Money manager George Soros has granted a series of interviews at Davos. To the BBC, he talked about the Euro. To Bloomberg, he talked about commodities prices. To CNBC, he talked about U.S. municipal bond prices. Not a single one of the reporters appears to have asked Mr. Soros what financial positions he had, or to have communicated those positions to readers. I don't fault Mr. Soros for talking to the reporters — he can make money if other people listen to what he says and then trade on it, because he's already taken his positions. But it'd be nice for the reporters to explain that rather than to treat him as if he's some sort of wise man on the sidelines who doesn't have a financial stake in what he's talking about.
My favorite Soros quote of the week came not out of an interview but out of a wider press conference, as reported by Daniel Gross: "market regulators are even more imperfect than markets." Mr. Gross also reports that Mr. Soros is working with Paul Volcker to convene a conference on April 8 to 10, 2011 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.