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Berkshire ( or , abbreviated Berks) is a historic county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and letters patent issued confirming this in 1974.
Berkshire borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Wiltshire and Hampshire, and is usually regarded as one of the home counties. Under boundary changes in 1995, it also acquired a boundary with Greater London.
Historically the county town was Abingdon, but in 1867 the town of Reading – by then much larger – superseded Abingdon in this role. In 1974 local government reorganisation moved Abingdon and several other north-west Berkshire towns into Oxfordshire. A later reorganisation, in 1998, abolished Berkshire County Council, although retaining Berkshire as a ceremonial county. The county is first mentioned by name in 860. According to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc
Berkshire has been the scene of many battles throughout history, during Alfred the Great's campaign against the Danes, including the Battle of Englefield, the Battle of Ashdown and the Battle of Reading. Newbury was the site of two Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury (at Wash Common) in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury (at Speen) in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle. The Battle at Reading took place on 9 December 1688 in Reading. It was the only substantial military action in England during the Glorious Revolution and ended in a decisive victory for forces loyal to William of Orange. It was celebrated in Reading for hundreds of years afterwards.
Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon which remained in the county. Under the Local Government Act 1888, Berkshire County Council took over functions of the Berkshire Quarter Sessions, covering an area known as the administrative county of Berkshire, which excluded the county borough of Reading. Boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough, Signs saying "Welcome to the Royal County of Berkshire" have all but disappeared but may still be seen on the borders of West Berkshire District, on the east side of Virginia Water, and on the M4 motorway.
The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, with that river forming the northern boundary of the county. In two places (Slough and Reading) the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater increase the amount of low lying riverine land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey and Hampshire. Much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park.
In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the (current) county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap. This is a narrow part of the otherwise quite broad river valley where, at the end of the last Ice Age, the Thames forced its way between the Chiltern Hills (to the north of the river in Oxfordshire) and the Berkshire Downs.
, looking north over the Kennet Valley]]
As a consequence, the western portion of the county is situated around the valley of the River Kennet, which joins the Thames in Reading. Fairly steep slopes on each side delineate the river's flat floodplain. To the south, the land rises steeply to the nearby county boundary with Hampshire, and the highest parts of the county lie here. The highest of these is Walbury Hill at 297 m (974 ft), which is also the highest point in South East England.
To the north of the Kennet, the land rises again to the Berkshire Downs. This is a hilly area, with smaller and well-wooded valleys draining into the River Lambourn, River Pang and their tributaries, and open upland areas famous for their involvement in horse racing and the consequent ever-present training gallops.
As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the Summer Snowflake (a.k.a. the 'Loddon Lily') as the county flower.
The population has increased massively since 1831; this is largely due to Berkshire's proximity to an expanding London. In 1831, there were 146,234 people living in Berkshire; by 1901 the population had risen to 252,571 (of which 122,807 were male and 129,764 were female).
Population of Berkshire:
The ceremonial county of Berkshire consists of the area controlled by the six unitary authorities, each of which is independent of the rest. Berkshire has no county council. The ceremonial county has a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff. Currently the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire is Mary Bayliss and the High Sheriff of Berkshire is Dr Christina Bernadette Thérèse Hill Williams.
Population figures for 2007 estimates . See List of English districts by population for a full list of every English district.
In the unitary authorities the Conservatives control West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, Wokingham and Bracknell Forest councils and Reading Borough is run by a Conservative-led Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. Labour controls Slough.
Since the 2010 general election, the Conservative Party dominates, controlling seven out of eight constituencies. Slough is represented by the Labour Party.
; Notes # Components may not sum to totals due to rounding # Includes hunting and forestry # Includes energy and construction # Includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
played a major part in making Slough an important business centre in South East England]]
The UK headquarters of Mars, Incorporated is based in Slough. One of the Mars factories has been demolished and a lot of production has moved to the Czech Republic. The European head offices of major IT companies such as Research In Motion, Network Associates, Computer Associates, PictureTel and Compusys (amongst others) are all in the town. O2 is headquartered in the town across four buildings. The town is also home to the National Foundation for Educational Research, which is housed in The Mere. The recent new offices include those of Nintendo, Black and Decker, Amazon.co.uk and Abbey Business Centres. Dulux paints are still manufactured in Slough by AkzoNobel which bought Imperial Chemical Industries in 2008. The town is the headquarters of Furniture Village.
