Warren Buffett and Bill Gates
Last night my daughter and I finally watched Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the two richest men in the United States who appeared in an NBC show at the Columbia University Business School in New York City. Together these two have a combined net worth of euro47 billion ($77b).
The show was taped on November 12 and hosted by CNBC host Becky Quick. She not only moderated the discussion, but also set up the question and answer session between the students and the two "Capitalist Stars". The title of the show was Keeping America Great.
Overall it was a great performance by two men who had all to be thankful for as to their opportunities in life and it certainly was the best plug (propaganda) for a US style of Capitalism. When host Becky Quick questioned, "And, gentlemen, let me ask each of you, over the course of the last year, was there ever a time that you had doubts about capitalism and about the US way of life?" Buffett answered, "We put $8 billion to work in just a matter of a few days then. So I never lost confidence in the system. This country works, you know. We've got 200 years of proof. And it's going to continue to work". Bill answered this question in a more cautious and technical manner: "Well, we have a complex financial system and we have proven that we can make mistakes. But more fundamental than that is the innovation, the fact that you can create new companies, that people are willing to take risk and invest, that there's great science going on. This country still has the best universities, the best science, and we're going to fine tune our system of capitalism, you know. The idea that you have a lot of short-term loans covering long-term needs, the amount of leverage that was there, there are definitely some lessons. But the fundamentals of the system, a marketplace-driven system where we invest in education and a great infrastructure for the long-term, that's continued. And, you know, I'll bet there are some inventions that took place in that fall in the darkest hour: People were working on new drugs, new chips, new robots and things to make life better for everyone in the decades ahead. From the audience came the following question for Mr.Gates - "My name is Erica Braley and I am a second-year student. "My question is for Mr. Gates. What is the most important thing you do every day?" Mr.Gates answered: "Well, I do a lot of variety. I think reading a lot, you know, and continuing to learn. I'm in a lot of new areas in the Foundation, education, health". In another more philosophical question to Gates, Oleg Cheesh a second-year MBA student asked: "My question is also for Mr. Gates. You obviously worked very hard to get to where you are. Could you reflect on what role pure luck played in your success?". Gates without hesitations said: "Well, I was lucky in many ways. I was lucky to be born with certain skills. I was lucky to have parents that created an environment where they shared what they were working on and let me buy as many books as I wanted to. And I was lucky in terms of the timing". Again with a more philosophical slant to the question Becky asked: "Bill, Warren, what makes you stand out from the crowd? Buffett answered: "I just look in the mirror every morning and the mirror always agrees with me. And I go out and do what I believe I should be doing. And I'm not influenced by what other people think. "On that same question Gates answered: "Well, we talked about some of the basics, having great people around you, reading. I also think, though, there come a few magic moments where you have to have confidence in yourself".
There were no real surprises in the interview except for the fact that neither the interviewer or Mr.Gates and Mr. Buffett, at any time during the interview or question and answer period entertained the issue of a possible link between business success, ethics, and Judeo-Christian principles, or for that matter any other spiritually influenced business morality. This seems to raise the question, if the philosophy of morality brought by the Pelgrims to America has abdicated to something one could identify as "an atheist state capitalism"? Gates and Warren Buffett certainly see eye-to-eye on how to save the world: control population, and combat disease. In the process of doing that, they discovered – tax-free – opportunities world-wide and especially in the medical and bio-tech sectors. Buffett’s latest donation – said to be as much as $37 billion, when in fact, the way people like Buffet and Gates probably count money (net present value) it is not more than $16 billion, and more likely $8-12 billion – is an interesting indicator of the men and their minds. Regardless of any critique these two men might encounter, they certainly present the best face today's "US Capitalism under fire" can present to the outside world.
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