The winner of the charity auction for a lunch with Warren Buffett, who bid under the screen name “fastisslow,” was Yongping Duan, 45, a Chinese immigrant California investor and former owner of a consumer electronics company who is now president of something called the “Enlight Foundation,” according to Bloomberg.
“Fast is slow, slow is fast” is one of those weird mantras you hear every now and again from managers and consultants that seems to mean something but really just doesn’t.
Chance to Dine With Buffett Sells for $620,100 in EBay Bidding [Bloomberg via WallStreetFolly]
Archive for June 2006
Probably not.
It is an open question whether the philanthropic and nonprofit institutions of today have truly mastered this alchemy. More and more money is donated to charity every year, yet America’s schools continue to fail, poverty continues to rise, and our environment seems ever more precarious. We would like to think that our contributions make a difference — and large contributions make a large difference — but there is surprisingly little evidence that this is so.
Don’t Confuse Generosity With Impact on Society
[The Chronicle of Philanthropy]
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Posted in:
Value Added
Value Added 6/30: All The Special Goodness We Brought You This Week In One Place
By John CarneyPlanespotting:
Rush Limbaugh gets caught carrying a bottle of Viagra coming home from a notorious sex tourism hotspot. Bess Levin blows a gasket on our Planespotting machines trying to track him down.
Photo Essay:
Jonesing for a fix of a classic Wall Street movie? This week you didn’t wait around for the sequel to Wall Street—you witnessed the making of Boiler Room. But with dolls.
Warren Buffett: What do Bob Geldorf and Warren Buffet have in common?
Planespotting:
While the the Planespotting machine is still down, Rush Limbaugh and DealBreaker’s Bess Levin patch things up.
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Posted in:
White Collar Crime
We’re Already Forging Our Invitation to the Grand Opening
By John Carney
The image above comes from our new favorite museum—The Fraud Museum. It will feature goodies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Adelphia stock certificates and the check pictured above signed by legendary inside trader Ivan Boesky. The museum has been put together by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
It will make its debut in Las Vegas. Of course.
The Fraud Museum [ACFE]
Once you look at these, you’ll never look at another business or marketing brochure the same again. You don’t realize you know all these but you do.
Harvard’s counter-offensive against Oracle CEO Larry Ellison never made much sense. Ellison said he decided not to hand over the millions he had pledged to the University when president Larry Summers resigned amidst trouble with the faculty. Harvard protested that Ellison broke off talks over the gift months before Summers resigned. We speculated that maybe, just maybe Ellison had grown sick of the shabby way Summers was being treated, and didn’t have to wait until the actual resignation to understand that his friend was in trouble there.
And it turns out we were so effin’ right it hurts.
Ellison pledged the money to Harvard following a meeting with former University President Larry Summers, says Oracle Spokesman Bob Wynne. The two discussed Summers’ theory of using an economic model to rate the quality of government health-care programs around the world. Ellison was intrigued and agreed on a handshake to donate the money. Later, Summers came under fire for comments made in January, 2005, suggesting that the lack of women in science and engineering is because of men’s “intrinsic aptitude” for these jobs. In March of last year, Harvard’s faculty passed a lack-of-confidence vote, and about a year later Summers said he’d resign.
While it’s true that talks broke off before the resignation, Ellison started to rethink the donation as Summers’ problems deepened, Wynne says. Now that Summers is out, he has officially rescinded the commitment. The University and other skeptics counter that not only University institutions but often its professors and staff stay in place regardless of who’s president. Still, Ellison was concerned that with the biggest advocate for the program gone, it wouldn’t have the same effect. “It was his brainchild and he was going to oversee it,” Wynne says of Summers. “If the president of the university is going to sponsor your initiative and he’s gone, how do you know your giving is going to be effective?” (Ellison would not comment directly for the story.)
Looks like billionaire businessmen care about who is managing the projects they invest in. Who knew?