Bracknell was successful in attracting high-tech industries, and has become home to companies such as Panasonic, Fujitsu (formerly ICL) and Fujitsu-Siemens Computers, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens (originally Nixdorf), Honeywell, Cable and Wireless, Avnet Technology Solutions and Novell. Its success subsequently spread into the surrounding Thames Valley or M4 corridor, attracting IT firms such as Cable and Wireless, DEC (subsequently Hewlett-Packard), Microsoft, Sharp Telecommunications, Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems and Cognos. Bracknell is also home to the central Waitrose distribution centre and head office which is on a site on the Southern Industrial Estate. Waitrose has operated from the town since the 1970s. The town is also home to the UK headquarters of BMW Group.
Newbury is home to the world headquarters of the mobile network operator Vodafone, which is the town's largest employer with over 6,000 people. Before moving to their £129 million headquarters in the outskirts of the town in 2002, Vodafone used 64 buildings spread across the town centre. As well as Vodafone, Newbury is also home to the UK headquarters of the pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, National Instruments, Micro Focus, NTS Express Road Haulage, Jokers' Masquerade, Newbury Parcels and Quantel. It also is home to the Newbury Building Society which operates in the region.
Ascot today stages twenty-five days of racing over the course of the year, comprising sixteen Flat meetings held in the months of May and October. The Royal Meeting, held in June, remains a major draw, the highlight being the Ascot Gold Cup. The most prestigious race is the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes run over the course in July.
Newbury Racecourse in the civil parish of Greenham, adjoining the town of Newbury. It has courses for flat races and over jumps. It hosts one of Great Britain's 31 Group 1 flat races, the Lockinge Stakes.
Windsor Racecourse, also known as Royal Windsor Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located in Windsor. It is one of only two figure-of-eight courses in the United Kingdom, the other being at Fontwell Park. It abandoned National Hunt jump racing in December 1998, switching entirely to Flat racing.
Lambourn also has a rich history in horse racing, the well drained, spongy grass, open downs and long flats make the Lambourn Downs ideal for training racehorses.
Newbury was home to Association Football Club Newbury, which was for a period one of only two football clubs to be sponsored by Vodafone (the other being Manchester United). In May 2006 Vodafone ended its sponsorship of the club, following which the club collapsed. A local pub team from the Old London Apprentice took over the ground temporarily and now compete in the Hellenic Football League as Newbury Football Club.
There are many football clubs in county, these include;Slough Town Football Club, Thatcham Town Football Club, Ascot United Football Club, Association Football Club Aldermaston, Sandhurst Town Football Club, Windsor & Eton Football Club.
Newbury's rugby union club, Newbury R.F.C. (also sponsored by Vodafone), is based in the town. In the 2004/05 season, the club finished second in the National Two division earning promotion to National One and is now in the top 26 clubs nationally. Newbury had previously won National Four South (now renamed as National Three South) in 1996/97 with a 100% win record. The club was founded in 1928 and in 1996 moved to a new purpose-built ground at Monks Lane, which has since hosted England U21 fixtures.
Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth (1757–1844; former Prime Minister; donor of land for Royal Berkshire Hospital)
Category:Non-metropolitan counties Category:South East England
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| Name | Warren Buffett |
|---|---|
| Caption | Buffett speaking to students from the University of Kansas School of Business, May 6, 2005 |
| Birth name | Warren Edward Buffett |
| Birth place | August 30, 1930Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania University of Nebraska–Lincoln Columbia University |
| Occupation | Investor |
| Salary | US$100,000 |
| Networth | US$45 billion (2010) |
| Spouse | Susan Thompson Buffett (1952–2004)Astrid Menks (2006–present) |
| Children | Susan Alice BuffettHoward Graham BuffettPeter Andrew Buffett |
| Signature | Warren Buffett Signature.svg |
Warren Edward Buffett (; born August 30, 1930) is an American investor, industrialist and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often called the "legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's second wealthiest person in 2009 and is currently the third wealthiest person in the world as of 2010.
Buffett is called the "Oracle of Omaha" or the "Sage of Omaha" and is noted for his adherence to the value investing philosophy and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth. Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Gates Foundation. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College.
