungarian Jews, and Soros later wrote that 1944 had been "the happiest [year] of his life", for it had given him the opportunity to witness his father's heroism. In 1945, Soros survived
535-544: A clerk and later moved to the arbitrage department. A fellow employee, Robert Mayer, suggested he apply at his father's brokerage house, F.M. Mayer of New York. In 1956, Soros moved to New York City, where he worked as an arbitrage trader for F. M. Mayer (1956–59). He specialized in European stocks, which were becoming popular with U.S. institutional investors following the formation of the Coal and Steel Community , which later became
642-729: A co-chairman of the super PAC's national finance committee. In June 2015, he donated $ 1 million to the Super PAC Priorities USA Action , which supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race . He donated $ 6 million to the PAC in December 2015 and $ 2.5 million in August 2016. Soros launched a new super PAC called Democracy PAC for the 2020 election cycle . By July 2019, he had donated $ 5.1 million to it. Since 2016, Soros has been donating sums exceeding $ 1 million to
749-798: A huge short position in pounds sterling for months leading up to the Black Wednesday of September 1992. Soros had recognized the unfavorable position of the United Kingdom in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism . For Soros, the rate at which the United Kingdom was brought into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism was too high, their inflation was also much too high (triple the German rate), and British interest rates were hurting their asset prices. By September 16, 1992,
856-648: A large part of their 20% performance fees, thereby expanding their stake. By 1981, the fund had grown to $ 400m, and then a 22% loss in that year and substantial redemptions by some of the investors reduced it to $ 200m. In July 2011, Soros announced that he had returned funds from outside investors' money (valued at $ 1 billion) and instead invested funds from his $ 24.5 billion family fortune, due to changes in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules, which he felt would compromise his duties of confidentiality to his investors. The fund had at that time averaged over 20% per year compound returns. In 2013,
963-424: A large satin waistcoat with flaps, were got up, of which the silk was perfect, but the lining entirely gone ... from the thread giving way ... No articles of dress of woollen cloth have yet been found.' Silk is a poor conductor of electricity and thus susceptible to static cling . Silk has a high emissivity for infrared light, making it feel cool to the touch. Unwashed silk chiffon may shrink up to 8% due to
1070-718: A long history of a formative textile industry in ancient China, this find of silk textiles employing "complicated techniques" of weaving and dyeing provides direct evidence for silks dating before the Mawangdui -discovery and other silks dating to the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). Silk is described in a chapter of the Fan Shengzhi shu from the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD). There is a surviving calendar for silk production in an Eastern Han (25–220 AD) document. The two other known works on silk from
1177-440: A number of small firms and cooperatives emerged. Among the most prominent of these was the cooperative utopian Northampton Association for Education and Industry, of which Sojourner Truth was a member. Following the destructive Mill River Flood of 1874 , one manufacturer, William Skinner , relocated his mill from Williamsburg to the then-new city of Holyoke . Over the next 50 years he and his sons would maintain relations between
SECTION 10
#17328490299261284-522: A profit of $ 1 billion, during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis. Based on his early studies of philosophy, Soros formulated the General Theory of Reflexivity for capital markets , to provide insights into asset bubbles and fundamental / market value of securities, as well as value discrepancies used for shorting and swapping stocks. Soros supports progressive and liberal political causes, to which he dispenses donations through
1391-528: A railway porter and as a waiter, and once received £40 from a Quaker charity. Soros would sometimes stand at Speakers' Corner lecturing about the virtues of internationalism in Esperanto , which he had learned from his father. Soros obtained his Bachelor of Science in philosophy in 1951 and a Master of Science in philosophy in 1954 from the London School of Economics. After graduating, he wanted to stay in
1498-417: A small amount, it remains stretched. It can be weakened if exposed to too much sunlight. It may also be attacked by insects, especially if left dirty. One example of the durable nature of silk over other fabrics is demonstrated by the recovery in 1840 of silk garments from a wreck of 1782 : 'The most durable article found has been silk; for besides pieces of cloaks and lace, a pair of black satin breeches, and
1605-668: A special law prohibiting NGOs from taking money from foreigners. I think this should be banned in Turkey as well." In 1997, Soros closed his foundation in Belarus after it was fined $ 3 million by the government for "tax and currency violations". According to The New York Times 1997, the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has been widely criticized in the West and in Russia for his efforts to control
1712-471: A variety of jobs and I ended up selling fancy goods on the seaside, souvenir shops, and I thought, that's really not what I was cut out to do. So, I wrote to every managing director in every merchant bank in London, got just one or two replies, and eventually that's how I got a job in a merchant bank." In 1954, Soros began his financial career at the merchant bank Singer & Friedlander of London. He worked as
