LE FIGARO : Le milliardaire de 95 ans, généreux bienfaiteur de la fondation philanthropique de Bill Gates depuis près de vingt ans, attend les conclusions d’un audit externe sur les liens passés de l’organisation avec le délinquant sexuel Jeffrey Epstein.
Le chèque ne tombera pas. Contre toute attente, Warren Buffett, 95 ans, a décidé de différer son traditionnel don de mi-année à la fondation Gates, rapporte ce lundi le Wall Street Journal, qui cite des proches du milliardaire. Le patron de Berkshire Hathaway attend de connaître les conclusions de l’enquête externe menée par l’organisation sur ses liens avec Jeffrey Epstein. Sa décision pourrait être repoussée jusqu’à sa traditionnelle lettre de Thanksgiving, en novembre.
La fondation Gates est au cœur de controverses en raison des relations entretenues par son président, Bill Gates, avec Jeffrey Epstein. La publication, en janvier, de courriels par le département américain de la Justice a également mis en évidence des échanges entre le délinquant sexuel décédé et des membres du personnel de la fondation Gates. Son directeur général, Mark Suzman, a ainsi commandé un audit externe pour évaluer les interactions passées de l’organisation avec Jeffrey Epstein. Les conclusions sont attendues d’ici la fin de l’été. » | Par Le Figaro avec Reuters | mardi 30 juin 2026
Showing posts with label Warren Buffett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warren Buffett. Show all posts
July 01, 2026
December 30, 2025
‘Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy’: Warren Buffett’s Sharpest Lessons in Investing
THE GUARDIAN: As the billionaire retires, he leaves memorable advice from his annual letters that include pithy takes on bubbles, discipline and long-term goals
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who is retiring at the end of 2025, has entertained and educated shareholders in his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate for many years with his pithy annual letters outlining the firm’s performance.
Every year since 1965 he has updated his investors on the journey as Berkshire morphed from a “struggling northern textile business” with $25m of shareholder equity when he took over, to an empire worth more than $1tn.
Here we pick out some of the choicest turns of phrase from the departing Sage of Omaha. » | Graeme Wearden | Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who is retiring at the end of 2025, has entertained and educated shareholders in his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate for many years with his pithy annual letters outlining the firm’s performance.
Every year since 1965 he has updated his investors on the journey as Berkshire morphed from a “struggling northern textile business” with $25m of shareholder equity when he took over, to an empire worth more than $1tn.
Here we pick out some of the choicest turns of phrase from the departing Sage of Omaha. » | Graeme Wearden | Tuesday, December 30, 2025
December 20, 2017
July 04, 2017
Warren Buffett - How to Stay Out of Debt Forever
September 22, 2011
If President Obama really wants to see the "Buffett Rule" in action, he should look at California's tax system. The state has been plagued by it for years.
The revenue stream is unstable and the state budget has been a deficit disaster.
Soaking the rich — relying heavily on them for income taxes — has resulted in a precarious revenue roller coaster ride. It's either boom or bust in Sacramento, depending on how the wealthy are faring in the stock market and their other investments.
Billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett's rule is that he shouldn't be paying a lower income tax rate than his secretary or any middle-class taxpayer.
"Legislators in Washington," Buffett complained in a New York Times opinion piece last month, "feel compelled to protect us [mega-rich] much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species…. My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress."
With rhetorical flourish, Obama incorporated the Buffett Rule into the deficit-cutting plan he announced Monday, declaring that people earning more than $1million shouldn't be allowed to pay a lower tax rate than middle-income families.
In California, we've got what you could call a Buffett Rule-Plus. There's an extra tax bracket — at 10.3% — for income exceeding $1million. » | George Skelton | Capitol Journal | From Sacramento | Thursday, September 22, 2011
April 25, 2011
REUTERS: Aside from maybe the odd cheeseburger stain on his tie, nothing much sticks to Warren Buffett.Whether his underlings are convicted of helping insurance companies inflate results or a major company he helps oversee is sanctioned for accounting shenanigans, his admirers don't seem to care. Or at least, they haven't historically.
But with a key Buffett lieutenant resigning under a cloud recently, some sophisticated investors are no longer willing to overlook the obvious. For all the shareholders who still consider Buffett the epitome of American capitalism, there are others who wonder whether the time may be near for Buffett to take a graceful bow and exit the stage.
