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Covid vaccine mandates sweep throughout company America as delta surges

Covid vaccine mandates sweep across corporate America as delta surges

United Airlines ramp services worker John Dalessandro receives a COVID-19 vaccine at United’s onsite clinic at O’Hare International Airport on March 09, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

The U.S. government may not require that everyone get Covid-19 vaccines, but large employers across corporate America are stepping into the void.

More than a dozen large U.S. corporations, including Walmart, Google, Tyson Foods and United Airlines, have recently announced vaccine mandates for some or all of their workers.

“With rapidly rising COVID-19 case counts of contagious, dangerous variants leading to increasing rates of severe illness and hospitalization among the U.S. unvaccinated population, this is the right time to take the next step to ensure a fully vaccinated workforce,” Dr. Claudia Coplein, Tyson’s chief medical officer, said in a statement Tuesday.

The U.S. reported a seven-day average of more than 108,600 new cases per day as of Sunday, up 36% from a week earlier, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. With 83% of sequenced coronavirus cases nationwide stemming from the delta variant, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, vaccinations are seen by health officials and corporate management as the safest way to get employees who have been working remotely back to the office.

Though some employers now unilaterally mandate vaccines, most have limited the scope of their guidance to certain offices or specific groups of workers.

Google and Facebook have mandated Covid immunizations for anyone returning to their U.S. offices. Walmart, which has 1.6 million U.S. employees, has imposed a vaccine mandate for all corporate and management staff, while store employees must wear masks in high-risk counties.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon outlined the retailer’s plans to keep “gradually coming back into our office spaces with the idea of being closer to pre-pandemic levels after Labor Day.”

In April 2020, a Gallup poll found that 70% of employees surveyed were working from home. Companies are attempting to bring their workforce back into the office, but some have already begun pushing back their return dates as Covid case counts surge. Late last month, Google postponed its return to office deadline to Oct. 18, a delay of more than a month.

“Although I’m not a big fan of mandates, we need to use a variety of incentives to encourage as many people as possible to practice effective infection control,” said Dr. Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “If that’s the best or only way to motivate some people, then that’s one tool in our toolbox.”

United Airlines said Friday that all of its roughly 67,000-person U.S. employees must provide proof that they are vaccinated against Covid no later than Oct. 25, becoming the country’s first major airline to issue such a mandate. Employees risk termination if they don’t comply, though United said there will be exemptions for religious or medical reasons.

“We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,” United Airlines’ CEO Scott Kirby and the airline’s president, Brett Hart, wrote to employees announcing the vaccine requirement. “But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.”

Budget carrier Frontier Airlines followed suit hours later with its own mandate but said employees either need to show proof of inoculation by Oct. 1 or take regular Covid tests.

For better or worse, vaccines and other tools to fight the virus such as masks, have become controversial in the U.S. But health officials say the measures are necessary to save lives.

“To leave it up to the individual is to say that there are people who are going to make a choice that puts co-workers at risk,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “So I think it’s a responsible, important, necessary thing to do.”

Even companies with the most expansive mandates are required by law to allow some exceptions.

Facebook’s vice president of people, Lori Goler, said the company of nearly 59,000 global employees will have a process in place for people who can’t be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and that it’s working with experts “to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone’s health and safety.”

The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents over 800 employees across Google and its parent company, expressed concern over the exceptions to Google’s vaccine mandate, saying the company has provided insufficient details surrounding the exemption process. A spokesperson for the union said the mandate exists “to convince white collar workers to come back to the office,” while “a boatload of people” remain unvaccinated.

Google did not respond to a request for comment. Alphabet employed over 135,000 employees worldwide as of last year.

Other companies have faced pushback from unions on their vaccine directives. After Tyson announced last week that all 120,000 of its office and plant personnel must get vaccinated, United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents 24,000 Tyson meatpacking workers, voiced reservations about mandating vaccines that lack the FDA’s full approval.

“UFCW will be meeting with Tyson in the coming weeks to discuss this vaccine mandate and to ensure that the rights of these workers are protected, and this policy is fairly implemented,” UFCW International President Marc Perrone said in a statement. Perrone added that he wanted to ensure Tyson’s union workers receive paid time off to receive and adjust to the vaccine.

United and its pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association, agreed earlier this year not to implement a vaccine mandate for its nearly 13,000 aviators. United offered extra pay to pilots who received the vaccine and up to three days off for flight attendants. More than 90% of the pilots and about 80% of flight attendants are inoculated, the company said. The union said that some aviators who don’t plan to get vaccinated should talk with their pilot chief.

“The vaccine requirement represents an employment change we believe warrants further negotiations to ensure our safety, welfare, and bargaining rights are maintained, the pilots union said.

Other airlines including American, Southwest and Delta said they have not made any changes to their policies to encourage, but not mandate, vaccines for their employees. In May, Delta was the first major carrier to require the vaccine for new employees. United had followed suit. American and Delta have offered incentives like extra time off for employees who get vaccinated. Delta says more than 73% of its staff is vaccinated.

When asked how it would react to a potential companywide requirement, Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents some 15,000 pilots at American, said: “Our position is it’s a personal choice between pilots and their medical professional. As the bargaining agent for the pilots, any change to the conditions of employment must be discussed with the representative union.” The union last week, however, urged pilots to get vaccinated and estimated in a staff note that about 60% of them are inoculated.

By mandating inoculations, corporate America is taking action in a way federal legislators cannot, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. Outside of requiring vaccines for its own employees, Reiss said the federal government “probably doesn’t have the power to say everybody in the U.S. has to get vaccinated or pay a fine.”  

But insurance agencies might, a recent op-ed by Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal and Glenn Kramon in The New York Times suggests. In the model of policies that deny coverage for injuries sustained during dangerous activities, the authors indicate that insurers could start “penalizing the unvaccinated” because their refusal to immunize poses a threat to public health. Rosenthal is editor in chief of Kaiser Health News and Kramon is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Companies also have the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on their side, said Thomas Lenz, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. As long as their mandates abide by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the commission said in May, companies could require “all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated” against the coronavirus.