1819-534: A vice president at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder resulted in little enthusiasm for the job; business was slack following the introduction of the Interest Equalization Tax , which undermined the viability of Soros's European trading. He spent the years from 1963 to 1966 with his main focus on the revision of his philosophy dissertation. In 1966, he started a fund with $ 100,000 of the firm's money to experiment with his trading strategies. In 1969, Soros set up
1926-416: A white-colored silk thread with no mineral on the surface. The pupae are killed by either dipping them in boiling water before the adult moths emerge or by piercing them with a needle. These factors all contribute to the ability of the whole cocoon to be unravelled as one continuous thread, permitting a much stronger cloth to be woven from the silk. Wild silks also tend to be more difficult to dye than silk from
2033-460: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Silk Silk is a natural protein fiber , some forms of which can be woven into textiles . The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons . The best-known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity ( sericulture ). The shimmering appearance of silk
2140-501: Is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge") and implied Soros was orchestrating the crash as part of a larger Jewish conspiracy. Nine years later, in 2006, Mahathir met with Soros and afterward stated that he accepted that Soros had not been responsible for the crisis. In 1998's The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered , Soros explained his role in the crisis as follows: The financial crisis that originated in Thailand in 1997
2247-509: Is composed mostly of beta-sheets , due to a 59-mer amino acid repeat sequence with some variations. The flat surfaces of the fibrils reflect light at many angles, giving silk a natural sheen. The cross-section from other silkworms can vary in shape and diameter: crescent-like for Anaphe and elongated wedge for tussah . Silkworm fibers are naturally extruded from two silkworm glands as a pair of primary filaments (brin), which are stuck together, with sericin proteins that act like glue , to form
SECTION 20
#17328490299262354-537: Is concentrated in the Coimbatore , Erode , Bhagalpuri , Tiruppur , Salem , and Dharmapuri districts. Hyderabad , Andhra Pradesh , and Gobichettipalayam , Tamil Nadu , were the first locations to have automated silk reeling units in India. In the northeastern state of Assam , three different types of indigenous variety of silk are produced, collectively called Assam silk : Muga silk , Eri silk and Pat silk . Muga,
2461-401: Is due to the triangular prism -like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles , thus producing different colors. Silk is produced by several insects; but, generally, only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. There has been some research into other types of silk, which differ at the molecular level. Silk
2568-504: Is forbidden. Modern attire has raised a number of issues, including, for instance, the permissibility of wearing silk neckties , which are masculine articles of clothing. In the Odyssey , 19.233, when Odysseus, while pretending to be someone else, is questioned by Penelope about her husband's clothing, he says that he wore a shirt "gleaming like the skin of a dried onion" (varies with translations, literal translation here) which could refer to
2675-649: Is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis , but some insects, such as webspinners and raspy crickets , produce silk throughout their lives. Silk production also occurs in hymenoptera ( bees , wasps , and ants ), silverfish , caddisflies , mayflies , thrips , leafhoppers , beetles , lacewings , fleas , flies , and midges . Other types of arthropods produce silk, most notably various arachnids , such as spiders . The word silk comes from Old English : sioloc , from Latin : sericum and Ancient Greek : σηρικός , romanized : sērikós , "silken", ultimately from
2782-584: Is now part of Malaysia , a second generation of silkworm was being imported as early as 1764 for the country's silk textile industry, especially songket . However, since the 1980s, Malaysia is no longer engaged in sericulture but does plant mulberry trees. In Vietnamese legend, silk appeared in the first millennium AD and is still being woven today. The process of silk production is known as sericulture . The entire production process of silk can be divided into several steps which are typically handled by different entities. Extracting raw silk starts by cultivating
2889-527: Is potentially large when compared with other natural fibers. A life-cycle assessment of Indian silk production shows that the production process has a large carbon and water footprint, mainly due to the fact that it is an animal-derived fiber and more inputs such as fertilizer and water are needed per unit of fiber produced. Silk fibers from the Bombyx mori silkworm have a triangular cross section with rounded corners, 5–10 μm wide. The fibroin-heavy chain
2996-415: Is soaked in extremely cold water and bleached before dyeing to remove the natural yellow coloring of Thai silk yarn. To do this, skeins of silk thread are immersed in large tubs of hydrogen peroxide . Once washed and dried, the silk is woven on a traditional hand-operated loom. The Rajshahi Division of northern Bangladesh is the hub of the country's silk industry. There are three types of silk produced in
3103-584: Is the presence of the silk protein fibroin in soil samples from two tombs at the neolithic site Jiahu in Henan , which date back about 8,500 years. The earliest surviving example of silk fabric dates from about 3630 BC, and was used as the wrapping for the body of a child at a Yangshao culture site in Qingtaicun near Xingyang , Henan. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress, Leizu (Hsi-Ling-Shih, Lei-Tzu). Silks were originally reserved for