Some will clamor for that this weekend, when 40,000 of his shareholders prepare to descend on Nebraska for the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate he runs with absolute authority. » | Ben Berkowitz | NEW YORK | Monday, April 25, 2011
August 04, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Bill Gates's and Warren Buffett's campaign draws in top names including George Lucas and Michael Bloomberg
The world of philanthropy got a huge financial boost today as more than 30 American billionaires pledged to give away at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes, signing up to a campaign launched by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
In an unprecedented mass commitment, top figures including New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, the hotel heir Barron Hilton, CNN media mogul Ted Turner, and the Star Wars director George Lucas lent their names to the "giving pledge", an initiative founded last month to encourage America's richest families to commit money to "society's most pressing problems".
The pledge is not a legally binding contract but is described as a moral commitment. Buffett, the legendary Nebraska-based financier known as the "sage of Omaha", welcomed the influx of support: "At its core, the giving pledge is about asking wealthy families to have important conversations about their wealth and how it will be used. We're delighted that so many people are doing that." >>> Andrew Clark in New York | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Picture Gallery: US billionaires to give away fortunes to charity: Forty of the richest families and individuals in the US have committed to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes by taking the 'giving pledge', a campaign launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett >>> | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
July 11, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: An obscure book about the collapse of the German economy in the 1920s has become cult reading among leading financiers, after a tip from billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Mr Buffett, known as the Sage of Omaha because of his shrewd investments, apparently told friends that When Money Dies illustrated what could happen today if European governments attempt to spend their way out of the downturn.
Written in 1975 by Adam Fergusson, a one-time adviser to Tory minister Lord Howe, the book charts how the German economy was ruined by hyperinflation after the Weimar government allowed public spending to run out of control.
The collapse of the Weimar Republic cleared the way for Adolf Hitler’s Nazis to seize power in 1933.
After Mr Buffett tipped off a Dutch financier friend about the wisdom of Fergusson's analysis, his book became the talk of right-wing blogs and economics websites, with copies changing hands for up to £1,600.
Old Street Publishing, a small British publisher, has rushed out a new edition to meet demand. >>> Matthew Moore | Sunday, July 11, 2010
October 01, 2009
LE TEMPS: Bill Gates reste l’homme le plus riche des Etats-Unis, selon le classement du magazine Forbes publié jeudi. Sa fortune est estimée à 50 milliards de dollars. Il devance l’investisseur Warren Buffett.
Les Américains les plus riches sont un peu plus pauvres en 2009. Même la fortune de Bill Gates, toujours en tête du peloton, a fondu de 7 milliards de dollars, selon le classement des 400 Américains les plus fortunés publié mercredi par Forbes . Le fondateur de Microsoft dispose d’une fortune estimée à 50 milliards de dollars.
Au total, la richesse de ces 400 personnes s’élève en 2009 à 1270 milliards de dollars contre 1.570 milliards en 2008. Trois-cent milliards de dollars sont partis en fumée dans les douze derniers mois. Les dix premiers du classement ont perdu collectivement 39,2 milliards, précise le magazine Forbes dans un communiqué.
Les bourses chancelantes, la chute de l’immobilier, les escroqueries et les divorces sont à l’origine de l’appauvrissement de 314 milliardaires. Ces facteurs en ont fait disparaître 32 de la liste. Parmi ces derniers, on note l’ancien financier Allen Stanford, en prison pour escroquerie, et un vice-président du géant d’internet Google, Omid Kordestani, exclu du classement après un divorce onéreux. Numéro deux sur la liste, l’homme d’affaires et investisseur Warren Buffett …>>> ATS/AFP | Jeudi 01 Octobre 2009
March 11, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The number of billionaires across the globe slumped by almost a third in the last 12 months as many of the world's richest men and women fell victim to the economic recession.
Those worth over £1billion fell from 1,125 in 2008 to just 793, as a combined $2.4 trillion (£1.74 trillion) was wiped off the value of their collective 2008 $4.4 trillion fortune.
As a result, the average billionaire saw their net worth fall from $3.9bn to $3bn in the year, as the value of investments, property and other assets all plunged.
The annual survey of who's who and who's worth what in the upper echelons of the world's entrepreneurial classes, the just-released Forbes 2009 World Billionaires list reveals the damage that has been wreaked on the fortunes of many.
Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world last year with a fortune of $62bn, lost $25bn as a result of declines in the value of his investments, many of which are in the insurance and financial sectors which have been hardest hit by the global recession.
