Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett       (businessman)
Born	Warren Edward Buffett 1930-08-30 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Columbia University
Parents	• Howard Buffett • Leila Stahl Buffett
Children	• Susan • Howard • Peter
Spouse	Susan Thompson
Founder of	The Giving Pledge
Member of	Democracy Alliance, The Good Club
Interest of	Peter Flaherty
Party	Democratic

Warren Edward Buffett is an American investor, business tycoon, "philanthropist". He has a fortune of over US$78.9 billion as of August 2020, making him the world's seventh-wealthiest person. Describing himself as having "a Malthusian dread" of population growth among the poor, he was one of the participants in the Good Club, a 2009 billionaire meeting discussing how to shrink the world's population.

Official narrative

Known as the "Oracle of Omaha", Buffets has an alleged uncanny investment acumen.

Buffett has been the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970. The sprawling company owns stock in many multinational corporations, including Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, GE, the railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation; and chemical companies, mines, retail, corporate media, etc. He was formerly the second biggest stockholder in the Washington Post, a director and a confidant of its most notable chief, Katharine Graham. He relinquished his share in 2014, in connection wit the Graham family's sale of the newspaper to Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos.

He had a controlling power in ABC-TV.

In 2008, Berkshire invested in preferred stock of Goldman Sachs as part of a recapitalization of the investment bank. Buffett defended Lloyd Blankfein's decisions as CEO of Goldman Sachs, as the bank was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for Securities Fraud.

Population reduction

In 2009 14 of the world's richest people were invited by Bill Gates "to save the world". The billionaires, reported The Times, "discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles" to the change they want implemented, which they summarized as a "bid to curb overpopulation"

Buffett is a passionate supporter of population reduction. Buffett has put time and energy as well as a large amount money into this issue. He and his investment partner and fellow donor Charlie Munger were quite involved in People v. Belous, a 1969 case paving the way for abortion in California on privacy grounds, which was cited during the Roe v. Wade debate.

He founded the Warren Buffett Foundation in 1964. It has mainly focused on [[abortion], contraceptives family planning, and on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. It was renamed the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, after his wife who died in 2004. The Buffett Foundation is known for its "secrecy...often appearing under grant acknowledgements only as 'an anonymous donor.'"

In 2006, he announced that he would give 85% of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as he believed that the Gates Foundation would be able to use his money effectively. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation is still the third-largest family foundation in the country, behind only the Bill & Melinda Gates and Ford foundations.

The foundation lists hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to groups advocating radical population reduction. Negative Population Growth, the Association for Voluntary Sterilization, Planned Parenthood, the Population Council and Population Institute, the Sex Information and Education Council, and Federal American Immigration Reform.; and abortion promoters such as Marie Stopes International, NARAL, National Abortion Federation, Catholics for a Free Choice, Abortion Access Project, Center for Reproductive Rights, and dozens of other such advocates. After examining his foundation’s IRS filings, the Media Research Center reported that Buffett’s grants to abortion groups just from 1989 to 2012 (with the tax returns from 1997 to 2000 missing) totaled at least $1.3 billion. In the 1990s, the Buffett Foundation helped finance the development of the chemical abortion drug RU-486.

In 2009, he founded The Giving Pledge together with Bill Gates, whereby several dozen billionaires get together for conferences, to jointly spend their money on "philanthropy" under the de facto leadership and guidance of Bill Gates. The Pledgers promises to "give away" 50% of their fortune (although this can be misleading, as philanthropy can be both a tax dodge and a loss leader, plus a powerful political tool). Starting in 2006, Buffett pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune "in his lifetime or at death",, essentially handing his money over to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation when he dies.

The Buffett Foundation is also a Clinton Foundation donor and a Democracy Alliance partner.

Personal life

He married cabaret singer Susan Thompson in 1952 and lived in their hometown ofOmaha for more than two decades. IN the late ’70s, the duo entered into an unusual arrangement — they remained married, but Susan moved to San Francisco. She also introduced Warren to the woman who would become his longtime companion, [Astrid Menks]], whom he married decades later after Susan’s death.

Quotes

“There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.”
Warren Buffett (2006) 

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