Gates, Buffett to biz students: We're still bullish on capitalism...Okay, billionaires
Filed under: Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway
Much of the fun of observing the friendship between Warren Buffett and Bill Gates is derived from the fact that they are such unlikely comrades. In Gates, you have the 54-year-old quintessential tech geek billionaire. And in Buffett, the revered 79-year-old homespun, value-investor billionaire. What could they possibly have in common?Oh yeah, billions. Together, the two are worth a combined $100 billion, an announcer pointed out during an event in New York Thursday organized to let future business leaders -- MBA students at Columbia University -- ask questions of the fabled capitalists.
During CNBC's "Town Hall" event, the two chums were appealingly jocular and Gates, the founder and chairman of Microsoft (MSFT), was appropriately deferential to Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A). Buffett was the real crowd-pleaser before an audience of a few hundred business school students (he is himself an alum of Columbia Business School).
What advice did the two capitalist luminaries have for the young strivers? Fittingly, they took different approaches to the career advice they offered.
Gates was more brass tacks. Thrown the softball, "What industry will produce the next Bill Gates?" -- yes, a young woman not only asked that, but followed up with the addendum, "because that's the industry I want to work in" -- Gates had three to offer. Information technology, or "IT" as he called it, will continue to fuel growth and innovation around the world, he said. That was an obvious pick.
His second and third choices were energy and medicine. He promised that alternative sources of energy will soon be discovered that are not only cheaper, but environmentally friendly. And he is confident that many horrible diseases that plague the developed and undeveloped worlds will soon be cured. Health has become a major focus for Gates ever since he stepped down as head of Microsoft in June 2008 to work full time on the philanthropic efforts of his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Buffett had a different spin on the great career question. "Don't let anyone tell you what to do," he said. "You figure it out."
He recalled that back when Gates was first creating the software business, he himself would have been a failure if he tried to participate -- mainly because his heart wouldn't have been in it. Yet he obviously did just fine investing in basic industries that were undervalued.
Most of Buffett's and Gates's words of wisdom at the town hall (which airs at 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. eastern time on Thursday on CNBC) were about the future of capitalism and the health of the U.S. financial markets. Suffice it to say that neither man was particularly worried.
Buffett called capitalism, "the greatest growth engine ever devised." That's easy to say after your latest quarterly profit tripled and your portfolio is besting the performance of the Standard and Poor's 500 index.
Gates was a little less sanguine. He said he worries about the state of our educational system, potential for a deadly pandemic and another terrorist strike sometime in the next 20 years. But as for our financial system, despite the scandals and meltdowns of recent years, he said not to worry since it is "self-correcting."
As reassuring as it is to hear the rosy outlooks of two billionaires, I left the Columbia building a little worried. I wondered, maybe Gates and Buffett really aren't so confident about the state of the U.S. economy and our enduring status as a financial superpower. Is that why they took time out time out to appear on TV and express such unwavering optimism?
Nah, I told myself. They are just two friends, happy to hang out together, share some words of wisdom and bask in the warmth of business school students' ardor. If by doing so, they give capitalism a little boost, why that's all the better.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-12-2009 @ 8:59PM
jaguar6cy said...
Today schools are shelters for socialist indoctrination, myopic intolerance and the promotion of mediocrity. We are right to be very concerned.
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11-13-2009 @ 8:20AM
dee said...
That is an awful fact! Remember just who went to this particular school??
11-13-2009 @ 7:34AM
mike brewster said...
I just was watching this on CNBC. Great story on these two titans of finance. Maybe they went to Tom's Diner after.
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11-14-2009 @ 1:14AM
lionshmglbn said...
Those who have lost their jobs or seen their pay slashed thanks to bankers who flogged dodgy mortgages and dreamt up investments so complex not even they understood them, would gladly tell him where to stick his social purpose. But the problem is, Blankfein is a good advertisement for wealth creation. His own. He is no scion of privilege, dispensing plummy-voiced homilies to raw capitalism from his 30th-floor eyrie. Born in a tough neighbourhood in the Bronx, the son of a postal worker and a receptionist, he was the first in his family to go to college and used financial aid to go to Harvard.
Even though he proudly pays himself more in a year than most of us could ever dream of — $68m in 2007 alone, a record for any Wall Street CEO, to add to the more than $500m of Goldman stock he owns — he insists he’s still "a blue-collar guy".
But what about the charge sheet? Bankers brought the world to the brink of bankruptcy and instead of doing the decent thing and jumping out of the nearest window, they turned up cap in hand to governments to hoover up taxpayers’ money to save their skin. Now, just one year on, they are carrying on as if nothing has happened, gambling, and winning, handsomely, with our cash. Goldman’s profits in the second quarter were a record $3.4 billion. Most of the money is being made in trading in bonds, currencies and commodities.
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11-13-2009 @ 8:24AM
dee said...
502,000 jobs lost this week. Everything is good folks. A jobless recovery. Hmmmmmm Yeah everything is good. 17M people with NO jobs. This is the amount we count and admit to. If we really knew how many just fell off a cliff and just gave up we would probably faint. We will never know the real numbers. 50% of graduating college students have NO job or any hope of getting one. Baby boomers that have lost their jobs are screwed for the rest of their lives. We as Americans will learn to live a different way as our President redistributes what we have accomplished while those that get it have achieved nothing! Wow what a great reward for being a loser!
11-13-2009 @ 9:11AM
patrick said...
wake up ...young people we got a group of socialized bunch of nuts ...god bless america ...
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11-13-2009 @ 12:45PM
peapers said...
Q: "Mr. Gates how do I become rich too?"
A: "Buy someone else's work, steal other people ideas, then engage in shady business practices that force people to pay for your product even though they don't use your product. Then, when government starts to hassle you about it, break out the ol' checkbook and grease some palms in Washington."
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11-13-2009 @ 2:32PM
lynda said...
You just described the US Government.....
11-13-2009 @ 2:52PM
Fred Peirce said...
These two should be locked up, spreading such lies about the USA. Hard work and innovation get you nowhere (except, of course, you'll be first in line to get shafted by the govt.). My advise in the new Obama economy - give up and let the govt. take care of you. We're all going down the toilet thanks to the Mesiah, so why wear yourself out on the way.
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11-13-2009 @ 3:14PM
THOMAS said...
Your only chance kids is get rid of OBAMACARE & PELOSICARE than run Barrack Obama and his so-called real Mother Nancy Pelosi out of Washington D.C. Impeachment now. Than remember it takes Money to make Money.
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11-13-2009 @ 4:23PM
bodanman said...
Is there anything more obscene than these two mega billionaires preaching that capitalism is great? I'm sure it is for them. But what about the many millions who lost their jobs, and are now losing their homes and going bankrupt? I believes that capitalism must die to make room for something more fitted to the modern world. It needs to follow slavery, serfdom, indentured servitude, 16 hours per day - 6 day work week, etc. to the annals of history. For the life of me I don't understand why ordinary people accept and even advocate for a system where 2% of the population owns 98% of the wealth.
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11-13-2009 @ 5:04PM
Rae said...
why exactly are we asking these men their opinion on our economy? they are sorely out of touch and have no idea what the real working, middle class person does, thinks or how we are treated. there is a social and economic class difference and yes WE ARE TREATED DIFFERENTLY. both gates and buffet stay in their own bubbles and spout off what they know will go over well with the outside world.
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