WQ rewrite of Wikipedia Anathapindika article; Forbes 400 richest people in America
Anathapindika's dedication of Jetavana to the Buddha (goldenlandpages.com)
History remembers him as Anathapindika ("feeder of the destitute or orphans"). His given name was Sudatta, his father (also a banker) Sumana, his brother Subhūti. He was the chief lay disciple of Gautama Buddha. He was extremely wealthy and a patron of the Buddha. He gave Jeta Park to the Buddha having purchased it from Prince Jeta. He honored the Buddha, it is said, by laying out 1.8 million gold pieces in the grove to buy it.
When Anathapindika died, he was reborn in the Tusita celestial realm. He had been known as the "foremost disciple in terms of generosity" as well as character. For having been a banker in the City of Sāvatthi, he became famous because of his unparalleled generosity first to the helpless (hence the title "anāthapindika") then to the Buddha.
He met the Buddha the first year after the Great Enlightenment in the royal city of Rājagaha (modern-day Ragjir; the story is related in Vin.ii.154ff; SA.i.240ff, etc.), having come there on business.
His wife was the sister of the banker of Rājagaha. When he arrived in town he found the banker preparing a meal for the Buddha and his monks on so splendid a scale that he thought there must be a wedding in progress or a visit by the king. On learning that it was in fact the revered teacher and his disciples, he became eager to visit the Buddha. He did so very early the next morning (Vin.ii.155-6). He had been so excited anticipating the visit that he had gotten up three times during the night. When he finally started out for Sītavana, where the Buddha was staying, the road was still dark. However, a friendly yakkha named Sīvaka impelled him on with words of encouragement. By virtue of his piety the darkness vanished.
When Anathapindika reached his destination, spirits opened the door for him. He found the Buddha walking up and down, meditating in the cool air of the early dawn. The Buddha greeted him and talked to him on various aspects of his teaching. Anathapindika immediately converted and became a stream-enterer (sotāpanna). He invited the Buddha to a meal the next day, providing everything himself. This in spite of the fact that the banker and the mayor of Rājagaha and even King Bimbisāra asked to be allowed to help.
After the meal, which he served to the Buddha with his own hands, he invited the Buddha to spend the rainy season in Sāvatthi. The Buddha accepted saying, "the Tathāgatas, O householder, take pleasure in solitude."
"I understand, O Blessed One, I understand," he replied.
When Anathapindika had finished his business in Rājagaha, he set out for Sāvatthi, giving orders along the way to his friends and acquaintances to prepare dwellings, parks, rest-houses, and gifts all along the road to Sāvatthi in preparation for the Buddha's visit. He had many friends and acquaintances, and his word held weight and, in any case, he bore all the expense of these preparations. Dwelling places (vihāras) were built costing 1,000 pieces each, seven miles (a yojana) from each other.
Understanding the request implied in the Buddha's words when he had accepted the invitation, Anāthapindika looked for a quiet spot near Sāvatthi where the Buddha and the monks might dwell. His eye fell on Jetakumāra's park. He purchased the park at great expense and there had built the famous Jetavana. As a result of this and of numerous other benefactions in the cause of promoting the Buddha's Teaching, Anathapindika came to be recognized as chief among alms-givers (A.i.25) and was particularly pleased when the Buddha addressed him by his own name (Vin.ii.156).
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"Feeder of the helpless," the billionaire who became foremost in generosity (yick kh)
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He spent eighteen crores on the purchase of Jetavana and a similar sum on the construction of the monastic dwelling; another eighteen crores were spent on the dedication festival. He fed 100 monks in his house daily in addition to meals provided for guests, people of the village, invalids, and so on. A great many seats were always ready in his house for guests who might drop in (AA.i.208-9). Elsewhere it is said that he fed 1,000 monks daily (DhA.i.128). But there is also a story (J. iii.119) of a monk who, having come from far away and missing the meal hour, went hungry.
