Your morning jolt: Coke chief says U.S. becoming more hostile to business than China
Coca-Cola’s top dog on Monday told the Financial Times that, thanks to an antique tax code and political infighting, the United States is becoming a more hostile place to do business than China:
Muhtar Kent, Coke’s chief executive, said “in many respects” it was easier doing business in China, which he likened to a well-managed company. “You have a one-stop shop in terms of the Chinese foreign investment agency and local governments are fighting for investment with each other,” he [said].
And Washington gridlock? “There’s too much comfort. We need more needles to stick in politicians.”
Kent made his remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative conference. See the FT video here.
***
Apparently, a certain former political figure has no plans to return to elective office. Bloomberg reports that former Democratic attorney general Thurbert Baker has been hired by the debt collection industry to help fight new restrictions in several states:
DBA International, the debt-buying industry’s trade association, hired Baker, the former Georgia attorney general, to cultivate relationships with key regulators in advance of state legislative sessions in early 2013. That way, Baker said in an interview, the industry will be “at the table to help draft legislation, if it comes to that.”
***
The legislative committee that oversees MARTA held a friendly meeting with transit officials on Monday. From my AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin:
Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Atlanta, the chairman of the MARTOC Committee, said consensus is building among lawmakers in favor of a major change in MARTA funding.
The meeting was a far cry from the days when the committee was run by a more confrontational Rep. Jill Chambers, R-Atlanta, who lost a re-election contest last year.
But by coincidence, while her old committee was holding forth, Chambers sent out an e-mail advertising her new services as a private investigator – looking through court records, conducting background searches and locating witnesses. Her fee:
$25 per hour + expenses (database fees, parking, copy costs, mileage @ $0.50/mile)
Which is a bargain. Jim Rockford was charging $200 a day plus expenses 20 years ago.
***
Over at the Athens Banner-Herald, Blake Aued says U.S. Rep. Paul Broun’s Republican primary opponent has surfaced:
Mac Collins said there is a better-than-even chance he’ll run against Broun in a radically redrawn 10th District. He said he expects to make a final decision by the end of October.
Collins, 67, served 12 years in Congress from 1993 to 2005. He said he’s more experienced than Broun, who’s served four years.
“I’ve been there at these tough times like we’re having today,” he said.
But in order to run against Broun, Collins will have to concede that Democrat Jim Marshall beat him in 2006 – something that Collins has yet to do.
***
The AJC’s Politifact Georgia today examines U.S. Rep. Paul Broun’s claim that federal stimulus cash used to cut down on childhood obesity is killing jobs.
***
State Sen. Doug Stoner, D-Smyrna, is making the case that his newly re-drawn Senate district is just as important to Georgia Democrats as U.S. Rep. John Barrow’s stand in east Georgia. From an analysis by the Marietta Daily Journal triumvirate:
“It’s one of the key races Republicans are hoping to flip to their column — it would help them gain a supermajority and also help them gain a majority in the Fulton County legislative delegation,” said Dr. Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. “It’s also a textbook case of gerrymandering, taking a district that was completely in Cobb, and stretching it far into north Fulton County, making it a majority Republican district.”
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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155 comments Add your comment
Innocent Bystander
September 27th, 2011
12:48 pm
What a joke. The US being “hostile” to business basically means we have rules and regulations here as opposed to China where simply bribe your way to whatever end result you desire. I’m so sorry we inconvenienced you when we outlawed human slavery a century and a half ago Mr. Coke CEO. Have fun making the other half of the world into lard-butts too.
DannyX
September 27th, 2011
1:02 pm
Pollution in this country was so bad the Republicans gave us the EPA. Imagine how bad it must have been, there has not been an agency created with full regulatory powers since.
Yep, Republicans gave us the EPA and the Endangered Species Act.
Now Republicans are in bed with the communist devil. Well, Nixon did start the whole China thing with that ping pong match.
Nixon gave us the EPA and made friends with communist China, weird how things worked out.
td
September 27th, 2011
1:09 pm
North over South
September 27th, 2011
12:42 pm
In 2010, Muhtar Kent made over $24.8 million, this included a base salary of $1.2 million, annual cash bonus of $6.5 million and other compensation totaling $738,000 What a greedy @#%$#
This man has a masters degree, worked for the company for more than 20 years, worked many 100 hour weeks on the way up, was willing to make the sacrifice of not seeing his children’s ball games, birthdays, being at Christmas, not watching TV and hanging with friends. His life has been his job and now he is getting the rewards for the years of sacrifice.