3210-474: Is the second largest producer of silk in the world after China. About 97% of the raw mulberry silk comes from six Indian states, namely, Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , Jammu and Kashmir , Tamil Nadu , Bihar , and West Bengal . North Bangalore, the upcoming site of a $ 20 million "Silk City" Ramanagara and Mysore , contribute to a majority of silk production in Karnataka. In Tamil Nadu , mulberry cultivation
3317-580: The Central European University in his Hungarian hometown. Soros's extensive funding of political causes has made him a " bugaboo of European nationalists ". Numerous far-right theorists have promoted claims that characterize Soros as a dangerous "puppet master" behind alleged global plots. Criticisms of Soros, who is of Jewish descent , have often been called antisemitic . In 2018, The New York Times reported that " conspiracy theories about him have gone mainstream, to nearly every corner of
George Soros - Misplaced Pages Continue
3424-610: The Common Market . In 1959, after three years at F. M. Mayer, Soros moved to Wertheim & Co. He planned to stay for five years, enough time to save $ 500,000, after which he intended to return to England to study philosophy. He worked as an analyst of European securities until 1963. During this period, Soros developed the theory of reflexivity to extend the ideas of his tutor at the London School of Economics , Karl Popper . Reflexivity posits that market values are often driven by
3531-616: The Great Palace complex in Constantinople, and the cloth produced was used in imperial robes or in diplomacy, as gifts to foreign dignitaries. The remainder was sold at very high prices. Italy was the most important producer of silk during the Medieval age. The first center to introduce silk production to Italy was the city of Catanzaro during the 11th century in the region of Calabria . The silk of Catanzaro supplied almost all of Europe and
3638-510: The Open Society Foundations . Between 1979 and 2011, he donated more than $ 11 billion to various philanthropic causes; by 2017, his donations "on civil initiatives to reduce poverty and increase transparency, and on scholarships and universities around the world" totaled $ 12 billion. He influenced the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and provided one of Europe's largest higher education endowments to
3745-625: The Republican Party ". György Schwartz was born on 12 August 1930 in Budapest in the Kingdom of Hungary to a prosperous non-observant Jewish family, who, like many upper-middle class Hungarian Jews at the time, were uncomfortable with their roots. Soros has wryly described his home as a Jewish antisemitic home. The family of his mother Erzsébet (also known as Elizabeth) operated a successful silk store. His father Tivadar (also known as Teodoro Ŝvarc)
3852-489: The Siege of Budapest , in which Soviet and German forces fought house-to-house through the city. George and his mother also spent some time hiding with the family of Elza Brandeisz and even attended their Lutheran church with them. When he was 17, Soros relocated to Paris before eventually moving to England. There he became a student at the London School of Economics . While a student of the philosopher Karl Popper , Soros worked as
3959-718: The Torah , a scarlet cloth item called in Hebrew "sheni tola'at" שני תולעת – literally "crimson of the worm" – is described as being used in purification ceremonies, such as those following a leprosy outbreak (Leviticus 14), alongside cedar wood and hyssop ( za'atar ). Eminent scholar and leading medieval translator of Jewish sources and books of the Bible into Arabic , Rabbi Saadia Gaon , translates this phrase explicitly as "crimson silk" – חריר קרמז حرير قرمز. In Islamic teachings, Muslim men are forbidden to wear silk. Many religious jurists believe
4066-509: The Yayoi period . The silk industry was dominant from the 1930s to 1950s, but is less common now. Silk from East Asia had declined in importance after silkworms were smuggled from China to the Byzantine Empire. However, in 1845, an epidemic of flacherie among European silkworms devastated the silk industry there. This led to a demand for silk from China and Japan , where as late as
4173-477: The devaluation that he would borrow nearly $ 15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell." Soros was believed to have traded billions of Finnish markkas on February 5, 1996, in anticipation of selling them short. The markka had been put floating as a result of the early 1990s depression . The Bank of Finland and the Finnish Government commented at
4280-421: The late-2000s recession , Soros referred to it as the most serious crisis since the 1930s. According to Soros, market fundamentalism with its assumption that markets will correct themselves with no need for government intervention in financial affairs has been "some kind of an ideological excess". In Soros's view, the markets' moods—a "mood" of the markets being a prevailing bias or optimism/pessimism with which
4387-470: The occupation . Soros later described this time to writer Michael Lewis : The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper ... I took this piece of paper to my father. He instantly recognized it. This was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, "You deliver the slips of paper and tell
George Soros - Misplaced Pages Continue
4494-725: The "most generous giver" (in terms of percentage of net worth). He is a resident of New York . Born in Budapest to a non-observant Jewish family, Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary and moved to the United Kingdom in 1947. He studied at the London School of Economics and was awarded a BSc in philosophy in 1951, and then a Master of Science degree, also in philosophy, in 1954. Soros started his career working in British and American merchant banks , before setting up his first hedge fund , Double Eagle, in 1969. Profits from this fund provided