He spent eighteen crores on the purchase of Jetavana and a similar sum on the construction of the monastic dwelling; another eighteen crores were spent on the dedication festival. He fed 100 monks in his house daily in addition to meals provided for guests, people of the village, invalids, and so on. A great many seats were always ready in his house for guests who might drop in (AA.i.208-9). Elsewhere it is said that he fed 1,000 monks daily (DhA.i.128). But there is also a story (J. iii.119) of a monk who, having come from far away and missing the meal hour, went hungry.
Anathapindika married the sister of Rājagaha's banker, Puññalakkhanā and had a son, Kāla, and three daughters: Mahā-Subhaddā, Cūla-Subhaddā, and Sumanā (J.ii.410, J. iii.435; SA.i.240). Besides Kāla, Anathapindika had another son, who became a monk under Ven. Subhūti (AA.ii.865). A daughter-in law, Sujātā, is also mentioned, who was the daughter of Dhanañjaya and the youngest sister of Visākhā. She was very haughty and mistreated the servants (J.ii.347).
But the son, Kala, in spite of his father's efforts, showed no piety until he was finally bribed to go to go listen to the Buddha teaching. The daughters, on the other hand, were dutiful and helped their father by ministering to the monastics. The elder two attained the First Fruit of the Path, married, and went to live with the families of their husbands.
Sumanā obtained the Second Fruit of the Path, but remained unmarried. In spite of her outstanding attainment, she was overwhelmed with disappointment because of her failure to find a husband. So perturbed was she that she starved and was reborn in Tusita (DhA.i.128f).
The Bhadraghata Jātaka (J.ii.431) tells the story of Anathapindika's nephew who squandered his inheritance of forty crores. His uncle first gave him 1,000 then another 500 with which to trade. Anathapindika then gave him two garments. On applying for further help, the man was shown the door and a little later was found dead by a side wall.
The books also mention a girl, Punnā, who was a servant or slave in Anathapindika's household. On one occasion when the Buddha was starting out from Jetavana on a periodic tour, the king, Anathapindika, and other eminent patrons were unable to stop him. Punnā, however, succeeded, and in recognition of this, Anathapindika adopted her as his daughter (MA.i.347-8). On full moon celebration days, his entire household kept the fast; on all occasions they kept the Five Precepts inviolate (J.iii.257). A story is told of one of his laborers who had forgotten the fasting-day and gone to work. Remembering later, he insisted on keeping the fast and died of starvation. He was reborn as a deva (MA.i.540-1).
Anathapindika had a business village in Kāsi (Benares) and had left the superintendent with orders to feed any ascetics who came there (Vin.iv.162f). One of his servants was burdened with the inauspicious name Kālakanni ("curse"). He and Anathapindika had been playmates as children. When Kālakanni fell on hard times, he entered the banker's service. Although people protested having a man with so unfortunate a name in his household, he refused to listen to them. One day when Anathapindika was away on business, burglars came to rob his house. But Kālakanni, with great presence of mind, drove them away (J.i.364f). A similar story is related of another friend of his who was also in his service (J.i.441). More>>
The Forbes 400
The Reluctant Billionaire
Susan Kitchens (9/11/08, Forbes Magazine dated 10/6/08)
Jeff Greene got rich investing in real estate and superrich betting against it. These days his contrarian instincts have him buying distressed assets and hoarding cash.If the rich are truly an eccentric bunch, newly minted Forbes 400 member Jeffrey Greene will fit right in. The Los Angeles real estate mogul insists he shuns publicity and extravagance -- yet his public relations firm directed a reporter to meet him aboard Greene's 145-foot yacht, Summerwind, docked at the Sag Harbor wharf amid the playlands of New York's tony Hamptons.
From the yacht's highest deck, on a cloudless summer day, the other, far smaller pleasure craft anchored nearby look like toy boats bobbing in a bathtub. When Greene is not sailing he bounces between five homes, including a 63,000-square-foot one in Beverly Hills, Calif. Greene dubbed the mansion Palazzo di Amore prior to using it last year to host his $1 million wedding, which the 53-year-old is quick to point out was his first. Boxing bad boy Mike Tyson was Greene's best man. Celebrities like director Oliver Stone looked on as reporters chronicled the affair.
