Warren Buffett (born 30 August 1930 in Omaha) is a businessman and investor. Nicknamed the " oracle of Omaha ", he is one of the richest men in the world since the beginning of the xxie century.
In march 2008, with a fortune estimated at 65 billion u.s. dollars, he was considered the richest man in the world, according to the annual ranking of the magazine Forbes. In 2016 Forbes estimated his fortune to be 66.2 billion us dollars , he is therefore in third place on the list of billionaires of the world by the magazine Forbes.
Warren Edward Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Howard Buffett, is a stock broker and a member of the Congress. Buffett studied at theuniversity of Nebraska and obtained a master ofeconomics at theColumbia university. Returned to Omaha in 1958, he manages portfolios stock market, by pooling money from friends and acquaintances, his family as well as hers. As early as 1969, and its investment have made gains of almost 30 % on average per year, in a market where the average is between 7 and 11 %, and where the best performance was outstanding. Under the leadership of Buffett, the funds, Berkshire outperforms the reference markets such as the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones for more than forty years (outstanding performance when we know that over 80 % of investors do not beat their market index).
He married Susan Thompson in 1952. They split up in 1977, but without divorce. This important shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway and a member of the board of directors, died on Thursday, July 29, 2004 of a heart attack.
In 2009, Buffett lives with Astrid Menks, his last girlfriend since the separation from his wife.
He has three children, one of whom is a farmer in Nebraska and another music composer new age2. Warren Buffett has not yet named a clear successor at the head of his company, his children will not inherit his entire fortune, it has planned to pour a large majority to a charity, the Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, as did his friend Bill Gates.
In 2016 he became the advisor ofArnold Schwarzenegger in the tv show The Celebrity Apprentice.
Buffett has a habit of concentrating its investments in companies undervalued with good potential for growth in the long term. All the difficulty is to identify such companies. The actual value produced by these enterprises - which he owns - is superior to its stock market investments, although its share in companies such as Coca-Cola - whose Berkshire Hathaway is the largest shareholder - and Gillette attracts more attention. Buffett avoids businesses of high technology not because they are in themselves less interesting, but because it prefers to invest in sectors that he understands.
Through Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett also owns insurance companies and reinsurance as GEICO and General Re that generate substantial assets (float)- derived their insurance premiums. These companies are sources of funds that he then allocates to subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway, and that it uses to acquire new companies. In November 2009, Berkshire Hathaway made an offer at $100 per share for BNSF in cash and share of category B. We are talking here about a transaction of $ 44 billion $.
Unlike other investors, Buffett is involved in the management of the companies of which he is a shareholder, it is in particular the case of the Washington Post. This is in part why he gets higher yields than the average.
Warren Buffett continues to live in a home ofOmaha, Nebraska, which he paid 31 us $ 500 in 1957.
Glad to be a major investor in Coca-Cola, it is also a great fan of its products. In his letter to the shareholders of 1991, Buffett says he drinks five cans of Cherry Coke per day.
On September 23, 2008, it has decided to acquire us $ 5 billion of perpetual preferred shares of the american bank Goldman Sachs.
His trading strategy is based on a number of principles, among which :
buy shares when prices are low. He has invested a lot since the price declines in the fall/winter of 2008/2009 and took care never to buy shares in start-ups of high technology in the late 1990s when prices were at the highest (those with market capitalizations of more than 600 times the profits, when there were profits). Buffett was inspired in this area of Benjamin Graham and his book The intelligent Investor. Graham has developed the concept of " margin of safety ", that is to say, the difference between the actual value of a company (capital, patents, etc) and its value on the stock exchange. Buffet prefers to buy when the stock exchange value is significantly lower than the actual value of the company. For this, he is able to wait long, because " the profession of an investor is assumed to stay sometimes idle ". And in 1969 he sold his first stock portfolio because it did not find nothing more to buy at correct prices."Graham always said that there are periods where there is no business to buy it at a good price. At these times, it is better to go for a ride to the beach ". Often Buffett expects that the company will experience a passing challenge or the grant to go wrong ;
play in the long term over periods of 5 years or more. And he said that we must ask the question, " if the stock market closes for 5 years, is what I would buy now, such actions ". He considers that" in the short term, the stock market is a voting machine, long term it is a machine to weigh ". In fact, in the short term, stock prices fluctuate in a more or less random, this is only at the end of a certain period that they reflect the true value of the company, although it is difficult to predict the long-term future.
