Tag Archives: Business Roundtable

Articles of Interest

Business Roundtable CEOs Push To Limit Taxes On Record-Breaking Offshore Profits

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

At a time when major U.S. corporations have a record amount of cash stashed abroad, a group of influential CEOs want to make it even easier for companies to pay less in U.S. taxes on those profits.

The Business Roundtable, a lobbying coalition of business leaders, plans to spend six figures on a campaign aimed at convincing lawmakers to lower the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent and shift to a territorial tax system, according to The Hill. The group argues that the changes would help U.S. companies compete against their foreign counterparts.

“Most current U.S. international rules for taxing foreign-earned income were enacted in the 1960s and reflect the realities of a different era,” the Business Roundtable argues on its website. “It’s time we unlock potential for domestic investment by transitioning from the uncompetitive ‘worldwide system’ to a ‘territorial system’ that will promote growth and jobs in the U.S.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

First Lady Michelle Obama Challenges America's CEOs To Be Bold in Finding Ways to Hire Veterans

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By <a href="/author-detail/475">Colleen Curtis</a>

First Lady Michelle Obama Addresses the Business Roundtable, March 13, 2013

First Lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks on the Joining Forces Initiative to business leaders at the Business Roundtable Conference Center in Washington, March 13, 2013.

(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

First Lady Michelle Obama today met with the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies which combined have nearly 16 million employees, and challenged these leaders to make bold commitments to hire our veterans and military spouses and help them reach their full potential within their companies.

Mrs. Obama highlighted the need for action, referring to the hundreds of thousands of veterans and military spouses currently looking for work, and pointing out that in the coming years, over one million more will be hanging up their uniforms and transitioning back to civilian life. “These men and women will be returning to their families, rejoining their communities, and figuring out what’s next in their lives,” said the First Lady. “And as they do all of that, the one thing that they're going to be thinking about is a job.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House

White House Press Office

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 03/13/2013

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By The White House

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

12:47 P.M. EDT

MR. CARNEY: Welcome to the White House. Sorry I'm late. Had some meetings that ran long. I do have something I want to say at the top.

I wanted to provide a quick update on the ongoing engagement with the business community and the President, First Lady, and senior members of the President’s team on a broad range of issues including the President’s economic agenda, immigration reform, cybersecurity, and issues important to our veterans and military families, to name a few.

As you know, the President today will be dropping by two separate meetings with business leaders this afternoon. The President will be attending a meeting with business leaders to discuss cybersecurity as a part of the administration’s ongoing dialogue with the private sector regarding this issue. Attendees include David Cote from Honeywell International, Wes Bush from Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Randall Stephenson from AT&T. A full list of attendees will be provided later this afternoon.

After that, he will attend a meeting with business leaders where he will discuss our efforts on immigration reform and its role in our broader economic agenda. Attendees of that meeting include Greg Brown from Motorola Solutions, Douglas Oberhelman from Caterpillar, and Virginia Rometty from IBM Corporation. Again, a full list of the participants in that meeting will be provided afterwards.

Finally, as part of the Joining Forces initiative, the First Lady delivered remarks earlier today at the quarterly meeting of member CEOs of the Business Roundtable, where she continued her call on the private sector to hire America’s veterans and military spouses, and she also called on them to help reach their full potential within America’s companies. Mrs. Obama made the case that it has never been more important to join together and help our veterans and military spouses find employment and to build their careers, especially with more than 1 million veterans who will be hanging up their uniforms and transitioning back to civilian life in the coming years.

Also this morning, senior staff, including Valerie Jarrett, Denis McDonough, Rob Nabors, met with members of the Business Roundtable executive committee to address a broad array of issues on the President’s agenda. And Treasury Secretary Jack Lew held a meeting yesterday with business leaders to discuss the President’s economic agenda, including Jim McNerney from Boeing, and Fred Smith from FedEx. I'd refer you to Treasury for the full list of attendees.

I do have one final note for the young among you in spirit or fact, and that is that Gene Sperling will be participating in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (Laughter.) I think you should check it out. You will not regret it.

Q Awww.

MR. CARNEY: I'll take your questions now. Ask me anything. (Laughter.)

