PHM-Exch> Gates Foundation buys shares in Goldman Sachs & Monsanto

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Dr MIRA SHIVA <mirashiva at gmail.com>

From: GMWatch <gmwatch-daily at gmwatch.eu>



1.The Gates Foundation buys shares in Goldman Sachs - and Monsanto
2.Goldman Sachs makes $1 billion profit on food price speculation

EXTRACT: The Seattle-based charity endowment, set up by Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT) founder Bill Gates and his wife, bought a half a million shares in
Goldman Sachs during the quarter ended June 30. (item 1)

NOTE: See the World Development Movement's report, 'The great hunger
lottery: how banking speculation causes food crises', for how Goldman Sachs
has not only exacerbated hunger but caused long term damage to the fight
against global poverty:
http://www.wdm.org.uk/food-speculation/great-hunger-lottery-how-banking-speculation-causes-food-crises
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1.The Gates Foundation Buys Shares Of Goldman Sachs
Jeanette Borzo
Dow Jones, August 16 2010 [shortened]
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201008161826dowjonesdjonline000326&title=the-gates-foundation-buys-shares-of-goldman-sachs

SAN FRANCISCO - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took advantage of
sagging stock prices in the second quarter to add Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (
GS), one of the most storied names in finance, to its portfolio, according
to a 13F regulatory filing on Monday.

The Seattle-based charity endowment, set up by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
founder Bill Gates and his wife, bought a half a million shares in Goldman
Sachs during the quarter ended June 30. The investment bank's share price
slid during the quarter after the Securities and Exchange Commission leveled
civil fraud charges against it on April 16.

The value of the Gates Foundation's holdings dropped 6% to $11.9 billion
over the quarter, down from $12.7 billion in the previous quarter.

The foundation, known for concentrating on vaccines and AIDS in its
charitable work, also added Ecolab Inc. (ECL) and Monsanto Co. (MON) to its
portfolio.
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2.Goldman Sachs makes $1 billion profit on food price speculation
The Ecologist, 19 July 2010
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/542538/goldman_sachs_makes_1_billion_profit_on_food_price_speculation.html

'Risky and secretive' gambling on the price of coffee, cocoa and wheat is
leading to unstable food prices and exacerbating poverty and malnutrition
but creating billions of pounds for the banking sector

Banks such Goldman Sachs are making huge profits by gambling on the prices
of key commodity crops such as coffee, cocoa and wheat, according to the
campaign group the World Development Movement (WDM).

By creating funds to allow investors to speculate on the price of food, in
the same way they would invest in the shares of a company, banks are able to
bet on the price of food.

However this is leading to higher and more volatile prices which make it
more difficult for farmers to plan and invest and also lead to damaging
price rises - such as those witnessed in 2007/8 - which hit the poorest
families in less industrialised countries hardest.

Only last month, says WDM, the price of coffee jumped by 20 per cent in
three days, after a trader called the bluff of hedge funds that had made
millions by selling coffee contracts and betting on the price to fall. This
left hedge funds scrambling to buy actual coffee beans, and the price shot
up from the extra demand.

'Nobody benefits from this kind of reckless gambling except a few City
wheeler-dealers,' said WDM director Deborah Doane. 'British consumers suffer
because it pushes up inflation, British companies suffer because of
unpredictable oil and raw material prices, and the world's poorest people
suffer because basic foods become unaffordable.'

Main perpetrators

The biggest banks involved in the trading are Bank of America, Citibank,
Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan. Goldman Sachs alone is
estimated to have made more than $1 billion from commodities trading in
2009.

WDM's new report, 'The great hunger lottery', calls for limits to be set on
the amount that bankers can bet on food prices and for an end to secretive
trading. The US has recently passed tougher regulation for the financial
sector but WDM says similar reforms in the EU may not be agreed because of
opposition from the City of London and UK Treasury, which still denies
speculation played a significant role in the 2007/8 price spikes.

'Perhaps not coincidentally, London is host to the highest amount of
commodity trading outside the United States. Recent opposition to EU
regulation of hedge funds by the UK treasury shows that the UK government
still gives a disproportionate voice to the financial sector at the expense
of other sectors of the economy, and against the interests of citizens,'
says the WDM report.





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