Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Other Economic Leaders - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 141659941X ISBN 13: 9781416599418

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2008

Synopsis

Bill Gates is more than the world's most successful capitalist; he's also the world's biggest philanthropist.

Gates has approached philanthropy the same way he revolutionized computer software: with a fierce ambition to change the rules of the game. That's why at the 2008 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Gates advocated a creative capitalism in which big corporations, the distinguishing feature of the modern global economy, integrate doing good into their way of doing business.

This controversial new idea is discussed and debated by the more than forty contributors to this book, among them three Nobel laureates and two former U.S. cabinet secretaries. Edited by author and columnist Michael Kinsley, Creative Capitalism started as a first-of-its-kind online conversation that brought together some of the world's best minds to engage Gates's challenge. From Warren Buffett, who seconds Gates's analysis, to Lawrence Summers, who worries about the consequences of multiple corporate objectives, the essays cover a broad spectrum of opinion. Judge Richard Posner dismisses Gates's proposal as trumped-up charity that will sap the strengths of the profit-maximizing corporation, while journalist Martin Wolf maintains that the maximization of profit is far from universally accepted, and rightly so. Chicago Nobel laureate Gary Becker wonders whether altruistic companies can survive in a competitive economy, while Columbia Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps argues that a little altruism might be the right prescription for a variety of market imperfections.

Creative Capitalism is not just a book for philanthropists. It's a book that challenges the conventional wisdom about our economic system, a road map for the new global economy that is emerging as capitalism adapts itself once again to a changing world.

About this title

About the Authors

Michael Kinsley is a noted journalist and political commentator. He was one of the most successful editors of The New Republic magazine. He was the host of CNN’s Crossfire and founded Slate, the nation’s first online magazine. He also served as the editorial page editor for The Los Angeles Times and has written for The Guardian and the New Yorker. He is a regular contributor to Time magazine. Michael currently lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Patty Stonesifer, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Conor Clarke is a fellow at The Atlantic Monthly and a former

editor at The Guardian.

Reviews

The content of journalist, editor, and author (The Best of Slate, 2006; Please Don’t Remain Calm, 2008) Kinsley’s fifth book is somewhat of a novelty in its physicality and its subject matter. The content was generated after the “creative capitalism” speech by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, via a series of responses, rejoinders, and reviews threaded through a blog. Interesting, too, is the actual substance and the timing of this publication; the question is, after all: Should a corporation do good and still own up to its fiduciary responsibility of maximizing profits? The conversations here are wide-ranging and fluid, captured from contributors with no small credentials—Harvard and MIT professors, former U.S. government officials, at least one Nobel Prize winner, and other foundation heads. Although no conclusions are reached, the dialogue is stimulating and the questions numerous: Isn’t regular capitalism good enough? Does being recognized as a good citizen make a difference? Yet timing plays a huge part in the answers: How will the current economic downturn impact these “do good” inclinations? --Barbara Jacobs

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 141659941X
• ISBN 13: 9781416599418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Kinsley Michael