Even as a child, Buffett displayed an interest in making and saving money. He went door to door selling chewing gum, Coca-Cola, or weekly magazines. For a while, he worked in his grandfather's grocery store. While still in high school, he carried out several successful money-making ideas: delivering newspapers, selling golfballs and stamps, and detailing cars, among them. Filing his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route. In 1945, in his sophomore year of high school, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in different barber shops.
Buffett's interest in the stock market and investing also dated to his childhood, to the days he spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near the office of his father's own brokerage company. On a trip to New York City at the age of ten, he made a point to visit the New York Stock Exchange. At the age of 11, he bought 3 shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself, and 3 for his sister. While in high school he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a farm worked by a tenant farmer. By the time he finished college, Buffett had accumulated more than $90,000 in savings measured in 2009 dollars.
(1894–1976)]] (1907–2004)]]
Buffett entered college in 1947 at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1947–49). After two years he transferred to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where in 1950, at the age of nineteen, he finished his studies for a B.S. in Economics. Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School after learning that Benjamin Graham (author of "The Intelligent Investor" - one of his favorite books on investing) and David Dodd, two well-known securities analysts, taught there. He received a M.S. in Economics from Columbia Business School in 1951. Buffett also attended the New York Institute of Finance. In Buffett’s own words:
The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as business, use the market's fluctuations to your advantage, and seek a margin of safety. That’s what Ben Graham taught us. A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing.}}
Warren Buffett was employed from 1951–54 at Buffett-Falk & Co., Omaha as an Investment Salesman, from 1954–1956 at Graham-Newman Corp., New York as a Securities Analyst, from 1956–1969 at Buffett Partnership, Ltd., Omaha as a General Partner and from 1970 – Present at Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Omaha as its Chairman, CEO.
In 1950 (20 years old) Buffett had made and saved $9,800. In April 1952, Buffett discovered Graham was on the board of GEICO insurance. Taking a train to Washington, D.C. on a Saturday, he knocked on the door of GEICO's headquarters until a janitor allowed him in. There he met Lorimer Davidson, Geico's Vice President, and the two discussed the insurance business for hours. Davidson would eventually become Buffett's life-long friend and a lasting influence and later recall that he found Buffett to be an "extraordinary man" after only fifteen minutes. Buffett graduated from Columbia and wanted to work on Wall Street, however, both his father and Ben Graham urged him not to. He offered to work for Graham for free, but Graham refused.
Buffett returned to Omaha and worked as a stockbroker while taking a Dale Carnegie public speaking course. Using what he learned, he felt confident enough to teach an "Investment Principles" night class at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The average age of his students was more than twice his own. During this time he also purchased a Sinclair Texaco gas station as a side investment. However, this did not turn out to be a successful business venture.
In 1952 Buffett married Susan Thompson at Dundee Presbyterian Church and the next year they had their first child, Susan Alice Buffett. In 1954, Buffett accepted a job at Benjamin Graham's partnership. His starting salary was $12,000 a year (approximately $97,000 adjusted to 2008 dollars). There he worked closely with Walter Schloss. Graham was a tough man to work for. He was adamant that stocks provide a wide margin of safety after weighting the trade-off between their price and their intrinsic value. The argument made sense to Buffett but he questioned whether the criteria were too stringent and caused the company to miss out on big winners that had more qualitative values. That same year the Buffetts had their second child, Howard Graham Buffett. In 1956, Benjamin Graham retired and closed his partnership. At this time Buffett's personal savings were over $174,000 ($1.2 million inflation adjusted to 2009 dollars) and he started Buffett Partnership Ltd., an investment partnership in Omaha.
