Bill Gates Pushes for Higher Taxes on Rich as Wealth Soars (2)

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates started the last decade worth more than $50 billion and a pledge to donate a big chunk of his fortune to charity.

By the end of it, he’d given billions of dollars to fight poverty and improve health care and education. But his net worth also more than doubled during the period, a result of soaring stock markets and favorable tax policies.

And so, at the end of the decade, the world’s second-richest person said he wants his fellow billionaires to pay much higher taxes.

U.S. lawmakers should close loopholes, raise the estate tax and ...