The Rich Giveth, and They Taketh Away [Business Week]
It’s a very, very silly day. Nearly everyone in your office has a weekend bag stored under their desk and keeps looking up at the clock every ten minutes. The phone isn’t ringing. Emails have all but stalled out. Might as well watch this classic cartoon instructing would-be investors in how the stock market works.
Paul Kedrosky is fed up with listening to people parse the latest statement from the Fed. So he has designed a tool to generate random Fed statements. Everytime you click on Ben Bernanke’s face it loads another absurd statement.
Instant Ben: A Fed Press Release Generator [Infectious Greed]
So it looks like the winner of the eBay charity auction was “fastisslow”–a mysterious bidder who spent most of the auction in the lead spot. The final bid was $620,100. Last year the winning bid was $351,100.
If you know anything about “fastisslow” drop an email to tips(at)dealbreaker(dot)com.
Stock option questions at Apple (Chicago Tribune)
When it rains it pours. Last year Apple could do no wrong, always beating estimates with higher and higher sales of its iPods. Even the scratchy faces on the Nano didn’t seem to bother anyone. Let’s take stock of the company’s hits of late. First there’s a growing drumbeat over concerns about Apple’s finances, which are seen as opaque. And an increasing number of analysts are sounding warnings about slowing iPod sales, which had to happen eventually. That one’s a matter of if, not when. Then there’s the abandonment by the digital elite; Macs aren’t cool and different enough anymore. They’re no longer rebellious, so they’re all switching to Linux. All this is not to mention those obnoxious Apple ads with the hipster and the geek; of course everyone identified with the geek, and wanted to punch the hipster in his face, which is a natural reaction. And finally there’s this, a backdating scandal at 1 Infinite Loop (and by the way, if they ever do a movie on this, “A Backdating Scandal at 1 Infinite Loop” has to be the title). It may even go as high as Steve Jobs, which certainly won’t square well with his reputation.
Ex-Governor and Executive Convicted of Bribery (NYT)
It looks like the Christian magic finally ran out for Richard Scrushy. In his trial for charges of fraud, the former Healthsouth CEO basically subpoenaed Jesus to get on the stand as a character witness. At the time of the trial Scrushy even started his own Christian radio show, which was another way of communicating to jurors the argument of “How could you put a Christian in jail?”. But even Alabamians get tired of the crown of thorns act eventually, and after 11 days, he’s been implicated in a bribery scandal alongside former governor Don Siegelman. He could face up to 20 years in jail.
A case for breaking up Iraq (Stumbling and Mumbling)
Paging Carl Icahn. The results of a new study imply that the breakup value of the country of Iraq would be higher than its existing market valuation. Three economists have quantified the negative impact on the economy that results from artificial borders that surround ethnic enemies, as opposed to the efficiency of several nation states. Obviously there are some questions ahead, like leadership and the tax implications of a Kurdistan spin-off, but it should be doable. Of course, after a few years of independent states, we can expect the banker reports suggesting that for competitive reasons, they should all consolidate on the basis of synergies and cost savings.
Gay, lesbian workers gradually gain benefits (San Francisco Chronicle)
According to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign, 253 of the Fortune 500 companies now extend benefits to domestic partners, and most have internal policies banning discrimination based on gender orientation. Compare this to the percentage of states that allow gay marriage, and it seems clear that corporate America dominates is far superior to the government as an avenue for equality. There’s something about market forces that prompt companies to not want to lose 10% of their potential workforce out of prejudice.
$$$ Wall Street shirts. (Not the blue ones).
$$$ If a Nintendo Game Boy and an iPOD mated (you’d get this very, very beautiful piece of craftsmanship). [benheck.com]
$$$ Another scintillating tale from our favorite Gay Banker: Sunday Fun With a French Guy From Burgandy. [Things I Can't Tell Boyfriend Number 1]
$$$ How to Make Money From Your Blog: A How-to Guide. Shhh, don’t disturb us while we’re reading (and furiously taking notes). [Steve Pavlina]
$$$ The wait is over: “The Newbie’s Guide to Detecting the NSA.” Well finally. We were really getting antsy there.
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