Media Mogul Murdoch to G20: Get out of business’s way
Love him or hate him, you certainly cannot ignore media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The Australian-born billionaire might be 83 but he has lost none of his straight-talking, his ability to call a spade a bloody shovel. This morning the owner of the Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, Sky News and a host of other major global media outlets took a swing at politicians. Urging them to get out of the way – reminding them it's business which creates jobs, wealth and prosperity. – AH
By Jane Wardell
"I believe that business does have a role in shaping public policy, mainly in helping limit the size and scope of government," Murdoch said.
"For businesses large and small, there's simply too much red tape, too many subservient politicians stifling economic growth and entrepreneurism."
Along with targeting growth of 2 percent above trend over the next 5 years, the G20 is tackling corporate "profit shifting", which has allowed multinationals such as Starbucks Corp, Google Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc to avoid paying taxes.
G20 finance ministers in February endorsed a set of common standards for sharing bank account information across borders, with automatic exchange of information among G20 members to take effect by the end of 2015.
Obama, meanwhile, earlier this year proposed tightening restrictions on U.S. multinationals that shift their tax domiciles abroad in his 2015 budget. Obama wants to raise the minimum level of foreign ownership in a newly inverted holding company to 50 percent from about 20 percent, making the deals more difficult to carry out.