Financial Times: Why is education such a focus for you?

Eli Broad: I think it’s the biggest problem America has. If you really look at drop-out rates, Detroit is the worst. Only 23 per cent of kids graduate. In most urban areas it’s about 50 per cent graduate. And if you see what’s happening in other countries - China, India, Korea, Japan - elsewhere - they’re doing a far better job educating children. They value education far greater than we do in America. And frankly, in America we become fat, dumb and happy. Our American universities are still the best in the world, but universities in China and India and Europe are getting better every day.

FT: Warren Buffet spoke this week about income inequality as a big problem for the United States. Do you agree with that?

EB: I do. And the only way to solve it, in my view, is education.

FT: And why is it a problem? Isn’t it…hasn’t it always been the American way to have a society in which people like you can be fabulously successful, and to really support that?

EB: It has been, but in recent years the gap has widened with the loss of manufacturing jobs where we had fairly good middle-income union-type wages, and with a lot of other things that have taken place. The gap has widened dramatically. And I think, as I said, education is the only way to, to reduce that gap. And it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

FT: And what about the tax system? There are moves to repeal the state taxes. Do you think that’s a good idea?

EB: No. I do not.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e42fa492-97a8-11dc-9e08-0000779fd2ac.html

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $50 million to help fight HIV in China, where the number of people living with the AIDS-causing virus is growing by about 100 a day.The foundation, co-led by billionaire Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp.’s chairman, will donate $20 million to China’s Health Ministry and $30 million for use as grants to local, national and international non-governmental organizations, the Seattle-based group said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The funding will increase access to HIV prevention programs targeting those most vulnerable to infection, including injection drug users, sex workers, and men who have sex with men, it said.

“By rapidly expanding access to effective HIV prevention, China has an opportunity to prevent a widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program, said in the statement.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aGiHYYpvKjik

It’s hard to determine what’s more surprising about Microsoft Corp.’s investment in Facebook Inc. — the appraisal that valued a 3 1/2-year-old Internet hangout at $15 billion or the rare snub of online search leader Google Inc.The $240 million price Microsoft paid for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook demonstrates just how badly the world’s largest software maker wanted to deepen its relationship with a startup that doesn’t even have $200 million in annual revenue.

By sealing the deal Wednesday, Microsoft finally trumped Google after losing previous high-stakes bidding battles involving a stake in AOL and ownership of online video sharing pioneer YouTube and Internet ad service DoubleClick Inc.

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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071025/facebook_microsoft.html

Billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates urged the international community Wednesday to seize on a “historic opportunity” to eradicate malaria around the world.The founders of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said an influx of new research, funds and energy in the public and private sectors to combat malaria has made them optimistic that their ambitious, long-term goal can be met.

“Bill and I believe that these advances in science and medicine, your promising research, and the rising concern of people around the world represent an historic opportunity not just to treat malaria or to control it — but to chart a long-term course to eradicate it,” Melinda Gates told a gathering of international scientists and policymakers in Seattle, Washington

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071017/thl-us-health-disease-malaria-gates-0b0437e.html

Eight months from quitting his day job to focus on philanthropy, Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates remains enthusiastically engaged in promoting the software giant’s many new business initiatives. Gates is doing all he can to help Microsoft secure a foothold in digital entertainment, mobile devices and new Internet services, such as IP telephony and IPTV. He sat down this week with USA TODAY reporter Byron Acohido to explain why.

Q: What’s the coolest thing about the upgraded Zune?

A: Look at this thing! (Holds up a Zune  Three or four years ago there was nothing like this. This is cool as heck. I’m finding music I haven’t seen in 20 years. Hey, the Lovin’ Spoonful? They’re in this thing. I find one of their songs. I send it to friends I had an apartment with, it was actually 30 years ago. I can send it out to them and say, “Remember when we listened to this?” It’s amazing.

Q: Up until last year, you and your hardware partners were pitching 70 different portable music devices. What persuaded you to change?

A: In the video game and music player markets, the experience is about everything working end to end. We decided this was going to be more important in this category than anything else. So we made a choice to use the Xbox approach for our music player, where we take the full responsibility for the entire experience. And obviously Apple was using that model (for the iPod).

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http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2007-10-03-bill-gates_N.htm