In 1957, Buffett had three partnerships operating the entire year. He purchased a five-bedroom stucco house in Omaha, where he still lives, for $31,500. In 1958 the Buffett's third child, Peter Andrew Buffett, was born. Buffett operated five partnerships the entire year. In 1959, the company grew to six partnerships operating the entire year and Buffett was introduced to Charlie Munger. By 1960, Buffett had seven partnerships operating: Buffett Associates, Buffett Fund, Dacee, Emdee, Glenoff, Mo-Buff and Underwood. He asked one of his partners, a doctor, to find ten other doctors willing to invest $10,000 each in his partnership. Eventually eleven agreed, and Buffett pooled their money with a mere $100 original investment of his own. In 1961, Buffett revealed that Sanborn Map Company accounted for 35% of the partnership's assets. He explained that in 1958 Sanborn stock sold at only $45 per share when the value of the Sanborn investment portfolio was $65 per share. This meant that buyers valued Sanborn stock at "minus $20" per share and were unwilling to pay more than 70 cents on the dollar for an investment portfolio with a map business thrown in for nothing. This earned him a spot on the board of Sanborn.
In a second letter, Buffett announced his first investment in a private business — Hochschild, Kohn and Co, a privately owned Baltimore department store. In 1967, Berkshire paid out its first and only dividend of 10 cents. In 1969, following his most successful year, Buffett liquidated the partnership and transferred their assets to his partners. Among the assets paid out were shares of Berkshire Hathaway. In 1970, as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett began writing his now-famous annual letters to shareholders. However, he lived solely on his salary of $50,000 per year, and his outside investment income. In 1979, Berkshire began the year trading at $775 per share, and ended at $1,310. Buffett's net worth reached $620 million, placing him on the Forbes 400 for the first time.
In 1973, Berkshire began to acquire stock in the Washington Post Company. Buffett became close friends with Katharine Graham, who controlled the company and its flagship newspaper, and became a member of its board of directors. In 1974, the SEC opened a formal investigation into Warren Buffett and Berkshire's acquisition of WESCO, due to possible conflict of interest. No charges were brought. In 1977, Berkshire indirectly purchased the Buffalo Evening News for $32.5 million. Antitrust charges started, instigated by its rival, the Buffalo Courier-Express. Both papers lost money, until the Courier-Express folded in 1982.
In 1979, Berkshire began to acquire stock in ABC. Capital Cities' announced $3.5 billion purchase of ABC on March 18, 1985 surprised the media industry, as ABC was some four times bigger than Capital Cities was at the time. Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett helped finance the deal in return for a 25 percent stake in the combined company. The newly merged company, known as Capital Cities/ABC (or CapCities/ABC), was forced to sell off some stations due to FCC ownership rules. Also, the two companies owned several radio stations in the same markets.
In 1987, Berkshire Hathaway purchased 12% stake in Salomon Inc., making it the largest shareholder and Buffett the director. In 1990, a scandal involving John Gutfreund (former CEO of Salomon Brothers) surfaced. A rogue trader, Paul Mozer, was submitting bids in excess of what was allowed by the Treasury rules. When this was discovered and brought to the attention of Gutfreund, he did not immediately suspend the rogue trader. Gutfreund left the company in August 1991. Buffett became Chairman of Salomon until the crisis passed; on September 4, 1991, he testified before Congress. In 1988, Buffett began buying stock in Coca-Cola Company, eventually purchasing up to 7 percent of the company for $1.02 billion. It would turn out to be one of Berkshire's most lucrative investments, and one which it still holds.
In 2002, Buffett entered in $11 billion worth of forward contracts to deliver U.S. dollars against other currencies. By April 2006, his total gain on these contracts was over $2 billion. In 2006, Buffett announced in June that he gradually would give away 85% of his Berkshire holdings to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution would go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2007, in a letter to shareholders, Buffett announced that he was looking for a younger successor, or perhaps successors, to run his investment business. Buffett had previously selected Lou Simpson, who runs investments at Geico, to fill that role. However, Simpson is only six years younger than Buffett.
Berkshire Hathaway acquired 10% perpetual preferred stock of Goldman Sachs. Some of Buffett's Index put options (European exercise at expiry only) that he wrote (sold) are currently running around $6.73 billion mark-to-market losses. The scale of the potential loss prompted the SEC to demand that Berkshire produce, "a more robust disclosure" of factors used to value the contracts.
In 2008, Buffett became the richest man in the world dethroning Bill Gates, worth $62 billion according to Forbes, and $58 billion according to Yahoo. Bill Gates had been number one on the Forbes list for 13 consecutive years. In 2009, Bill Gates regained number one of the list according to Forbes magazine, with Buffett second. Their values have dropped to $40 billion and $37 billion respectively, Buffett having (according to Forbes) lost $25 billion in 12 months during 2008/2009.
