"It's been six years since my pledge of 17,500,000 Berkshire B shares (adjusted for a 50 for 1 split) to each of your foundations," Mr. Buffett wrote in a letter published in The Omaha World Herald. “I knew you would apply your considerable brains and energies in order to make the most of the funds from my gift. However, you have exceeded my high expectations. Your mother would be as proud of you as I am.”

Just where is the money going?

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation invests in the sort of projects you might expect a charity in the Gates-Buffett universe to invest in—per the foundation's website: "Our highest priorities are agricultural resource development for smallholder and subsistence farmers and clean water delivery to vulnerable communities in Africa and Central America."

The Sherwood Foundation, run by Susan Buffett, supports education and anti-poverty programs, with a heavy emphasis on nonprofits in Omaha ... a town of about 400,000 where a couple billion bucks might go a pretty long way.

The NoVo Foundation, operated by Mr. Buffett's son Peter and his wife Jennifer, is the aardvark of the bunch, stating its mission as "ending violence against girls and women and promoting gender equity worldwide," which is not to say there's anything odd about that goal, only that we were tickled by the reasoning Peter an Jennifer use to get there:

Due to hundreds of years of conquest and colonialism, we are deeply and unconsciously programmed to accept rampant competition, exploitation and domination, as the way of the world. Competition—at any cost—for scarce resources or over one another is accepted and rewarded. The powerful interests of a few over-ride quality of life and equity for all. The time is now to address the deep underpinnings of systems that are not nurturing humanity and life. We wish to shift to a world in which women and men work in respectful partnership and collaboration with one another and with the earth ... In order to facilitate the transformation we seek, women and girls must be empowered in every sphere of society. We believe that once empowered, women and girls will play transformative leadership roles; and as women and girls become more equal partners with men and boys, a spirit of collaboration can better prevail in society.

Stephen Schwarzman

We've been pondering that question after Reuters reported this morning that when Blackstone Group named Joe Baratta its new global head of private equity last month, it also added the 41-year-old deal maker to the firm's succession plan. As such, Mr. Baratta joins five other Blackstone executives tapped as potential successors to founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

A dozen or so paragraphs into the story:

Were Schwarzman to step down in the next few years, President and Chief Operating Officer Tony James, 61, would likely take the reins at the firm. "Steve will never retire; he will die at his desk. I wouldn't necessarily conclude that Tony (James) is leaving anytime soon. He is a workaholic and he has got enormous energy," one senior Blackstone executive said.

Which is to say that no matter Mr. Baratta's role in the company's planning, he's not likely to step into the top job any time soon. So what gives? Sure, Blackstone might assuage investors concerns about key man risk by letting word of a succession plan slip—on the other hand, who cares? Steve Schwarzman is giving us to believe that he's going to work until he dies, and does it really take six people to replace the guy?

Perhaps more usefully, Mr. Baratta got mentioned at the top of a Reuters story, in which he was described in flattering terms and as a member of Blackstone's management elite. That's nice for his ego, no doubt; And it's nice for clients investing with the firm's private equity funds to believe that the guy running the business is in the inner circle.

All that to say, naming a  potential successor is probably about more than the eventual succeeding—an idea The Times was onto in April when it an article about the respective longevities of private equity leaders such as Mr. Schwarzman, KKR's Henry Kravis, Carlyle Group's David Rubinstein and Apollo's Leon Black.

A nagging problem facing the big private equity companies is how to retain their top talent when the leaders show no signs of moving on. Some companies, like Warburg Pincus and Advent International, have already made a leadership transition to the younger generation, but the largest ones have not.

“I think a number of these firms do not feel the pressure of having to identify successors,” said Mr. James of Blackstone. “Their founders expect to be in their seats a long time. And that has implications for your up-and-coming talent because there isn’t enough succession at the moment. If the brass ring is too far away, your best people will leave.”

To that, we'd add an interesting tidbit suggested to us by Michael Robinson, who heads the corporate and public affairs practice at Levick. In addition to comforting investors on one side and retaining talent on the other, the existence of potential leaders waiting in the wings might create the impression of a company that nurtures talent. "There are companies, and Blackstone may evolve into one of them, that are generally thought of as incubators," Mr. Robinson told The Observer—General Electric, traditionally, or more recently, Google. A public succession process might get the next wave of talent thinking, "'sure I want to go work there, I want to be mentored, I want to be trained,'" he said.

