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Michael Bloomberg to give away his wealth ($37bn) before he dies

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
I don't know if this is the right thread - And it's not directly related to ME/CFS - but I thought i ought to mention it somewhere on the forum...

I see that Michael Bloomberg wants to give away his wealth to philanthropic causes before he dies:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/20...new-york-times-the-answer-billionaire-fortune

That's a massive $37bn of wealth!

Could we have just one of your billions for ME/CFS research please Mr Bloomberg?

Just a billion would do.


This is the website for Bloomberg Philanthropies, his philanthropic non-profit organisation:
http://www.bloomberg.org/
 

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
I think sharing it would be, by far, the best strategy, otherwise you would putting all your eggs in one basket.
 

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
And obviously you would give an equal share to the CET/GBT guys, because they might have the answer...
 

Snow Leopard

Hibernating
Messages
5,902
Location
South Australia
Well, a thousand million dollars could be shared between the many great researchers we have. I'm not sure that I'd be able to choose just one.

I'd direct the money here:
http://www.openmedicinefoundation.org/the-end-mecfs-project/

Easier to convince someone to put up the money to a group lead by a Stanford university researcher with some Nobel prize winners are sitting on the board. (for what it's worth...)
 

JPV

ɹǝqɯǝɯ ɹoıuǝs
Messages
858
I wouldn't hold my breath. Usually these sorts of philanthropic organizations, run by the likes of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and George Lucas are just tax dodges. In this case, sounds like Bloomberg is not only dodging taxes but he seems to be running some sort of hedge fund scam...
Bloomberg’s Offshore Millions

By the end of 2008, the Bloomberg Family Foundation had transferred almost $300 million into various offshore destinations—some of them notorious tax-dodge hideouts.

Nonprofits like the Bloomberg Family Foundation are tax-exempt, but some investments that aren’t related to an organization’s core mission can be subject to a levy called the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT, for short). So to avoid more than 40 percent in federal and local taxes on unrelated businesses, nonprofits use a legal loophole, routing investments through offshore tax havens.

In spite of the flurry of investments, it appears that for years, Mr. Bloomberg’s foundation had no office, phones, staff, Web site or public brochures.

Compared with those of the great foundations of America, the Bloomberg investment strategies stand out. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s about as opaque set of investments as you can find,” said Rick Cohen, who covers foundations and charities for Nonprofit Quarterly, and who agreed to review the foundation’s tax return. “This involves extensive investments in hedge funds offshore, where the motivation and purpose is not discernible, so you can’t tell what kind of activity it is or who is going to benefit from the investments.”
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
I wouldn't hold my breath. Usually these sorts of philanthropic organizations, run by the likes of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and George Lucas are just tax dodges. In this case, sounds like Bloomberg is not only dodging taxes but he seems to be running some sort of hedge fund scam...
I think it's generally agreed that the Bill Gates foundation is doing good solid work, isn't it? That doesn't mean that they aren't also involved in tax reduction schemes, for their personal wealth/income, at the same time. I don't know anything about Bloomberg's foundation - it might be in its infancy. He might not have started his philanthropy on a large scale yet. Not that I'm defending them - I really don't know much about any of them.
 

JPV

ɹǝqɯǝɯ ɹoıuǝs
Messages
858
I think it's generally agreed that the Bill Gates foundation is doing good solid work, isn't it?
As far as I'm concerned he's just another sociopath that knows how to make lots of money...
The Gates Foundation's Leveraged Philanthropy: Corporate Profit Versus Humanity on Three Fronts

For example, chemical giant Monsanto has partnered with the Gates Foundation, which reportedly works to suppress local seed exchanges and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices through its global agricultural charity work. Fraud-prone drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is a partner in the Foundation's work to leverage its own relatively fractional contribution to vaccination efforts, so that it centrally controls enormous world funds for purchase, pricing, and delivery of vaccines for world public health. And in its U.S. education reform charity work, the Gates Foundation has increasingly shifted its funding to promote market domination by its British corporate education services partner, Pearson Education.

The Gates Foundation, and Gates personally, also own stock and reap profits from many of these same partner corporations. In addition, the Foundation owns a profit-generating portfolio of stocks which would seem to work against the Foundation's declared missions, such as the Latin American Coca-Cola FEMSA distributorship and five multinational oil giants operating in Nigeria. These corporate investments, now moved to a blind trust whose trustees are Bill and Melinda Gates, are collaterally supported by the Foundation's tax-free lobbying and advocacy activities.

Criticism of the profit-driven philanthropy agenda is muted by the fact that many of the Foundation's "advocacy" gifts are positioned to leverage control of policy analysis and news outlets. The Gates Foundation recently undertook sponsorship of the Guardian's Global Development coverage, for instance, which now maintains a weary-but-compliant stance toward corporate domination of development aid. The Gates Foundation also literally dominates news coverage of Global Health issues.
 

*GG*

senior member
Messages
6,389
Location
Concord, NH
I think it's generally agreed that the Bill Gates foundation is doing good solid work, isn't it? That doesn't mean that they aren't also involved in tax reduction schemes, for their personal wealth/income, at the same time. I don't know anything about Bloomberg's foundation - it might be in its infancy. He might not have started his philanthropy on a large scale yet. Not that I'm defending them - I really don't know much about any of them.

No, i think the Bill Gates Foundation push vaccines no matter the cost to some people!

GG