Investigation: Role of the Gates Foundation in the Covid-19 Epidemic

The Bill & Melinda Gates fundation is considered the largest
charitable fundation in the United States. At the end of 2020,
according to the last annual report of the fund, its assets amounted
to almost 52 billion dollars.The famous funds of the Rockefellers,
Ford, Carnegie and the like, which were born at the beginning of
the last century, have assets that are several times or an order of
magnitude smaller than The Gates fundation, which was established
only in 2000.
The funder of the fundation is billionaire Bill Gates, who at that
time was the main figure in Microsoft Corporation. Gradually, a
significant part of Bill Gates' capital from the Microsoft
corporation flowed to the charitable fundation named after him
and his wife Melinda. Priority areas of the Gates fundation's
activities are declared: health care; education; fighting poverty
in the South. According to the last annual report of the fund,
last year assistance was carried out under 41 programs. A total
of 2,136 grants were issued (https://gates.ly/3CYx7L6) totaling
about $ 6 billion. The number of grant recipients is 1357.
Bill Gates has repeatedly emphasized that his fundation is a
new generation charitable institution. It is based on the philosophy
of venture philanthropy. We are used to the phrases venture
business, venture financing, venture development. But here is a
strange expression, almost an oxymoron, a combination of
conflicting concepts: venture philanthropy. Bill Gates is confident
that the grants issued by his fundation should turn over time into
some new technologies, products, projects, markets that will be
profitable. And as you can see from many examples, this philosophy
works. The so-called COVID-19 pandemic that began in the world
has sharply revitalized the activities of the Gates fundation in
areas such as pharmaceuticals and the promotion of vaccinations
in the countries of the South, as part of a broader healthcare area.
In the spring of 2020, the fundation provided grants for the
development of covid testing tools and vaccines against coronavirus
in the amount of $ 350 million. In November 2020, added an
additional $ 70 million, mainly for COVAX, a vaccine assistance
program in poor countries. The fund sends a significant part of the
grants to GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunization),
through which the promotion of vaccines in developing countries is
carried out. In fact, GAVI is a subsidiary of the fund. Its main
mission is to raise funds around the world to help promote vaccines
in developing countries. At the end of 2020, GAVI has mobilized
funds totaling $ 8.8 billion.
Ultimately, these billions ended up in the accounts of Big Pharma
corporations such as Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson,
AstraZeneca. Taking this into account, we can say that the Gates
fundation is a kind of icebreaker, making its way to the world
market for Big Pharma vaccine preparations. What are the sources
of such a powerful charity of the fundation? It's no secret that the
typical American charitable fundation makes grants at the expense
of profits. But where does the profit come from? From investments
in various securities traded on the stock market. According to
expert estimates, the profit of the Gates fundation last year was
about $ 7 billion. About 90% of the profits went to the distribution
of grants, the remaining 10% to capital gains. At the beginning of
last year, the Fund's assets amounted to slightly more than $ 51
billion. It is easy to calculate that the return on assets of the Fund
was 13.7% at the end of 2020.
The high profitability of the Gates fundation against the backdrop
of a viral economic crisis resembles a feast during the plague.
There is a desire to understand the structure of assets (investment
portfolio) of the largest charitable fundation in the United States.
The financial statements of the Gates fundation are very murky.
The necessary intelligible information can only be fund from
analysts of the US stock market. Aman Jain's "These Are The Top
Ten Stock Holdings Of Bill Gates" (https://yhoo.it/3rhsd9J)
provides data on the underlying assets of the Bill & Melinda Gates
fundation at the end of Q1 2021. The author lists the top 10
companies that account for the largest part of the Fund's investment
portfolio. He arranges the companies in ascending order of their
share in the specified investment portfolio (%):
FedEx - 2,02
United Parcel Service - 2,27
Schrodinger - 2,54
Crown Castle International - 4,18
Ecolab - 4,46
Walmart - 4,93
Canadian National Railway - 7,70
Caterpillar - 11,24
Waste Management - 11,47
Berkshire Hathaway - 45,23.
As we can see, almost half of all assets of the Bill and Melinda
Gates fundation are in Berkshire Hathaway. This is an investment
holding known in narrow circles, which belongs to an American
billionaire of the same level as Bill Gates - Warren Buffett. It was
these two billionaires who, for many years in a row, alternately
occupied the first and second lines of the ratings of the richest
people in America by the Fobres magazine. But they are united
not only by the same amount of money. It turns out that back in
the 2000s, Warren Buffett began to transfer part of his capital to
the Bill Gates fundation. The first listing was made in 2006.
In June 2010, Buffett made a high-profile announcement that he
was donating $ 37 billion to five charitable fundations. The largest
donation went to the Bill & Melinda Gates fundation.
