I am pleased to have both of them back at this table. Welcome. I have to say in the interest of full disclosure, we just did Something Like this at Columbia University with a thousand students. There is Something Special about the curiosity and interest of young people wanting to know how to they learn from you, wanting to know if you were starting wantingat would you do; to know about values, you do a lot of this . Ande met on july 5, 1991 hit it off immediately. If it wasnt for his mother we probably wouldnt know each other and we have had a good time ever since. We come together particularly on the giving things, but other things as well. Charlie he sits on your board . He sits on the berkshire board. The big thing that came out of discussions was the giving pledge. That has worked out so much better than i ever anticipated, charlie. I thought if i got 3040 people, i would i think we are 100 and 56 or Something Like that. Now goingople and beyond the borders of the United States, which i didnt feel would originally happen. People are learning more our members learning about things, how people handle within their families, wealthy families, and it has worked out so much better than i wouldve asked six years ago or seven years ago. Charlie both of you had made the point because of success in technology, there are a lot of people coming into a lot of money much younger. It is a great thing that they are doing so well. I didnt give huge gifts until i was a 45, some in their 30s are already doing amazing things. Why were you reluctant to give earlier than that . Bill i hadnt taken the time to hugestand where the payoffs were. I was pretty maniacal about microsoft and only in my late 30s with some encouragement from my wife, melinda, did i start to study and talk with her about it. We knew i would do it by the time i was 60, but as we were learning we decided we should accelerate it. With found a lot of ways we could have high impact. Charlie the Principal Mission call was all lives are equal . Bill thats right. A lot of that going out of the United States has gone to save lives. Charlie how did you decide that youd rather give money to the Gates Foundation rather than starting at the notion of your own starting a foundation of your own . My first wife and i did start a foundation some years ago. I compounder if money like i hope to, there will be really large sums later on. You are good at giving away and im good at making it, she thought that was half a copout and have logical. We Something Like started over 50 years ago, but i really thought that there would andarge sums later on she was particularly good with empathizing with people, she would be better at giving it away then i would be here and died in 2004, as you know. Then i had to rethink what i was going to do. Decided five foundations, the Gates Foundation being the largest, i looked for people with similar goals than what i had, the idea of every life having equal value is just fundamental to me. Charlie and you do well . He is putting his own money up, which is a big deal, but you had two much younger people, very bright, very hardworking. They were harder than most people do in their jobs and they were on the same track i was on. Everything about it made sense. And it is continuing to make sense years later. Charlie talking about melindas influence, susie was changed my life. I was a very lopsided not welladjusted person and she put me together. It wasnt overnight, but she just had a little sprinkling can ofrlie a coming together opposites . Warren no. I wouldnt say that. Bigere in sync in a way, but she was very much more mature when we got together. I was like 12 emotionally. She put me together. It changed my life. I would not have been had anything like the life i had. Charlie and what did Charlie Munger add . My partner of 58 years, he is extremely wise. He is a wonderful friend. He is strongminded, i am strongminded. Disagree, but we have never had an argument in all that time. Charlie you never had an argument . Surely you disagree. Warren certainly we do. Agrees warren, youll with me because im smart and because you are smart and i am right. I respect him enormous lee. Enormously. A marriage partner is the most important relationship, but having a Business Partner if i had done everything i had done, it wouldnt have worked out this way, it wouldve been more fun with charlie. Charlie who says no to bill gates . Bill melinda. [laughter] warren i have seen it happen. Bill its great when somebody knows you might move too fast or be too optimistic. A team comes in planning out things we havent done or maybe they are not as motivated afterwards, so that they can get me to correct that. I have matured a lot and i give melinda immense credit, she still has work to do, but i think im getting there. Strengths where you share the same goal is a great thing. I had that with paul allen in the early days, is in steve and microsoft. Going on now its melinda. Charlie how much time do you spend at microsoft . 15 of am there about the time, and i just get there on the rmb part. Brainstorming with people, how do we take r d part. It is a very exciting time in software. There are five companies in a really strong position. Microsoft is leaving in some really cool stuff. The way that a business takes information about customers, communication with customers, mission,t data, that really using data and ai, getting productivity up, microsoft is the leader in that. That a wonderful niche they are strong in. And they will be innovating along that line more in the next two years than ever in history. Charlie it is a path to Artificial Intelligence . The ultimate dream when you start working on software is the deep understanding intelligence that humans have. It has been the holy grail, when the computer learn to play games, when can it learn to read, when can it understand speech. Things like speech and vision made such progress in recent years. You have been tracking this and exposing your viewers to this. Even for people in the field it is a magical time. Charlie its potential is to do what, change everything . Bill and the first