Despite the EEOC’s guidance, some businesses are still refraining from issuing mandates for fear of alienating their personnel, Lenz said.

“We see that employers are as concerned with what they perceive as a skill shortage, a labor shortage, as anything in deciding whether to mandate the vaccinations,” Lenz said. “And for that reason, employers don’t want to scare people away, as they feel they might be able to accommodate and keep the workforce in some other way.”

-CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed reporting.

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Politics

Warren Plans to Suggest Minimal Tax on Company Income

Warren Plans to Propose Minimum Tax on Corporate Profits

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and her allies will propose a minimum tax on the profits of the nation’s richest corporations, regardless of what they say they owe the government, as part of the Democrats’ $ 3.5 trillion economic and social package.

Ms. Warren’s so-called “real corporate income tax” was an important part of her presidential campaign, and she has enlisted Senator Angus King, of Independent Maine, to support her case that profitable corporations should be taxed regardless of loopholes and maneuvers that many of them do have made it possible to avoid state corporation tax altogether.

The move would require the most profitable companies to pay a 7 percent tax on the profits they report to investors – known as the annual book value – over $ 100 million. By taxing the revenues reported to investors, not the Internal Revenue Service, the Democrats would be making profits that companies would like to maximize, rather than the revenues they are trying to reduce for tax purposes.

“During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden and I were at odds on some tax policies, but we strongly agreed on one thing: Corporations shouldn’t be able to tell their shareholders they were making huge profits and then tell the IRS that they were not making a profit . ”“ Ms. Warren said in an interview.

Following the passing of a $ 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill expected this week, Democrats will turn to a draft budget that sets out the terms of a sprawling multi-trillion dollar package that will support the rest of their ambitions of strengthening and paying for the nation’s social safety net by increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and businesses. If it releases the Senate, it is almost guaranteed as only the votes of the 50 Senators who join with the Democrats come in.

This package will not be fully implemented until the fall, but the unveiling of the sober draft has spurred Democrats like Ms. Warren to offer their proposed contributions. While suggestions on topics like free pre-K, community college, and family vacations have attracted a lot of attention, how it is paid, including the proposed tax hikes for the wealthy and businesses, will generate at least as much controversy. The campaign to further screen wealthy businesses was supported by reports from ProPublica showing that the richest Americans pay very little in taxes.

“Now is the time to put the revenue on the table to pay for our infrastructure plans – this is the time,” said Ms. Warren.

In a separate interview, Mr. King responded to the expected Republican criticism by saying, “This is not socialism – it is an attempt to have a fair tax at a fairly low level for companies that would otherwise pay zero.”

An economic analysis by Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez, economics professors at the University of California, Berkeley, who advised Ms. Warren during the presidential campaign, estimated that around 1,300 public companies would be affected by politics, generating nearly $ 700 billion by 2023 would and 2032.

“We understand that responsible legislation includes how it’s paid and These payments come from the billionaires and giant corporations who have avoided paying their fair share for so long, ”Ms. Warren said. “In order to get the tax revenue part of the reconciliation package right, the point is to make the competitive conditions a little more balanced for everyone.”

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Politics

Biden’s Antitrust Group Indicators a Massive Swing at Company Titans

Biden’s Antitrust Team Signals a Big Swing at Corporate Titans

WASHINGTON – President Biden has assembled the most aggressive cartel team in decades, equipping his administration with three legal crusaders preparing to take on corporate consolidation and market power with efforts that could include blocking mergers and liquidating large corporations.

Mr Biden’s decision last week to appoint Jonathan Kanter to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division is the latest sign of his willingness to join forces with American businesses to foster more competition in the tech industry and across the economy. Mr. Kanter has spent years as a lawyer fighting giants like Facebook and Google on behalf of rival companies.

If the Senate confirms this, he will join Lina Khan, who reorganized the academic debate on antitrust law and now heads the Federal Trade Commission, and Tim Wu, a longtime advocate of the breakup of Facebook and other big companies, who is now the Special assistant from. is the President for Technology and Competition Policy.

The appointments show both renewed antitrust activism by the Democratic Party and the Biden government’s growing concern that the concentration of power in technology, as well as other industries such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, healthcare, and finance, has harmed consumers and workers and slowed economic growth.

They also underscore that Mr Biden is ready to use the power of his office and not wait for tougher action from Congress, an approach that is both quicker and potentially riskier. That month it issued an order of 72 initiatives designed to increase competition in a variety of industries, strengthen control over mergers, and curb the widespread practice of forcing workers to sign non-compete agreements.

External groups and government ideological allies warn that if Mr Biden really hopes to follow in the footsteps of his antitrust idols, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, he must push for sweeping laws to give federal regulators new powers grant, especially in the technology area. The core federal antitrust laws, written more than a century ago, did not provide for the kind of trade that exists today, where large corporations may offer their customers low prices, but at the expense of competition.

The government has tacitly backed the legislation working its way through the House of Representatives, but it has not yet attempted an antitrust push by Congress in the way that Mr Biden did on infrastructure, childcare and other components of his $ 4 trillion economic agenda to advance.

This could prove problematic if judges continue to oppose action by the Department of Justice, the FTC, or other agencies.

Last month, a federal judge threw an FTC lawsuit against Facebook saying the agency had failed to make a convincing argument that the company was a monopoly and instructed it to better justify its claims. Ms. Khan faces her first major review when she re-files that lawsuit, and on Friday the agency asked the court for more time.

Mr Biden’s antitrust experts argue that Facebook, Google, and Amazon have monopoly power and have used their dominant positions in social media, search, and online retail to crush competitors, leaving consumers with fewer options, even if they haven’t leads to higher costs.