What sacrifices have you made to become wealthy? It is not like your messiah says that he was lucky. It is hard work to get to a power position, a lot of knowing when to keep your mouth shut and when to say the right thing. It is many years of being the first one in the office in the morning and the last one to leave at night. Working on your own time to be smarter then the guy next to you and out working that person.
Again, what have you done to deserve such money?
WC
September 27th, 2011
1:10 pm
You guys are missing the point – He’s not saying we need to be more like the communists, he’s saying – and this is a shock since he was pro-Obama, pro-Buffett – that big government taxes and regulations make it increasingly more difficult to run a profitable business from the US. Sounds like a Tea-Partier to me! Of course the Chinese communists can make the socialism thing roll because they don’t care if their citizens live or die.
yuzeyurbrane
September 27th, 2011
1:17 pm
It does not surprise me that corporate types prefer dealing with dictatorships.
Stoner is right.
Broun’s race will be interesting–can a normal right-wing conservative Republican beat a crazy right-wing Republican? If your instant mental reaction was to label Broun as the crazy then Collins will win.
Cammi317
September 27th, 2011
1:17 pm
No worries Coke, because when I am in a cola mood I drink Pepsi!
Jason
September 27th, 2011
1:18 pm
You white people are always calling someone communist. You are the biggest terrorist and communist in existance.
emo
September 27th, 2011
1:20 pm
As I recall, the ChiComs used to demand that any US company surrender their intellectual property to them as a requiremant to do business over there. Does that mean Muhtar gave them his precious secret formula?
I knew someone who worked for CC (Coca Cola, not Communist China) for years, and she said everyone there loved the product but despised the company.
PeachPower
September 27th, 2011
1:20 pm
Maybe Mr. Kent should take a look at China’s property rights system. That’s one respect that the good ol’ USA has China beat. Property rights also protects ALL of Coke’s branding and its precious secret formula and is the reason Coke can actually sell its sugar water.
Thank you, Mr. Kent for making it clear that multi-national corporations have a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitude. What has Coke done for us lately except make us fat and tax-evade?
Charles
September 27th, 2011
1:20 pm
I hear “Conservatives” say that the main or first thing the government is supposed to do is protect it’s citizens. Usually they are thinking in terms of the military. But they want to completely ignore the protection that comes from regulations. Regulations that keep our society safe. Instead these are looked upon as roadblocks and nusances. That’s until something happens to them and then they want intervention. I wouldn’t be surpised if Mr. Kent isn’t a member of ALEC. He certainly sounds like he is. And many of the business leaders in this country are very responsible for the shape our country is in today. Like someone pointed out, their objective is making profits. And interestingly enough they have managed to do so in spite of a down economy. So why not continue to stick the screws to the American people, it’s not hurting them. Their primary objective now is to get someone in the WH that will make it as easy to make a profit as it is in China. So what if you bring down the country in the process.
Ron Reagan
September 27th, 2011
1:23 pm
Free and free-er markets are the key to the world economy’s growth. All you idiots that are bashing rich people need to think it through. Smart and prosperous countries like China and Brazil are embracing free enterprise while you idiots are voting in moronic Democrats that are embracing socialism (rapidly). Don’t waste my time!
nihilist nick
September 27th, 2011
1:31 pm
In protest, I will only consume Pepsi with my freedom fries.
emo
September 27th, 2011
1:35 pm
I know Ron Reagan, and you are no Ron Reagan! Maybe Ronald, after Alzheimer’s.
DownLouis
September 27th, 2011
1:36 pm
Apparently sales are much more important to him than Human rights. I don’t think the US should do any business with China or any other communist country where people are not free.
But people will do anything for money.
From this moment forward I will never purchase a Coke product again!
Adolph
September 27th, 2011
1:55 pm
This call for a case of extremist nationalism. Boycott Coke. Seig Heil!!!
