Warren Buffett's remarkable $43.5 billion charitable pledge

To help put Warren Buffett's remarkable $43.5 billion charitable pledge of 2006 in perspective:

It's close to the GDP of Slovakia.

It's about the market value of McDonald's.

Nearly equals the total donations recorded in the Slate 60 for the previous six years combined—$44.9 billion.

Buffett's donation, $36.1 billion of which goes to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was already the nation's largest private charity, has some calling this a "golden age" of philanthropy, hearkening back to the charitable work of the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Mellons in the early 20th century.

[Excerpt of an article by Rachael Larimore, Slate]