Businesses and some economists disagree. Facebook cites TikTok, Snap, and Twitter as examples of competitors, and Amazon argues that it makes only 5 percent of all retail sales in the United States, despite an eMarketer study showing 40 percent of all online retail sales are made on its platform.

The President and his staff have seen his adoption of a “trustbuster” mentality as a critical step in realigning the economy to not only lower prices, but also to encourage more competition and create high-paying jobs.

“I always thought the free market system wasn’t just competition between companies, but guess what: companies should have to compete for workers,” Biden told a CNN audience in Ohio on Wednesday, promoting his executive order. “Guess what – maybe they’ll pay more money.”

White House officials argue that putting stubborn regulators in positions of power can enable them to thrive in antitrust efforts in a way that President Donald J. Trump did, who also made an executive order on competition and talked about technology – and not to dissolve hospital mergers.

“We’re confident,” said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute and advocate of stronger competition enforcement. “But when the rubber hits the streets, they have to juggle an aggressive agenda with the reality of the courts, Congress and outside pressure.”

Updated

July 23, 2021 at 5:42 p.m. ET

Some economists are warning that the staff Mr Biden appointed could go beyond efforts to break the focus that is really stifling competition and hurting consumers and getting into industries like restaurants or grocery stores. The entry of national players into local markets has in many cases opened up more opportunities for customers and created more jobs.

“I’m most concerned about rhetoric,” said Chang-Tai Hsieh, an economist at the University of Chicago whose research has shown that some corporate concentration in recent years has led to innovation that drives the economy. “You look at what you see in tech – and tech is different. And they extrapolate from the tech industry to all other industries. “

Corporate America is already fighting Mr. Biden’s efforts. Google, Facebook and Amazon have filled their legal teams with antitrust experts and have hired seasoned government antitrust officials in recent years. Facebook and Amazon have filed for Ms. Khan’s dismissal on antitrust matters related to their businesses. They say Ms. Khan, who worked on a House of Representatives antitrust investigation into digital platforms, comes with prejudice about her companies. Critics of Mr. Kanter, a private antitrust attorney, cite his previous representation for Microsoft and News Corp as a conflict of interest while the Justice Department leads its legal battle against Google.

Mr Biden’s moves reflect the growing influence of a movement to curb corporate power that has spread from progressive scholars and liberal leaders like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress.

Thomas Philippon, an economist at New York University, concluded in 2019 that increasing market concentration had damaged the US economy and cost the typical US $ 5,000 a year. Administrative officials repeatedly cite these statistics in support of Mr Biden’s recent order.

Tackling market concentration and promoting competition “can change the lives of millions of people in this country tremendously,” Bharat Ramamurti, associate director of Mr. Biden’s National Economic Council and former employee of Ms. Warren, said in an interview.

Mr. Ramamurti cited potential benefits not only from company dissolution, but also from giving consumers more and cheaper checking account options, selling hearing aids without a prescription, and limiting the company’s restrictions on whether employees can work for a competitor.

The approach is in stark contrast to the views of regulators during the Obama administration when Mr. Biden was vice president.

The number of hospitals that have merged has quadrupled during President Barack Obama’s first term, leaving millions of patients with fewer choices and higher health care prices.

In 2011, regulators cleared Comcast’s merger with NBCUniversal – the merger of a powerful cable and internet company with a media giant – on terms that the company’s own executive vice president, David Cohen, dismissed as not “particularly restrictive.”

Only one in three Democrats at the Federal Communications Commission turned down the deal, and Christine Varney, director of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said the deal would “bring new and innovative products to market and give consumers more program choice.”

In 2016, Tom Vilsack, Mr Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture who has taken that role back for Mr Biden, downplayed the harms of agricultural mergers.

“I don’t think that just because some of the key players may merge or are considering some other type of arrangement, I don’t think farmers absolutely guarantee that farmers will have less choice in the long run,” Vilsack said in an interview with USA Today.

Mr Biden has directed federal regulators to consider a tougher line against corporate consolidation in hospitals, health insurance, meat processing and technology, which could include reviewing previous mergers that have been approved.

And its antitrust authorities are trying to reverse mergers that were approved during the Obama years. The Federal Trade Commission’s recent lawsuit to liquidate Facebook focuses on the company’s 2012 purchases from Instagram and WhatsApp in 2014. The agency did not block the mergers because it did not see enough evidence of harm to consumers and competition.

These decisions have come back to keep the FTC prosecuted. The federal judge, who dropped his Facebook complaint in June, questioned the U-turn and why the commission had waited so long to try to resolve these deals.

The courts have become more and more conservative in cartel cases and are more firmly convinced that higher prices are the strongest sign of competition violations.

Administration officials acknowledge this challenge and say they are reviewing the antitrust views of potential justice candidates in hopes of moving the courts to a more benevolent view of the government’s efforts to block mergers and dissolve monopolies.

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Kamala Harris fundraiser Jon Henes to launch company advisory agency

Kamala Harris fundraiser Jon Henes to launch corporate advisory firm

Vice President Kamala Harris’ former national campaign finance chair is opening a strategic advisory firm that will aim, in part, to guide corporations and C-suite executives through handling social justice and politically charged issues.

Jon Henes, a longtime corporate restructuring attorney at the prominent law firm Kirkland & Ellis, plans to launch his new New York-based firm around Labor Day, according to people briefed on the matter.

The firm is planning to hire at least 15 people at first, and it could expand operations to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco, a person said.

The advisory firm will have a multipronged approach, including a corporate strategic advisory arm that would do the traditional counseling on hiring practices such as union inclusion. It will also have a team that will focus on environmental, social and corporate governance, and workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, these people said.

The people cited in this story declined to be named because details for the new venture have yet to be finalized.

A Kirkland & Ellis press release announcing Henes’ departure noted he was on his way to starting a strategic advisory firm but provided no further details.

