Creative Capitalism --2008 publication. [Hardcover] [Jan 01, 2008] Michael Kinsley - Hardcover

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.

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