4601-471: The 12th century. Other Italian cities involved in silk production were Genoa , Venice , and Florence . The Piedmont area of Northern Italy became a major silk producing area when water-powered silk throwing machines were developed. The Silk Exchange in Valencia from the 15th century—where previously in 1348 also perxal ( percale ) was traded as some kind of silk—illustrates the power and wealth of one of
4708-579: The 17th century. James I attempted to establish silk production in England, purchasing and planting 100,000 mulberry trees, some on land adjacent to Hampton Court Palace , but they were of a species unsuited to the silk worms, and the attempt failed. In 1732 John Guardivaglio set up a silk throwing enterprise at Logwood mill in Stockport ; in 1744, Burton Mill was erected in Macclesfield ; and in 1753 Old Mill
4815-631: The American silk industry and its counterparts in Japan, and expanded their business to the point that by 1911, the Skinner Mill complex contained the largest silk mill under one roof in the world, and the brand Skinner Fabrics had become the largest manufacturer of silk satins internationally. Other efforts later in the 19th century would also bring the new silk industry to Paterson, New Jersey , with several firms hiring European-born textile workers and granting it
4922-626: The Belarus Soros Foundation and other independent NGOs and to suppress civil and human rights. Soros called the fines part of a campaign to "destroy independent society". In June 2009, Soros donated $ 100 million to Central Europe and Eastern Europe to counter the impact of the Great Recession on the poor, voluntary groups and non-government organisations. Honorary Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of
5029-694: The British Academy ( post-nominal letters FBA ) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: The award of fellowship is based on published work and fellows may use the post-nominal letters FBA . Examples of Fellows are Edward Rand ; Mary Beard ; Roy Porter ; Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford ; Michael Lobban ; M. R. James ; Friedrich Hayek ; John Maynard Keynes ; Lionel Robbins ; and Rowan Williams . This award -related article
5136-581: The Chinese monopoly . Nonetheless, sericulture reached Korea with technological aid from China around 200 BC, the ancient Kingdom of Khotan by AD 50, and India by AD 140. In the ancient era, silk from China was the most lucrative and sought-after luxury item traded across the Eurasian continent, and many civilizations, such as the ancient Persians, benefited economically from trade. Archaeological evidence indicates that sericulture has been practiced since
5243-553: The Chinese word "sī" and other Asian sources—compare Mandarin sī "silk", Manchurian sirghe , Mongolian sirkek . The production of silk originated in China in the Neolithic period, although it would eventually reach other places of the world ( Yangshao culture, 4th millennium BC). Silk production remained confined to China until the Silk Road opened at some point during
5350-704: The Double Eagle hedge fund with $ 4m of investors' capital including $ 250,000 of his own money. It was based in Curaçao , Dutch Antilles . Double Eagle itself was an offshoot of Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder's First Eagle fund established by Soros and that firm's chairman Henry H. Arnhold in 1967. In 1973, the Double Eagle Fund had $ 12 million and formed the basis of the Soros Fund. George Soros and Jim Rogers received returns on their share of capital and 20 percent of
5457-636: The Han period are lost. The first evidence of the long distance silk trade is the finding of silk in the hair of an Egyptian mummy of the 21st dynasty, c.1070 BC. The silk trade reached as far as the Indian subcontinent , the Middle East , Europe , and North Africa . This trade was so extensive that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia came to be known as the Silk Road . The emperors of China strove to keep knowledge of sericulture secret to maintain
SECTION 50
#17328490299265564-618: The Japanese silk industry and its position as the lead silk exporter of the world. Today, China exports the largest volume of raw silk in the world. Silk has a long history in India. It is known as Resham in eastern and north India, and Pattu in southern parts of India . Recent archaeological discoveries in Harappa and Chanhu-daro suggest that sericulture , employing wild silk threads from native silkworm species, existed in South Asia during
5671-520: The Middle East by Peter Gaddum . Wild silk taken from the nests of native caterpillars was used by the Aztecs to make containers and as paper. Silkworms were introduced to Oaxaca from Spain in the 1530s and the region profited from silk production until the early 17th century, when the king of Spain banned export to protect Spain's silk industry. Silk production for local consumption has continued until
5778-492: The Quantum Fund made $ 5.5 billion, making it again the most successful hedge fund in history. Since its inception in 1973, the fund has generated $ 40 billion. The fund announced in 2015 that it would inject $ 300 million to help finance the expansion of Fen Hotels, an Argentine hotel company. The funds will develop 5,000 rooms over the next three years throughout various Latin American countries. Soros had been building
5885-571: The Société Générale and had no insider knowledge of the business, but he did possess knowledge that a group of investors was planning a takeover attempt. Initial investigations found Soros innocent, and no charges were brought forward. However, the case was reopened a few years later, and the French Supreme Court confirmed the conviction on June 14, 2006, although it reduced the penalty to €940,000. Soros denied any wrongdoing, saying news of