In October 2008, the media reported that Warren Buffett had agreed to buy General Electric (GE) preferred stock. The operation included extra special incentives: he received an option to buy 3 billion GE at $22.25 in the next five years, and also received a 10% dividend (callable within three years). In February 2009, Warren Buffett sold part of Procter & Gamble Co, and Johnson & Johnson shares from his portfolio.
In addition to suggestions of mistiming, questions have been raised as to the wisdom in keeping some of Berkshire's major holdings, including The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) which in 1998 peaked at $86. Buffett discussed the difficulties of knowing when to sell in the company's 2004 annual report:
That may seem easy to do when one looks through an always-clean, rear-view mirror. Unfortunately, however, it’s the windshield through which investors must peer, and that glass is invariably fogged.In March 2009, Buffett stated in a cable television interview that the economy had "fallen off a cliff... Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven't seen". Additionally, Buffett fears we may revisit a 1970s level of inflation, which led to a painful stagflation that lasted many years.
In 2009, Warren Buffett invested $2.6 billion as a part of Swiss Re's raising equity capital. Berkshire Hathaway already owns a 3% stake, with rights to own more than 20%. In 2009, Warren Buffett acquired Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. for $34 billion in cash and stock. Alice Schroeder author of Snowball stated that a reason for the purchase was to diversify Berkshire Hathaway from the financial industry. Measured by market capitalization in the Financial Times Global 500 Berkshire Hathaway as of June 2009 was the eighteenth largest corporation on earth.
In 2009, Buffett divested his failed investment in ConocoPhillips, saying to his Berkshire investors,
I bought a large amount of ConocoPhillips stock when oil and gas prices were near their peak. I in no way anticipated the dramatic fall in energy prices that occurred in the last half of the year. I still believe the odds are good that oil sells far higher in the future than the current $40-$50 price. But so far I have been dead wrong. Even if prices should rise, moreover, the terrible timing of my purchase has cost Berkshire several billion dollars.
The merger with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), closed upon BNSF shareholder approval in 1Q2010. This deal is valued at approximately $34 billion and reflects an increase of a previously existing stake of about 22%.
In June 2010, Buffett defended the credit rating agencies for their role in the US financial crisis, claiming that:
Very, very few people could appreciate the bubble. That's the nature of bubbles – they're mass delusions.
Warren Buffett disowned his son Peter's adopted daughter, Nicole, in 2006 after she participated in the Jamie Johnson documentary, The One Percent. Although his first wife had referred to Nicole as one of her "adored grandchildren", Buffett wrote her a letter stating, "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin." He signed the letter "Warren."
His 2006 annual salary was about $100,000, which is small compared to senior executive remuneration in comparable companies. In 2007, and 2008, he earned a total compensation of $175,000, which included a base salary of just $100,000. He lives in the same house in the central Dundee neighborhood of Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500, today valued at around $700,000 (although he also does have a $4 million house in Laguna Beach, California). In 1989 after having spent nearly 6.7 million dollars of Berkshire's funds on a private jet, Buffett sheepishly named it "The Indefensible". This act was a break from his past condemnation of extravagant purchases by other CEOs and his history of using more public transportation.
He remains an avid player of the card game bridge, which he learned from Sharon Osberg, and plays with her and Bill Gates. He spends twelve hours a week playing the game. In 2006, he sponsored a bridge match for the Buffett Cup. Modeled on the Ryder Cup in golf, held immediately before it, and in the same city, a team of twelve bridge players from the United States took on twelve Europeans in the event. He is a dedicated, lifelong follower of Nebraska football, and attends as many games as his schedule permits. He supported the hire of Bo Pelini following the 2007 season stating, "It was getting kind of desperate around here". He watched the 2009 game against Oklahoma from the Nebraska sideline after being named an honorary assistant coach.
Warren Buffett worked with Christopher Webber on an animated series with chief Andy Heyward, of DiC Entertainment, and then A Squared Entertainment. The series features Buffett and Munger, and teaches children healthy financial habits for life. Buffett was raised Presbyterian but has since described himself as agnostic when it comes to religious beliefs. In December 2006 it was reported that Buffett does not carry a cell phone, does not have a computer at his desk, and drives his own automobile, a Cadillac DTS. Buffett wears tailor-made suits from the Chinese label Trands; earlier he wore Ermenegildo Zegna.
