Buffett donations top $10 billion

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Steve Jordon

Warren Buffett's donations to charitable foundations over the past six years topped $10 billion Thursday.

He donated $1.81 billion to five foundations, with $1.5 billion going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the rest to four Buffett family foundations.

The annual contributions of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock by Buffett follow his pledge in 2006 to donate the bulk of his fortune to the foundations over a period of years. Counting Thursday's donations, he has given $11.47 billion to the foundations since 2006.

Besides the Gates Foundation, Buffett donated Berkshire shares worth $150 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late wife, and shares worth $52 million each to foundations run by his three children.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110707/NEWS01/707089943#buffett-donations-top-10-billion

[TheFarseer]

1. screw him

he doesn't give anything to Husker football. - yes, I'm kidding, but some around here have actually said such things.

[JDPriestly]

2. I wonder how much of it went to destroy public schools.

Sorry, I'm so cynical.

He should give the money to the US government and set an example for how to pay down this debt that has the rich and the right-wing so bent on cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as well as funding for schools and paychecks for teachers.

Chartering and privatizing schools is the last thing people should spend their philanthropic money on. But that is a big preoccupation of Bill and Melinda Gates.

[Springer9]

3. I'm happy he gives to charities

but seeing as he has made most of his fortune in this country i think he could have bought his private jets, all 120 of them, from an U.S. company!

How many jobs would that have created here.


Berkshire's NetJets to Buy up to 120 Bombardier Planes on Travel Rebound

NetJets Inc., the business-jet operator owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said it placed a record order for as many as 120 Bombardier Inc. (BBD/B) planes in anticipation of a rebound in luxury travel.
The agreement, worth more than $6.7 billion at list prices, comprises 50 firm orders and 70 options, according to a statement. How much Columbus, Ohio-based NetJets would pay for the aircraft, which will be delivered starting in the fourth quarter of 2012, wasn’t disclosed.
NetJets, which also ordered 125 Embraer SA (ERJ) jets in October, said it expects the planes’ arrival to help meet increasing demand following what will probably be a “difficult” 2011. The unit made a profit last year after David Sokol, named by Buffett to lead a turnaround in 2009, fired staff and wrote down plane values.

Ya think he's squawking about an increase in taxes on corporate jets?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-02/netjets-reports-pact-to-buy-up-to-120-new-bombardier-aircraft.html

[StarsInHerHair]

4. family foundations are not charities they're a way to hide money from the gov

[freshwest]

6. Yup.

[valerief]

7. Exactly! nt

[oNobodyo]

5. The circular firing squad strikes again...

Warren Buffett: Please, Raise My Taxes

On "This Week," Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told Christiane Amanpour the rich should be paying more taxes and that the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy should be allowed to expire:

"If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further," Buffett said. "But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."

The full Buffett interview will air on a special Thanksgiving edition of "This Week" focused on The Giving Pledge, a major philanthropic effort spearheaded by Buffet, and Bill and Melinda Gates.

The billionaire brushed aside Republican arguments that letting tax cuts expire for the wealthy would hurt economic growth.

"They say you have to keep those tax cuts, even on the very wealthy, because that is what energizes business and capitalism," anchor Amanpour said.

"The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on," Buffett explained.

http://gocl.me/a6qsWr