Q It sounds like yesterday the President was pushed during his meeting with Senate Democrats …read more
Source: White House Press Office

White House Press Office

Remarks by the First Lady at Business Roundtable Quarterly Meeting

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By The White House

Business Roundtable Conference Center
Washington D.C.

11:43 A.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA: Good morning. (Applause.) Thank you so much.

I want to start by thanking Mike for that very kind introduction and for everything that he and Walmart are doing to support our troops, our veterans and the health of our families. I also want to thank Jim McNerney as well as Governor John Engler for their extraordinary leadership of the Business Roundtable and for inviting me here this morning to be with all of you.

I’d also like to thank the military leaders who are here with us — Lieutenant General Bill Troy from the Army, and Vice Admiral Bill French from the Navy. I’d like to recognize the representatives from the administration who have joined us — you guys wave if you're here — Fred Vollrath and Frank DiGiovanni from the Department of Defense; John Gingrich from the Department of Veterans Affairs; Keith Kelly from the Department of Labor; and Matthew McGuire from the Department of Commerce.

And finally, I want to thank all of you, the leaders of our nation’s businesses; leaders who care deeply about the future of your businesses and about the future of our country and those who serve it.

As you know, over the past couple of years, Jill Biden and I have been working to support our nation’s veterans and military families through Joining Forces. And now that the Iraq War is over and the war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close, we are focused like never before on helping our veterans and military spouses find employment and build their careers.

Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of veterans and military spouses looking for work. And in the coming years, we know that over one million more will be hanging up their uniforms and transitioning back to civilian life. These men and women will be returning to their families, rejoining their communities, and figuring out what’s next in their lives. And as they do all of that, the one thing that they're going to be thinking about is a job.

They will be trying to figure out how to achieve that sense of financial security and stability for their family, how to find that next mission to accomplish. And that’s where all of you come in.

So today, I want to spend a little time just talking to you about who these veterans and military spouses are, what they can do for your businesses, and how they can keep on serving this country in the years ahead. So let’s start with who they are.

This current group of veterans –- the 9/11 Generation, as my husband has called them –- holds a special place in our history. These are the Americans who stepped up and volunteered to serve during wartime knowing full well they would be sent into harm’s way. They are young — the majority are between 18 and 34 years old …read more
Source: White House Press Office

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

UPS Commits to Hire 25,000 Veterans

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

UPS Commits to Hire 25,000 Veterans

Supporting First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Joining Forces Initiative,” UPS to also serve 25,000 volunteer hours

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– UPS (NYS: UPS) today announced that it is making a commitment to hire more than 25,000 veterans over the next five years as well as committing to serve more than 25,000 employee volunteer hours helping veterans and Veterans Service Organizations (VSO).

UPS made the announcement in cooperation with the Obama Administration initiative “Joining Forces,” a program dedicated to connecting our servicemen and women, veterans and military spouses with the critical resources they need to find high-value jobs at home. At the Business Roundtable today First Lady Michelle Obama, who is leading the Joining Forces initiative, called out UPS as a corporate leader committed to supporting our troops.

“We appreciate First Lady Michelle Obama‘s recognition. The Joining Forces initiative is an important and natural extension of UPS‘s outward and visible support of the men and women that serve in the military,” said Chairman and CEO Scott Davis.

“Men and women who were prepared to give all a person can give, and with devotion and gallantry, were ready to sacrifice. Veterans, who through their service, honored their nation, should know that UPS can and wants their talents and skills to be recognized and valued.”

UPS will further enhance its commitment by helping veterans transition into the civilian workforce through increased networking opportunities. This includes forming new alliances with VSOs, working though government outreach efforts to veterans, establishing Veteran Business Resource Groups to ensure critical resources are available within UPS and by enhancing the level of recognition for employees who have so honorably served. Veterans, National Guard and Reserve members make up 7.5 percent of UPS‘s domestic workforce.

UPS is highly recognized for its support of the military services. UPS has twice received the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award, the nation’s highest recognition for employers supporting National Guard and Reserve members.

In February, 2013, UPS reaffirmed its commitment for the National Guard and Reserves by signing a formal Statement of Support with the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Additionally, UPS historically supports veteran’s organizations through sponsorships, donations and volunteer hours throughout the country including at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, the Marine Corps …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

CEO Optimism Rises for Sales and Capital Spending, but Not for Jobs

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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The Business Roundtable (BRT) released its first-quarter CEO Economic Outlook Survey for 2013, showing that average CEO economic expectations for the coming six-month period have improved for first time in four quarters. Unfortunately, CEO optimism may not translate to jobs growth yet. Chief executives are expecting higher sales and capital spending from their companies but are expecting that net hiring will remain flat.

