Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

The $650 million the foundation has committed for treatments, vaccines, and other public health measures — $350 million in grants and $300 million from an investment fund that plows profits back into the work — is the biggest contribution from any independent foundation. It ranks second in private COVID-19 giving behind Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s $1 billion relief fund.

Bill Gates has also made the pandemic a personal cause. He’s been everywhere — on television, in medical journals, in online Q&As — speaking out with unusual vehemence about the bungled U.S. response and pushing for expanded testing and equitable distribution of vaccines.

The foundation’s health and development work rarely attracts much criticism — or even notice — in the U.S., because it’s almost exclusively based in the developing world. But in the politicized atmosphere of a pandemic that affects everyone, Gates and the foundation have become what one expert describes as the “voodoo doll” of conspiracy theories.

One false rumor claims that Gates plans to use a COVID-19 vaccine to inject people with tracking devices; another scenario casts him as part of a shadowy group that somehow orchestrated the pandemic and seeks to profit from it.

According to a tax statement, the foundation spent nearly $91 million in 2018 on conferences and travel expenses for staff and grant recipients. That’s more than most U.S. foundations give away in a year.

COVID-19 is awful. Climate change could be worse.

But there are lessons from the current crisis that should guide our response to the next one.

By Bill Gates| August 04, 2020 8 minute read

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2020 8:15 pm > All retirements for Federal Reserve employees should be in
> constant dollars not indexed to inflation.

> In addition, while employees of the Federal Reserve, they should
> not be allowed to invest in anything that benefits from inflation.
> While employees of the Federal Reserve, they should only be
> allowed to invest in their product, Federal Reserve Notes.

John wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2020 10:43 pm Pundits have been predicting (hyper)inflation for almost 20 years, and
they've been wrong every time. They never learn. The economy is
still in a deflationary period, with probably many quadrillions of
dollars of interlocking debt outstanding. A financial crisis will
make all of those quadrillions of dollars go poof, and cash will be
scarce as hen's teeth, meaning extreme deflation.