5992-912: The Soros Foundation were the cradle of democratization and that all the NGOs that gravitated around the Soros Foundation undeniably carried the revolution. She opines that after the revolution the Soros Foundation and the NGOs were integrated into power. Some Soros-backed pro-democracy initiatives have been banned in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan . Ercis Kurtulus, head of the Social Transparency Movement Association (TSHD) in Turkey , said in an interview 2006 that "Soros carried out his will in Ukraine and Georgia by using these NGOs ... Last year Russia passed
6099-462: The Soros Fund and gave investors in the Double Eagle Fund the option of transferring to that or staying with Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder. It was later renamed the Quantum Fund , after the physical theory of quantum mechanics . By that time the value of the fund had grown to $ 12m, only a small proportion of which was Soros's own money. He and Jim Rogers reinvested their returns from the fund, and also
6206-594: The United States tax code, 26 U.S.C. § 527). The groups aimed to defeat President George W. Bush . After Bush's reelection, Soros and other donors backed a new political fundraising group called Democracy Alliance , which supports progressive causes and the formation of a stronger progressive infrastructure in America. In August 2009, Soros donated $ 35 million to the state of New York to be earmarked for underprivileged children and given to parents who had benefit cards at
6313-490: The campaign's largest donors. For the 2022 United States elections , Soros was the country's largest donor. He donated $ 128.5 million to support the Democratic Party in the election cycle. According to Waldemar A. Nielsen, an authority on American philanthropy, "[Soros] has undertaken... nothing less than to open up the once-closed communist societies of Eastern Europe to a free flow of ideas and scientific knowledge from
6420-607: The campaigns of progressive criminal justice reform proponents through the Safety and Justice PAC in local district attorney elections. In many districts, such large contributions were unprecedented and the campaigning strategy was "turned on its head" with a focus on incarceration, police misconduct and bail system, according to the Los Angeles Times . Larry Krasner was elected as the District Attorney of Philadelphia with
6527-482: The crisis, a wholly unfounded accusation. We were not sellers of the currency during or several months before the crisis; on the contrary, we were buyers when the currencies began to decline—we were purchasing ringgits to realize the profits on our earlier speculation. (Much too soon, as it turned out. We left most of the potential gain on the table because we were afraid that Mahathir would impose capital controls. He did so, but much later.) In 1999, economist Paul Krugman
SECTION 60
#17328490299266634-433: The cultivated silkworm. A technique known as demineralizing allows the mineral layer around the cocoon of wild silk moths to be removed, leaving only variability in color as a barrier to creating a commercial silk industry based on wild silks in the parts of the world where wild silk moths thrive, such as in Africa and South America. Silk use in fabric was first developed in ancient China. The earliest evidence for silk
6741-406: The day of Black Wednesday, Soros's fund had sold short more than $ 10 billion in pounds , profiting from the UK government's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or float its currency. Finally, the UK withdrew from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, devaluing the pound. Soros's profit on the bet
6848-511: The domesticated varieties in colour and texture and are therefore less uniform; second, cocoons gathered in the wild have usually had the pupa emerge from them before being discovered so the silk thread that makes up the cocoon has been torn into shorter lengths; and third, many wild cocoons are covered in a mineral layer that prevents attempts to reel from them long strands of silk. Thus, the only way to obtain silk suitable for spinning into textiles in areas where commercial silks are not cultivated
6955-469: The early center of the silk industry in America, when the Cheney Brothers became the first in the United States to properly raise silkworms on an industrial scale; today the Cheney Brothers Historic District showcases their former mills. With the mulberry tree craze of that decade, other smaller producers began raising silkworms. This economy particularly gained traction in the vicinity of Northampton, Massachusetts and its neighboring Williamsburg , where
7062-411: The emperors of China for their own use and gifts to others, but spread gradually through Chinese culture and trade both geographically and socially, and then to many regions of Asia . Because of its texture and lustre, silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants. Silk was in great demand, and became a staple of pre- industrial international trade . Silk
7169-401: The fallible ideas of participants, not only by the economic fundamentals of the situation. Ideas and events influence each other in reflexive feedback loops. Soros argued that this process leads to markets having procyclical "virtuous" or "vicious" cycles of boom and bust, in contrast to the equilibrium predictions of more standard neoclassical economics. From 1963 to 1973, Soros's experience as
7276-449: The first Occupy Wall Street protests—had never received any contributions from Soros, contrary to Reuters's earlier story that reported that "indirect financial links" existed between the two as late as 2010. On September 27, 2012, Soros announced that he was donating $ 1 million to the super PAC backing President Barack Obama 's reelection Priorities USA Action . In October 2013, Soros donated $ 25,000 to Ready for Hillary , becoming
