No, he had not intervened with his billions in shaky financial markets. Instead, a press release from the Brazilian Central Bank announced that Arm nio Fraga, at 42 one of Soros's best young-Turk money managers, would resign from the fund management company to head the Brazilian central bank. Single-handedly, this deployment of one of the sorcerer's finest apprentices calmed the markets. Investors seemed comforted by the notion that Brazil was now in safe hands. From that day onwards, the Brazilian economy responded.
Recent figures show surprising growth in the second quarter.
The expected major recession turned into a recovery, still fragile because of the country's political circumstances, but a recovery nonetheless. As a result, the world economy breathed a sigh of relief. Yet, by and large, the name of George Soros does not leave a good taste in people's mouths. In Malaysia, he is, with exaggeration, reputed by vocal locals to have triggered the Asian financial crisis in the summer of 1997. In Great Britain he orchestrated the shakedown of the Bank of England in the fall of 1992, while pocketing profits of well over a billion dollars.