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 27th, 2011
2:02 pm
Wonder how much effort Coca-Cola’s CEO, Muhter Kent, has expended in obedience to Our Creed’s “Annuit Coeptis,” by bringing to justice Bush and Cheney for having committed 9/11?
America’s King, the Creator, G-d of the universe, is not mocked. The DC Quake was a warning to the sovereign People.
Prosperity in business is from G-d. Shall Americans flourish as slaves under the Roman Anti-Christ which has ruled over us since the Fasces were nailed to the front wall of the U.S. House?
Though born in Our Country, it is curious Muhter Kent speaks with a foreign accent. Even more curious is his failure to realize in America, by design, corporations are servant to the People. If he isn’t using his position to restore righteousness on behalf of the People in bringing Bush and Cheney to justice for their treason, he is but a Mammon-worshipping tool of a prevailing fascist plutocracy which must be expropriated and banished…perhaps to a country which speaks Muhter’s “language,” with the same “accent.”
coachx
September 27th, 2011
2:39 pm
Bill Sherman,
American businesses have the 2nd highest corporate tax rate and the #1 highest wages of any other country in the world.
Is that corporate America’s fault ?
Of course not………that is the fault of politicians with no economic or business sense or cents.
Ron Burgundy
September 27th, 2011
2:42 pm
but but but Obama is trying he jus is getting stalemated by the nazi tea party.
Libtards are dumb!
Area man
September 27th, 2011
2:45 pm
Maybe China will hire Thurbert Baker to help collect its debts from the US. Wonder what the commission on that one will be?
Truth
September 27th, 2011
2:58 pm
The reason jobs are going overseas is because that’s where the skills are. They are also young, educated, and ready to bust their arse. All they want is H1B sponsorship!
Luke
September 27th, 2011
3:04 pm
Your “Georgia Liberal” link listed under the “Blogroll” section of this page links to a European pharmacy site selling Viagra. Please correct this by taking the listing off your page.
HOW IGNORANT ARE THE READERS
September 27th, 2011
3:11 pm
It amuses me the article talks about the tax code and how it should be changed to better facilitate business in America and all these ignorant readers rant about they will never buy a coke product again because they do business with China lol. Who do you think buys all of our US Treasuries?? Maybe everyone should stop doing business with the federal government too. I guess ignorance is bliss
James Tavegia
September 27th, 2011
4:29 pm
Mr. Kent, I just bought my last coke product ever. it is clear that CEOs and CFO here in the U.S. are only interested in their own bottom line in order to secure more bonuses for themselves You people at the top do not care about anyone or anything else. Your market share not big enough? Really? Move to China and stay there. Take the guy from Bank of America who made the decision to axe another 30,000 jobs. You all are becoming pathetic. You are not job creators that this country needs you are selfish capitals.
Matt
September 27th, 2011
4:38 pm
Enter your comments here
Git R Dun
September 27th, 2011
4:38 pm
Boo
Jack
September 27th, 2011
4:42 pm
I’ve traveled in China twice. When I traveled to China this summer, I did not see any Chinese People in Beijing or Shanghai drinking Coke. Chinese people do not like Coke.
What good is it doing business in China if you can’t sell the people your product?
Matt
September 27th, 2011
4:42 pm
All of you anti capatilist are complete idiots. Educate yourself before making comments and waisting everyone’s time. Kent was simply trying the make a point that the “commmunist Chinese” have less redtape than our current political structure. Why do you thing unemployment is still at 10%? Corporations won’t hire because they don’t know what their overhead cost will be. (i.e. employment cost) Will Obama enforce the healthcare mandate, change corporate tax structure, implement a VAT tax? Who knows and neither do CEOs of fortune 100 companies.
Ping Chang Xi
September 27th, 2011
4:44 pm
Oooooooo… I rove me some Cora.
L. Adams
September 27th, 2011
4:46 pm
Maybe he has a point. Can we establish a one-party system? Perhaps we’ll hear less about those dumb Democrats or those dumb Republicans and perhaps we’ll have more technocrat-like policy debates. No, I’m not a Communist!
Oh Please
September 27th, 2011
4:53 pm
Why are Americans so sensitive and easily insulted when someone speaks the truth? Ignorance and arrogance, not bombs, will be our downfall.
