Bill Gates is still in wealth-creation mode.

“We’re not, you know, in some defensive posture where we’re mostly in cash, or anything like that,” the Microsoft Corp. founder said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “The strategy that’s been used on the investments is to be over 60% in equities.”

That’s helped Gates add $16 billion to his net worth this year, taking his wealth to $106 billion, behind only Jeff Bezos on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, even as his charitable donations have topped $35 billion.

The Gates fortune had about $60 billion of equity assets as of Monday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By comparison, the average family office portfolio in North America held about 32% of its assets in equities in 2018, according to Campden Wealth’s 2018 global family office report.

The growth overseen by the billionaire’s investment chief, Michael Larson, who oversees family office Cascade Investment, has enabled Gates to build the world’s largest private foundation without diminishing his fortune.

That may start to shrink if politicians heed his call for higher taxes.

“I doubt, you know, the U.S. will do a wealth tax but I wouldn’t be against it,” he said in the interview. “The closest thing we have to it is the estate tax. And I’ve been a huge proponent that that should go back to the level of 55% that it was a few decades ago.”

Inequality has become an explosive political issue with America’s richest 0.1% controlling more wealth than at any time since 1929. On Tuesday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released its annual Goalkeepers report. The study seeks to monitor and aid the progress of the United Nations in achieving in its Sustainable Development Goals, which the foundation says are being hindered by persistent inequality. The report called for greater investment in health care, education and technology to help reduce inequality worldwide.

“There is no silver bullet that will make geography, gender and other random factors stop mattering,” the report notes. “But guaranteeing that every single child has access to good health and education systems is a very good start in that direction.”

Gates, 63, also backed higher income taxes on America’s wealthiest people and made a call for greater transparency. “I’m for way more financial transparency. I don’t like that you can have trusts where nobody knows who owns it.”

While Gates remains bullish on the U.S. and global economy, he doubted that the performance he’s enjoyed over the past was likely to endure. “There’s reasons to think absolute returns for the next decade will be less than they have been for the last several decades.”

微软创始人比尔·盖茨仍处于创富模式。

他在接受彭博电视台采访时说：“你知道，我们不是处于某种防御姿态，因为我们手中大多是现金，或者类似于现金的东西。我们在投资上的策略一直是股票占60%以上。”

这一策略帮助盖茨在今年将个人净值提升了160亿美元，使其身家达到1060亿美元，在彭博亿万富翁指数中仅次于杰夫·贝佐斯，而且这还是在他的捐款超过350亿美元的情况下。

彭博整理的数据显示，截至9月中旬，盖茨夫妇的财产中有大约600亿美元股票。相比之下，咨询公司Campden Wealth的2018年全球家族办公室报告指出，股票平均占2018年北美家族办公室所持资产的32%。

负责为盖茨实现财富增值的是他的投资主管迈克尔·拉尔森，后者管理着家族办公室Cascade Investment，还让盖茨在个人财富不贬值的情况下建立了世界上最大的私人基金会。

如果政客们按盖茨的建议提高税率，这位亿万富翁的财富就有可能缩水。

盖茨在采访中称：“你知道，我怀疑美国会不会征收财富税，但我不反对这样做。目前最接近财富税的是遗产税。而且我一直非常支持让遗产税率回升到55%，也就是几十年前的水平。”

贫富差距已经成为一个爆炸性政治问题， 0.1%的美国最富有阶层控制的财富达到了1929年以来的最高水平。9月16日，比尔及梅琳达·盖茨基金会公布了他们的《目标守卫者》年度报告。该报告旨在监测和协助联合国推进并实现可持续发展目标，而且该基金会认为，持续存在的贫富差距阻碍了这个目标。报告呼吁增加医疗保健、教育和科技投资，以便缩小全世界的贫富差距。

报告称：“没有什么可以让地理环境、性别以及其他随机元素不再重要的灵丹妙药。但让每一个孩子都能进入良好的医疗和教育体系，是朝着这个方向迈进的非常好的开始。”

63岁的盖茨还支持对美国最富有人群征收更高的所得税，并倡议提高透明度。“我支持大幅提高财务透明度。没人知道那些信托归谁所有的情况，我不喜欢。”

虽然仍看好美国和全球经济，但盖茨怀疑此前他所享受的经济增长是否有可能延续下去。“有理由认为今后10年的绝对回报率将低于过去几十年人们看到的水平。”（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林