Gates warns on prospect of US economic recovery
BILL GATES, the world’s richest man, yesterday predicted the US economy could take years to recover from recession and predicted taxes will have to rise to bring the federal budget into balance.
Speaking on American TV, Gates also warned against too much government intervention and urged President Barack Obama to focus policy on long-term issues such as education to combat the effects of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
“When you have a financial crisis like that, it’s years of digging out,” said Gates, who co-founded Microsoft and remains its chairman.
“The budget’s very, very out of balance. And even as the economy comes back, without changes in tax and entitlement policies, it won’t get back into balance. And at some point, financial markets will look at that and it will cause problems,” he added.