USA CEOs PLEAD "FIX THE DEBT"

OOPS! WE MUST HAVE PLAYED IT WRONG.

The USA central government and several of its major States often hover on the edge of bankruptcy – while Senators fiddle and argue as Rome burns. The "Who will blink first?"  brinkmanship tradition continues today.

A new, but tediously familiar, fiscal fire alarm has been rung by the awesome assembly of top CEOs at Fix The Debt ...and by the influential Business Round Table. They see America is about to plunge to its untimely tax budget doom, into the terrifying, gruesome, walking-dead, vampire cannibals, eternal torment, abysmal chasm called - OVER THE FISCAL CLIFF.  

The top CEOs tremble at the looming $16 trillion US Government debt and via their website have launched a petition to Congress and any politicians with the courage to act, pleading (as that is what petitioners do) for the warring Democrats and Republicans wrestling dangerously on the edge of the cliff, to “Fix It”. Some liberal journalists see the petition as calling for higher taxes; even for the rich and famous – and top CEOs. But closer reading reveals that they don’t want higher taxes – they simply want it fixed. They call for firm leadership, which is ironic coming from such experienced and successful global business leaders.

In their understandable panic, as Armageddon threatens and The Scalding Pit of Hell yawns beneath their feet, these knowledgeable, internationally sophisticated, highly paid, intelligent top people, some of them senior bankers, do not know of the $21 trillion buried in tax-havens or that much of the buried cash is withheld from society on their corporate balance sheets. Also, obviously driven from their minds by the extreme emergency, they overlook that the off-shore Rivers of Tax-Free Cash increase by $1 trillion every year. Some of it might even be siphoned, ENRON style, from the American economy. Perhaps, if we beg, the companies will lend it back to the US?

STARBUCKS’ TAX: JAMES BOND 007 - LICENSED TO COLLECT.

Perhaps this would help - repatriate the USA’s part of the $21 trillion and plug the $1 trillion a year leak. And invest it in modern US infrastructure and industries to create jobs.  But, Hey! Why bother when it’s so nice supping pina-coladas here in Cayman. “Cheers!”

 http://www.fixthedebt.org/ceo-council     Budget Control Act of 2011

FixtheDebt.org CEOs.

Bill Ackman, Founder & CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P.

Samuel R. Allen, Chairman & CEO, Deere & Company

Richard Anderson, Chief Executive Office, Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corp.

Doug Bergeron, CEO, VeriFone Systems, Inc.

Mark Bertolini, Chairman, CEO & President, Aetna, Inc.

Leon Black, Chairman & CEO, Apollo Global Management, LLC

Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman & CEO, Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Glenn Britt, Chairman & CEO, Time Warner Cable Inc.

Greg Brown, Chairman & CEO, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Nicholas Calio, President & CEO, Airlines for America

Russell Carson, Co-Founder & Gen. Partner, Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe

Marc Casper, President & CEO, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

John Chambers, Chairman, President & CEO, Cisco Systems, Inc.

David Cote, Chairman & CEO, Honeywell International Inc.

Alexander Cutler, Chairman & CEO, Eaton Corp.

Richard Daly, CEO, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

D. Scott Davis, Chairman & CEO, United Parcel Service, Inc.

Steven A. Denning, Chairman, General Atlantic, LLC

Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Scott Donnelly, Chairman, President & CEO, Textron Inc.

Craig Duchossois, CEO, The Duchossois Group, Inc.

Brian Duperreault, President & CEO, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.

Larry D. Fink, Chairman & CEO, BlackRock, Inc.

Martin L. Flanagan, President & CEO, Invesco Ltd.

James Frank, President & CEO, Wheels, Inc.

Kenneth Frazier, Chairman, President & CEO, Merck & Co., Inc.

Paul Fribourg, Chairman, President & CEO, Continental Grain Company

Daniel Fulton, President & CEO, Weyerhaeuser Company

Robert Gasser, President & CEO, Investment Technology Group, Inc.

Donald Gogel, Chairman & CEO, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC

Evan Greenberg, Chairman, President & CEO, ACE Limited

CEO Fiscal Leadership Council (continued)

Robert Greifeld, CEO, The Nasdaq OMX Group, Inc.

Kirk Hachigian, Chairman, President & CEO, Cooper Industries, plc

Ken Hicks, CEO, Foot Locker, Inc.

Glenn Hutchins, Co-Founder, Silver Lake

Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman & CEO, General Electric Company

John Ingram, Chairman & CEO, Ingram Content Group, Inc.

Dr. Paul Jacobs, Chairman & CEO, Qualcomm Inc.

Thomas M. Joyce, Chairman & CEO, Knight Capital Group, Inc.

Mel Karmazin, CEO, Sirius XM Radio Inc.

Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman, President & CEO, Executive Council, Alcoa Inc.

