this is just AMAZING

[BKDJ]

Billionaires' buck club

Buffett tells pals to give very generously

A black Lincoln town car whooshed up to the side entrance of the New York Pubic Library and out into the drizzle stepped the two richest men in the history of the world.

Bill Gates was riding in the front passenger seat and he alighted onto 42nd St. in a blue suit. The planet's wealthiest man smiled and paused to greet one of the invited guests who stood by the white awning erected for the occasion.

Warren Buffett emerged from the backseat in a gray suit. The world's second-wealthiest man moved without breaking stride into the library that was his midday refuge when he was just starting out in business a half-century ago.

Back then, Buffett worked for the legendary investor Benjamin Graham in the Chanin building at E. 42nd Street and Lexington Ave. Buffett would amble over to the library on his lunch hour and in between the end of his workday and the start of his National Guard training at the Lexington Ave. armory.

In time, Buffett headed back to his native Omaha and applied Graham's principles of intelligent investing along with his own brains and instincts. He was back in New York yesterday with a personal worth in excess of $40 billion.

Just after 10 a.m., Buffett arrived at the library to formally commit the bulk of his vast wealth to a foundation run by Gates and his wife, Melinda.

The gathering in the Celeste Bartos Forum was by invitation only, but was available for all to witness via a Webcast.

Buffett stepped up to the podium looking happy in a way that even $40 billion could not buy. He recalled those days when he was a "regular" at the library.

"I have always loved libraries and there is no library like the New York Public Library," he said.

He then spoke of his return from New York to Omaha 50 years ago and of seven friends and relatives who had entrusted him with $105,000 to invest.

"Those people made their judgment I could do a better job in amassing wealth for them than they could do for themselves," Buffett said.

Billions and billions and billions of dollars later, he faced the question of what to do with all he had amassed for himself.

"I thought about who could do a better job at dispersing wealth than myself," Buffett said.

He suggested that dispersal was a thornier proposition than accumulation.

"In business, you look for the easy things to do," he said.

Philanthropy often involves choosing which effort best addresses problems that have plagued mankind for centuries, confounding our best minds.

"So, philanthropy is a tougher game," Buffett said. "The question was how to do it."

Buffett recalled listening to a talk Gates gave five years ago at the Greenbrier resort. The genius behind Microsoft was shifting his priority from doing mega well to doing mega good.

"It was clear an outstanding mind with the right goals was focusing intensely with passion, heart, on improving the lot of mankind around the world without any regard as to gender, religion, color or geography, just doing the most good for the most people," Buffett said.

Buffett said it was only logical for him to entrust the bulk of his fortune to the Gates Foundation.

"It was a simple decision," he said.

As he now neared the midday hour when he used to amble over from the Chanin building, Buffett prepared to formalize the commitment.

"I have letters and I have a pen," he told the gathering. "They made sure I had a pen."

He began by signing pledges of a comparatively modest $1 billion each to four Buffett family foundations.

"I wanted to make sure I never signed one, 'Dear Anna Nicole Smith,'" he joked.

He then came to the big one, the letter committing $31 billion. He affixed his signature without flourish, as befitted a man who is making such a gift to a foundation bearing a name other than his own. He presented the letter to Melinda Gates.

"There we go," he said.

"Warren, how do you feel today?" Bill Gates asked.

Buffet's reply rang out in the library erected by philanthropists of another era, a secular temple to the mind and spirit that he so loved to visit back when he was just beginning to put his own mind and spirit to work.

"I feel terrific."

Buffett tells pals to give very generously

Folksy billionaire Warren Buffett, who is pledging most of his fortune to charity, said yesterday he was trying to persuade some secret moneybags partners to do the same.

"I actually have several partners that the world doesn't know anything about that have fortunes that would put them on the Forbes 500 - they'd kill me if I gave their names," Buffett said during a question-and-answer session with Bill and Melinda Gates, whose foundation will receive a whopping $31 billion from Buffett.

"I'd hope a few would pick up on this model. It's a sensible model. I'd encourage them to think about what do they hope to accomplish with their money. There are a lot of worthy goals out there," said Buffett, the $44billion man known as the Oracle of Omaha for his astounding foresight as an investor.

Buffett's pledge to turn over $1.5 billion to the Gates Foundation each year will double its size to $60 billion, making it five times larger than any other philanthropy in the country.

After focusing much of its efforts on combating AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the foundation will begin to fund prevention and treatment of some of the world's other top 20 disease killers.

"Within our lifetime I would expect we would have vaccines and medicine to eliminate all 20. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to cure those top 20 diseases," Bill Gates said.

[argdiesel]

this is big news in the investment world.. =] warren is the fucking man one of my idols besides danny T lol

[ghhhhhost]

the guy is obviously dying

[flippinsweet]

def!!! they know the end is near so they're tryin' to buy their way into heaven

[Pyro264]

That is really outstanding what he did with that money and coodos to these sharks of the buisness industry.

...

"Within our lifetime I would expect we would have vaccines and medicine to eliminate all 20. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to cure those top 20 diseases," Bill Gates said.

But there is no money in a cure, only temporary fixes. I hope though that good overcomes all....

[crowina]

i wonder what bad things in life this guy did... seems like he is trying to buy a ticket to heaven. must be pretty bad if he is giving away so much.

[BKDJ]

the saying is.... in this life, what you have is not truely yours, only what you give away you can really take with you.

[flippinsweet]

jesus once said it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to pass through the gates of heaven

[growinupjersey]

wonder if theres no heaven, then what?

[BKDJ]

______________________________________________ then that!

[bella53081]

he might be honestly trying to give away his fortune to a good cause, he may be altruistic....i guess it's possible that he is trying to cleanse himself over guilt about something and/or he may be sick and looking to try to give away his money before he passes on.

he might also be interested in steering the direction of the Gates Foundation since he will now become a trustee.

for whatever reason, he is doing a great thing here let's hope it does cure diseases and help people in their suffering.....thank God for people like him.

and if there is no heaven that would be very depressing!