7383-444: The golden silk, and Eri are produced by silkworms that are native only to Assam. They have been reared since ancient times similar to other East and South-East Asian countries. Silk is produced year-round in Thailand by two types of silkworms, the cultured Bombycidae and wild Saturniidae. Most production is after the rice harvest in the southern and northeastern parts of the country. Women traditionally weave silk on hand looms and pass
7490-405: The great Mediterranean mercantile cities. Silk was produced in and exported from the province of Granada , Spain, especially the Alpujarras region, until the Moriscos , whose industry it was, were expelled from Granada in 1571. Since the 15th century, silk production in France has been centered around the city of Lyon where many mechanic tools for mass production were first introduced in
7597-470: The group effort, opting to personally move forward with his strategy of accumulating shares in four French companies: Société Générale, as well as Suez, Paribas, and the Compagnie Générale d'Électricité . In 1989, the Commission des Opérations de Bourse (COB, the French stock exchange regulatory authority) conducted an investigation of whether Soros's transaction in Société Générale should be considered insider trading . Soros had received no information from
7704-545: The help of a $ 1.5 million ad campaign funded by Soros in 2017. Soros was the largest donor supporting the campaign of George Gascón for Los Angeles County District Attorney in 2020, contributing $ 2.25 million to superPACs in Gascón's favor. Soros gave $ 2 million to a PAC supporting Kim Foxx 's campaign for Cook County State's Attorney in 2020. In the second quarter of 2020, Soros gave at least $ 500,000 to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden , becoming one of
7811-500: The international economic and financial system. In 1988, Soros was contacted by a French financier named Georges Pébereau, who asked him to participate in an effort to assemble a group of investors to purchase a large number of shares in Société Générale , a leading French bank that was part of a privatization program (something instituted by the new government under Jacques Chirac ). Soros eventually decided against participating in
7918-545: The largest silk exporter in the world. This increase in exports was mostly due to the economic reforms during the Meiji period and the decline of the Qing dynasty in China, which led to rapid industrialization of Japan whilst the Chinese industries stagnated. During World War II , embargoes against Japan had led to adoption of synthetic materials such as nylon , which led to the decline of
8025-460: The latter part of the 1st millennium BC, though China maintained its virtual monopoly over silk production for another thousand years. Several kinds of wild silk, produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm, have been known and spun in China , South Asia , and Europe since ancient times. However, the scale of production was always far smaller than for cultivated silks. There are several reasons for this: first, they differ from
8132-467: The lustrous quality of silk fabric. Aristotle wrote of Coa vestis , a wild silk textile from Kos . Sea silk from certain large sea shells was also valued. The Roman Empire knew of and traded in silk, and Chinese silk was the most highly priced luxury good imported by them. During the reign of emperor Tiberius , sumptuary laws were passed that forbade men from wearing silk garments, but these proved ineffectual. The Historia Augusta mentions that
8239-564: The markets look at reality—"actually can reinforce themselves so that there are these initially self-reinforcing but eventually unsustainable and self-defeating boom/bust sequences or bubbles". In reaction to the Great Recession , he founded the Institute for New Economic Thinking in October 2009. This is a think tank composed of international economic, business, and financial experts, who are mandated to investigate radical new approaches to organizing
8346-510: The new name because it is a palindrome and because of its meaning. In Hungarian, soros means "next"; in Esperanto it means "will soar". Soros was 13 years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary . The Nazis barred Jewish children from attending school, and Soros and the other schoolchildren were made to report to the Judenrat (" Jewish Council "), which had been established during
8453-521: The newly independent countries. A 2017 study found that a grant program by George Soros which awarded funding to over 28,000 scientists in the former Soviet republics shortly after the end of the Soviet Union "more than doubled publications on the margin, significantly induced scientists to remain in the science sector, and had long-lasting [beneficial] impacts". His funding of pro-democratic programs in Georgia
8560-488: The nickname "Silk City" as another major center of production in the United States. World War II interrupted the silk trade from Asia, and silk prices increased dramatically. U.S. industry began to look for substitutes, which led to the use of synthetics such as nylon . Synthetic silks have also been made from lyocell , a type of cellulose fiber, and are often difficult to distinguish from real silk (see spider silk for more on synthetic silks). In Terengganu , which
8667-422: The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japanese exports competed directly with Chinese in the international market in such low value-added, labor-intensive products as raw silk. Between 1850 and 1930, raw silk ranked as the leading export for both countries, accounting for 20%–40% of Japan's total exports and 20%–30% of China's. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, Japanese silk exports quadrupled, making Japan