Jack Leslie, Jr., Chairman, Weber Shandwick Worldwide

Andrew Liveris, Chairman, President & CEO, The Dow Chemical Company

Gary Loveman, Chairman, President & CEO, Caesars Entertainment Corp.

Eugene Ludwig, Founder & CEO, Promontory Financial Group

Terry Lundgren, Chairman, President & CEO, Macy's, Inc.

Frederick C. Maynard, III, Managing Director, HarbourVest Partners, LLC

Lowell McAdam, Chairman & CEO, Verizon Communications Inc.

Michael McCallister, Chairman & CEO, Humana Inc.

William McCracken, Chief Executive Officer, CA Technologies, Inc.

John McGlade, Chairman, President & CEO, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

W. James McNerney, Jr., Chairman, President & CEO, The Boeing Company

Tom Monahan, Chairman & CEO, CEB

Robert Moritz, Chairman & Senior Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Brian T. Moynihan, President & CEO, Bank of America Corporation

Duncan L. Niederauer, Chief Executive Officer, NYSE Euronext

Douglas Oberhelman, Chairman & CEO, Caterpillar Inc.

Joe Payne, Chairman & CEO, Eloqua

George Paz, Chairman, President & CEO, Express Scripts, Inc.

Joseph Plumeri, II, Chairman & CEO, Willis Group Holdings plc

Thomas J. Quinlan III, President & CEO, R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company

Walter Rakowich, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Prologis, Inc.

W. Russell Ramsey, Chairman, President & CEO, Ramsey Asset Management

CEO Fiscal Leadership Council (continued)

James Robinson, III, Founding General Partner, RRE Investors, LLC

Brian Rogers, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer, T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.

Tom Rogers, CEO & President, TiVo, Inc.

Steven Roth, Chairman, Vornado Realty Trust

Edward Rust, Jr., Chairman, President & CEO, State Farm Mutual

Gregg M. Sherrill, Chairman & CEO, Tenneco, Inc.

Arne M. Sorenson, President & CEO, Marriott International, Inc.

Jerry Speyer, Chairman & Co-CEO, Tishman Speyer

Paul Stebbins, Executive Chairman, World Fuel Services Corporation

Randall Stephenson, Chairman & CEO, AT&T Inc.

Linda Stewart, President & CEO, Interaction Associates

Thomas F. Steyer, Founder & Senior Managing Member, Farallon Capital Mgmt., LLC

Andrew Tisch, Co-Chairman of the Board, Loews Corp.

James Tisch, President & CEO, Loews Corp.

Frits van Paasschen, President & CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Mark Walsh, Chairman & CEO, GeniusRocket

Wendell Weeks, Chairman & CEO, Corning Inc.

Michael White, Chairman, President & CEO, DIRECTV

Robert Wilmers, Chairman & CEO, M&T Bank

Thomas Wilson, Chairman, President & CEO, The Allstate Corporation

Kathy Wylde, President & CEO, Partnership for New York City

Corporate Members

UnitedHealth Group

Business Leaders Council

Lee Sanford Ainslie, III, Managing Partner, Maverick Capital Ltd.

Josh Bekenstein, Managing Director, Bain Capital

David Belluck, General Partner, Riverside Partners, LLC

Peter Beshar, Executive Vice President & Gen. Counsel, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.

Andy Bluhm, Founder & Principal, Delaware Street Capital, LLC

Ted Buerger, Chairman, AmericanTowns.com, LLC

John Burbank, Founder & CIO, Passport Capital, LLC

Bob Cummings, Vice Chairman, Investment Banking, J.P. Morgan

Boykin Curry, Managing Director, Eagle Capital Management, LL

Timothy Fisher, Senior Vice President & Director, The Hillman Company

David Gasson, Vice President, Director of Corporate Communications, Boston Capital

Donald Graham, Founder, The Graham Group

Bruce Heyman, Managing Director, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Philip Howard, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP

David Knowlton, Managing Partner, Three Ocean Partners, LLC

Nancy Maffucci, Executive Vice President of Global Communications, Wunderman

R. Tim McNamar, President, E-Certus Software, Inc.

Lenny Mendonca, Director, McKinsey & Company

Allen Parker, Deputy Presiding Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

Chris Pinney, Senior Vice President, Alliance for Business Leaders

Bob Pozen, Former Chairman, MFS Investment Management

Brenda Gray Reny, Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director, Daintree Advisors

Roger Sant, Co-Founder & Chairman Emeritus, The AES Corporation

Ivan Seidenberg, Former Chairman, Verizon Communications, Inc.

Brad Smith, General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Microsoft Corp.

Bill Staton, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer, Staton Financial Advisors, LLC

Stuart Match Suna, President, Silvercup Studios

David Thomas, Managing Partner, Court Square Capital Partners

Michael B. Wisenbaker, President, Peregrine Group

Gary Wilson, General Partner, Manhattan Pacific Partners

TAX AND ECONOMICS ARTICLES 29TH APR 13