Greene heads down the circular stairs to the living room of his yacht and reclines on a large, L-shaped leather sofa. His wife, Mei-Sze, svelte, tan and two decades Greene's junior, settles in next to him wearing white jeans and a barely there tunic. She places a hand in her husband's and, like a high school sweetheart, leans in every once in a while for a kiss. "I got into real estate very much by accident," says Greene, tan and wearing white shorts and a polo shirt the color of money. "But I've never had more fun than now."
Making Greene's life so much fun these days: money. After making and losing and making back a sizable fortune over two decades betting on real estate, he has amassed a supersize one the past two years betting against it. Greene is one of those rare people who smelled trouble in housing when times were flush and made a contrarian bet that they wouldn't last.
He did so by creating his own virtual hedge fund and buying credit default swaps that rose in value as subprime mortgages fell. Greene says the trade was up 1,400% in 18 months until the fall of 2007. That seems to have earned him a quick $800 million profit and catapulted Greene onto The Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.4 billion.
Greene's winning trade says a lot about him. It was brilliant, brash and, in running counter to everything he'd spent his life doing, infused with insecurity, opportunism and contradiction.
In that, at least, there's an element of consistency. Greene is the son of working-class Jewish parents from Worcester, Mass. His father ran a business selling textile mill machinery, lost it and struggled to make a living. His mother was a Hebrew school instructor who taught Greene to save his pennies, look for value and never pay retail.
A nerdy teenager, Greene played classical trumpet in the Doherty High School band and took extra classes to get a head start on college. Admitted to Johns Hopkins, Greene paid his way by selling circus tickets over the phone. Quickly promoted to manager, he traveled the country during his summers off in his Datsun 510, overseeing telemarketing centers and eating at Pizza Hut buffets to save money. Greene graduated after two and a half years. He spent the following three years saving up $100,000 from his telemarketing sales and then entered Harvard's M.B.A. program in 1977.
Greene began putting his savings to work in business school. He put down $7,400 to buy a three-family home, and rented out rooms so he could live for free. By the time he graduated in 1979 Greene owned 18 properties and was generating more than enough income to cover his $4,500 annual tuition. He sold out a few years later for what Greene says was ten times his cost, pocketing a $1 million profit.
"In real estate you make 10% of your money because you're a genius and 90% because you catch a great wave," he says. "I caught the biggest wave in the history of New England." Convinced the West Coast offered more opportunity, Greene moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and began buying properties. By 1991 he had amassed $35 million worth of equity. Then property prices collapsed. Within a year Greene figures his holdings were worth $15 million less than the debt he owed against them.
He scraped by long enough for the market to begin recovering and sold an apartment building at a $2 million profit. Greene immediately reinvested the proceeds in the rising market. By 2006 he had amassed nearly 7,000 rental units in southern California that pushed his net worth to $700 million.
He hasn't been bashful about throwing some elbows along the way. In one case Greene took actor and movie director Ron Howard to court. The dispute erupted after Howard and his family rented a contemporary glass home Greene owned in the ritzy Brentwood section of L.A. for $28,500 a month while filming a movie. Howard moved out a month into his six-month lease, claiming the house was infested with rats, leaked and had faulty appliances and polluted water.
Greene sued for breach of contract in California state court. Howard countersued for breach of contract and misrepresentation. Howard's lawyer says Greene knew the house was a shambles but lied about it. Greene says Diana Ross was happily ensconced in the home for a year before Howard, whose story-telling Greene says is not limited to the silver screen. A judge ultimately ordered Greene to pay Howard $616,000. Greene appealed the case to the California Supreme Court but lost.
"The moral of this story is, don't ever try to be in a lawsuit against a celebrity in Los Angeles," Greene says (the state's Supreme Court is headquartered in San Francisco).
Other celebs hold Greene in higher regard. That may be partly due to his taste for lavish, all-night parties at his 12,000-square-foot L.A. home, replete with a karaoke stage and disco. It was at such a soiree that Greene befriended Mike Tyson and Paris Hilton. Madam-to-the-stars Heidi Fleiss, another partygoer, ended up spending a year as his houseguest when Greene was single and after she had served time in prison.