“Over the past few years, in addition to my work at Kirkland, I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in the world of politics and policy, opening my eyes to the critical business need for helping CEOs navigate the convergence of business, finance and law with social justice, diversity, inclusion and politics,” Henes said in the release. “It is bittersweet to leave my Kirkland colleagues, many of whom I think of as family, but I’m excited to embark on this new chapter of my career.”

He did not return CNBC’s follow-up requests for comment.

The firm’s launch comes as corporations experience pushback from consumers and employees over their stances on social justice and environmental issues.

After voting laws that have been deemed restrictive by critics were passed in Georgia, corporations felt pressured to respond. Several did, including Major League Baseball, which moved its All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado.

In a recent example of the pressure, Toyota halted giving campaign contributions to Republican lawmakers who challenged the results of the election.

The competition for advisory firms like these is fierce, but many, especially those run by people with high-level contacts, are often successful.

Teneo, which was co-founded by Bill Clinton’s former right-hand man, Doug Band, has been known as an influential advisory group that has links to massive corporations.

The same can be said for WestExec Advisors, which has seen over 15 consultants head into the Biden administration, according to reporting by The Intercept and The American Prospect. Antony Blinken co-founded WestExec and is now secretary of State.

One of the other expected leaders of Henes’ firm is Alvin Tillery, according to the sources. Tillery is an associate professor at Northwestern University and director of the school’s Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy.

Tillery has experience running an advisory firm of his own. He is the founder of Analytic Insights Consulting, which, according to the firm’s website, “advises corporate, nonprofit, and governmental entities seeking to build more diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environments.” The firm’s listed previous clients include MGM International Resorts, Baker Demonstration School, the City of Evanston, and Exelixis.

If Tillery and Henes reach an official agreement, Tillery would continue his work at the school and will have a leadership role at the newly created advisory business, a person said. Analytic Insights Consulting is potentially folded into the new firm founded by Henes, this person noted.

Tillery did not respond to a request for comment.

Henes was Harris’ national finance chair while she was running for president during the 2020 election, helping her raise at least $400,000 before he started raising money for Joe Biden, CNBC previously reported.

Henes also led fundraising efforts both for Democrat Jaime Harrison’s bid for South Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat last year and former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire’s campaign for New York mayor in the Democratic primary this year.

While the Harris, Harrison and McGuire runs were unsuccessful, his fundraising efforts were key for Henes in developing contacts and potential partners and clients for his new firms. Harris went on to be vice president, and Harrison is the new chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Henes also developed strong corporate ties when he worked for clients as a restructuring and corporate governance advisor. Kirkland’s website shows that his past clients include Ion Media, Avaya and J.Jill.

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Politics

Biden and G-7 leaders will endorse a world minimal company tax

Biden and G-7 leaders will endorse a global minimum corporate tax

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about his government’s pledge to deliver 500 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine (PFE.N) to the world’s poorest countries during a visit to St. Ives, Cornwall, UK on June 10, 2021 donate.

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and G7 Group leaders will publicly advocate a minimum global corporate tax of at least 15% on Friday, part of a broader agreement to update international tax laws for a globalized, digital economy.

The leaders will also announce a plan to replace digital services taxes that targeted America’s largest tech companies with a new tax plan targeting the places where multinational corporations actually do business, rather than their headquarters.

For the Biden government, the Global Minimum Tax Plan is a concrete step towards its goal of creating a “foreign policy for the middle class”.

This strategy aims to ensure that globalization and trade are used for the benefit of working Americans, not just billionaires and multinational corporations.

For the rest of the world, GMT aims to end the arms race for tax cuts that has resulted in some countries cutting their corporate taxes much lower than others to attract multinational corporations.

If passed widely, GMT would effectively end the practice of global corporations looking for low-tax areas such as Ireland and the British Virgin Islands to relocate their headquarters even though their customers, operations and executives are located elsewhere.

The second major initiative that the Biden and G-7 leaders will announce on Friday is a plan they are “actively considering,” the International Monetary Fund’s offer of Special Drawing Rights, an internal IMF currency, the low-income countries are available to expand.

This plan aims to expand international development finance to poor countries and help them buy Covid vaccines and recover faster from the effects of the pandemic, according to a White House factsheet.

The White House also said G-7 leaders will agree to “provide political support to the global economy for as long as necessary to create a strong, balanced and inclusive economic recovery.”

But it is the GMT plan that has the greatest potential to affect business results and influence investor decisions.

The G-7 tax deal “will serve as a stepping stone to broader agreement in the G-20,” said a senior administration official, who spoke with reporters for background information to discuss the ongoing talks.

A joint statement by Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday offers an outlook on what to expect from the global tax deal between G-7 partner countries.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with US President Joe Biden during their pre-G7 meeting in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK, June 10, 2021.

Toby Melville | Reuters

“We are committed to finding an equitable solution to the allocation of taxation rights, with market countries being granted taxation rights on at least 20% of profits that exceed a 10% margin for the largest and most profitable multinational corporations,” the said Explanation.

“We are also committed to a minimum global tax of at least 15% on a country basis.”

As part of this agreement, “we will see to … the elimination of all taxes on digital services and other relevant similar measures for all businesses.”

The elimination of taxes on digital services, a patchwork of country-specific taxes specifically targeting America’s largest tech companies, is a real victory for the United States.

Analysts say that getting rid of these taxes – and ending the looming threat of new DSTs – would give the international tax system a level of security that would ultimately benefit big tech companies in the long term, even if a new global minimum tax were raised in the short term .

Once the G7 leaders adopt the GMT proposal, the next step will be to gain support among the G20, a diverse group of economies that includes China, India, Brazil and Russia.

In July, the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet in Venice, Italy. Both the IMF funding proposal and the international tax plan are expected to be high on the agenda.

It is currently unclear whether the GMT plan will win the support of the 19 member states and the European Union.

Details of the plan are yet to be worked out, and some of the G-20 are keeping corporate tax rates relatively low to attract businesses.

