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Buffett defends ‘Giving Pledge’ against Thiel and ‘billionaire backlash’

Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates

Lacy O’Toole | CNBC

But one This week’s important article, Times Over the past two years, he says, “there has been a growing backlash from its target donors, the billionaires,” including “a quiet campaign by a pro-Trump tech billionaire to destroy it.”

Peter Thiel tells Times He privately encouraged nearly a dozen signatories to rescind their commitments. “Most of the people I spoke to expressed at least some regret about signing the agreement.”

Peter Thiel

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

while Times He says Thiel was not involved coinbase Co-founder Brian Armstrong, “an outspoken crypto executive who currently disdains liberal politics,” voluntarily left the group in 2024 without making a public statement.

next year, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, one of the first to sign, announced that he would “modify” his pledge. some money to for-profit ventures The pledge does not cover this.

more than that 250 families listed It appeared on the Giving Pledge’s website, but the pace of new additions has slowed. 113 people participated in the first five years. This number dropped to 72 in the second five years, and only 43 people signed in the next five years.

Times He quotes sociologist Aaron Horvath, who studied Pledge, as saying that it is a “time capsule” of the 2010s and that it now “feels old school.”

He says billionaires now think: “I can keep my head down and keep making money. I don’t have to put up with this charity charade anymore.”

Times He adds that in “an era of more rapacious capitalism” where “billionaires are moving to the right and coming to prominence by embracing a government that is happy to dole out favors,” many believe “the real way to give back is through business success that stimulates the economy.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong speaks on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2025.

Gerry Miller | CNBC

According to the newspaper, another negative side of the Hostage is this: Damage to Gates’ reputation Because of his connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

Thiel calls Pledge the “fake Boomer club next door to Epstein,” but the Times He states he has his own ties to Epstein.

The Giving Pledge has also been criticized from the left.

Last summer a report from Institute of Policy Studies He argued that “unfulfilled, unfulfillable and not our ticket to a fairer, better future“

A Pledge spokesperson He called the report, which contained incomplete data, “misleading”.

Taryn Jensen, who runs the Giving Pledge for the Gates Foundation, says: Times, “In its early years, the Giving Pledge helped establish very few norms. Our goal is to continue to build a culture where giving is the norm and provide the support that will help turn commitment into action.”

And Times piece, Ron Conway, described as a venture capitalist close to Bill Gates, rejects accusations that the Pledge is “aligned with liberal causes or woke, so to speak” and says it includes many conservatives and moderates.

Buffett recalls being annoyed by commas added to annual letters

Buffett was also quoted in another major publication this week.

Wall StreetJournal Reported to CEOs People inspired by Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders, which use wit and personal anecdotes to “celebrate the dreary tradition of corporate America and set a new standard.”

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says he always tries to emulate Buffett’s ability to use plain language to explain complex financial concepts, but admits “it’s hard.”

“I was happy when he was born,” he says of his own annual letter.

In a phone interview with the newspaper, Buffett said he had a hard time accepting feedback from his predecessors. Luck Journalist and personal friend Carol Loomis, who edited shareholder letters from 1977 to 2024.

“My first reaction would be to get angry, which is completely inappropriate,” but “that’s what happens when you write.”

One of their biggest complaints was that Loomis added too many commas.

He says they now play online bridge weekly without any acrimony. “I’ve finally matured a bit at 95.”

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM CNBC’S BUFFETT ARCHIVE

Buffett on charities: ‘Trust your instincts’ (2006)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can you help us think through the capital allocation decisions we face when it comes to charitable donations? …

WARREN BUFFET: It is difficult to give advice to others on this subject. But you know you have to choose the things that are important to you. And, you know, a lot of people (the majority in the United States) this is their church. You know, more money is given to churches than anything else.

A lot of people – a lot of people – it’s their school or schools in general.

You know, I think to a large extent, you have to choose what gives you the most satisfaction, and that’s probably going to be something that you know, maybe it’s going to be something that you benefit from yourself.

I look at it a little differently. The amount of funds also varies, but I like to think of things that are important but don’t have the natural funding constituency.

But, you know, this is not something that millions of people will follow as an example.

There’s nothing wrong with doing something that gives you plenty of personal satisfaction and benefits other people in the process.

So I wouldn’t be reluctant — I wouldn’t feel like I had to be as objective about it as I would about buying securities or something like that. I would go where my instincts take me and make it something you can participate in.

And as I said, if you’re doing this with large sums of money, you may have a reason, perhaps even an obligation, to think about where really large sums of money might have a significant impact on a social problem that might otherwise go unnoticed. And, you know, that’s kind of where my own thoughts lead me.

But I would – I would go with something where I felt like I knew where the money was going and I knew some good would come out of it. And maybe by observing what happens, I can make the next gift be more productive and beneficial than the last one.