A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market

by Edward O. Thorp

For many years Berkshire had a shareholder-directed charitable contribution program. Each year the company allowed each A shareholder to donate $X, where $X was $1 a share at the start and gradually increased to something like $18 a share. Shareholders allocated their amounts to charities chosen by them, not management, and Berkshire sent the money. As a result of the antiabortion protests at this annual meeting and the related boycott of a Berkshire company, the program was discontinued. The antiabortion protesters succeeded in eliminating not only shareholder contributions supporting family planning, but those to other charities as well, including organizations the demonstrators themselves favored.

The law of unintended consequences.