"It probably doesn't look good for a single guy to have had Heidi living with me, but we weren't dating," says Greene. "She's a nice girl. I've had her over to Passover dinner with my mom." Despite his active social life Greene kept a close eye on his business and a few years ago began fearing that a real estate bust was looming. He was especially concerned about how high prices on commercial real estate had become in relation to net rental values--rent minus operating costs. The multiples got up to 25, as high as he'd ever seen them. Meaning: Investors were paying more in mortgage interest than they were taking out of rent. They were expecting to be bailed out by greater fools.
Greene was determined not to lose his real estate fortune a second time. He started calling "every smart person I know" to find a way to hedge his portfolio. That included party buddies, business school chums and money managers.
In early 2006 Greene called hedge fund manager John Paulson of Paulson & Co., to whom he had been introduced in the Hamptons a few years earlier. Greene says J.P., as he calls Paulson, suggested he could short real estate by buying insurance on bonds backed by subprime loans. Greene says he sat down with Paulson for half an hour and looked over a ten-page offering memo for a fund that would make such bets. When he asked whether he could do the trades himself, Paulson told him he was unlikely to gain bank approval, Greene says.
"No one told me how to do the trades," insists Greene, parrying rumors that Paulson was infuriated that his strategy had been purloined (Paulson declines comment). "It was like somebody told you to short oil, but you have to go do 1,000 hours of work to figure out how," says Greene.
In April 2006, just as the housing market was peaking, Greene convinced Wall Street banks to allow him to trade credit default swaps; he is believed to be the first individual to do so. Greene put up $30 million to buy swaps that would pay off from a default from paper backed by subprime mortgages. He increased the bets by $20 million over the next year, focusing on packages of California and Nevada loans and those known as 2/28s--30-year mortgages whose borrowers had been drawn in by 2-year teaser rates that were destined to be higher for the next 28 years.
Initially the market moved against Greene, and by the summer of 2006 he was sitting on a $5 million paper loss. He held on, and the market started to turn, eventually leaving Greene with his $800 million win.
These days he's cashing out his swaps and investing elsewhere. He likes muni bonds. Traditionally, he says, high-grade 30-year munis yield about 80% as much as taxable 30-year Treasurys. But recently hedge funds have been forced to sell to cover losses elsewhere, pushing muni yields to 0.3 percentage points above the yield on Treasurys.
Other Greene plays: paired trades, like one in which he is shorting Treasurys (through interest-rate swaps) and going long Ginnie Mae securities of like maturity; his thinking is that he will profit when the spread between the two narrows from 2.5 percentage points, which is double the historical norm. He's also buying collateralized loan obligations for highly rated companies like Calpine (other-otc: CPNLQ.PK - news - people ) and Dole Foods, whose yields are likewise abnormally high under today's stressed-out market conditions.
Greene's biggest bet, which includes $800 million of his $1 billion in investable assets: cash. "Being in cash, or very near cash, is the smart place to be because things are dropping in value," he says.
Whatever the product, that's the kind of market Greene likes. "I bought it," he says, gesturing to his yacht, "six years ago from a guy in Singapore during the SARS crisis. I paid $6 million, and it would have cost $20 million new." That takes the sting out of the fact that the 350-ton vessel costs $100,000 to fill with fuel and burns 50 gallons per hour. ("Don't print that! It's a bigger carbon footprint than we'd like to have," Greene cautions.)
"A lot of my friends say, 'Now that you've made it big, aren't you going to buy a bigger boat?' I say, 'What for?'" says Greene. But hasn't he been shopping in Hong Kong for a 165-footer? "I'm a trader," he explains sheepishly. "Under the right circumstances I'd consider a new boat. I'm not ruling it out."
Nor, it seems, are Greene and John Paulson ruling out a rapprochement. The two traders exchanged greetings in jpmorgan's box at last month's U.S. Open men's final, and Greene introduced Mei-Sze. It's not Passover with Greene's mom, but it's a start.
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