Help me shape my career in investing/hedge fund/asset management - should I go for MFE/MFin/MBA/PhD

I have hung out here for years and read some solid advice given out intended for others which has been tangentially beneficial to me. Hence, at this crossroads in my career I am seeking some solid insights and advice.

My career goal is to be an economist/investor - like Keynes, George Soros, David Swensen or Ray Dalio. Basically someone who isn't only an economist (like, say, Shiller) or only an investor (like, say, Warren Buffett or Seth Klarman). The idea is to be somebody who thinks deeply, in an abstract manner, about the global and local economy (as opposed to only the subject of economics) and translates it into actionable investment strategies. Which careers fit this bill?

I understand that investing, hedge funds and asset management come in different flavours. There is Long Short Equity, Distressed Situations, Global Macro, Quantitative Investing and so on and so forth and each of these areas requires different skill sets and expertise and therefore necessitates a different career path. For example, somebody in L/S Equity might start out in Equity Research or I Banking, somebody in Distressed Situations might start out in M&A/PE, somebody in Global Macro might start out as an FX/rates trader/strategist or an Economist at IMF/NY Fed/Bank of England etc. I personally feel Global Macro will be best suited to my interests and aspirations.

My long term goal is not to be straitjacketed into a 'career path' and be seamlessly able to transition from macro to micro analysis. For instance, I don't want to be a pure Global Macro or a pure Value Investing person - I am sure there is scope for blending useful approaches from both styles although I am not quite sure how being on a pure Global Macro path will help develop the expertise and skills required of a value investor or vice versa. I have read many books about Global Macro investing and Value Investing but I am not sure how useful that is to pursuing a career in the field. I want to be the person doing the big picture thinking and analysis about markets and economies instead of arcane programming/statistics/high frequency trading if that helps you envision the type of career I want. I am also aware that there are niche roles like volatility trading, quantitative finance etc, but I would rather be dealing with fundamentals driven investing than trading some artifically financially engineered complex products.

I have done a fair bit of research and these are the sort of entry level job titles I am interested in:
FX Strategist
Interest Rates Strategist
Fixed Income Strategist
Emerging Markets Strategist
Macro Strategist
FX Trader
Rates Trader
Exotics Trader
Macro Trader
Derivatives Trader
Proprietary Trader
Economist at IMF/NY Fed/Bank of England
Portfolio Manager

These roles at any major asset manager/hedge fund is what I'm aiming at. Which of these would be most suitable?

The path seems to be to enter the sell side and gradually move to the buy side over time or with an MBA.

I am from a third world country and I went to one of the best universities in my country but recruiting for these kind of roles was almost non existent, although there are a few alumni from my university who got some relevant education in the US and are now working in these sort of roles. Some people did land some outsourced or middle office equity research and investment banking positions. I was at the top of my class in one of the best high schools in my country and some of my classmates from wealthier families did go to UChicago, Wharton, Yale and Princeton for their undergrad degrees but being able to pay for a US undergraduate education was not financially possible for my family. I am 32 years old now, my undergraduate education is in electrical engineering and economics, I am ten years out of undergrad. When I graduated I had no idea about what career I wanted to pursue, I just did what the highest scoring students did (study STEM). Since graduating I worked at the best business school in my country as an RA in Finance and then briefly attended a European University for a PhD in Business (did not complete or graduate for personal reasons).

The real question is - how do I land one of these roles and embark on a career in this field? It seems that this industry is heavily concentrated in New York and London most recruiting is done on campus at 'target' or Ivy League schools aimed at fresh 21 year old undergrads or maybe 25-28 year old MBA grads. Is there scope for a highly motivated person in his 30s to break in or will I be overlooked because I'm too old? I read that the investment industry cares about the ability to generate profits and merit and not pedigree, age or other such factors - is this true and to what extent? How should I prove the interest and passion I have for this industry?

It seems the only way to break in is to get some further education. This is my assessment of the whole MFE/MFin/MBA/PhD scene, please give your inputs and correct me if I'm wrong -
MFE (Columbia/NYU/CMU/Berkeley) - some students do get good trading jobs, but these tend to be more of the volatility/financially engineered products trading with little connection to funademental macro investing. Can anybody tell me more about the trading jobs and what they entail and if they're a good fit for my interests? People do move from these jobs to hedge funds, but I'm not quite sure of the kind of work that they do. Not really the flavour I am looking for, and besides many students end up in middle/back office like model validation and analytics. No guarantee of a front office trading job and that too not the type I am looking for. Also would the best jobs at these places consider a 32 year old?

MFin (Princeton/MIT/LSE/Oxford/Cambridge/Imperial) - Some students get Sales and Trading jobs at Investment Banks, but again no guarantee. I think future prospects are to move from S&T at I Bank to a Hedge Fund or Asset Manager. Many end up in quantitative research (something I don't want to do). Would the best jobs at these places consider a 32 year old?

The major issue I have with trading jobs is that it seems to consist of solving relatively easy problems at a high speed instead of thinking deep and hard about the economy. I don't want to be looking at 6 monitors with real time data inputs and execute trades. I would rather study economic history and try figuring out what happened in the past under similar conditions, use the quality of my thinking and judgment to take a view.

MSc Economics (Cambridge/LSE/Columbia/JHU) - These people tend to get jobs such as macro strategist at I Banks, Economist etc which they parlay later into macro trading at HFs/AMs etc. Personally I feel this is the best fit for my interests. The only concern I have is that are these roles as lucrative and offer similar or better exit options as the financially engineered product trading jobs available from MFE/MFin? Also, Would the best jobs at these places consider a 32 year old?

PhD Economics - The issue is I don't really want to do academic research (although I am very interested in Economics as a subject), so investing 5 years of my life at this age (32) is overkill. I would rather be an applied Economist. However, may of the jobs which PhD Economists get seem to be right up my alley - Economist at IMF/Bank of England/NY Fed/ followed by Portfolio Manager, Strategist.

MBA - Places like Chicago, Wharton, Columbia have very nice on campus recruiting for Asset Management. But placement into these jobs seems to heavily depend on pre MBA background. For eg, somebody who did trading before his/her MBA likely has an upper hand for these jobs. I don't have that experience. The last thing I want to do is to invest 100K+ USD into my education and end up with a job that has nothing to do with my career interests doing some mundane business consulting job.

Overall, I know this is a long post and I would like to apologize for the length of the post. But this is a crucial decision I have to make regarding my future and career and I would highly appreciate any inputs that some of the more experienced folks and veterans have on this forum. Thank you for reading my post and your time and I eagerly look forward to your valuable inputs and advice.