DOLLARS & NONSENSE

Buffet Plays Santa Claus; Ellison Opts For Scrooge

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for billionaires. Warren Buffet got to arrive in his sleigh with $40 million smackers, outdoing even the hardest-working Santa Claus, and Roy Ellison got to prove that scrooge doesn’t always array himself with heavy chains.

Mr. Buffet, in a splurge philanthropic ardor that is bound to stir controversy among all those whose prejudices inspirit them to regard every capitalist as a pig, gave away about 90% of his fortune, or about $40 billion, reserving only a measly $3 or so $4 billion to tide him over until the great croupier in the sky rakes in all his chips. By doing so, he no doubt became, at least for a day, the world’s richest person spiritually.

A day or so later Mr. Ellison announced that he’s reneging on, what seems by comparison, a paltry $115 million endowment he had pledged to Harvard.

As you no doubt know, Buffet entrusted the charitable investment of his megabucks to Bill and Melinda Gates, reasoning with an adroitness especially suitable to insightful people who are distracted by other concerns, that they know more about philanthropy than he does. So, much like a man who hates to shop for clothes, he got off the philanthropic hook and can devote himself to what he loves, which is his role as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, where he can toil to recoup his proffered billions.

Ellison’s reasoning, which can’t help sounding more like a handy way for said worm to wiggle off the hook, was that the former president of Harvard, now resigned, had spearheaded the effort the money was earmarked for and now that he was off to other endeavors, Mr. Ellison was no longer confident that the university could implement the program effectively enough to meet his high standards. Right, Larry, there’s nobody left at Harvard who knows how to invest money in the program.

Now, the only surprise left will be if Mr. Ellison was just jealous of all the publicity Warren and Bill got and has decided to dump some of his $13 billion or so into the Bill and Melinda philanthropic juggernaut. If he does, it will have to be renamed something like The Giving Away Big Bucks Is Fun Philanthropy.

Good for these spectacular givers. And may you make enough to join them.

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