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Warren Buffett donates another $4.1B, resigns as Gates trustee
- jtdev 5y agoThe question: Is Bill Gates powerful enough (and the media corrupt enough) to keep the information that has made him toxic from reaching daylight?
- volkk 5y agoexplain
- fsloth 5y agoNot OP but I presume this refers to the rumored Epstein connection. And he divorced recently, which the media has spun in a way that his wife found out some dark secret and had enough.
- clintonwoo 5y agoThe article says Buffett has resigned from all boards except Berkshire Hathaway. It must be because he thinks he's getting old, which he's mentioned a number of times regarding succession planning.
- _fat_santa 5y agoYeah this is why. Buffet is 90 and Munger is 97. These guys must be thinking about their succession plan.
- cbg0 5y agoKeep it from reaching daylight? The rumors have been in every major news outlet worldwide.
- austhrow743 5y agoIf he’s successfully squashing information about being toxic how do you know he is?
- mushufasa 5y agoWarren Buffett is also 90 years old now, and has been resigning from all corporate boards except his own. Hard to say if the resignation is actually a story or if the reporter wanted to create one.
- irjustin 5y agoI think it's fair to say it's a mix of both.
- ipqk 5y ago“For years I have been a trustee — an inactive trustee at that — of only one recipient of my funds, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG). I am now resigning from that post, just as I have done at all corporate boards other than Berkshire’s,” Buffett said. “The CEO of BMG is Mark Suzman, an outstanding recent selection who has my full support. My goals are 100% in sync with those of the foundation, and my physical participation is in no way needed to achieve these goals.”
- Frost1x 5y agoPretty sure they predicted media spin on this and headed it off directly and explicitly in the announcement, in the exact same sentence as the resignation none-the-less, as to the fact he resigned from all boards (other than his baby of course). Yet, here we are.
- mchusma 5y agoThey also almost downplay the whole "gave $4.1B" thing. Which even buffet wouldn't do if he didn't have confidence.
- mkr-hn 5y agoListen to the latest three episodes of Acquired for a ~9 hour exploration of Warren Buffet/Berkshire Hathaway. It gives a lot of context for people trying to figure out what this news means. https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-i https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-i https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-ii https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-ii https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-iii https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-iii
- clydethefrog 5y agoBuffett spreads his wealth tax-free to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [of which he was a trustee], Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation [founded by himself], Sherwood Foundation [founded by his daughter], Howard G. Buffett Foundation [founded by his son] and NoVo Foundation [founded by his other son].
- shadowgovt 5y agoCapitalism as practiced in America is a meritocracy... As long as you stretch the definition far enough to include "being friends with, or descended from, a billionaire" in the tent of "merit." Edit: to paraphrase Hannibal Buress, you can boo me, but I'm right. ;) Some people succeed by having a better idea and executing on it with technical proficiency, some succeed by convincing someone with a lot of resources to support their endeavors. Most succeed through a mix of the two, but pretending that support of entrenched big-money interests has minimal impact is disjoint from reality.
- Brian_K_White 5y agoBooing you does not prove you are right. The US is no more a meritocracy than anywhere else. All thats different are the labels.
- 542458 5y agoI don’t see how this is nefarious (in itself). The big challenge with donating money is trusting that it will get used “correctly”. Donating to organizations under control of people you know and trust is the easiest way to do this. If there was some sort of slush-fund thing going on it would be a problem, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that. The tax rate on gifts isn’t that high, and so you’d have to be doing really extreme fraud for it to me more profitable than a straight gift.
- kiliantics 5y agoThere are plenty reasons to be skeptical: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat... It is just so undemocratic for a handful of people to be in control of infrastructure projects that will affect the lives of millions or billions. They can so easily make a project look good that still benefits them unfairly and there is some evidence that this is what's happening.
- nextstep 5y ago>> “In 2006, I pledged to distribute all of my Berkshire Hathaway shares — more than 99% of my net worth — to philanthropy. With today’s $4.1 billion distribution, I’m halfway there.” So that would imply his net worth is half what it was in 2006. But of course it’s not, it’s never been higher (103 Billion according to Forbes last year). Interesting that CNBC chose not to explore this rather obvious inconsistency in Buffet’s statement.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pjscott 5y agoHe’s halfway there in terms of how many of his shares of stock have been given away.
- tinco 5y agoAccording to the article he's donated 45 billion, which is really close to half of the 103 billion figure you're quoting, especially considering that those donations were made over the last decade. So where's the inconsistency?
- nextstep 5y agoWhere’s the inconsistency? When he made this claim (2006), his net worth was around 50 billion. Now it’s around 100 billion. He’s somehow managed to double his net worth AND get media coverage that he’s given away half his wealth.
- burnished 5y agoI see that your take away is that Warren is lying, right? Have you considered that his wealth is growing faster than he can give it away?
- pb7 5y agoThe statements seem pretty clear. He said he has given away half his shares, which he has. The other half happens to have appreciated a great amount since his last statements. Do you understand how the stock market works? It goes up all the time. Berkshire Hathaway is no exception. Tens of billions were still donated, regardless of his current wealth.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sys_64738 5y agoWe'd never have heard of Bill Gates without his mom knowing the Microsoft chairman.
- ksec 5y ago>We'd never have heard of Bill Gates without his mom knowing the Microsoft chairman. You mean IBM?
- robtherobber 5y agoThis, I believe, is not really news worthy unless you consider the fact that no one should ever accumulated that much wealth to begin with.
- smt88 5y agoThe donation is newsworthy in the sense that Buffett is donating ~2,000 lifetimes of income (for a US citizen) to various organizations. The resignation is newsworthy because it suggests Buffett's transition into full retirement. As someone who can move markets with a quote in a newspaper, his potential retirement is certainly important enough to hit the "publish" button on a digital outlet.
- nscalf 5y agoHonest question: What do you want from the guy? Billionaire donates billions, you hate him. Billionaire doesn't donate billions, you hate him. Billionaire bails out company saving thousands of jobs, you hate him. Billionaire doesn't bail out company, you hate him. You can hate the system for letting people become billionaires, but Warren is giving away all of his money to charity and lives a frugal life. Is this just fetishizing the hate of rich people?
- danielrpa 5y agoJust imagine the world we'd live in if 20% of the billionaires were like Warren Buffett... Not saying we should have that many (or few) billionaires, just that as far as billionaires are concerned, it's hard to be much better than him.
- lorlou 5y agoAre you surprised that petty people are jealous of successful people? Haters gonna hate.