In addition to play in the long-term strongly reduces the transaction costs and the amount of the tax on capital gains. "I'm looking for companies which it is possible for me to predict the activity in 15 or 20 years."
Buffett is not a fan of the strategy is to 'take profits' as soon as the price of a stock rises a few tens of %. It keeps for years shares the value of which can a five-fold increase, tenfold or even more. And he still owns the shares of the Washington Post it was bought in 1973 (their value was multiplied by 100) and the shares of GEICO purchased in 1976. Shares of Coca-cola, bought in 1988/89, have seen their value multiplied by 7 ;
don't invest in companies of high technology, where technological developments are numerous and unpredictable. He invests only in businesses that he understands the activity. He stated in 2001, " I can already tell you that we took of the xxie century, to arm-the-body by investing in the businesses of the avant-garde such as brick, carpet, insulation, and paint "14. It is thus immune to the technology revolution. For Buffett, buying stocks is like buying a trade or business. It is important to understand the business of the company ;
invest in a company that makes regular profits. Buffett has never invested in a company that loses money even if it has brilliant prospects. At the time of the crash in internet stocks in 2000/2001, Buffett explained that" it is better to have a bride on his couch, that 10 on its address book " ;
limited diversification. The fortune of Warren Buffet is invested in a limited number of companies. Limited diversification reduces the cost of transactions and mostly used to get a portfolio that does not reflect the performance too medium-sized market, with potentially higher returns but at the cost of a stronger risk. Finally, when investing in few companies it is more easy to know each one of them thoroughly ;
buy shares of companies that have a relative rent-that puts them away from the competition. Newspapers such as the Washington Post, (it is difficult to launch a new journal), companies that have a reputation for exceptional, such as Coca-Cola. Its definition of business where he likes to invest is the following : "A wonderful castle, surrounded by deep ditches, and very dangerous. The castle derives its value from the genius that is inside. Its moat function as a powerful counter-example to those who would be tempted to attack it.Inside, the leader, a person of integrity and honesty, manufactures of gold but don't keep it all for himself. In other words, less poetic, we love the superb companies that occupy dominant positions, whose know-how is difficult to copy, and the business sustainable.
keep the leaders of the companies he buys, even if they are very elderly. "We do not learn to Michael Jordan to put a ball in the basket ". "We don't invest in companies with the idea to change everything. This does not work any better in business than in marriage " ;
an in-depth study of the companies listed in the stock exchange. Before you purchase Buffett examines in depth the accounts of the company.
From April 2011 to November 2011, Warren Buffet has agreed to acquire, through his company Berkshire Hathaway, of 64 million shares of IBM (5.5% of the capital), to about 10.7 billion dollars.
Since the 1960s, it has thus achieved an average annual return of over 20 % per year, a record over such a long period of time. However, the big difference of the other investors, Buffett control often, as we have said, the management of the companies of which he is a significant shareholder. This is not a "small carrier" who has no control over the companies in which it has purchased the shares.
Positions on the economy and Society
In regards to his personal life, Warren Buffett is known to be frugal and a little extravagant. He is paid $ 100 000 americans each year by Berkshire Hathaway, according to his own choice. The volume of net disposable income comes from his other personal investments outside of Berkshire, even though they constitute less than 1 % of its overall net value (Berkshire has not paid dividends for decades).
He made the donations through the Buffett Foundation, usually around 12 million us dollars per year. It has indicated its intention to distribute 85 % of his fortune, after his death, to charity.
Warren Buffett announced on Sunday, 25 June 2006 its intention to give $ 37 billion of us dollars17, 24.7 billion euros, the Fondation Bill-et-Melinda-Gates foundation and to members of his own family. This decision, which covers over 85 % of his fortune, which is the largest one-time donation ever made to the United States.