Taking his crown is Bill Gates, who, in spite of reclaiming the top spot in the annual Forbes survey after a year's absence, still saw his Microsoft fortune fall by almost a third, down $18bn to $40bn. >>> By James Quinn in New York | Wednesday, March 11, 2009
leJDD.fr:
Galerie de photos: Les riches deviennent moins riches: Comme chaque année, le magazine Forbes publie son classement annuel des grandes fortunes mondiales. Le crû 2008 a un petit air de crise. >>> | Jeudi 12 Mars 2009
BBC:
Watch BBC video: Billionaires Drop Off Rich List: The financial crisis is taking its toll on the world's richest people, wiping 332 names off the Forbes Magazine's 'rich list' of world billionaires. >>> Caroline Hepker | Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
March 10, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Warren Buffett said yesterday that the US economy had “fallen off a cliff”, describing the current crisis as “an economic Pearl Harbor” as concern spread about the US Administration’s fitful attempts to halt the collapse of the American banking sector.
The leading investor, an informal adviser to President Obama whose financial diagnoses are widely respected – even though he conceded that he failed to predict the severity of the crisis – said that the economy had come “close to the worst case” imagined, and that recovery would be slow.
Mr Buffett, a multibillionaire, said that the entire banking sector had been hours from collapse in September, and would have imploded without the $700 billion Wall Street emergency bailout.
Mr Buffett also spoke of the growing fears over Mr Obama’s muddled approach to the central issue in solving the economic crisis: what to do with the banks’ $2 trillion of toxic debt that is threatening the collapse of the financial sector. Mr Obama and his Treasury chief, Timothy Geithner, have said that they do not want to nationalise any banks but they are coming under increasing pressure after massive and repeated injections of cash into crippled financial giants such as Citigroup, Bank of America and AIG have failed to stem losses. >>> Tim Reid in Washington | Tuesday, March 10, 2009
AOL: Warren Buffett Says Economy Fell Off Cliff
OMAHA, Neb. - Billionaire Warren Buffett remains confident that America's best days are ahead, but he says the nation likely will face higher unemployment and eventually inflation because of the current economic crisis. Buffett said the nation's leaders need to emphasize a consistent message, and they should support President Barack Obama's efforts to repair the economy because fear is dominating Americans' behavior.
Buffett said the economy has basically followed the worst-case scenario he envisioned six months ago.
"It's fallen off a cliff," Buffett said Monday during a live appearance on cable network CNBC. "Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven't seen."
Buffett said the changes are reflected in the results of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiaries. He said Berkshire's jewelry companies have suffered, but more people have been willing to switch to Geico to save money on car insurance. The three-hour-long interview aired from another Berkshire subsidiary that has been hampered by the economy, the Nebraska Furniture Mart store in Omaha.
He predicted that unemployment will climb a lot higher before the recession is done, but he also reiterated his optimistic long-term view: "Everything will be all right. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created."
Fear and confusion have been driving consumer and investor behavior in recent months, Buffett said.
The nation's leaders need to clear up the confusion before anyone will become more confident, and he said all 535 members of Congress should stop the partisan bickering about solutions. He said politicians should also stop trying to use the current economic crisis to force through other policy changes.
"We ought to defer most of the things that get people riled up," Buffett said. >>> By Josh Funk, AP | Monday, March 9, 2009
CNBC: “Economy Has Fallen Off a Cliff”
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
September 24, 2008
THE BOSTON GLOBE: Warren Buffett, America's most famous investor and one of the world's richest men, said yesterday he would invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs in a move that could bolster confidence in the financial markets.
Until now, Buffett, who has navigated the stock market with legendary prowess, has largely refrained from investing in the stricken financial industry, saying repeatedly that things could get worse.
Thousands of people on and off Wall Street follow Buffett's moves, so his decision to invest in Goldman immediately heartened investors. After falling nearly 1.5 percent during the day, the Standard & Poor's 500 index erased its loss in after-hours trading on news of the investment.
Buffett's conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, unveiled the move only days after Goldman, long the premier investment house on Wall Street, embarked on a radical plan to transform itself into a traditional bank in order to ensure its survival. Goldman, which examined various options over the past week as its shares tumbled and some clients abandoned the firm, said it would sell at least $2.5 billion of common stock to the public.
Since the credit crisis flared more than a year ago, Buffett had stayed his hand even as other investors poured money into ailing American financial companies like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, only to see their investments wither.
Such wariness is a hallmark of Buffett's investing style, and many on Wall Street have wondered when he might jump in.
Buffett, in the statement, called Goldman Sachs an exceptional institution.
"It has an unrivaled global franchise," Buffett said, "a proven and deep management team and the intellectual and financial capital to continue its track record of outperformance."