N-GA
September 27th, 2011
5:12 pm
Why link to a subscription e-mag? Just give us what he said. I don’t appreciate you shilling for another publication. I’m also tired of US executives whining about the United States. Every country has irritating policies/laws/regulations. Coca Cola seems to have done damned well for over 100 years.
N-GA
September 27th, 2011
5:19 pm
@Matt- Coca Cola provides health insurance to all its employees already. Not much mystery there. And before you tell people to educate themselves, try educating yourself. I mean “capatilist”. Really? You can’t even use the “Oops, typo” excuse on that one. And “waisting”….good grief, what a dolt! You follow that with “…trying the make a point….” and then you just can’t stop. You go with “… do you thing unemployment…”. My sides are splitting!
BTW – Most Fortune 100 CEO’s know what their costs are going to be. Their real problem is that they don’t know what their revenues will be.
GT
September 27th, 2011
5:25 pm
Was Muhtar Kent at a Clinton sponsored conference, like in Bill Clinton? And if he was do you think Kent was throwing rocks at Democrats? I wish these guys like Kent would not leave the door open for guilty parties to think he is talking about someone besides them. I think if a chairman of Coke would come out and say the Republican Party and their games are making the credit rating of this country go down it would go a lot further to solving the problem. Of course some of those overweight Tea Party people would have to boycott cokes which with a lot of 12 can a day drinkers could bankrupt the company. Hard to be candid when the fat boys stop drinking your product. I can’t tell the difference between business and politics anymore.
NotSurprised
September 27th, 2011
5:29 pm
As former President Clinton said, “The American Dream has been under attack for the last 30 years.”..we were saved by the internet, we were saved by the Housing market but TODAY there is NOTHING left to create or bubble to bring us out of this economy….just remember EVERY GREAT EMPIRE HAS FALLEN…apparently it is now our turn…
Chuck
September 27th, 2011
5:37 pm
GaBlue, nice rant! You forgot the owl, sounds like you are not very happy being you.
GT
September 27th, 2011
5:45 pm
Clinton was right but he said it in a content of we can fix it, not all is loss that is a Republican reaction not Bill Clinton. What this country needed was a wake up call. It needed to remember the wolf being at its door, like the depression of the 30s. Toys like computers are great but we got great in this country feeding the world, inventing better machinery to survive not being Rambo or collecting toys. I dare say the cure of cancer will come from America, the answer to global climate warming, the redistribution of water all will come from this country. It will come from men like Bill Clinton who actually go to the mountain instead of the mountain coming to them. Could you imagine Nixon doing anything for anybody? Name an ex Republican president that is doing anything besides serving on corporate boards and social events. Being poor brings a humbling effect and that brings a sensitivity that understands the needs of humanity. All strange words to the mass of haters, but this will be the juice that saves America, that actually comes from our spiritual DNA that the haters claim is theirs.
mum
September 27th, 2011
5:54 pm
@Truth, the jobs went oversears yars ago but nobody took notice until now, because the wages are less. The middle class in China and India work for a fraction of our wages for the same job at home because they can’t get the visas like before 9/11. Believe me, if they could, they’d jump at the chance because however well they may now be living, they still want to be here. Not to worry, the jobs will go to the next “emerging market” when these folks start asking for more money and the corporate profits slipping.
Armando de Jesus
September 27th, 2011
6:07 pm
It is true that it is easier to do business in China. They do not have any regulations, the country is slowly killing itself with polluted air, and water. Oh by the way they add things to food products that shouldnt be there. On the good side they shoot CEO’s that screw up.
sirwinston19
September 27th, 2011
6:11 pm
You would think that America would open doors for its own and afford businesses to create and hire our own. Instead, we are open arms for other countries to come here in America and take stock, open their businesses and hire their own people; a few americans at best, but the bulk of their to take their money back to their countries and open more and hire more of their own…sinking america people and leave with our money. How stupid some can get. That is what these countries do. By the way, try going to other countries opening up american businesses and you will see just how many of their people has to be hired.
A Different Chuck
September 27th, 2011
6:26 pm
Very nicely worded GT. Bill Clinton is a great man and half the country hates him for doing such a good job.
