With the global economy in turmoil after September 11th, these are challenging times for a self-styled host of the debate on globalisation.

George Soros, the billionaire 71-year-old Hungarian-born financier who set up the legendary Quantum investment fund, has devoted the past few years to pouring money into his Open Society foundation, development projects and universities.

Mr Soros has become a great supporter of debate and action: yjod week in Washington, a group of experts including doctors from the Harvard medical school launched a bid for $9 billion of funding to defeat tuberculosis worldwide after prompting - and funding - from his foundation. Last week he hosted a conference in Budapest at the Central European University, which he founded and continues to bankroll.

But he is also trying to make himself a central contributor to the globalisation argument, and finds this more difficult than giving away his money.

He admits with regret that his views on market movements and the global economy are far more eagerly sought than his views on globalisation, even though unconvincingly professing: "I no longer know much about equities."

He will offer only the view that the world is entering a "much steeper and deeper recession" as a result of September 11th. And he says that, while it could rebound sharply, there may be a longer-term bear market in stock prices, which he regards as still overvalued.

More interesting to him is his grand plan - still in draft form - to reform the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation, which he has been using the conference to promote.

At the centre is an ambitious scheme for the IMF to issue $70 billion a year in Special Drawing Rights - in effect its own currency - and transferring them to poor countries to fund development.

Disarmingly, Mr Soros admits he faced an uphill task in reinventing himself as the designer of a new financial architecture when he first floated his ideas.

"My views on the markets are given undue attention, while this proposal went down like a lead brick," he says.

However, he persevered, revised his proposals following consultations, and is serious enough to have recruited Karin Lissakers, the former US representative at the IMF, as an adviser.

He dismisses the suggestion that he could be seen as a dilettante.

"I have considerable credentials on foreign aid because I have been in the business myself," he says - a reference to the billions he has given away to support projects in developing countries. "I am a bigger factor than many foreign governments in some countries."

Having seen the impossibility of dealing with corrupt governments in the Balkans, he also believes in reducing the monopoly of poor countries' governments over development in their countries. Boldly, Mr Soros claims that James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, thinks the same way as he does on this issue. Mr Wolfensohn is another highly successful financier who has encountered criticism after making the transition into the development field.

"I have an ally at the top of the World Bank, even though he may be beleaguered," Mr Soros says.

Whatever Mr Wolfensohn thinks of this, Mr Soros' homespun ideas, at least in their entirety, are unlikely to be implemented.

IMF officials are distinctly cool about the idea of using their capability to pump $70 billion a year into the global economy.

More than one observer comments privately that his suggestions about preventing and resolving financial market crises - an area in which Mr Soros has long professional experience - are rather more impressive than his ideas on development, where he is a relative amateur. But most at least give him credit for trying.