8774-572: The outside world". From 1979, as an advocate of ' open societies ', Soros financially supported dissidents including Poland's Solidarity movement, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union . In 1984, he founded his first Open Society Institute in Hungary with a budget of $ 3 million. Since the fall of the Soviet Union , Soros's funding has played an important role in
8881-487: The people that if they report they will be deported". I'm not sure to what extent he knew they were going to be gassed. I did what my father said. Soros did not return to that job; his family survived the war by purchasing documents to say that they were Christians. Later that year at age 14, Soros posed as the Christian godson of an official of the collaborationist Hungarian government's Ministry of Agriculture, who himself had
8988-521: The present day, sometimes spinning wild silk. King James I introduced silk-growing to the British colonies in America around 1619, ostensibly to discourage tobacco planting. The Shakers in Kentucky adopted the practice. The history of industrial silk in the United States is largely tied to several smaller urban centers in the Northeast region. Beginning in the 1830s, Manchester, Connecticut emerged as
9095-426: The profits each year. In 1970, Soros founded Soros Fund Management and became its chairman. Among those who held senior positions there at various times were Jim Rogers, Stanley Druckenmiller , Mark Schwartz, Keith Anderson, and Soros's two sons. In 1973, due to perceived conflicts of interest limiting his ability to run the two funds, Soros resigned from the management of the Double Eagle Fund. He then established
9202-533: The rate of $ 200 per child aged 3 through 17, with no limit as to the number of children that qualified. An additional $ 140 million was put into the fund by the state of New York from money they had received from the 2009 federal recovery act . Soros was an initial donor to the Center for American Progress , and he continues to support the organization through the Open Society Foundations. In October 2011,
9309-399: The reasoning behind the prohibition lies in avoiding clothing for men that can be considered feminine or extravagant. There are disputes regarding the amount of silk a fabric can consist of (e.g., whether a small decorative silk piece on a cotton caftan is permissible or not) for it to be lawful for men to wear, but the dominant opinion of most Muslim scholars is that the wearing of silk by men
9416-461: The region: mulberry, endi, and tassar. Bengali silk was a major item of international trade for centuries. It was known as Ganges silk in medieval Europe. Bengal was the leading exporter of silk between the 16th and 19th centuries. The 7th century CE murals of Afrasiyab in Samarkand , Sogdiana , show a Chinese Embassy carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons to the local Sogdian ruler. In
9523-513: The seed money for Soros Fund Management , his second hedge fund, in 1970. Double Eagle was renamed Quantum Fund and was the principal firm Soros advised. At its founding, Quantum Fund had $ 12 million in assets under management , and as of 2011 it had $ 25 billion, the majority of Soros's overall net worth. Soros is known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England " as a result of his short sale of US$ 10 billion worth of pounds sterling , which made him
9630-745: The silkworms on mulberry leaves. Once the worms start pupating in their cocoons, these are dissolved in boiling water in order for individual long fibres to be extracted and fed into the spinning reel. To produce 1 kg of silk, 104 kg of mulberry leaves must be eaten by 3000 silkworms. It takes about 5000 silkworms to make a pure silk kimono . The major silk producers are China (54%) and India (14%). Other statistics: Production in Int $ 1000 have been calculated based on 1999–2001 international prices Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Division The environmental impact of silk production
9737-400: The skill on to their daughters, as weaving is considered to be a sign of maturity and eligibility for marriage. Thai silk textiles often use complicated patterns in various colours and styles. Most regions of Thailand have their own typical silks. A single thread filament is too thin to use on its own so women combine many threads to produce a thicker, usable fiber. They do this by hand-reeling
9844-573: The takeover was public knowledge and it was documented that his intent to acquire shares of the company predated his own awareness of the takeover. In December 2006, he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights on various grounds, including that the 14-year delay in bringing the case to trial precluded a fair hearing. On the basis of Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights , stating that no person may be punished for an act that
9951-561: The third-century emperor Elagabalus was the first Roman to wear garments of pure silk, whereas it had been customary to wear fabrics of silk/cotton or silk/linen blends. Despite the popularity of silk, the secret of silk-making only reached Europe around AD 550, via the Byzantine Empire . Contemporary accounts state that monks working for the emperor Justinian I smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople from China inside hollow canes. All top-quality looms and weavers were located inside
10058-435: The threads onto a wooden spindle to produce a uniform strand of raw silk. The process takes around 40 hours to produce a half kilogram of silk. Many local operations use a reeling machine for this task, but some silk threads are still hand-reeled. The difference is that hand-reeled threads produce three grades of silk: two fine grades that are ideal for lightweight fabrics, and a thick grade for heavier material. The silk fabric
10165-700: The time of the Indus Valley civilisation (now in Pakistan and India) dating between 2450 BC and 2000 BC. Shelagh Vainker, a silk expert at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, who sees evidence for silk production in China "significantly earlier" than 2500–2000 BC, suggests, "people of the Indus civilization either harvested silkworm cocoons or traded with people who did, and that they knew a considerable amount about silk." India
