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Passing the ethics exam

19 Apr 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

We are reminded in the reading from 1 John this Sunday that "the Spirit is truth." Hoping to encourage more truth and ethics in business, the Ethisphere Institute on Monday named 99 companies it says are the world's most ethical. The institute uses the listing to encourage ethical practices within the global business community. The 99 companies, which include Honeywell, Nike, Patagonia, BMW, Johnson Controls, and HSBC Holdings, come from 35 different industries. "The mission of our group is to improve corporate behavior," said Alex Brigham, executive director of the institute. This year's group features 22 first-time recipients, like Dell, Reuters, Best Buy, and T-Mobile International. Of the companies on the list, 44 are there for the third time. They include General Electric, American Express, PepsiCo, McDonald's, Starbucks, and IKEA. Some, such as Nike, have demonstrated a will to correct past mistakes, Brigham said. The full list of companies can be found at www.ethisphere.org/wme2009. Source: An article by Reuters

ethics reuters best buy t-mobile international general electric american express pepsico mcdonalds starbucks dell alex brigham hsbc holdings business ethisphere institute corporations honeywell nike patagonia bmw johnson controls ikea

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Bringing G.E.’s tax-avoidance to light

03 Apr 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus restores the sight of a man born blind in this Sunday’s gospel, affirming in the longer version of the reading, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” A recent investigative report brings to light the fact that, despite total profits of $14.2 billion in 2010, General Electric (G.E.) managed to owe no U.S. taxes. In fact, it claimed a tax benefit for the year of $3.2 billion. The New York Times’ investigation revealed that the company has been cutting its tax bill for years, resulting in a rate far lower than most other multinationals. “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore,” the newspaper said. G.E.’s giant tax department is often referred to as the "best tax law firm in the world,” the paper reports. It includes former officials from the U.S. Treasury department, the Internal Revenue Service, and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress. Thanks to its deductions, adjustments, and offshore profit centers, G.E. has paid a rate of exactly zero for two consecutive years. Corporations officially face a 35 percent federal income tax on profits, but many end up never paying anything near that amount. One aim of tax reform is to lower the corporate tax rate while scaling back tax breaks and loopholes that allow many corporations to pay less tax. In a political twist drawing fire, President Obama in January named Jeffrey R. Immelt, G.E.’s chief executive, to head the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, saying at the time, “He understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.” In light of the G.E. revelations a number of progressives are demanding that Immelt resign or be fired by the president. “How can someone like Immelt be given the responsibility of heading a jobs creation task force when his company has been creating more jobs overseas while reducing its American workforce?” said former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), who has launched a petition calling on the president to oust Immelt. Source: Articles by David Kocieniewski for the New York Times,Meredith Shiner for Polico.com, and Charles Riley for CNNMoney.com

taxes general electric jobs corporate taxes jeffrey r immelt russ feingold

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Take this job and ship it

24 Apr 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the lectionary option from the Gospel of John for the Mass of Easter Day, Mary of Magdala breathlessly reports to the disciples after visiting the tomb: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” If you’ve wondered where all the missing jobs have gone in recent years, check the other side of the world. On Monday the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released data on hiring at U.S. multinationals which shows them cutting employment at home and shipping an increasing number of jobs abroad. The big brand-name companies that employ a fifth of all American workers are especially busy exporting jobs, observers said, sharpening the debate over globalization's effect on the U.S. economy. In the 2000s U.S. multinationals shrank their U.S. workforces by 2.9 million while upping their overseas employment rosters by 2.4 million, reports the Wall Street Journal. GE is front and center in the trend, bringing further criticism to its CEO, Jeff Immelt, whom President Barack Obama in January appointed as “jobs czar” charged with finding solutions to the nation’s unemployment crisis. Last month Immelt faced criticism when it was reported that GE paid no federal taxes in 2009 on worldwide profits of close to $15 billion. In response to the jobs report, he claimed the company is shifting business overseas not in search of cheap labor but because of a growing customer base in countries like Brazil and China. While the trend toward shipping jobs overseas started with lower skill positions such as call center jobs, “in the past few years we have seen more highly skilled jobs moving overseas,” according to a Forbes report. "Computer programmers, engineers, and accountants are just some of the professionals who are losing their jobs to off-shoring.” For example, recent data suggests that of IBM’s reported 400,000-member worldwide work force at the end of 2009, only 105,000 jobs remained in the U.S. Business hardware and software maker Oracle reportedly hired twice as many employees abroad in the past five years as in the U.S. In 2000 it had more total workers at home than abroad, but by the end of 2010, 63 percent of its employees were overseas. Sources: Articles by Susan Adams and Colette Martin for Forbes, David Wessel for the Wall Street Journal,Ryan Chittum for the Columbia Journalism Review, and a news release from BEA.gov

general electric jobs offshoring oracle ibm jeff immelt bea bureau of economic analysis

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