Much of the groundwork for the introduction of a GMT has already been laid by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which published a blueprint last fall outlining the two-pillar approach to international taxation.

The OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, known as BEPS, is the result of negotiations with 137 member countries and legal systems.

One pillar is the plan for countries to levy taxes on multinational corporations based on that company’s share of the profits that comes from a given country’s consumers.

The second pillar is the global minimum corporate income tax, a rate of at least 15% that would apply even if the tax rates in a particular country were lower.

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Politics

Jamie Dimon is skeptical of Biden’s minimal international company tax price

Jamie Dimon is skeptical of Biden's minimum global corporate tax rate

JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon testifies during a US House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 19, 2012, about JPMorgan Chase’s trading loss.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Citigroup chief Jane Fraser on Thursday expressed concerns over President Joe Biden’s effort to hike the amount of taxes businesses pay on foreign profits and a concurrent goal to set a global minimum corporate tax rate.

Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Dimon argued that a plan to raise the U.S. tax rate on foreign profits to 21% could, over time, push firms to move business overseas. Dimon thinks that shift could accelerate if allies renege on their promises to impose a similar global minimum tax rate.

“America would be the only country, I think, in the world that would have what we call a global tax rate,” he said, referring to the proposed 21% rate on U.S. companies’ foreign income.

“There’s no question in my mind that, at the margin … that will drive capital and, eventually, brains and R&D and investment overseas,” he said. “And that would be a mistake for America.”

Fraser, Citigroup’s new CEO, concurred, adding that “it’s very hard to get other countries to sign on to an equivalent program despite some optimism.”

“I think that will be extremely difficult,” she continued. “And, therefore, it could put the U.S. in a position of being less competitive around the world.”

The commentary from two of the nation’s top bankers came as the Biden administration continued to seek international support for a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15%.

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The Treasury Department, which has taken the lead in trying to persuade Germany, France and others to back the plan, contends that a universal floor on corporate tax rates would allow governments to more effectively generate tax revenue.

Neither the White House nor the Treasury Department wished to comment on the record.

The current system, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, incentives countries to offer lower effective corporate rates over time in a “race to the bottom” to lure corporations across geographies.

But Dimon and others have expressed doubts over any chance of long-term success in persuading U.S. peers to adhere to a global minimum at 15% or any other level, especially when it may be more lucrative for governments to cheat the system by offering backdoor incentives or flouting the agreement entirely.

A JPMorgan spokesperson explained that the concern is that the U.S. would adopt a relatively high tax on foreign income, at 21%, only for foreign partners to shirk their own tax promises. That scenario could put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage and encourage the offshoring of factories, profits and workers.

The Treasury Department has reiterated that the 15% proposal should be thought of as a sort-of floor and that subsequent talks could eventually push it higher. That, in theory, could work to reduce a tax disadvantage.

That the White House is keen to coax others into a global minimum tax isn’t necessarily a surprise given the amount of spending it wants to see to achieve its agenda priorities.

Its American Jobs Plan, an infrastructure-focused proposal, would funnel $2.3 trillion over a decade into traditional infrastructure as well as toward scientific innovation, pay for home health aides and the construction of 500,000 electric-vehicle charging stations.

The GOP countered with its own version Thursday, a more modest $928 billion proposal with a greater emphasis on “hard” infrastructure like roads, bridges and public transit.

The White House also hopes to enact the American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion piece of legislation aimed at funding for social programs like paid family leave, free early childhood education and free community college. 

Biden’s economic team says its Made In America tax plan would help cover the costs of both bills. Broadly, that tax plan seeks fortify the IRS and crack down on tax evasion, raise the amount the wealthiest households pay on capital gains, and hike the rate U.S. businesses pay on domestic profits to 28%.

President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts reduced the U.S. corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. 

The bank CEOs appeared on Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

One testy exchange from that hearing came between Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Dimon. Warren accused JPMorgan Chase, and the other consumer banks, of not doing enough to communicate to its customers about relaxation of certain overdraft fee rules during the coronavirus outbreak.

Dimon countered that the bank had accommodated customers who had made qualifying overdraft fee waiver requests and that the bank would not be refunding billions it collected in such fees in 2020.

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Politics

White Home sees world minimal company tax as key to broader multilateral strategy

Biden to propose capital gains tax hike to fund education, child care: reports

U.S. President Joe Biden will address jobs and the economy at the White House in Washington on April 7, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The White House stressed Friday that its efforts to introduce a global minimum corporate tax are a top priority for President Joe Biden and are more than just a topic of conversation for economists around the world.

Daleep Singh, who serves as both Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC that efforts to get allies to adopt a minimum tax are motivated by both economic and national security factors.

“It’s not just a tax issue. It’s about: How do we fund initiatives that we believe are central to our domestic renewal?” he said.

Singh stated that the Association for Economic Co-operation and Development behind the minimum tax would allow all members to compete just for their ability to promote innovation and the ingenuity of their respective workforce.

The U.S. Treasury Department has taken the lead in convincing today’s nations to introduce a global minimum tax. The department announced its 15% target on Thursday and said it was encouraged by early conversations with foreign officials over the past week.

A global minimum tax would also allow governments to better generate revenue for domestic projects that the Biden government believes are important to national security, Singh said.

“Our national security strategy is based on the renewal of the country. The kind of challenges I described earlier – the inequality we are witnessing, the tremendous importance of dealing with an existential climate crisis, people leaving the world of work – the government must play a more active role in addressing these challenges. “

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The Treasury Department quickly realized that the 15% proposition below which some had forecast should be viewed as some kind of floor and that subsequent discussions could ultimately drive it up.

As Head of Department, Secretary Janet Yellen has repeatedly stressed the importance of stopping an international “race to the bottom” on global corporate tax rates. If a coalition of countries approves the 15% rate, it could help governments increase revenues and prevent certain jurisdictions from monopolizing the market for inclusion.

