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

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.