NEW YORK, April 12: George Soros, one of the most successful investors and richest men has predicted that the world is facing “the biggest financial crisis ever.’’

A ‘’super bubble” that has been swelling for a quarter of a century is finally bursting,” he said in a interview with the New York Times published on Saturday.

Mr Soros, who is a controversial figure in the American financial circles, last week rushed out a book, his 10th, warning that the financial pain has only just begun. “I consider this the biggest financial crisis of my lifetime,” Mr Soros told the New York Times in an interview . A “super bubble” that has been swelling for a quarter of a century is finally bursting, he said.

The newspaper observed that Mr Soros, whose daring, controversial trades came to symbolise global capitalism in the 1990s, is now busy promoting his book, “The New Paradigm for Financial Markets,” which goes on sale in mid-May. An electronic version is already available online.

Mr Soros said all aspects of his life — finance, philanthropy, even politics — are driven by reflexivity, which has to do with the feedback loop between people’s understanding of reality and their own actions. Society as a whole could learn from his theory, he said.

“To make a contribution to our understanding of reality would be my greatest accomplishment,” he said.