instance to be the best assistant ever, looking your information and help you know in the few minutes between meetings what you should look at, or if you are trying to plan a trip, organize things, to be a much better assistant then it is today. And then eventually certain mechanical tasks like warehouse work or driving, that it would take that over. But for intellectual work, it will just magnify the creativity and make your time more valuable. Charlie are you interested in technology . Warren i dont think i have a way to startthat with, and i would be so far behind i would never catch up with people. I have been working on it it would not be a game i would win. Is a principal criteria for you to understand the business . Warren yes. I have to understand. Understandable, and others have my confidence. Have mywo circles that confidence. There is overlap between them and the important thing is not how it is nice to have a huge circle of competence, much more so than where the limits are of it. You can do very well if you only understand 5 of the businesses in the country. D findand fin plenty of opportunity. In made a huge purchase 2016. Is it harder and harder to find an acquisition candidate . Warren we have to move the needle on a 400 million market , it is hard to find i would do better percentagewise if i was working with a smaller amount of capital. Charlie how do you find it . Warren it is interesting. I will get a call, i will be sitting thinking in private businesses its because i get a call from a private seller, but occasionally i just decide to act and we never do anything unfriendly, but in terms of buying whole businesses charlie are people close to you on the lookout for you . Warren not much. Bought 12 have not billion of common stocks since the election. Thats in my mind which ones i picked. Guys at work with me, the two fellows probably bought a little bit or sold it little bit, too. But those are ideas that come at a different slant air is one of those . It was shown on september 30 that we own some airlines. Charlie why did you do that . Warren that i wont get into, but it was in large part my decision. Charlie the old joke as you know, how do you become a millionaire, be a billionaire and buy an airline. Transportation has been something that warren but they are not related. Railroads and airlines are different businesses. You cannot move the track. People, there is a certain romance to it. You can actually go into the business and more than 100 airlines have gone broke. It is a different sort of business. Charlie how has knowing bill influenced or enhanced your sense of the way the world works . Warren i learned from them. I like to learn from all friends here at bill happens to be a very good source. That is the fun of having friends, charlie. It would be hard for me to be a friend with anybody i dont learn from. And they would probably get bored with me. [laughter] do you feel a certain responsibility as a woman ceo to mentor other women and speak out on issues relating to women . You always want to be noticed and rewarded for what you did, your contribution. For wrote an article Fortune Magazine before i met him that its not necessarily a good idea to leave large sums to your children. That was pretty fundamental. I remember reading that and i was convinced that was right and now you have to think of how to give it away. Warren showing me his calendar. I had every minute packed and thought it was the only way you could do things. The fact that he is so careful about [laughter] l he has days charlie that there is nothing on. Bill there is nothing on. Be careful, you might not understand. Charlie this is the week of april of which there are only three entries for a week. Arren there will be four by april. Charlie not to crowd yourself too much, read, think warren you control your time, sitting and thinking may be a much higher priority than a all thiso who there is demand, you feel like you need to see all these people. Of yourt a proxy seriousness that you have filled every minute of your schedule. I can buy anything i want, basically, but i cannot buy time. Charlie two halftime is the most precious thing you can have . Way i canere is no buy time. Charlie living in omaha makes it easier . Warren yes. Drove both ways, it was about a half an hour each way, i knew the words to a lot more songs. If youre doing an hour coming and going, that is 2. 5 of the persons work week. Charlie do you agree politically . On a most everything, a general sense that you have to keep the economy turning up greater output and that you have too in a fair way. That basic framework we see very much the same. Believe to both of you you can achieve a 4 growth rate . Warren that is pretty high. Charlie i think the last quarter was 1. 6 or something. Rate ina 2 growth one generation will add 19,000 four,pita, family of 76,002 real gdp. Be 76,000 more stuff for one family of four. The goose will keep laying golden eggs. We have a wonderful system. Charlie there are things that can get in the way of that . Warren 2 . Charlie 3 would be a miracle, wouldnt . Warren that would be fabulous, but 2 that is greater than exists in a whole lot of countries. Charlie what you see for the future of china . They have done a great job on some things. They are not in a democracy so it hangs in the balanced how their political system will evolve, but in terms of raising incomes, getting rid of poverty, it is a miracle that their embrace of the market since really just 1990 they have done very well. They are the second biggest economy in the world. They are serious about trade, serious about clean energy. They are super important, the most relationship in the world is the u. S. China relationship. Charlie clearly, because they are the two biggest economic powers in the world. Bill right. We are strong and are going to stay strong. Charlie what can make us not strong . Bill there is a lot of strength we have built up over decades, the way we do research, universities, the way people take risk. That is why our Tech Companies are still strong, our bioTech Companies are still strong your the Education