2009 Annual Letter from Bill Gates

Bill Gates, following in the path of Warren Buffet, has started to write a series of annual letters. This is a relatively short, easy to read, visually attractive online letter. He provides a useful summary of what has happened in areas such as child survival, African agriculture, and HIV/AIDS. Describing the effect of the current economic crisis on the Gates Foundation, he writes:

Looking specifically at the foundation, our assets decreased in value by about 20 percent in 2008. I never thought I would say losing 20 percent is a reasonable result, but it is better than most endowments because so many asset classes went down by more than 20 percent in 2008. The team led by Michael Larson that handles the investments has always done a great job. During the past five years, as the foundation was growing, we spent a bit over 5 percent of its assets each year in addition to the gift from Warren. There is nothing magic about the 5 percent figure, except that it is the minimum required by the IRS. Our spending in 2008 was $3.3 billion. In 2009, instead of reducing this amount, we are choosing to increase it to $3.8 billion, which is about 7 percent of our assets.

I think the world owes a debt of gratitude to Gates and Buffet. Their huge financial donation and the legitimacy provided by their names has revived public and political interest in humanitarian efforts to help the world's poorest people.