Weaknesses of the strategy and mistakes of Warren Buffett[edit | edit the code]
The strategy of Buffett has risks. And his fortune is concentrated in the companies of which he is the owner. It does not take into account a principle of asset management is diversification between investments volatile (shares), investment, which are less so (gold, government bonds), property and cash.
In the event of a collapse of the stock market he would lose a lot. As his fortune increased from us $ 65 billion at the beginning of the year 2008 to $ 37 billion in early 2009 according to the magazine Forbes, it has lost its rank of the richest man in the world. In 2009, it is less rich than Bill Gates. However, the crashes are for him an opportunity to buy good companies at discounted prices.
Among some of his mistakes of management, the decision to invest in a business of air transport, US Airways, a sector where price competition is very strong, or the decision to invest in Salomon Brothers, a financial company. Despite all he remains " the best investor of all time ".
Case Lubrizol
Moreover, it would seem that Warren Buffet had made the mistake of trusting his former right hand man David Sokol. In fact, it would be advisable to Warren Buffet to invest $ 10 billion in a chemical company, Lubrizol and then would have acquired without the say of 100,000 units of the same company, just prior to the purchase of his boss. The company has obviously increased in value after the purchase of Warren Buffet, saving $ 3 million to David Sokol. Warren Buffet was surprised by this betrayal, as David Sokol was one day refused a fee of $ 50 million of its share and preferred share with a colleague. David Sokol has, thereafter, submitted his resignation to his boss.
His friendship with Bill Gates
In 1991, Bill Gates meets Warren Buffett : the two men become friends. Bill Gates was impressed by the intelligence of Buffett. "I've never met anyone who has a vision as clear in the world of business", Fortune, 5 February 1996. Buffett considers that " Bill Gates could do what I do... but I couldn't do what he's doing."
In 2000, Buffett testified in front of the judges in favour of Bill Gates during a trial brought against Microsoft by the us courts.
In 2004, after the death of his wife, Buffett appointed Gates to the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway. Bill Gates has purchased shares of the company.
In 2006, Buffett announced his intent to have 83 % of his fortune to the foundation Bill-and-Melinda-Gates foundation, joining the board of directors of the foundation, but without participating in the investments of the foundation.
His succession at the head of Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffet has now 86 years old, and his main business partner is Charlie Munger, 6 years his elder.
The question of his succession is therefore of paramount importance. David Sokol, has often been seen as the contender most likely, but the scandal of the case of Lubrizol, followed by his resignation has changed the situation.
In his famous letter 2010 to the shareholders (published in 2011), Warren Buffet clearly refers to Todd Combs, manager of hedge fund, as one of his successors since he left a few billion to manage. However, this is not necessarily just one, but several successors that Warren Buffet would like to put in place. Ajit Jain, manager of the party Reinsurance from Berkshire, has received several accolades from Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger, and could thus become one of the successors.
Buffett wrote in the letter to shareholders included in the annual report of Berkshire Hathaway (available in English on the website of Berkshire Hathaway).
His statements
On 25 may 2005, Warren Buffett said on CNN : " there has been a war of classes, where my class is gaining more and more, so that it should not " (It's a class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be). In fact, Warren Buffet said on the occasion that the rich have never been as well-worn (" We never had it so good ") and it would be a good idea to raise taxes on18.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
human cloning
The human cloning is the creation of a human being from the totality of the genetic material of a human already designed.
You could compare this concept to a twin zygosity delayed, and obtained the result of a decision.
The cloning could allow a range of possibilities at the medical level. For example, during a war, to be able to replace a vital organ is affected by that of the clone would be very interesting. The clone would then be used as " a bank for the organs alive."
In January 2008, Stemagen, a firm in California, says in the journal Stem Cell have managed to create for the first time five human embryos by cloning using skin cells of two adult men. After checks, they have managed to confirm with total certainty that these embryos were clones of two men that in three of the five cases. The embryos were destroyed in the course of this verification process.