The BRT said, “CEO economic expectations increased for the first time in four quarters. BRT CEOs also expect 2.1 percent growth for 2013, a slight increase from last quarter’s estimate of 2.0 percent.”

Jim McNerney, who is head of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and the chairman of Business Roundtable, said, “The relatively smaller improvement in the outlook for hiring, however, may reflect ongoing uncertainty and a wait-and-see attitude about the business climate in the United States, as agreement on the nation’s debt and budgetary issues remains elusive.”

Today’s survey release was up in the first quarter of 2013, to 81.0 from 65.6 in the fourth quarter of last year, and is back to the its highest level since the second quarter of 2012. The current index is at about its long-term average level of 79.2.

The BRT survey was completed between February 11 and March 1, 2013, and responses were received from 144 member CEOs for a 69% participation rate in the BRT survey. Here is a snapshot:

Roundtable

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Corporate Governance, Economy, Jobs, Labor & Unions, Large Cap Stocks Tagged: BA

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Decoding Jeff Immelt & GE's New Act: US Manufacturer

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By Steve Denning, Contributor

Is manufacturing back? At the very least, manufacturing is back in fashion, judging from the high profile conference last hursday at the Newseum in downtown Washington DC. Amid panoramic views of the historic monuments and buildings of the Capitol, a bevy of high profile speakers, including Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Chairman and CEO of General Electric [GE] Jeff Immelt, John Engler, President and CEO of Business Roundtable, Senators Mary Landrieu, Michael Bennet, John McCain and Amy Klobuchar, and Susan Lund, Director of Research at the McKinsey Global Institute along with many others, passionately declared their support for a proposition that would have been considered ridiculous in policy discussions only a short while ago: manufacturing matters. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 2/7/2013

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By The White House

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
10:07 A.M. EST
MR. CARNEY: Good morning, everyone. I wanted to give you a little information before I take your questions in this off-camera gaggle.
Well, first of all, as you know, the President will be speaking in an open press event to House Democrats in Leesburg later today, so you’ll have that to look forward to.
Also today, senior administration officials will meet with businesses association groups and small business association groups here at the White House. Valerie Jarrett, Jeff Zients, Gene Sperling, and Alan Krueger will be in attendance. The larger business association meeting takes place right about now. How about that? And it includes representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Association, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the Business Roundtable, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the National Retail Federation. I think we provided you a full list of participants, so I will not take up time reading them.
In the afternoon, the same senior administration officials will meet with representatives from a number of smaller business associations, including the Small Business Majority, the NFIB, the National Association of Women Business Owners, and others. The groups will discuss the President’s efforts to find a balanced approach to reduce the deficit and avoid the devastating effects of the sequester along with the discussion of the President’s approach to comprehensive immigration reform and how it fits into our broader economic agenda.
And with that, I go to your questions. Mr. AP.
Q Thanks, Jay. Senator Hagel’s confirmation vote has been postponed with Republicans saying they need more information from him. Should Senator Hagel provide Congress with more information about his past activities?
MR. CARNEY: Well, Senator Hagel has provided extensive information about his activities. I’m not sure which activities you’re referring to. I think there’s been a question about past speeches. And as you know, Senator Hagel has conducted an exhaustive search for all of his speaking engagements over the past five years, as the committee requested. He has provided all available prepared texts and transcripts from those speeches to the committee. There are some speeches that Senator Hagel gave for which there were no prepared remarks and no transcripts. A list of those speeches has also been provided to the committee.
So the broader issue here is we continue to expect the Senate to act quickly to confirm Senator Hagel. As you know, since his confirmation hearing, more senators on both sides of the aisle have announced their support for his confirmation. That includes Senators Johanns, Harkin, Gillibrand, Begich, Udall, Hagan, and Blumenthal.
We continue to urge the Senate to move quickly. This is a uniquely qualified nominee for the position of Secretary of Defense, A. And B, the position of Secretary of Defense needs to be filled. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House Press Office