By Ryan Dolan
Forbes: “How Aging Billionaires Are Making Sure Their Money Doesn’t Go To Uncle Sam”
Phil Knight is “determined that [the estate tax] won’t take a big bite from his fortune. ‘That’s the art form. I talk to my financial advisor all the time, and that’s one of the subjects we talk about endlessly. My philosophy is that if I do this right, the charities I give to will use the money better than the government will.’”
“Wealth in the US has become increasingly concentrated, with the richest 1% (minimum net worth of $10 million) holding 31% of net assets…Forbes has identified 572 US billionaires [born before 1965] - the 0.0007%. We estimate they have a collective net worth of $3.9 trillion to pass on.”
“Asked why he still works at 87, [Charles Koch of Koch Industries, said] ‘I have retired friends at the club I belong to in Palm Springs who play nine holes every morning, have lunch and play gin all afternoon. If I did that, I’d put a bullet in my head.’”
Colossus: “A Conversation with Charlie Munger & John Collison”
“Old men have always tended to think that new generations are going to hell…[Nevertheless], I do not like the way politics has morphed in my lifetime in the United States…Only the most extreme parts of both parties have any power.
We have a political problem that is, in some ways, as bad as we’ve ever had. We’ve got a lot to worry about. The world has never been a perfectly safe place and it isn’t now.
[But] I’m used to things not working perfectly. Why should I expect my society is always going to be marching upwards just because it has for a long time? I believe you just adjust to whatever society turns out to be, and do the best you can. That’s all I’m going to do.”
Bethany McLean/Business Insider: “RIP Goldman Sachs”
“People always said: ‘You guys are greedy,’ a former partner told me. ‘But they never thought we were incompetent.’”
“It’s not the swashbuckling traders of old, and I do think there’ some lost romance there. There’s a lot of people who look and say, ‘Ah, that period of yesteryear where someone could put a trade on distressed credits in Thailand and make a billion dollars and beat his chest’ - I get it. But that’s not realistic. They’re nostalgic for a thing that can’t exist today at any bank, under the current regulatory system. This place is still about excellence. It’s just going to have to be in a different format.”
Chart of the Week:
