The book is intended to continue and extend the conversation that Bill Gates started with his speech at Davos this year on what he called "Creative Capitalism." In that speech, he said that many of the world's problems are too big for philanthropy--even on the scale of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And he said that the free-market capitalist system itself will have to solve them. The notion of some new form of economic system called "creative capitalism" raises more questions than it answers, which was Gates’ intention. Starting, of course, with "What is it--exactly?" and "Is it a good thing?" The book will not answer all these questions, but it will give the reader the ability to reach her or his own answers to many of them, while no doubt raising new questions at the same time. It will draw on contributions from some of the world's most respected economists and business executives, including first and foremost Warren Buffett. Other prominent contributors might include Richard Branson, George Soros, Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffet, Larry Summers, Laura Tyson, Paul Krugman, Greg Mankiw, Jagdish Bagwati and Mohammed Unis. The structure will be fairly novel. Building on the metaphor of a "conversation," it will include an introduction by Kinsley, Bill's speech (refreshed), an edited transcript of a literal conversation between Gates and Buffett, a few reasonably formal essays by economists or others, and lots and lots of discussion, and debate via email--all edited into a coherent whole, with very brief running commentary. Gates’ speech and some other odds and ends can be found at http://ccapitalism.blogspot.com.