Countries with lower enterprise rates like Ireland and its 12.5% ​​rate have historically expressed doubts about efforts to garner support for a unified approach. Even some defectors of the plan could jeopardize the initiative by setting lower rates and effectively inviting companies to move there.

According to a study by the Tax Foundation 2020, the average top enterprise rate among OECD countries is 23.5%.

However, advocates of a global minimum argue that some countries routinely attract companies with much more relaxed tax regimes through various tax breaks and incentives.

When asked how the government intends to persuade low-tax countries to agree to Washington’s plans, Singh and his colleagues stressed the importance of a level playing field for tax policy.

“We are very clear: companies have been competing on the basis of [countries’] Tax rates. This is a destructive race to the bottom that makes everyone worse off. Especially employees who generate an ever larger share of our tax revenue, “he said.

“Our proposal is therefore to agree on a minimum tax rate for companies around the world. Then we will compete for our ability to innovate, the dynamism of our workforce and our technological edge,” added Singh.

That may be why the Biden government opted for a flexible benchmark: low enough not to scare skeptical countries, but open to change in the future.

The tax rate “corresponds to the minimum tax for highly profitable companies proposed by the Biden Administration, so 15% is where Biden believes the lowest corporate tax rate when all deductions are fully factored in,” said Raymond James analyst, Ed Mills in CNBC an email Thursday evening.

“This is lower than President Obama’s proposed 19% and recognizes that even 15% will be a tough task,” he added.

The Biden administration is in the midst of fierce negotiations at home, particularly over two massive laws that would fundamentally change parts of the US economy.

The infrastructural American employment plan would invest several hundred billion dollars in rebuilding hard infrastructure, but also in financing scientific innovations, paying for household help and building around 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles.

Its parallel proposal, the American Families Plan, provides $ 1.8 trillion to fund social programs that include paid family vacations and a free community college.

The White House hopes to fund much of that expense through its Made In America tax plan, a major overhaul of the tax code designed to expand the IRS to combat tax evasion and end the reinforced base for valuation of inherited capital Profits and introduction of the global minimum tax.

The Biden team has also proposed raising the U.S. corporate rate to between 25% and 28%. He wants households making more than $ 1 million a year to pay more for capital gains and close the interest income gap.

Categories
World News

Inventory futures combined forward of main company earnings

Stock futures mixed ahead of major corporate earnings

US stock futures rose slightly early on Tuesday morning as investors prepared for the next corporate earnings.

Dow futures rose 63 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both traded in slightly positive territory.

The main averages fell on Monday, reflecting the general weakness in the tech sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 120 points, hurt by a more than 1.5% drop in Intel stock.

The S&P 500 fell more than 0.5%.

The Nasdaq Composite was the relative underperformer, falling nearly 1% as Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft all closed lower. Tesla fell more than 3% over the weekend as Bitcoin – which makes up part of Tesla’s balance sheet – fell after an all-time high of $ 64,841 on Wednesday morning, according to Coin Metrics.

The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 fell 1.4% on Monday.

“Real estate and healthcare had another good day last week to build on outperformance and technology stocks pulled back today after a strong start into April,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group. “The US dollar’s recent decline this month has accelerated today, driving raw material prices higher, keeping energy stocks below today’s leaders.”

The first quarter earnings season got off to a good start last week, major US banks reported. Financial results exceeded expectations by 38%, while others in the S&P 500 surprised upward by 12%, according to data from Credit Suisse.

The winning season continues on Tuesday with streaming giant Netflix after the bell. Wall Street analysts expected Netflix to remain a winner in the streaming arena even as the pandemic recovery improves.

More big reports from Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Travelers land before the market opens. CSX and Interactive Brokers publish the results after the bell.

“The bond market will continue to be the focus this week after last week’s inexplicable slump in 10-year bond yields amid surprisingly strong economic data. The 10-year return, which is back above 1.6% today, is driven by both bonds as well as stocks, traders are watching closely this week to see if the next move is back above 1.7% or if the technical level is retested below 1.5%, “added Paulsen.

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Categories
Business

Company Income Anticipated to Rally because the Economic system Recovers: Dwell Updates

Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Netflix, AT&T and American Express are expected to issue earnings results this week.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Scott Olson/Getty Images

First-quarter earnings season picks up steam this week, with analysts expecting that profits for S&P 500 companies rose roughly 27 percent in the three months through March, compared with a year earlier when the pandemic sent corporate earnings into a tailspin.

Companies such as Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Netflix, AT&T and American Express all slated to issue results this week, offering a relatively well-rounded look at the state of corporate America in the early days of what could be a powerful year for the U.S. economy. It might also help set expectations for the stock market, after a big rally already this year.

The consensus among 76 economists polled by Bloomberg is that gross domestic product will expand by 6.2 percent in 2021, which would make it the best year for economic growth since 1984. And sentiment among analysts covering the stock market is almost universally bullish, given that strong economic tailwind.

“You’d almost have to be self-deceiving to expect U.S. companies overall to underperform consensus, given how the macro backdrop is driving revenues so well,” wrote John Vail, chief global strategist at Nikko Asset Management.

The expectations for profit growth are even more elevated for the current quarter: Analysts expect that the three months ending in June will see companies in the S&P 500 notch a 54-percent rise in profits, compared with the prior year.

That increase, of course, reflects a rebound from the worst of the pandemic-bred downturn. But it also is a result of “economic re-acceleration, and a rebound in commodity prices,” said Jonathan Golub, a stock market analyst at Credit Suisse.

Of course, if everyone is expecting such a surge in profits, the good news could already be fully incorporated into stock prices — and that means anything short of perfect results would make for a difficult stretch for stocks.

That has certainly been the case with some of the banks that reported earnings last week. Shares of Morgan Stanley, for example, dropped 2.8 percent on Friday even though the bank reported record revenue and profit.

The S&P 500 is already up more than 11 percent in 2021, and hit yet another record high on Friday.