It may just be a tertiary motivation, but it's a less obvious and more interesting to think about then the succession plan as a possibly excessive reassurance to investors or a crude carrot for senior execs.

Early Whale sighting: Bank of England noticed in 2010 that JPMorgan's chief investment office was taking outsized positions in certain markets, but didn't share the observation with regulators responsible for supervising the bank, The Wall Street Journal reports. The trades noted in two years ago were not the same bets on corporate credit derivatives that led to $5.8 billion in losses associated with the London Whale.

Whither Europe: Greece is "hugely off track" from the cost-cutting terms of its most recent bailout package, making it likely that the country will require a further restructuring of its debt, European officials told Reuters. Meanwhile, Spain's borrowing costs are making a sovereign bailout increasingly likely.

What will Libor cost? Investors would like British banks to estimate expected costs of settling investigationsinto the manipulation of interbank lending rates. Barclays paid about $450 million to settle inquiries into its role in the unfolding Libor-rigging scandal; Bloomberg cites one report estimating that civil lawsuits relating to the matter could cost the bank twice as much.

For sale: Former Lehman Brothers chief operating officer Joe Gregory is selling his 15,000 sq. ft. North Shore home, Business Insider reports. The asking price is $22 million.

On second thought... Fun lead in Dealbook: "A technology research analyst who gained notoriety for taunting the federal government over its pursuit of insider trading is expected to plead guilty in United States District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday."

Rare miss: Apple missed Wall Street's estimates for the company's earnings for the second time in nearly 10 years, as iPhone sales fell from the previous quarter.

Bharara sued: The New York Post reports that Yeshiva law student Benula Bensam is suing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the U.S. Marshals and the Department of Justice for unreasonable search and seizure after marshals took her cell phone during the insider trading trial of former McKinsey & Co. CEO Rajat Gupta. Ms. Bensam was pulled from the Southern District courtroom in which the trial was taking place and asked to stop writing letters to the judge.

The whole letter is up at Dealbreaker; a piece of Mr. Einhorn's summary of the European situation is here:

And:

Or maybe we're projecting our own anticipation of Bob Costas lyrical examination of the cutbacks in Valencia. (Sad stuff, Bob. Men's handball, up next.)

Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic.

A note to our colleagues: Now may be a good time to stop sleeping in the office. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had The Observer on his mind yesterday at the Friends of the Hudson River Park's sping gala, reminding partygoers that FOHRP board chair Douglas Durst ranked fifth on The Commercial Observer's Real Estate Power 100, five spots ahead of hizzoner. "Look out for a visit from the city's building inspectors," he quipped, a friend tells us.

Mr. Bloomberg—his girlfriend Diana Taylor chairs the board of the Hudson River Park Trust—was on hand at Pier 26 to present Highbridge Capital co-founder Glenn Dubin with the FOHRP's Leadership in Community Enrichment award. It was no mere pit-stop on the evening agenda—Mr. Bloomberg stayed through dinner (goat cheese panna cotta and seared arctic char from Union Square Catering) and chatted with guests (who included Christy Turlington, Ed Burns and former-Gov. George Pataki).

Teen-aged children mean Mr. Dubin—who grew up in Washington Heights and frequented Fort Tryon Park as a boy—is spending less time at his country house these days, he told guests, and more time in the park. Though Mr. Dubin seemed partial to venerable Central Park, his track record as a philanthropist—Mr. Dubin was a founding board member of the Robin Hood Foundation, and more recently, the Eva and Glenn Dubin Breast Care Center at Mt. Sinai Hospital—and environmentalist instincts made him an apt honoree.

"You're looking for someone who can raise money, yes, but also someone whose ethos matches what the organization is trying to accomplish," said Michael Novogratz, a principal at Fortress Investment Group and Hudson River Park Trust board member. Mr. Dubin's stature on Wall Street helped bring fresh faces to the sold-out event, said FOHRP executive director A.J. Pietrantone, and the organization treated guests to cameos by park users. Intrepid members of New York Kayak Water Polo staged an exhibition off Pier 26 during the cocktail hour, and CBS This Morning co-anchor Gayle King—who hosted the festivities—was escorted onto the stage by a parade of dog-walkers. Mr. Durst entered by bicycle. "We wanted to give our guests the sense of fun and exploration that's at the heart of what Hudson River Park is all about," Mr. Pietrantone said.

The event raised $1.6 million towards the park's operating fund. Guests gossiped that a generous donor had made a $50 million pledge, but Mr. Pietrantone said that the organization hadn't received a gift at that level.