System is one we need to go back and look at. Inequity,e source of because if you get a good education, the outcome is pretty good. Charlie your experience much harder than you imagine. Bill improving the u. S. Education system, yes. The dropout rate has gone down a bit, so that is great. But overall reading scores, math scores, and inequality hasnt budged in the last 10 years. One of the goals of our foundation is, working with partners, to change that. So far, it has proven to be one of the top or once, but stillr ones, but we are committed to it. We still believe it is achievable. Charlie all the talk about immigration, are we still looking at a situation where some of the best and brightest come here, get an education, and then go back to india or china rather than staying here . Bill a lot do stay and the most important import the u. S. Has far is human talent. A lot of the hardest working, best and brightest from almost every country in the world have wanted to come to the u. S. University at departments or doctors, engineers, people starting up companies, building jobs, it has been a huge strength of hours. We have always made it super easy for that to work, but it has worked very well. So, the number going back, it is we are stillut net a huge beneficiary of human talent. Charlie i think wrote this, green should staple eight a green card to every diploma . Bill i believe that. I could be biased because im from the tech industry. I believe that keeping talent in the country is a great thing. Charlie tell us a story you told me, you think the second most important document in americas history after the declaration of independence or perhaps the u. S. Constitution is this letter by two immigrants . Warren a letter written by two the jewish immigrants, it doesnt sound like much. In august of 1939 on a just before germany moved into poland, leo zillard was born in hungary and went to germany. He worked in germany with bert einstein. In 1933, both of them left germany and they came to the United States. They become citizens and they president etter to roosevelt. He got einstein to sign it because his name had more weight. It was not even a half a page. Atomid germany will get an bomb and it may work and we better get to work on that. The Manhattan Project came out of that. So knows what wouldve happened wasorld war ii if a it semetic. If we didnt have great scientists and secondly if those two didnt come to the United States. It welcomed them and they may have saved the country. Charlie germany did not get it and we did. It was the right were hje warhead. Me a noteou sent saying youre not worried about the american economy, what i worry about is somehow and some way we will make a mistake in terms of the employment of the Nuclear Weapon or some bad character will buy them or steal them. Warren weapons of mass destruction. A tiny probability any given way, but there are people who wish us ill, that would like to kill millions of americans. There is psychotic, megalomaniacs, the world has a certain number of them and if they have the knowledge and ability, there are people who would like to kill millions of americans and the weapons are there to do it. Einstein said shortly after the launch of the atomic bomb, i which weapons world war iii will be fought, iv will bewar fought with sticks and stones. The president s job is to protect us as much as possible from weapons of mass destruction. Aboutnt worry too much intent with organizations and other nations, it is the only real cloud on america over time. We will solve the economic problems, but that is number one. Charlie you agree . Bill i agree. Nuclear weapons, but bioterrorism is also quite daunting. Charlie what is bioterrorism . In an extreme case, somebody would recreate the smallpox and it could kill millions or potentially billions. Warren there was an oped and saidnew york times and i something to bill he said it sounds reasonable. There are people in the world, may be organizations, who would love the idea of creating a smallpox epidemic. Charlie how do you prevent that . Bill you want to have surveillance to catch it as soon as you can. You want to have medical tools where you can create a vaccine and protect people. Science is working on the defense part of this at the same offenseis making the slightly easier. We are vigilant, there are a lot of steps we can take to make the risk lower just like minimizing access to materials meaningfully reduces the chance of a Nuclear Weapon. Charlie there are some who argue that the next war will not be a nuclear war, but perhaps not even bioterrorism, it will be a cyber war. Bill that is a third area. I personally there is only the three, but not much comfort. Yes. A modern Society Depends on electricity and communications, and information flow. If you can, for a substantial period of time, disrupt that, then a lot of systems depending on how a hospital organizes itself or how food gets moved around, or an airline decides what to do or bank accounts, you know, what was that big account supposed to be . A lot of experts and companies now are spending time thinking about that, how do you minimize that, how do you have duplicates, backup . A lot of sophistication going into that. Charlie can the United States risk a trade war with china or will it have a significant warren it is not a good idea. That theem of trade is benefits are diffused and invisible. So, you dont walk in and buy a shoes or underwear and it says you just saved 12 because it was purchased some, so 320 Million People are buying things cheaper than they would the harmfulut effects taking somebody out of a job they have had for 25 years when it is too late to train them for anything, are specific and terrible. You want to figure out how to keep the societal benefits and take care of the people who are the roadkill in this. There will be roadkill, there is no sense getting yourself. Textile atwith berkshire, half of our workers only spoke portuguese. They work in hot and allowed conditions and spent 25 years on looms. When textiles moved elsewhere, there are economic lives were ruined. The is part of trade and b