Berkshire Hathaway will receive perpetual preferred shares in Goldman, which will pay a 10 percent annual dividend, or $500 million a year. Buffett Invests in Goldman Sachs >>> By Ben White | New York Times News Service | September 24, 2008
LE FIGARO:
Warren Buffett investit dans Goldman Sachs : Le milliardaire américain va investir 5 milliards de dollars dans la banque d'affaires. Cette opération devrait ramener la confiance chez les investisseurs.
L'oracle d'Omaha apporte l'espoir sur les marchés financiers. Le milliardaire américain Warren Buffett a en effet annoncé mardi soir, après la clôture de Wall Street, qu'il va investir 5 milliards de dollars dans Goldman Sachs. Il estime que la banque d'affaires américaine est une «institution exceptionnelle qui a une présence mondiale sans rivale, une équipe de direction fournie et aguerrie, et le capital financier et intellectuel pour continuer à surperformer comme par le passé». >>> Perrine Créquy | 24.09.2008
NZZ Online:
Buffett investiert fünf Milliarden Dollar in Goldman Sachs: Vertrauenssignal für gebeutelten Finanzmarkt
Der Multimilliardär Warren Buffett steigt mit mindestens fünf Milliarden Dollar bei der amerikanischen Investmentbank Goldman Sachs ein. Das Engagement wird als ermutigende Vertrauensbekundung für den gebeutelten Finanzmarkt in den USA eingeschätzt. >>> | 24. September 2008
THE TELEGRAPH:
Warren Buffett Compares US Bail-out Decision to Action over Pearl Harbor: Warren Buffett, the US billionaire buying a $5bn stake in Goldman Sachs, has said recent economic turmoil "will look like nirvana" if senators do not approve a $700bn bail-out plan soon. >>> By Rowena Mason | September 24, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
May 20, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
May 05, 2008
BUSINESS TELEGRAPH: Warren Buffett has fuelled suspicions that he is set to turn his sights on British companies by declaring he is now particularly focused on buying European businesses.
While family-owned companies in mainland Europe are at the top of his list, the investor indicated that his business may also focus on groups whose main operations were in pounds or euros.
This weekend, at the annual general meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, Mr Buffett said he was keen to diversify away from companies whose business was largely in dollars, since he expects the US currency to lose more value in the coming years.
He said: "We are happy to invest in businesses that earn their money in the euro, or in companies that derive their earnings in Germany, or from the sterling in the UK, because I don't have a feeling that those currencies are going to depreciate in a big way against the dollar.
I'm willing to bet the dollar will weaken against other currencies over the longer term, so I feel no need to hedge those currencies."
Mr Buffett is due to tour Europe later this month, visiting Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland and persuading business owners to deal directly with them when considering selling their companies. Warren Buffett Bets His Bottom Dollar on European Businesses >>> By Edmund Conway | May 5, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
March 09, 2008
THE INDEPENDENT: The bad news for Bill Gates is that, after 13 years at the top, he has just lost his ranking as the richest man in the world. The good news is that he has been overtaken by his bridge partner. That man is Warren Buffett, a friend of the Microsoft boss since 1991, when they began to play bridge together – and also to discuss business a little.
In a way, their friendship is an obvious one. As Buffett told the Wall Street Journal eight years ago: "It's hard to have friends when everybody around you wants money. Bill hasn't sold me a computer and I haven't sold him candy. Neither one of us wants anything from the other."
Bill did get something from Warren, however. In 2006, Buffett, then 76, announced that he would be giving almost his entire fortune – which now stands at $62bn (£30.8bn) – to the medical foundation set up by Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda. It is a bequest of almost unimaginable scale, more mindboggling still when added to what was already the world's largest charitable foundation.
The bracketing of Buffett with Gates now seems complete. Yet as businessmen they are very different – and Buffett is much the more unusual type of multi-billionaire. Bill Gates, although in his own way unique, is more typical of the sort of businessman who makes (rather than inherits) a gargantuan fortune.
Such people tend either to develop some entirely new industrial process – or, at the very least, a better form of mousetrap. If they can add to their technological creativity the nerve and courage to retain financial control of their industrial process, then the money just cascades into their pockets faster than they can count it.
For Gates, the process was the mass use of digital language. For John Rockefeller, it was the vertically integrated oil industry, from well-head to end-user. For Henry Ford, it was the mass production of motor cars. Yet Warren Buffett has invented nothing, not even a slightly better mousetrap. All he does is invest in other people's businesses – but with a skill unmatched in the long and turbulent history of capitalism.
