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Gorsky 1/23/17
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President Trump Focuses on Trade With Promise of 'Very Major' Border Tax -- 4th Update
Jan 23, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Carol E. Lee and Damian Paletta
President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. will impose a "very major" border tax on companies that move some operations overseas and signed a memorandum withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as he sharpens his focus on recasting America's international trade relations. -
Here are the 12 business leaders Trump hosted for his first big White House meeting
Jan 23, 2017 | Business Insider
By Richard Feloni
President Donald Trump, in his first big meeting, sat down with 12 CEOs of the United States' largest companies. He told the group - which included SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Ford CEO Mark Fields, and Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson - that his administration would be prioritizing corporate tax cuts and decreasing regulation, following up on his "America First" campaign promise. -
Trump pledges major 'border tax' in CEO meeting at the White House
Jan 23, 2017 | USA Today
By Donovan Slack and Marco della Cava
President Trump on Monday pledged to cut regulations by 75% and impose a major "border tax" on goods manufactured abroad and sold in the United States. -
J&J Chair, CEO, Alex Gorsky, Offers Statement Following Manufacturer Meeting with Trump
Jan 23, 2017 | Benzinga Pro
"I was very pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the critical issues of job creation, corporate tax and regulatory reform directly with President Trump this morning. The meeting was productive, and I’m looking forward to working with him and the new congress to support the enactment of polices that will increase America’s growth and competitiveness in these areas." -
Fox Business
Jan 23, 2017 | FOX News
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/25802692?token=069fa4ee-241e-4544-b21f-8baaf9293a54
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President Trump Focuses on Trade With Promise of 'Very Major' Border Tax -- 4th Update
Jan 23, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Carol E. Lee and Damian Paletta
President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. will impose a "very major" border tax on companies that move some operations overseas and signed a memorandum withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as he sharpens his focus on recasting America's international trade relations.
"We've been talking about this for a long time," Mr. Trump said as he signed the order removing the U.S. from the trade pact with 11 other nations. He said the move will be a "great thing for the American worker."
Mr. Trump also enacted a hiring freeze across the federal government, except for the military, and reinstated the so-called "global gag rule," which blocks U.S. foreign-aid dollars going to international family-planning programs that offer abortion or advocate for abortion rights.
Before withdrawing from TPP, Mr. Trump met with business leaders at the White House and asked them to devise a plan to boost U.S. manufacturing.
At the start of the meeting, the president said he would cut taxes for the middle class and businesses, as well as reduce government regulations by at least 75%.
Regulations, he said, have "gotten out of control," and while he described himself as a friend of the environment, he said "some of that stuff makes it impossible to get anything done."
"There will be no country that's going to be faster, better, more fair," Mr. Trump said.
He promised incentives for businesses that produce and hire in the U.S. but warned the leaders, "if you go to another country...we are going to be imposing a very major border tax."
"We don't have free trade because we're the only one that makes it easy to come into the country," Mr. Trump said.
Among the CEOs in attendance were the leaders of Ford Motor Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Under Armour Inc., and Whirlpool Corp., according to the companies, as well as Michael Dell and Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk.
Dow Chemical Co. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris said after the meeting that Mr. Trump asked them to come back to him within 30 days with specific ideas to boost U.S. manufacturing. He said Mr. Trump had to take a phone call halfway through the meeting but then invited the 12 chief executives to join him and continue their conversation in the Oval Office.
Mr. Liveris said the executives discussed at length with Mr. Trump his proposal to set up a tax on U.S. companies that manufacture goods in other countries and then import them back into the U.S. "We did talk about the border tax quite a bit, and we did talk about the sorts of industries that could be helped or hurt by that," Mr. Liveris said. "I would take the president at his word here. He's not going to do anything to harm competitiveness."
Ford CEO Mark Fields, who was also at the meeting, said he "came out with a lot of confidence that the president is very, very serious about making sure that the U.S. economy is going to be strong and have policies -- tax, regulatory or trade -- to help drive that, and I think that encourages a lot of us as CEOs as we make decisions moving forward."
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said said the meeting was productive and that he was pleased to talk with the president about job creation, corporate taxes and regulatory reform. "I'm looking forward to working with him and the new Congress to support the enactment of polices that will increase America's growth and competitiveness in these areas," Mr. Gorsky said.
Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, said her company supports the president's efforts to end the defense sequester so the military can invest in equipment. "Ending these budget restrictions will allow industry to plan, invest and hire for the long term," she said.
Whirlpool and U.S. Steel referred all questions to the White House.
The president also was scheduled to meet Monday with labor-union leaders and workers. The White House described the meetings as listening sessions. He is also scheduled to meet with congressional leaders.
The sessions come ahead of his planned meetings with the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.K.
Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada was one of Mr. Trump's campaign promises. He is also eyeing a new trade deal with the U.K. as the country follows through with its decision to exit from the European Union.
Mr. Trump has described his "border tax" in the past as a selective 35% tax on companies that outsource production to other countries and then import goods back to the U.S. That is different from the "border adjustment" that is a key feature of the House Republicans' tax plan. Mr. Trump has criticized that idea, which would tax all imports and exempt exports from U.S. business taxation.
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Here are the 12 business leaders Trump hosted for his first big White House meeting
Jan 23, 2017 | Business Insider
By Richard Feloni
President Donald Trump, in his first big meeting, sat down with 12 CEOs of the United States' largest companies.
He told the group - which included SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Ford CEO Mark Fields, and Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson - that his administration would be prioritizing corporate tax cuts and decreasing regulation, following up on his "America First" campaign promise.
He also repeated his threat to impose a "border tax" on companies that move production outside the US.
"There will be advantages to companies that do indeed make their products here," Trump said.
