Easterly Gets Medieval on Bill Gates (Again)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 3/10/2008 12:26:00 AM
The folks over at Bloomberg sent me a note about this podcast sometime ago by William Easterly taking on another famous William, Bill Gates. Easterly takes umbrage to the notion of "creative capitalism" that Gates spoke about at the recently held World Economic Forum. This is not the first run-in between these protagonists, as they clashed at a previous Davos panel. Ultimately, I believe that Easterly tends to exaggerate the differences in his and Gates's thinking. Gates is not merely suggesting a more elaborate form of charity, but rather a way of harnessing the innovative potential of capitalism to solve some of the world's pressing poverty problems. Anyway, listen and decide for yourselves: You can stream the clip here using the nifty SnapShots widget, and what follows is the blurb about the podcast:

Last Friday on Bloomberg Radio®, "Bloomberg on the Economy," host Tom Keene spoke for an hour with William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University, about his assessment of Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates's poverty-fighting strategy and Gate's "blind spot" in helping the poor. Professor Easterly discussed the achievements and challenges of global aid programs and U.S. donations under President Bush.