The technique used by Stemagen is that cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer, which involves inserting it into an oocyte nucleus, the nucleus of an adult cell and then driving the egg and created to maturation. This technique has been used with success in animals, and has even given birth to clones viable : Dolly (sheep) cloned in 1996, Snuppy (dog) in 2005.
In humans, the purpose of the cloning is not to get a viable organization but an embryo whose stem cells could be used for therapeutic purposes. Indeed, these stem cells have the power to differentiate into any cells of the human body. Put on the bone, they become bone cells, in the liver, the liver cells, in the brain of neurons. No risk of rejection, moreover, since they are identical to those of the recipient.
The scientific community must now discuss this study in order to check the reality of this achievement. In fact, since the false announcement in 2004 of the Korean Hwang Woo-suk , who had wrongly asserted to be able to the creation of stem cells from cloned embryos, scientists are stepping up now precautions.
The human cloning and therapy (CHT), or transferring the nucleus of somatic cells, is a technique of production of living material can be used as " medicine ", usually to a graft and to replace an organ destroyed or damaged. The purpose of this technique is genetic compatibility with the patient provided by the cloning.
The technique involves implanting the nucleus from a somatic cell adult into an oocyte nucleus to start the development of an embryo and to obtain cells totipotent also known as stem cells. Indeed, the lines of embryonic stem cells of Blastocyst (5e in 7e day after fertilization) would be likely to be grafted without inducing rejection by the recipient organism. Thus organs " new ", or cells with a high capacity of reproduction, can thus be manufactured, for a transplant. The concept, born at the end of the xxe century, there was still not a reality in 2004. It is possible that it is outdated before this realization, because of the progress on these special cells, that it seems possible to obtain without recourse to their manufacturing indirect cloning (regenerative therapy by stem cell). In addition, this technique is subject to controversy because it relies on a cloning. Some see it as a form more acceptable for its medical purpose, and other a form worse due to the status of the embryo.
The 8 march 2005, theunited Nations general Assembly has decided to ban cloning, even for therapeutic purposes. The united Nations Declaration on the cloning of human beings1, non-binding, was passed with 84 votes for, 34 votes against and 37 abstentions. Among the countries that are opposed to this declaration are France, the United Kingdom, Norway, India, Japan, Canada and China.
The Charter of fundamental rights of the european Union adopted in December 2000 prohibits the reproductive cloning of human beings2.
In the United Kingdom, in August 2004, the Authority on the fertilization and human embryology (HFEA) authorised the professor Miodrag Stojkovic, of the university of Newcastle to clone human embryos for research purposes therapeutic stem cell. A further permission was granted in 2005 professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute ofEdinburgh. In may 2005, the teams of professors Alison Murdoch and Miodrag Stojkovic, based at Newcastle announced that they had cloned a human embryo.
In Belgium there is currently no specific regulation on the research on the human embryo, but a royal Decree of 1999 establishes the conditions for the accreditation of IVF centres. The constitution of embryos is, in effect, allowed only in these approved centres. For the moment, the scientists responsible for research projects involving human embryos must conduct their work in an IVF centre that is accredited, and the research protocol must receive the approval of the ethics Committee of institutions (universities, agencies).But the government has recently elaborated a draft law regarding embryo research. This project aims to define the conditions under which research on embryos could be carried out and even planned, in some cases, the creation of embryo for research purposes, without specifying for the moment what would be the terms and conditions of this creation. One thing is for sure : all the research should then be subject to controls, both local and federal. This bill must be debated in the belgian federal Parliament shortly.
In South Korea, the team of professor Hwang Woo-Suk is the first to clone a human embryo for scientific research in February 2004. These results have been partly challenged in December 2005 by an independent study, a part of the results have been falsified.
In January 2008, the United States permitted the sale of products from cloned animals : milk, eggs, meat, etc
bill gates - short biogrphy
William " Bill " Henry Gates III, born on 28 October 1955 at Seattle, in theState of Washington (United States), is a computer scientist and entrepreneur american, a pioneer in the field of micro-computing. Founded in 1975, at the age of 20 years, with his friend Paul Allen, the company of software of micro-computer Micro-Soft (now Microsoft). His company purchased the operating system QDOS to MS-DOS, and then designed the operating system Windows, both in a situation of quasi-monopoly in the world.