In his article The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville, Buffett refuted the academic Efficient-market hypothesis, that beating the S&P; 500 was "pure chance", by highlighting a number of students of the Graham and Dodd value investing school of thought. In addition to himself, Buffett named Walter J. Schloss, Tom Knapp, Ed Anderson (Tweedy, Brown Inc.), Bill Ruane (Sequoia Fund, Inc.), Charles Munger (Buffett's own business partner at Berkshire), Rick Guerin (Pacific Partners, Ltd.), and Stan Perlmeter (Perlmeter Investments). In his November, 1999 Fortune article, he warned of investors' unrealistic expectations:
From a NY Times article: "I don't believe in dynastic wealth", Warren Buffett said, calling those who grow up in wealthy circumstances "members of the lucky sperm club". Buffett has written several times of his belief that, in a market economy, the rich earn outsized rewards for their talents:
His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. These actions are consistent with statements he has made in the past indicating his opposition to the transfer of great fortunes from one generation to the next. Buffett once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing".
In June 2006, he announced a plan to give away his fortune to charity, with 83% of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He pledged about the equivalent of 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately US$30.7 billion as of 23 June 2006), making it the largest charitable donation in history, and Buffett one of the leaders of philanthrocapitalism. The foundation will receive 5% of the total donation on an annualised basis each July, beginning in 2006. (Significantly, however, the pledge is conditional upon the foundation's giving away each year, beginning in 2009, an amount that is at least equal to the value of the entire previous year's gift from Buffett, in addition to 5% of the foundation's net assets.) Buffett also will join the board of directors of the Gates Foundation, although he does not plan to be actively involved in the foundation's investments.
This is a significant shift from previous statements Buffett has made, having stated that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation. The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went to that foundation when she died in 2004. He also pledged $50-million to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, in Washington, where he has served as an adviser since 2002.
In 2006, he auctioned his 2001 Lincoln Town Car on eBay to raise money for Girls, Inc. In 2007, he auctioned a luncheon with himself that raised a final bid of $650,100 for a charity. On 27 June 2008, Zhao Danyang, a general manager at Pure Heart China Growth Investment Fund, won the 2008 5-day online "Power Lunch with Warren Buffett" charity auction with a bid of $2,110,100. Auction proceeds benefit the San Francisco Glide Foundation. The following year, executives from Toronto-based Salida Capital paid US$1.68 million to dine with Buffett.
In a letter to Fortune Magazine's website in 2010 Buffett remarked:
This statement was made as part of a joint proposal with Bill Gates to encourage other wealthy individuals to pool some of their fortunes for charitable purposes; in August 2010, Buffett and Gates spearheaded The Giving Pledge, inviting the wealthy to donate 50% or more of their wealth to charity.
Speaking at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s 1994 annual meeting, Buffett said investments in tobacco are:
Americans ... would chafe at the idea of perpetually paying tribute to their creditors and owners abroad. A country that is now aspiring to an ‘ownership society’ will not find happiness in — and I’ll use hyperbole here for emphasis — a 'sharecropping society’.Author Ann Pettifor has adopted the image in her writings and has stated: "He is right. And so the thing we must fear most now, is not just the collapse of banks and investment funds, or of the international financial architecture, but of a 'sharecropper society, angry at its downfall".
It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.In 1977 Buffett was also quoted as saying about stocks, gold, farmland, and inflation:
Stocks are probably still the best of all the poor alternatives in an era of inflation — at least they are if you buy in at appropriate prices.
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Buffett favors the inheritance tax, saying that repealing it would be like "choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics". In 2007, Buffett testified before the Senate and urged them to preserve the estate tax so as to avoid a plutocracy. Some critics have argued that Buffett (through Berkshire Hathaway) has a personal interest in the continuation of the estate tax, since Berkshire Hathaway has benefited from the estate tax in past business dealings and had developed and marketed insurance policies to protect policy holders against future estate tax payments. Buffett believes government should not be in the business of gambling, or legalizing casinos, calling it a tax on ignorance.
When a company gives something of value to its employees in return for their services, it is clearly a compensation expense. And if expenses don't belong in the earnings statement, where in the world do they belong?
