Economists point out that much of the economic growth in recent decades worldwide can be traced in part to the confidence of investors in open markets, which includes easy currency exchanges and values that adjust quickly to conditions and information.
In the past months, Soros has suggested meeting with Mahathir to discuss international economics. But Mahathir rejected such a meeting, calling Soros a "criminal" and a "moron."
At the heart of their conflict is a fundamental disagreement over the free flows of capital and ideas--notions that underpin how countries should develop and interact in global society.
Their clash reverberates from past debates. It touches on the ideological: Malaysian autocracy versus Soros' ideal of democracy; and the personal: On the day in 1992 that Soros broke the Bank of England and made $1 billion, Malaysia lost several billion dollars it had invested in sterling.
Just as Soros uses his billions as a tool to adjust the values of currencies he believes are off-kilter, he tries to nudge the moral values of countries as well. World Bank President James Wolfensohn, introducing Soros before his speech Sunday, described the 67-year-old as a philosopher and a philanthropist, "a man of powerful intellect who is not afraid to challenge orthodoxy."
Last year, Soros gave more than $400 million to causes overseas and at home to further his ideals of an "open society"--including $1 million to the campaigns in California and Arizona to legalize medicinal marijuana.
The speculator and the prime minister are alike in several ways. Both are unorthodox, and seek controversy and publicity to pound home a point. Both think big.
It is a contest between the man who moves the world's largest markets versus the man who claims the world's highest building in his country and now has plans to build the world's longest one. As a result of the devaluation, however, Mahathir has had to put on hold several "mega-projects" that had concerned critics.
Mahathir refused to meet Soros face to face at the World Bank meeting, so they addressed each other obliquely, in seminars on consecutive evenings.
In his speech, Soros insisted that speculators are doing the Asian countries a service, providing a kind of shock treatment for governments that had ignored warning signals to get their economic houses in order.
He cited the weaknesses in the fast-developing region that attracted his hedge fund's attention: lax supervision of the banking system, overly lenient credit policies in Thailand and Malaysia, and a lack of economic information.
An International Monetary Fund committee announced Sunday it is seeking new powers to encourage member nations to gradually lift most constraints on the movement of investment capital in and out of their markets.
But the recent sharp drop of Southeast Asian currencies and stock markets has made developing countries wary of any infringement on their ability to protect against sudden large movements of foreign money in or out of their economies.
