Daniel Herborn — Gates takes issue with Ocasio-Cortez's plans to raise income tax on the super-wealthy

The iconic business magnate and philanthropist also dismissed “modern monetary theory” as “crazy talk”. The theory has been embraced by progressive US politicians such as Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, and, curiously, President Donald Trump. It dictates that governments should not be concerned about deficits because they control the printing of their own currency. This leads to the conclusion that inflation should instead be managed with interest rates.

Does Bill Gates implicitly advance the r > g argument without naming it?

Bill Gates seems to dissociate himself from "sound finance" as "expansionary austerity," not being concerned with a manageable level of debt or requiring budget balance. But apparently he still identifies with neoclassical monetarism in terms of managing r > g through monetary policy, or limiting spending/increasing taxes.

It seems to me from what I am aware Gates said is that he is suggesting the later.

CEO Magazine
Gates takes issue with Ocasio-Cortez's plans to raise income tax on the super-wealthy

Daniel Herborn

Nilay Patel — Bill Gates says tax policies like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's are 'missing the picture'

Gates also took exception to “modern monetary theory,” which is an economic theory with growing prominence on the policy teams of Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and others. MMT, as it’s known, suggests that governments need not worry about deficits because they can simply print their own currency, and should instead manage inflation with interest rates. (You can read more about it in this Vox explainer.) What does Gates think of MMT?

“That is some crazy talk,” he told me. “It will come back and bite you.”
(Interestingly, Gates did suggest that you could raise debt to 150 percent of the gross domestic product without a problem, which Vox’s Matt Yglesias tells me, puts Gates on the same side as MMT advocates for the foreseeable future even if they disagree about the long term.)...

He has made a lot of money (from intellectual property rights) so he must know what he is talking about, right? (Argument from false authority)

All of this was part of a wide-ranging conversation on The Vergecast about the philanthropic work Gates does around the world with his wife Melinda and their foundation — you can listen to the whole thing below or read the full transcript here. Below are Gates’ remarks about taxes and MMT....

The Verge
Bill Gates says tax policies like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's are 'missing the picture'

Nilay Patel

Oh wait. Bill Gates was misinformed about MMT.

Norbert Häring — How India became Bill Gates’ guinea pig: A conspiracy as recounted by the main actors

Microsoft’s Bill Gates is one of the richest and most influential people on earth. He announced in 2015 that his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was aiming at achieving full digitalization of the payment systems of India and other populous developing countries by 2018. This “financial inclusion” program for India dates back to well before Narendra Modi came to power. It was elevated to official US policy by Executive Order in 2012, because the President saw vital US security interests are at stake....

Real-World Economics Review Blog
How India became Bill Gates’ guinea pig: A conspiracy as recounted by the main actors

Norbert Häring, Handelsblatt

See also

The Indian ‘no more cash’ experiment

Merijn Knibbe

Gates reviews Piketty — Why Inequality Matters

Bill Gates reviews Thomas Piketty's Capital for the 21st Century.

A 700-page treatise on economics translated from French is not exactly a light summer read—even for someone with an admittedly high geek quotient. But this past July, I felt compelled to read Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century after reading several reviews and hearing about it from friends. 

I’m glad I did. I encourage you to read it too, or at least a good summary, like this one from The Economist. Piketty was nice enough to talk with me about his work on a Skype call last month. As I told him, I agree with his most important conclusions, and I hope his work will draw more smart people into the study of wealth and income inequality—because the more we understand about the causes and cures, the better. I also said I have concerns about some elements of his analysis, which I’ll share below.

GatesNotes — The Blog of Bill Gates
Why Inequality Matters
Bill Gates

Privatzing US Education

The billioinaire push to privatize education is in full swing.

Daily Kos
Walmart heirs pour more than $1 billion into reshaping American education
Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

CNBC NetNet
Bad schools are 'eating our young': Blackstone CEO
Lawrence Delevingne

Jillian D'Onfro — Bill Gates Says Digital Currencies Could Be Huge

The [Gates] foundation is involved in digital money but unlike Bitcoin it would not be anonymous digital money. In Kenya M-pesa is being used for almost half of all transactions. Digital money has low transaction costs which is great for the poor because they need to do financial transactions with small amounts of money. Over the next 5 years I think digital money will catch on in India and parts of Africa and help the poorest a lot.

Business Insider — Clusterstock
Bill Gates Says Digital Currencies Could Be Huge
Jillian D'Onfro

Why are you paying more for gas? Speculators from Bill Gates to the Yale endowment are buying oil futures

What a joke. As people struggle to pay their bills and put food on their table we allow rich individuals and university endowments to buy oil futures, adding to upward price pressures. Meanwhile, nothing is done. Then, when people demand to know why this is happening, they are given bogus excuses about China and not allowing offshore drilling.

"A range of investors were in the market, too. Yale University, Singapore's government, hedge funds Brevan Howard and D.E. Shaw & Co., as well as pension funds for Texas teachers and Danish workers all held positions, according to the list. Also featured were a handful of individuals, including Aubrey McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK - News), one of the nation's largest producers of natural gas. Cascade Investment LLC, the investment arm for Microsoft Corp. (MSFT - News) co-founder Bill Gates, appeared."