In October 2008, Buffett invested in new energy automobile business by paying $230 million for 10% of BYD Company (), which runs a subsidiary of electric automobile manufacturer BYD Auto. In less than one year, the investment has reaped him over 500% return of profit.
Category:1930 births Category:American agnostics Category:American billionaires Category:American chief executives Category:American financiers Category:American investors Category:American money managers Category:American philanthropists Category:Berkshire Hathaway Category:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation people Category:Businesspeople from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Businesspeople in the insurance industry Category:Columbia Business School alumni Category:Equity securities Category:Grinnell College people Category:Living people Category:Nebraska Democrats Category:Stock traders Category:Wharton School alumni Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
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| Name | Randy Weston |
|---|---|
| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Born | April 06, 1926 |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Instrument | Piano |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Occupation | Pianist, Composer, Bandleader |
| Years active | 1950s–present |
| Label | Verve, Riverside, Antilles |
| Url | www.RandyWeston.info |
Randy Weston (born April 6, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York), is an American jazz pianist and composer, of Jamaican parentage.
Weston has had a considerable career in jazz as a pianist, composer, and bandleader. In the late 1940s he began gigging with bands including Bullmoose Jackson, Frank Culley and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. He worked with Kenny Dorham in 1953 and in 1954 with Cecil Payne, before forming his own trio and quartet and releasing his debut recording as a leader in 1954, Cole Porter In a Modern Mood. He was voted New Star Pianist in Down Beat magazine's International Critics' Poll of 1955. Several notable albums followed, including Little Niles near the end of that decade. His piano style owes much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk (he has paid direct tribute to both), but it is highly distinctive in its qualities: percussive, highly rhythmic, capable of producing a wide variety of moods.
In the 1960s, Weston's music prominently incorporated African elements, as shown on the large-scale suite Uhuru Africa (with the participation of poet Langston Hughes) and Highlife: Music From the New African Nations; on both these albums he teamed up with the arranger Melba Liston. In addition, during these years his band often featured the tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin. He covered the Nigerian Bobby Benson's hit "Taxi Driver", which included Caribbean and jazz elements within a Highlife style.
In 1967 Weston traveled throughout Africa with a U.S. cultural delegation. The last stop of the tour was Morocco, where he decided to settle, running his African Rhythms Club from 1967 to 1972. For a long stretch he recorded infrequently on smaller record labels. However, he made quite an impact with the two-CD recording The Spirits of Our Ancestors (recorded 1991; released 1992), which featured arrangements by his long-time collaborator Melba Liston. The album contained new, expanded versions of many of his well-known pieces and featured an ensemble including some African musicians. Guests such as Dizzy Gillespie and Pharoah Sanders also contributed.
Randy Weston has since produced a series of albums in a variety of formats: solo, trio, mid-sized groups, and collaborations with the Gnawa musicians of Morocco. Weston's best known compositions include "Hi-Fly" (which he has said was inspired by his experience of being 6' 8" and looking down at the ground), "Little Niles" (named for his son, later known as Azzedine), "African Sunrise," "Blue Moses," "The Healers" and "Berkshire Blues." Regarded as jazz standards, they have frequently been recorded by other prominent musicians, among them: Cannonball Adderley, Monty Alexander, Ray Baretto, Art Blakey, Roy Brooks, Ray Bryant, Kenny Burrell, Betty Carter, Ron Carter, Johnny Coles, Eric Dolphy, Booker Ervin, Dexter Gordon, Lionel Hampton, Sheila Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Abdullah Ibrahim, Ahmad Jamal, Talib Kibwe, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Abbey Lincoln, Cecil Payne, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, George Shearing, Archie Shepp, Carly Simon, Jimmy Smith and Mel Tormé.
After five decades devoted to music, Randy Weston continues to perform throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe. In 2002 he performed with bassist James Lewis for the inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. That same year he performed with Gnawa musicians at Canterbury Cathedral at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He had the honour of playing at the Kamigamo Shrine in Japan in 2005. He has been the recipient of many international awards, including: in 1997 the French Order of Arts and Letters; in 1999 the Japan's Swing Journal Award; and in 2000 the Black Star Award from the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana. In June 2006, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by Brooklyn College, City University of New York. In October 2010, Duke University Press published African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston, "composed by Randy Weston, arranged by Willard Jenkins".
