Billionaire Soros Has A Bleak Outlook For Us

Billionaire George Soros

Image source:

What's going on?

George Soros, the famous billionaire investor, has returned to active trading at the age of 85 so that he can bet on things going very badly for financial markets. Thats not very encouraging, George!

What does this mean?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Soros has recently been spending a lot more time directing trades for his family office – its multi-billion dollars worth of investments are usually managed by hired guns while Soros focuses on philanthropy. He is, apparently, convinced that China will crash: he cites the huge amount of debt in the Chinese economy and likens it to the US prior to the 2008 financial crisis (the last time he returned to active trading was to bet against the US housing market in 2007 like those smart guys in The Big Short). Hes also concerned about the potential breakup of the European Union because of its migration crisis, the Greece situation and a potential Brexit. So, yeah he has a fairly bleak outlook!

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: If Soros is right about China, it will probably get pretty nasty for the US and Europe too. Why does China matter so much? Because so many people and companies rely on Chinese demand (like people in Vancouver whose house values have been driven up by Chinese buyers; like global automakers that sell most of their cars in China; like hotels in London that have lots ofChinese tourists staying you get the point) if that demand collapses, there will likely be lots of collateral damage.

For you personally: For most people, only the long-term really matters. Personal investing is usually about preserving and building wealth for the long-term and that is exceptionally hard to do if you bet against the overall stock market. In the long-term, the economy has always grown and the value of stocks has mirrored that growth – and individuals are probably best to leave the shorting to others.

Originally posted as part of the Finimize daily email.

The top 2 financial news stories in 3 minutes. Join over one million Finimizers

Read next

Sign up to Finimize

Get the two most important global financial news stories each day. Sent at midnight UK time.

Get started with one email a day

The top financial news stories in 3 minutes.