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Essays

Wake Up, Europe

  • The New York Review of Books
  • October 22, 2014
Europe is facing a challenge from Russia to its very existence. Neither the European leaders nor their citizens are fully aware of this challenge or know how best to deal with it. I attribute this mainly to the fact that the European Union in general and the eurozone in particular lost their way after the financial crisis of 2008.

Britain Needs Greater Unity Not a Messy Break-Up

  • Financial Times
  • September 10, 2014
This is the worst possible time for Britain to consider leaving the EU – or for Scotland to break with Britain. The EU is an unfinished project of European states that have sacrificed part of their sovereignty to form an ever-closer union based on shared values and ideals.

Europe’s Ukrainian Lifeline

  • Project Syndicate
  • May 28, 2014
Last weekend’s European Parliament election and presidential election in Ukraine produced sharply contrasting results. Europe’s voters expressed their dissatisfaction with the way that the European Union currently functions, while Ukraine’s people demonstrated their desire for association with the EU. European leaders and citizens should take this opportunity to consider what that means – and how helping Ukraine can also help Europe.

A Futile War on Drugs that Wastes Money and Wrecks Lives

  • Financial Times
  • May 6, 2014
The war on drugs has been a $1tn failure. For more than four decades, governments around the world have pumped huge sums of money into ineffective and repressive anti-drug efforts. These have come at the expense of programs that actually work such as needle exchanges and substitution therapy.

The Future of Europe: An Interview with George Soros

  • The New York Review of Books
  • March 21, 2014
Parts of the following interview with George Soros by the Spiegel correspondent Gregor Peter Schmitz appear in their book, The Tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival?, just published by PublicAffairs. Gregor Peter Schmitz: The conflict in Crimea and Ukraine has changed the shape of European and world politics, and we will come to it.

It is Time to Stand Up for the European Union

  • Financial Times
  • March 12, 2014
There is an important debate under way about the future of Europe and Britain’s place in the EU. I bring a pro-European bias to this debate. I am a great believer in the Union as it was originally conceived. This is a function of my personal history and of the philosophy I developed based on my life experience.

Sustaining Ukraine’s Breakthrough

  • Project Syndicate
  • February 26, 2014
Following a crescendo of terrifying violence, the Ukrainian uprising has had a surprisingly positive outcome. Contrary to all rational expectations, a group of citizens armed with not much more than sticks and shields made of cardboard boxes and metal garbage-can lids overwhelmed a police force firing live ammunition.

Fallibility, Reflexivity, and the Human Uncertainty Principle

  • Journal of Economic Methodology
  • January 13, 2014
The Journal of Economic Methodology, the leading peer-reviewed journal on the philosophical foundations and methodological practice of economics, has published a special issue devoted to George Soros’s theory of reflexivity. The issue contains a new article by Mr. Soros articulating his most recent thinking on reflexivity and fallibility, the role of those concepts in social science, and their contribution to events such as the 2008 financial crisis and euro crisis. The issue also contains contributions, responses and critiques from 18 leading scholars in economics and the history and philosophy of science.

The World Economy’s Shifting Challenges

  • Project Syndicate
  • January 2, 2014
NEW YORK – As 2013 comes to a close, efforts to revive growth in the world’s most influential economies – with the exception of the eurozone – are having a beneficial effect worldwide. All of the looming problems for the global economy are political in character.

Europe Needs a Roma Working Class

  • The Guardian
  • November 27, 2013
Roma represent more than 20% of new entrants into the labor force in the European Union's newest member states but their living conditions have actually deteriorated since many of them became EU citizens.