That could mean the market is due for a pullback anyway. The index is relatively expensive by metrics such as the price-to-earnings ratio, which compares stock prices as a share of expected corporate profits over the next 12 months.

The S&P 500 is trading at nearly 23 times expected earnings. That’s roughly the valuation the index has held for most of the past year, but it’s very high by historical standards.

Over the last 20 years, the S&P 500 has traded at an average of 16 times expected earnings.

By comparison, a valuation of 23 times expected earnings is closer to where stock market valuations stood at the tail-end of the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. When that ended, the S&P 500 fell roughly 50 percent before it hit bottom.

ABN Amro’s head office, center, in Amsterdam. An inquiry by Dutch authorities found the bank ignored signs that some clients were criminals using it as a conduit for dirty money.Credit…Peter Dejong/Associated Press

The Dutch bank ABN Amro said Monday that it would pay a $580 million fine to settle money laundering charges, prompting a former ABN manager to resign his new job as chief executive of Danske Bank after acknowledging he was a target in a related criminal investigation.

The resignation of Chris Vogelzang is an embarrassment for Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest bank, which hired him in 2019 to rebuild trust following a money laundering scandal there. Before becoming chief executive of Danske, Mr. Vogelzang had been a member of the management board of ABN Amro responsible for retail and private banking services.

Mr. Vogelzang acknowledged that Dutch authorities considered him a suspect in the investigation that led ABN Amro to agree to pay 480 million euros to settle money laundering charges. In numerous cases, according to a report by Dutch authorities, ABN Amro ignored warning signs that some clients were criminals using it as a conduit for dirty money.

Mr. Vogelzang said in a statement that he was “surprised” to learn that Dutch authorities consider him a suspect. During his time at ABN Amro, he said, “I managed my management responsibilities with integrity and dedication.”

Noting that Danske Bank remains under “intense scrutiny” because of money laundering at its former unit in Estonia, Mr. Vogelzang said he did “not want speculations about my person to get in the way of the continued development of Danske Bank.”

Danske named Carsten Egeriis, previously the bank’s chief risk officer, to succeed Mr. Vogelzang.

Gerrit Zalm, a member of Danske’s board who was chief executive of ABN Amro from 2009 to 2017, will also resign, the bank said. It did not give a reason.

Danske Bank admitted in 2018 that its headquarters and its Estonian branch, which it has since closed, failed for years to prevent suspected money laundering involving thousands of customers.

In the ABN Amro case, Dutch authorities found that the bank failed to act on obvious signs of illicit activity, including large cash transactions. In several cases, authorities said, the bank continued to serve clients whose criminal activities had been reported by the media, or who had a known history of fraud.

“As a bank we do not merely have a legal, but also a moral duty to do our utmost to protect the financial system against abuse by criminals,” Robert Swaak, the ABN Amro chief executive, said in a statement. “Regretfully, I have to acknowledge that in the past we have been insufficiently successful in properly fulfilling our important role as gatekeeper.”

More people are flying every day, as Covid restrictions ease and vaccinations accelerate. But dangerous variants have led to new outbreaks, raising fears of a deadly prolonging of the pandemic.

To understand how safe it is to fly now, The Times enlisted researchers to simulate how air particles flow within the cabin of an airplane, and how potential viral elements may pose a risk.

For instance, when a passenger sneezes, air blown from the sides pushes particles toward the aisle, where they combine with air from the opposite row. Not all particles are the same size, and most don’t contain infectious viral matter. But if passengers nearby weren’t wearing masks, even briefly to eat a snack, the sneezed air could increase their chances of inhaling viral particles.

How air flows in planes is not the only part of the safety equation, according to infectious-disease experts. The potential for exposure may be just as high, if not higher, when people are in the terminal, sitting in airport restaurants and bars or going through the security line.

“The challenge isn’t just on a plane,” said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist specializing in infection prevention. “Consider the airport and the whole journey.”

Credit…Robert Neubecker

Members of the National Association of Realtors — the nation’s largest industry group, numbering 1.4 million real estate professionals — are challenging a moratorium on evictions put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Both the Alabama and the Georgia Associations of Realtors sued the federal government over the matter, and the national association is paying for all of the legal costs. A hearing is scheduled for April 29, Ron Lieber reports for The New York Times.

The N.A.R. spends more money on federal lobbying than any other entity, according to the Center for Responsive for Politics. To puzzle out its actions and advocacy, let’s first be crystal clear about what the N.A.R. is and whose interests it serves. As its own chief executive boasted to members in 2017, it’s really the National Association for Realtors, not of them.

And of those million-plus members, according to the association, about 38 percent own at least one rental property. The N.A.R. isn’t shy about this, stating on the lobbying section of its website that it wants to “protect property interests.”

Why would it do this? The N.A.R. expert on the topic was unable to schedule a phone call, according to a spokesman.

But if you’re selecting a listing agent for your house from among their members, ask that person about this issue if you’re curious or concerned. Many of them have no idea what the N.A.R. is advocating on their behalf.

Credit…Illustration by The New York Times; Photo by Alexander Drago/Reuters

Here come the lobbyists.

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, the asset manager Fidelity, the payments company Square and the investment firm Paradigm have established a new trade group in Washington: The Crypto Council for Innovation. The group hopes to influence policies that will be critical for expanding the use of cryptocurrencies in conjunction with traditional finance, Ephrat Livni reports in the DealBook newsletter.

Cryptocurrencies are still mostly held as speculative assets, but some experts believe Bitcoin and related blockchain technologies will become fundamental parts of the financial system, and the success of businesses built around the technology may also invite more attention from regulators.

“We’re going to increasingly be having scrutiny about what we’re doing,” Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s chief executive, said on CNBC. “We’re very excited and happy to play by the rules,” he added, but regulation of crypto should be on a “level playing field with traditional financial services.”

Here are four of the issues that will keep crypto lobbyists busy:

  • The Crypto Council’s first commissioned publication is an analysis of Bitcoin’s illicit use, and it concludes that concerns are “significantly overstated” and that blockchain technology could be better used by law enforcement to stop crime and collect intelligence.

