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In thousands of speeches, articles and interviews since 1969 (when he delivered his first speech on Wall Street), Mike's messages have been remarkably consistent. Rarely has he missed an opportunity to point out that human capital is the world's largest and most-important asset and that the best way to increase the value of that asset is through education and medical research.
Following is a very brief selection of quotations grouped by subject.
- | Follow your passion. |
- | Get personally involved. |
- | Think big. You can change the world. |
- | Foster teamwork. |
- | Fight the zero-sum-game mentality. Foundations don't 'spend' money on grants. They invest in society to produce a greater return. |
- | Transfer skills, not just money." |
- | The kind of world in which our children and grandchildren reach their potential depends on the success of our efforts to provide opportunities for all children. |
- | Whether in education or medical research, early funding of promising young talent generates a lot more progress than handing out lifetime-achievement awards. |
- | The most-effective programs create an environment that brings people in disparate organizations and disciplines together - industry, academic and government researchers, for example - to accelerate the process of discovery. |
- | Philanthropy is far more than just writing checks. It takes an entrepreneurial approach that seeks out best practices and empowers people to change the world. |
- | Follow your passion. We believe philanthropists should begin the process of giving by asking what they care about passionately. Intensely felt core beliefs provide the motivation to stick with a project through successful completion." |
1. | Credit is what counts, not leverage. If you're leveraged eight or 10 to one in an asset class that declines by five to 10 percent, you don't have staying power in a mark-to-market world. |
2. | Most loans to real estate are not - and never have been - investment grade. They carry a great deal of credit risk. |
3. | Interest rates are never predictable. The idea of borrowing short and lending long is simply not a business. |
4. | Rating is not credit. Long-term ratings have not been a good predictor of credit quality among different sectors of the world economy. So you shouldn't invest based on ratings. |
5. | Sovereign and government debt is, for the most part, not investment grade, particularly in emerging nations. Throughout history, governments regularly defaulted on their debts. Those countries that didn't default often hyper-inflated their currencies, which had a similar effect. |
6. | The value of debt securities is the underpinning of all capital markets. As the relative yield on debt goes up, the value of equities goes down. This is the best independent verification of value in any system." |
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