This act became the most generous act of charity in the history
of mankind. It can be assumed that all Berkshire Hathaway shares
in the Fund's portfolio are most likely the sum of the charitable
contributions that Warren Buffett made over the years.
Without a stretch, we can say that the Gates fundation is a joint
venture of two billionaires with approximately equal shares. Due to
the recent divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates, it is likely that some
part of the Fund's capital will be assigned to the ex-wife of Bill
Gates; the division of property between the spouses has not yet
been completed. Apparently in order not to attract the attention of
the public, the humble Warren Buffett refused to have his name
placed on the signboard of the fundation. Bill Gates and Warren
Buffett have a definite division of functions in the fundation.
The first is responsible for the distribution of grants and ensuring
their intended use. The second is responsible for the revenue side
of the Fund in the form of the Berkshire Hathaway holding.
Despite the fact that Warren Buffett was very generous in donating
capital for philanthropic purposes, he remains a key shareholder
of Berkshire Hathaway to this day. Since 2016, Buffett's share in
Berkshire's voting shares is 31.7%, and in the total number of
shares - 18.0%. Almost two-thirds of Berkshire's shares are held
by institutional investors. The largest of them are three financial
mega-holdings: Vanguard Group; BlackRock and State Street
Corporation. They are followed by the Gates fundation.
Bill Gates constantly appears in the stands of various forums and
summits, talking about health as the highest value, pandemic,
climate warming, inequitable distribution of wealth and poverty.
At the same time, Warren Buffett is involved in tough games in
the stock markets, where the unfair distribution of wealth is the
main principle.
Bill Gates' bet on Berkshire investment holding is correct and well
thought out. This holding is unsinkable, because even more serious
mega-holdings Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street participate
in its capital (https://bit.ly/3EaatAP).
Moreover, they guarantee Berkshire holding high profits. Berkshire
shares for the year (from the end of the first quarter of 2020 to
the end of the first quarter of 2021) are up 38%. This is not just
a good, but a brilliant result, given that the American economy
was in a downturn during this year, and the stocks of many
companies were falling. By the way, the majority of the other
companies in which the Gates fundation has invested also grew
in shares during the noted year. FedEx (transportation, e-commerce
and business services) showed a record gain - 60%. And here are
the increases in the prices of shares of a number of other companies
in which the Fund has invested: United Parcel Service - 33%;
Caterpillar - 50%; Waste Management - 36%.
Of course, one can admire the intuition of the fund managers Bill
Gates and Warren Buffett, who managed to form such a profitable
investment portfolio. But partly this merit belongs to the
aforementioned mega-holdings Vanguard, BlackRock and State
Street. After all, they are not just players in the financial
market.
They are market makers. They are the ones who make the market.
And such funds, by definition, can only win. After all, if you dig
a little, it turns out that the ubiquitous trio of mega-holdings
Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street are present in the capital
of almost all the companies in which the Gates fundation has
invested. However, the investment side of the Fund's activities
is also important in order to promote new products and ideas as
quickly as possible through the companies controlled by the Fund.
So, the investment holding Berkshire, until recently, was interested
in many sectors of the economy, but the pharmaceutical industry
remained behind the scenes.
But as soon as the "Covid-19 pandemic" began and a hysterical
vaccination campaign unfolded, Berkshire's holding turned towards
pharmaceuticals. In the spring of 2021, media reported that
Berkshire Hathaway had bought large stakes in renowned
pharmaceutical companies Abbvie (ABBV), Bristol Myers Squibb
and Merck. Moreover, the legendary king of investments, Warren
Buffett, urged (https://bit.ly/3xDSRuS) and others to follow his
sign and invest in these companies. The Gates fundation is a prime
example of "philanthropy." Such funds are needed by big capital,
first of all, as tax havens: the profits of companies and banks
transferred to the funds are exempt from taxes.
In addition, modern charitable fundations can actually engage
in venture philanthropy through grants. Small grants can open up
large markets for big business. Thus, the Gates fundation has
invested several hundred million dollars in the GAVI Alliance.
In turn, thanks to these grants, the GAVI Alliance has been able
to mobilize nearly $ 10 billion worldwide to promote vaccines
from Big Pharma. And if poor countries can get hooked on constant
revaccinations, then Big Pharma's sales will be in the trillions of
dollars. Such is the cynicism of the "venture philanthropy" of the
Gates fundation.
The Big Three mega-holdings help (through Berkshire) make the
Gates fund more money, and the fund acts as a tool to influence
global politics and economics for the benefit of the Big Three and
those behind these mega-holdings. Well, if you want to find the
origins of the pandemic, follow the money.