  • New anti-money-laundering rules passed this year will significantly expand disclosures for digital currencies. The Treasury Department has also proposed rules that would require detailed reporting for transactions over $3,000 involving “unhosted wallets,” or digital wallets that are not associated with a third-party financial institution, and require institutions handling cryptocurrencies to process more data.

  • When is a digital asset a security and when is it a commodity? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are released via a decentralized network generally qualify as commodities and are less heavily regulated than securities, which represent a stake in a venture. Tokens released by people and companies are more likely to be characterized as securities because they more often represent a stake in the issuer’s project.

  • The Chinese government is already experimenting with a central bank digital currency, a digital yuan. China would be the first country to create a virtual currency, but many are considering it. Some crypto advocates worry that China’s alacrity in the space threatens the dollar, national security and American competitiveness.

Peloton shares were lower in premarket trading after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a safety warning about the company’s treadmill.Credit…Roger Kisby for The New York Times

European stocks were mixed on Monday, and U.S. stock futures drifted lower, at the beginning of a week when hundreds of public companies will report earnings, including Coca-Cola, Netflix and United Airlines.

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.1 percent, pushing further into record territory. The European index has climbed for the past seven weeks. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 hit a record on Friday after a string of strong economic reports and company earnings. On Monday, futures indicated it would open about 0.4 percent weaker.

European government bond yields climbed higher on Monday as investors awaited the European Central Bank’s latest monetary policy decisions, which will be announced on Thursday. Last month, the central bank said it would quicken the pace of its asset purchases to tamp down an increase in bond yields.

  • Peloton shares dropped nearly 6 percent in premarket trading after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an “urgent warning” about the exercise equipment company’s treadmill. The agency said users with small children at home should stop using the machine after reports of injuries and one fatality.

  • Coinbase shares slipped nearly 4 percent in premarket trading with other crypto-related stocks. Over the weekend, the price of Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, plummeted by more than $7,000, or about 9 percent.

  • GameStop shares rose 6 percent in premarket trading as the video game retailer announced that its chief executive would be stepping down by the end of July. The company, which was at the center of a retail trading frenzy earlier this year, has been shaken up by the incoming chairman, Ryan Cohen, who is an activist investor in the company pushing for a digital turnaround.

  • Oil prices were slightly lower. Futures of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, fell 0.3 percent to just below $63 a barrel.

  • The U.S. dollar fell against other major currencies, including a 0.4 percent drop against both the euro and the British pound. It was also 0.6 percent weaker against the Japanese yen.

Categories
Politics

Nike, FedEx focused by progressive group calling for greater company taxes

Nike, FedEx targeted by progressive group calling for higher corporate taxes

A FedEx employee loads deliveries in San Francisco.

Getty Images

A progressive group urging Congress to raise the corporate tax rate is launching an advertising campaign for FedEx and Nike, two large American companies with light federal taxes, the group said on Monday.

Tax March, which held dozens of demonstrations in 2017 urging former President Donald Trump to publish his tax returns, plans to post ads for FedEx on Tuesday. The television commercials will air in Washington, DC and in Memphis, Tennessee, where FedEx is headquartered.

A report by the Institute for Taxes and Economic Policy said FedEx “zeroed its federal income tax on $ 1.2 billion in pre-tax income in 2020 and received a $ 230 million discount.” The report says the lack of tax payments by some companies is likely related to historical tax breaks, as well as Trump’s 2017 tax reform plan and certain elements of the coronavirus relief act known as the CARES Act.

Tax March also plans to target Nike next week with a newspaper ad in the shoe giant’s home state of Oregon, according to Dana Bye, the group’s campaign leader. She said the newspaper ad will have a message similar to the TV ad that focuses on FedEx.

The institute’s report states that Nike did not “pay a cent of federal tax on nearly $ 2.9 billion in pre-tax income last year, but received a tax rebate of $ 109 million.”

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“FedEx will pay all federal, state and local taxes totaling over $ 20 billion between 2016 and 2020. During that time, Congress passed new tax laws to help companies like FedEx make additional investments in their employees The local economies have created new jobs and improved infrastructure. These changes were laws, not loopholes, “company spokeswoman Isabel Rollison said in a statement after the story was published.

After making her initial statement, Rollison later told CNBC, “FedEx will pay all US federal, state and local taxes totaling over $ 9 billion between 2016 and 2020.”

“FedEx has collected and remitted over $ 20 billion in taxes in the United States (individual income, payroll, customs fees, and state and local sales taxes) for the past five fiscal years 2016-2020,” she added.

A Nike representative did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

President Joe Biden said he would raise the corporate tax rate to 28% to fund his $ 2 trillion infrastructure reform package. Since then, he has stated that he is ready to negotiate a possible corporate tax hike as moderate Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va., pushed the tax rate back to 28%.

Bye said the campaign will cost nearly $ 500,000 in total. It will also include digital ads on Facebook and other platforms.

The TV ad, which was first reviewed by CNBC, targets FedEx as one of several companies that have recently paid little to no federal corporate income taxes.

“Tell Congress, it’s time to put people first,” said a voice-over on the FedEx ad. “Let companies like FedEx pay their fair share.”

FedEx recently told CNBC that it opposed a corporate tax hike to pay for Biden’s infrastructure plan. Stakeholders like the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have also spoken out against the idea of ​​raising the corporate tax rate to pay for the infrastructure.

“I think the biggest message we’re trying to make with this campaign is that we can’t let tax evaders like FedEx drive the tax debate,” Bye said.

Tax March is a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501 (c) (4) dark money organization that donated just over $ 60 million to democratic groups, including millions to Super-PACs, during the 2020 election , the Biden support the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Tax March’s campaign is one of the first to adopt companies since Biden became president. Corporations are under pressure to respond to new electoral laws recently passed in Georgia.