Buffett has expressed this more bluntly than anyone else could (or would), saying: "I was born at the right time and place, where the ability to allocate capital really counts. I'm adapted to this society. I won the ovarian lottery. I got the ball that said 'capital allocator--United States'."
This is characteristically modest of the unassuming Mr Buffett. The allocation of capital is an immensely competitive business, yet he has stayed at the top of the investment tree for more than 40 years. Others may flame out but old Warren keeps steaming on, beating the Dow Jones average for year after year... after year.
The reason for the astounding durability of Buffett's success at investment is also something which distinguishes him from almost all other people who are thought of as hotshot money managers. Warren Buffett is almost pathologically risk-averse. As he puts it: "I don't look to jump over 7ft bars. I look around for 1ft bars that I can step over."
Typically, he will spend months – or longer – scrutinising the balance sheets of mature and unfashionable companies. When he has finally decided that the stock market has greatly undervalued them, he moves in – with cash and on a vast scale.
Thus it is that his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, has significant percentages of such emblems of middle-of-the-road America as Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, American Express, Kraft and The Washington Post. You will look in vain through the immense Buffett portfolio for any hi-tech stocks – although for sentimental reasons he has retained 100 shares in Microsoft. Towards the end of the last century, Buffett was widely ridiculed for shunning the dotcom frenzy… >>> By Dominic Lawson
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
March 03, 2008
FINANCIAL TIMES: US equity markets were lower on Monday, adding to pressure on European indices as fears about a potential recession in the world’s biggest economy intensified.
The dollar fell to fresh lows against the euro after Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, warned that the US economy was in a recession and data showed manufacturing activity contracted last month.
The chief investment officer of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the most influential investors in the US also said he was withdrawing his offer to guarantee $800bn of municipal bonds backed by MBIA, Ambac Financial and FGIC.
The Institute for Supply Management February manufacturing report fell to 48.3 from 50.7 in January, although the fall was slightly better than a consensus forecast of 48. A reading of 50 marks the inflection point between growth and contraction.
“The ISM data was not nearly as soft as the Chicago and Philly Fed indices suggested, and is certainly better than the market’s worst fears,” Alan Ruskin of RBS Global Banking & Markets, said.
The benchmark S&P 500 index fell 0.4 per cent to 1,325.99, off earlier lows, while the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.5 per cent to 12,210.10. The Nasdaq composite shed 0.7 per cent to 1,732.84.
“It seems that equities are finally becoming aware that all other asset classes are in risk aversion mode,” analysts at BNP Paribas said.
“They are also recognizing that the prospects for profit growth in the near term could be constrained, given the procession of economic data highlighting the fragile state of the US economy.” Dollar declines spark equity sell-off >>> By Chris Bryant and Stacy-Marie Ishmael in New York, Michael Hunter in London, and Lindsay Whipp in Tokyo | March 3 2008
BBC:
Stock Markets Fall on US Worries
TIMES ONLINE:
Warren Buffett Declares America in Recession By Dearbail Jordan and Agencies
NZZ Online:
Aktienmärkte auf Talfahrt: US-Börsen im Minus – Banken unter Druck
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
February 07, 2008
BUSINESS TELEGRAPH: Billionaire Warren Buffett has accused major investment banks of creating their own downfalls through the collapse in the US sub-prime mortgage market.
Mr Buffett, known as the "Sage of Omaha" for his investment record, suggested that the banking fraternity has only itself to blame for its recent problems which have seen banks write off more than $130bn (£66.3bn) so far.
"It's sort of a little poetic justice, in that the people that brewed this toxic Kool-Aid found themselves drinking a lot of it in the end," Mr Buffett said, making reference to the American soft drink.
The septuagenarian investor, speaking in Toronto, said that in spite of the meltdown in the sub-prime mortgage market and the impact on the banking system, funds remain available.
"I wouldn't quite call it a credit crunch," he said. "Money is available, and it's really quite cheap because of the lowering of rates that has taken place."
However, he said what had taken place was "a re-pricing of risk," leading to an "unavailability of what I might call 'dumb money', of which there was plenty around a year ago."
Mr Buffett also reiterated his negative views on the subject of the US dollar, saying that over the next five-10 years, the dollar could seriously devalue if the US trade deficit persists. As a result, Mr Buffett - who famously bet $21.8bn against the dollar in 2005, a position he has since unwound - stressed he will continue to look beyond the US for investments in part to hedge against the dollar's weakness. Warren Buffett blames banks for meltdown >>> By James Quinn Wall Street Correspondent
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
December 05, 2007
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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