BILLIONAIRE, NERD, SAVIOR, KING

Secrets of a billionaire.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and published reports, Das, finance editor at the New York Times, focuses on technology titan Bill Gates’ manipulation of money and power “to hide in the shadows or shine on the stage” as he pursues his goals in business, politics, policy, and philanthropy. Central to her investigation is the “ever-widening inequality” blighting American society along with the culture’s persistent veneration of billionaires. “The American dream,” Das writes, “loosely holds that in a land of liberty, boundless opportunity, and free enterprise, individual merit, hard work, and a sprinkling of luck are the keys that unlock fortune.” As Das chronicles Gates’ evolution from Microsoft’s nerdy creator to beneficent philanthropist, she shows that his education at private schools, strong family ties, and more than a sprinkling of luck were factors in his success. As a businessman, he was notoriously arrogant. His divorce from Melinda French Gates disclosed lifelong womanizing. More than 2,000 people depend on the Gates fortune for their livelihoods, Das notes, including “a small army of communications professionals” who work “to shape the public persona of Gates in a way to elevates his stature to benefit his foundation’s goals and burnish his individual brand.” Their task became especially onerous when Gates was linked with Jeffrey Epstein, whom he continued to see even after allegations against Epstein became widely known. “Why Gates hung around with Epstein may remain a head scratcher forever,” Das admits. But that failure of judgment, as well as ruthless business practices and marital betrayal, have been glossed over. Today, she finds, “the world has a completely refurbished image of Gates, the jagged edges of the monopolist softened by the halo of the philanthropist.”

A sharply incisive portrait.