10272-467: The time they believed that a "conspiracy" was impossible. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis , the prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad , accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for welcoming Myanmar as a member. With a history of antisemitic remarks, Mahathir made specific reference to Soros's Jewish background ("It
10379-604: The university and work as a professor, but his grades were not high enough, prompting him to work for an investment firm in London. In a discussion at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council in 2006, Alvin Shuster, former foreign editor of the Los Angeles Times , asked Soros, "How does one go from an immigrant to a financier? ... When did you realize that you knew how to make money?". Soros replied, "Well, I had
10486-593: Was a lawyer and a well-known Esperanto author who edited the Esperanto literary magazine Literatura Mondo and raised his son to speak the language. Tivadar had also been a prisoner of war during and after World War I until he escaped from Russia and rejoined his family in Budapest. His parents married in 1924. In 1936, Soros's family changed their name from the German-Jewish "Schwartz" to "Soros", as protective camouflage in increasingly antisemitic Hungary. Tivadar liked
10593-662: Was also used as a surface for writing, especially during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE). The fabric was light, it survived the damp climate of the Yangtze region, absorbed ink well, and provided a white background for the text. In July 2007, archaeologists discovered intricately woven and dyed silk textiles in a tomb in Jiangxi province, dated to the Eastern Zhou dynasty roughly 2,500 years ago. Although historians have suspected
10700-805: Was built in Congleton . These three towns remained the centre of the English silk throwing industry until silk throwing was replaced by silk waste spinning . British enterprise also established silk filature in Cyprus in 1928. In England in the mid-20th century, raw silk was produced at Lullingstone Castle in Kent. Silkworms were raised and reeled under the direction of Zoe Lady Hart Dyke , later moving to Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire in 1956. During World War II , supplies of silk for UK parachute manufacture were secured from
10807-464: Was by tedious and labor-intensive carding . Some natural silk structures have been used without being unwound or spun. Spider webs were used as a wound dressing in ancient Greece and Rome, and as a base for painting from the 16th century. Caterpillar nests were pasted together to make a fabric in the Aztec Empire . Commercial silks originate from reared silkworm pupae, which are bred to produce
10914-711: Was considered by Georgian nationalists to be crucial to the success of the Rose Revolution , although Soros has said that his role has been "greatly exaggerated". Alexander Lomaia , secretary of the Georgian Security Council and former Minister of Education and Science, is a former executive director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation ( Soros Foundation ), overseeing a staff of 50 and a budget of $ 2.5 million. Former Georgian foreign minister Salomé Zourabichvili wrote that institutions like
11021-428: Was critical of Soros's effect on financial markets: [N]obody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis, but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fun and profit. These new actors on the scene do not yet have a standard name; my proposed term is "Soroi". In an interview concerning
11128-683: Was estimated at over $ 1 billion. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England". The estimated cost of Black Wednesday to the UK Treasury was £3.4 billion. Stanley Druckenmiller , who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound and stated: "[Soros's] contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position". On October 26, 1992, The New York Times quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $ 10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before
11235-485: Was not a criminal offense at the time that it was committed, the court agreed to hear the appeal. In October 2011, the court rejected his appeal in a 4–3 decision, saying that Soros had been aware of the risk of breaking insider trading laws. Until the 2004 presidential election, Soros had not been a large donor to U.S. political campaigns. According to OpenSecrets , during the 2003–2004 election cycle, Soros donated $ 23,581,000 to various 527 Groups (tax-exempt groups under
11342-641: Was particularly unnerving because of its scope and severity ... By the beginning of 1997, it was clear to Soros Fund Management that the discrepancy between the trade account and the capital account was becoming untenable. We sold short the Thai baht and the Malaysian ringgit early in 1997 with maturities ranging from six months to a year. (That is, we entered into contracts to deliver at future dates Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit that we did not currently hold.) Subsequently, Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia accused me of causing
11449-609: Was sold in a large market fair in the port of Reggio Calabria , to Spanish, Venetian, Genovese, and Dutch merchants. Catanzaro became the lace capital of the world with a large silkworm breeding facility that produced all the laces and linens used in the Vatican. The city was world-famous for its fine fabrication of silks, velvets, damasks, and brocades. Another notable center was the Italian city-state of Lucca which largely financed itself through silk-production and silk-trading, beginning in
#925074