Smoke
September 27th, 2011
7:17 pm
Corporate tax rates may be high, but they don’t pay that much. Of total income taxes collected, only 20% comes directly from corporations. Naturally, all of the taxes come from the people. But will someone please explain to me how keeping Muhtar Kent’s personal income taxes low will create good paying jobs in America?
Smoke
September 27th, 2011
7:22 pm
Talking about twisted. Dixiecrats are defending Muhtar Kent’s slamming American workers and protective regulations, while fighting to keep his personal income taxes low. Meanwhile calling Barack Hussen Obama a Muslum as a bad thing, while Kent is a real Turkish Muslum. ROTFLMAO.
Smoke
September 27th, 2011
7:28 pm
Truth. The real reason why jobs are going overseas is because corporation figured it out that they can pay high skill Chinese what they have been paying no-skill Dixiecrats.
The Centrist
September 27th, 2011
7:31 pm
How come I don’t see a lot of conservative comical comments?
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 27th, 2011
8:09 pm
Bill Clinton a “great man?”
Waco is on his head: the slaughter of innocent Black and White G-d-fearing Americans who spoke too thoroughly on their own radio station explaining Rome’s takeover of Washington, D.C. and America…
…slaughtered by Roman Catholics in the FBI and Army like Lon Horiuchi and all the FBI agents with Eastern European and Hispanic last names.
Look at child molesting adulterer Clinton’s highly unusually-shaped nose. It looks nothing like his mother’s or his putative father’s, James Blythe. Check them out on Google Images.
Then compare the “thumbprint” in the middle of his face to Winthrop Rockefeller’s nose. Dead match.
Never wonder about Bill’s having David Rockefeller’s arm around him at the CFR the afternoon his Senate impeachment trial acquitted him? Or how it was Illinoisan Hillary “magically” became the U.S. Senator from “Pocantico Hills” though never having lived in New York?
Wise up Georgia: the DC Quake was a simple and focussed warning from G-d.
Bush and Cheney must hang. Clinton’s part of the same “bi-partisan” Fifth Column of the Roman Anti-Christ.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 27th, 2011
8:20 pm
Recognizing the highly-unusual shape of Bill Clinton’s nose is vastly different from his mother’s and putative father’s and identical to Winthrop Rockefeller’s explains much to those with a mind to know…about Waco, the CFR, Monica, and Hillary’s “magical” ascent to the Senate from a state where she never lived.
Bill Clinton a “great man?”
He is no man at all.
td
September 27th, 2011
8:24 pm
Smoke
September 27th, 2011
7:17 pm
1: It is a question of fairness. No one should be paying more than 40 to 50% of their income to the government, while 48% pay $0 dollars in Federal income taxes.
2: This one is most important. Read the tax law about sub chapter S corporations. You will find that most small businesses are set up this way and the company is paying on the owners personal income taxes. These small businesses create 75% of all new jobs in the country.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 27th, 2011
8:52 pm
Bill Clinton a “great man?” For those trying to reconcile that easily disproven claim against his signing off on NAFTA, his role in Waco’s slaughter of innocents after the ATF’s illegal assault, his serial adultery and virtual child molestation with Monica, and how non-New Yorker Hillary became the “magically” elected senator from Pocantico Hills, one need look no farther than Bill’s highly-unusually shaped nose…totally disimilar to his putative father’s or honky-tonk mother’s…just look at Winthrop Rockefeller’s matching “thumbprint” in the middle of his face and recall David Rockefeller’s arm around the Vietnam draft-dodger at the CFR in Manhattan the afternoon the Senate acquitted him in their impeachment trial.
The Fifth Column of the Roman Anti-Christ is “bi-partisan:” Demublicans AND Republicrats. Clinton’s part of them…notice how chummy his is with one of his supposed heroes, JFK’s, assassin, GHWBush.
Clinton is no man and no American.
He fooled me just as Obama did.
eah
September 28th, 2011
2:18 am
Of course it’s cheaper. Bribes usually cost less than taxes. Also easier to have your enemies “disappeared” than have lawsuits. Hey, let’s all move there!
Cll1950
September 28th, 2011
7:49 am
Water, “The New Coke”. Much better for you and your children. Put some through a filter and drink you heart out for pennies.