It is now, thanks to the commercial success of Microsoft, therichest man in the world from 1996 to 2007, and in 2009, 2014 and 2015. When he becomes the richest man in the world, according to the ranking Bloomberg, in January 2014, his fortune amounted to 78.5 billion us dollars1,2. In 2016, the magazine Forbes, which refers to it also as the richest man in the world at the head of a fortune of 76.8 billion u.s. dollars3.
Bill Gates devotes himself since October 2007 at its foundation, a humanitarian.
He was made a Knight of the British Empire (KBE) in 2005.
His father, William Henry Gates Sr is lawyer business. His mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, is professor and chair of the management of some companies and banks of the United Way of America.
Bill Gates discovered thecomputer at the very selective Lakeside School of Seattle, which has a PDP-10 to be rented. There he made with his childhood friend Paul Allen his first computer program : a game of tic-tac-toe.
In 1968, at the age of 13 years, he founded, with Allen and a few other friends, the Lakeside Programmers Group. A few companies will make use of their talents, mainly to improve systems and existing applications written in assembler language.
In 1973, Gates entered theHarvard university at the age of 18 years. There he meets Steve Ballmer, the future CEO of Microsoft. He rapidly abandoned his studies to devote himself to computer programming.
The Microsoft company
First success : Altair BASIC
Bill Gates to Copenhagen in 2004
Bill Gates co-directed with Allen a interpreter BASIC for theAltair 8800. This realization is both a tour de force and a stroke of luck : the development is done entirely on the PDP-10 and theAltair BASIC is tested on a real Altair 8800 as the day of the demonstration, which succeeded perfectly. The Altair BASIC mark a milestone in the history of the micro-computer : this will be the first programming language to have worked on a micro-computer commercial. This will also be the first software published by the company Microcomputer Software, founded for the occasion, in 1975, when Bill Gates age 20 years, and whose contraction Micro-Soft and Microsoft is now more familiar.
The 3 February 1976, Bill Gates writes a letter titled "an Open Letter to Hobbyists " (" open Letter to hobbyists "), in which he condemns for the first time the illegal sharing of any of its software, the BASIC Altair : " We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft. " (" we have written 6800 BASIC, and we write the 8080 and 6800 APL, but we did not want to provide this software to the amateurs.To be clear, what you are doing, it is theft ").
The partnership with IBM : MS-DOS, Windows
In 1980, Microsoft signed an agreement with IBM to develop an operating system to market with every personal computer IBM PC. MS-DOS is sold in the United States from the 12 August 1981. This is a modified version of another product : Microsoft, 6 January 1981, acquired the operating rights for 86-DOS to the company Seattle Computer Products (SCP)4, and then the 22 July 1981 has entered into a marketing agreement5 with the company's SCP that allows Microsoft to present the product as his own, and SCP to receive royalties on the sales volume, every company can develop the product independently. The agreement already included a version for multiple users.
His fortune is made, and a never-ending to grow to record levels. Bill Gates is convinced that one day all of the homes and the professional world will be equipped withpersonal computers. IBM is far from being the first on the market : Apple, among others, had already launched on this market four years ago with a smash hit. The weight of IBM is of paramount importance for the take-off of MS-DOS.
Privacy
The home of the Gates family
The 1st January 1994, he married Melinda French, a marketing manager of Microsoft, with whom he had two daughters prénommées, Jennifer Katharine (born 1996) and Phoebe Adele (born in 2002) and a son, Rory John (born 1999). He moved with his family to the edge of lake Washington, near Seattle, in a house estimated to be 113 million dollars6.
From Windows 95 to the resignation operational
Bill Gates speech in a conference at the Sorbonne in Paris in 2008
Microsoft is evolving at the breakneck pace of micro-computers, its operating system and its suite of office software Microsoft Office, word processing, spreadsheet, database, utilities, games, etc, In 1985, Windows was then, and for 10 years still, a simple graphical user interface, the operating system remaining MS-DOS. The success makes for a very long time to come for the first versions of Windows, the interface is graphically very little sophisticated and use far from intuitive ([1]). Windows, however, is already become the operating system the most sold in the world, and made the fortune of Microsoft and its shareholders, with a right of way on the world market coalescing around 90 % to the point of threatening a lawsuit for monopoly and a serious threat of dissolution of the company in the years 2000.