Category:Highlife musicians Category:Mainstream jazz pianists Category:African jazz (genre) pianists Category:Post-bop pianists Category:Hard bop pianists Category:American jazz pianists Category:American jazz composers Category:American people of Jamaican descent Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Freedom Records artists Category:Riverside Records artists Category:Verve Records artists Category:Enja Records artists Category:Pausa Records artists Category:Inner City Records artists Category:1926 births Category:Living people
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City: Durban, South Africa
Favourite Dance: Samba
Current Partner: Carmen Vincelj
South African Coach: Dave Campbell
2005-06-11 WD&DSC; - World Professional Latin DanceSport Championships France (place 1)
2005-06-01 National - Blackpool Professional Latin 2005 - Samba Professional LA England (place 1)
2005-06-01 National - Blackpool Professional Latin 2005 - ChaCha Professional LA England (place 1)
2005-06-01 National - Blackpool Professional Latin 2005 - Overall Professional LA England (place 1)
2005-06-01 National - Blackpool Professional Latin 2005 - Jive Professional LA England (place 1)
2005-06-01 National - Blackpool Professional Latin 2005 - Paso Doble Professional LA England (place 1)
2005-06-01 National - Blackpool Professional Latin 2005 - Rumba Professional LA England (place 1)
2005-04-23 WD&DSC; - European Professional Latin 2005 Professional LA Russia (place 1)
2005-03-12 Professional - German Professional Latin 2005 Professional LA Germany (place 1)
2004-10-23 National - Moscow Kremlin Cup 2004 Professional LA Russia (place 1)
2004-10-14 National - The International 2004 Professional Latin Professional LA England (place 1)
2004-09-11 WD&DSC; - World Professional Latin 2004 Professional LA USA (place 1)
2004-06-02 National - British Professional Latin 2004 - Jive Professional LA England (place 1)
2004-06-02 National - British Professional Latin 2004 - Paso Doble Professional LA England (place 1)
2004-06-02 National - British Professional Latin 2004 - Rumba Professional LA England (place 1)
2004-06-02 National - British Professional Latin 2004 - Samba Professional LA England (place 1)
2004-06-02 National - British Professional Latin 2004 - Cha Cha Professional LA England (place 1)
2004-06-02 National - British Professional Latin 2004 - Overall Professional LA England (place 1)
2004-05-15 National - Professional Latin Cup 2004 Professional LA Germany (place 1)
2004-05-08 National - German Professional Latin 2004 Professional LA Germany (place 1)
2004-02-21 WD&DSC; - German Masters Latin 2004 Professional LA Germany (place 1)
2003-11-29 WD&DSC; - WD&DSC; World Latin 2003 Professional LA Austria (place 1)
2003-10-18 WD&DSC; - World Masters 2003 Professional LA Austria (place 1)
2003-10-07 Multi - The International Brentwood 2003 Professional LA England (place 1)
2003-09-27 National - GP von Deutschland (Grand Prix) Closed Professional LA Germany (place 1)
2003-09-05 WD&DSC; - US-Open Professional LA USA (place 1)
2003-08-24 WD&DSC; - German Open GOC 2003 Professional LA Germany (place 1)
Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:South African ballroom dancersThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Alex Blake |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Genre | post bop jazz |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument | Double bass |
| Associated acts | Sun Ra, Arkestra |
| Label | Bubble Core Records, Verve Records, , Sunnyside Records, Random Chance, Muse Records, Atlantic Records, WEA International, Rhino Records, CTI Records, Black Saint, Koch Records, Columbia Records, Tomato Records, Charly Records, Elektra Records, Raven Records, MCA Records, Blues Alliance, Waterlily Acoustics, Warner Bros. Records, Arista Records, Monad Records, A&M; Records, In & Out Records, CIMP Records, Tum Records, Big Ox Records, Mercury Records, Hip-O Records, Arabesque Records, McKenzie Entertainment, Ubiquity Records, Red Ink Records, Downtown Records, Eagle Eye Media, J-Room Jazz, YOU Entertainment, Pho Records |
Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:American jazz double-bassists Category:Post-bop double-bassists
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