In 1986, Microsoft made its entry into the stock Exchange. Investors will welcome with enthusiasm : on the same day, Bill Gates becomes a billionaire. It will become the richest man in the world ten years later in 1996. According to the magazine Forbes, his personal fortune was in 2007 estimated at 56 billion dollars (see list of billionaires of the world). Its shares in the company Microsoft, which he holds in 2005 a little less than 10 % of the capital, constitute approximately 50 % of his fortune.
Although few companies have had an image linked so strongly to their founder, although he has often been compared to Henry Ford and William Rockefeller, who were, like him, the source of new economic areas (private vehicles and industry in oil), and also of the excesses of the consumer society. It is as a great figure of the market as it undergoes its entartage by Noël Godin and his cronies, 1998, Brussels7.
In November 2004, Steve Ballmer indicates that Bill Gates is probably the person most spammée in the world, as it receives 4 million e-mails per day. A service of Microsoft is at this time dedicated to sorting through this mass, mainly composed of spam, and with only ten messages per day finally arrived to Bill Gates8.
The 15 June 2006, Bill Gates announced that from July 2008 it will no longer handle the day to day business of Microsoft. He will remain in his position and will advise certain projects but will focus on the charitable works of9. It leaves all of the operational functions within Microsoft the 27 June 200810. On 4 February 2014, Bill Gates announced that he abandons also the chair of the board of directors of Microsoft11.
In 2000, he created the Fondation Bill-et-Melinda-Gates foundation, which aims to provide the world's population of innovations in the field of health and acquisition of knowledge. It has some 102,8 billions of dollars.
The Gates Foundation has already spent 25,26 billion dollars12, in particular to vaccinate 55 million children. It has also announced that it wants to bequeath 95 % of his fortune to his foundation.
These actions have contributed to the magazine Time refers to Bill Gates " Man of the year 2005 ", alongside his wife Melinda and Bono (the lead singer of the band U2), for their actions on the forehead of philanthropy.
The 2 march 2005, Bill Gates knighted by queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom to the rank of Knight commander of the order of the british Empire for his contribution to british business and to the efforts to combat poverty in the world. However, not being a citizen of a country of the Commonwealth, it may prepend its name from the title Sir. It can, however, add the letters KBE (Knight of the British Empire/Knight of the british Empire) after his name.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The majority of the legacy of Bill Gates should return to its Foundation, by which he became one of the largest donors against the poverty in the world, with several billion dollars of his personal fortune. In 2006, he announced that he léguerait 95 % of his fortune to the fight against disease andilliteracy in the countries of the South.
On June 16, 2010, Bill Gates and his wife are launching a campaign, The Giving Pledge, and his website givingpledge.org13, where the billionaires are invited to make promises of a donation in excess of 50 % of their personal fortune14. Warren Buffett wrote the first letter in which he indicated his intention to bequeath more than 99 % of his fortune. Bill Gates believes that " only 15% of the billionaires are donating large parts of their wealth "15. This approach comes at a time when the Americans, the wealthy are singled out as being at the origin of the crisis and where theFondation Bill-et-Melinda-Gates is also the subject of controversy16.
In November 2011, Bill Gates called on the G20 to increase aid to poor countries17.
In the framework of the education reform brought by the government of Barack Obama, Bill Gates work including the implementation of the program " Common Core " that it has massively subsidized18.
Investments
Bill Gates has expressed his interest in geo-engineering. He is particularly interested in the capture of the carbon dioxide in the air and on the dispersion of sulfur aerosols19.
It has also shown an interest in meat substitutes, bringing in 2013 its support to the company Beyond Meat ; having tried a product-based plant of the company attempting to imitate the look and taste of the chicken meat, Bill Gates reportedly said that he "could not tell the difference between the chicken Beyond Meat and real chicken"20,21.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
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