Here's who sat at the table in the Roosevelt Room Monday morning:
Elon Musk — CEO and CTO of SpaceX; CEO of Tesla Motors; Chairman of Solar City; Co-chairman of OpenAI
Trump is a big fan of Musk, the tireless head of some of the most ambitious renewable energy companies in the US, naming Musk to his Strategic and Policy Forum and inviting him to a meeting with tech leaders in December.
"The President-elect has a strong emphasis on US manufacturing and so do we," Musk told Tesla investors in November, referring to Tesla's upcoming Gigafactory. "We are building the biggest factory in the world right here, creating US jobs. … I think we may see some surprising things from the next administration. We don't think they will be negative on fossil fuels … but they may also be positive on renewables."
Mark Fields — President and CEO of Ford Motor Company
Earlier this month, Fields announced that Ford would not be pursuing a proposed $1.6 billion production facility in Mexico that Trump had criticized during his campaign. Fields clarified that the move was because of the market and not Trump's remarks, but also noted, "We are encouraged by the pro-growth plans that President-elect Trump and the new Congress indicate they will pursue."
Ford is planning to invest $4.5 billion in electric and self-driving vehicles over the next five years.
Marillyn Hewson — Chairwoman, president, and CEO of Lockheed Martin
Hewson was the only female executive in attendance on Monday.
Trump called out Lockheed Martin on Twitter in December for excessive spending on the development of the advanced fighter jet, the F-35. Hewson then met with Trump to discuss.
In a statement following their meeting, she said that she personally promised Trump to aggressively cut costs on the F-35. "I know that President-elect Trump wants the very best capability for our military at the lowest cost for taxpayers, and we're ready to deliver!" she said.
Andrew N. Liveris — Chairman, president, and CEO of Dow Chemical
Trump brought Liveris onto the stage at one stop of his victory tour in December, where he announced Liveris would be heading his administration's American Manufacturing Council.
In turn, Liveris declared Dow Chemical, his massive chemical and agricultural firm, would be developing a new innovation center in Michigan and creating 200 jobs, half new and half moved from abroad. Last year the company cut more than 4,000 global jobs in a streamlining effort.
Liveris is a vocal supporter of Trump, and told him at the December event, "I tingle with pride listening to you."
Kevin Plank — Founder, chairman, and CEO of Under Armour
In December, Plank told CNBC that if Trump calls on him to keep jobs in America, he'd reply by saying, "We're not going anywhere."
The growing, Baltimore-based sports equipment and apparel company is rapidly expanding overseas, but Plank noted that doesn't entail jobs moving from the US. He said that his company is building a giant e-commerce distribution center in Baltimore that will create 1,000 jobs in 2018.
"I believe that shift is happening where doing what's right for the shareholder, and particularly for consumer-facing brands, is also about doing what's right for your community and your own people," Plank told CNBC.
Michael Dell — Founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies
Dell didn't get an invite to December's tech summit, whose members were chosen based on the market caps of their companies, but he had a seat at the table on Monday.
"What we see is a new administration that's talking about growth," Dell told Bloomberg at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. "I think you'll see our company, companies like ours, across all industries bring capital back onto the balance sheet of the United States, which is likely to be a good thing, and so we're very supportive of that."
Mario Longhi — CEO of US Steel
The stock price of the Pittsburgh-based steel company received a big boost following the election of Trump. And in December, Longhi told CNBC that he was hopeful Trump could bring as many as 10,000 jobs back to the American steel industry.
He is looking forward to loosened regulations under Trump. "There was a point in time in the past couple years that I was having to hire more lawyers to try to interpret these new regulations than I was hiring … engineers," he told CNBC.
Jeff M. Fettig — Chairman and CEO of Whirlpool
"Mad Money" host Jim Cramer told his audience that Whirlpool, the home appliance manufacturer, was a great example of a "Trump stock."
It's the only manufacturer of its kind left in the US, Cramer explained, and it would benefit from protectionist policies that could harm its South Korean rivals, Samsung and LG.
Alex Gorsky —CEO of Johnson & Johnson
Gorsky, as the head of Johnson & Johnson - the giant producer of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products - can benefit from a positive relationship with Trump, who has said he will get drug companies to lower prices.
Gorsky told CNBC in January that he met with Trump before his inauguration to discuss healthcare policy. "And the kinds of things we're talking about is how can we take what I believe is one of the very best health-care systems in the world and how can we make it even better?" he said. "How can we make changes, recognizing the challenges, economic pressures, regulatory pressures, but keep essential elements like innovation through better integration?"
Klaus Kleinfeld — Chairman and CEO of Arconic
In November, Kleinfeld oversaw the split of Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) into two public companies, Arconic and Alcoa Corporation.
Alcoa Corporation handles mining operations that are largely outside of North America, but Arconic could potentially benefit from Trump's policies, as it designs and manufactures airframe structures, aero engines, car and public transportation parts, and construction materials.
Wendell P. Weeks — Chairman and CEO of Corning
Corning, the multibillion-dollar glass and ceramics manufacturer based in Corning, New York, is one of the largest employers of people living along the "Twin Tiers" New York-Pennsylvania border.
As the Star-Gazette reported, Corning was reluctant to repatriate $3.2 billion of overseas profits, to avoid a 35% tax. But under Trump, Weeks will be able to bring money back to its US operations at a significantly reduced cost.
Mark S. Sutton — Chairman and CEO of International Paper
Memphis-based International Paper has 65,000 employees, making it the largest pulp and paper company in the world.
In December, it finalized its $2.2 billion acquisition of the cellulose fiber portion of Weyerhauser, one of the world's largest owners of timberlands.
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Trump pledges major 'border tax' in CEO meeting at the White House
Jan 23, 2017 | USA Today
By Donovan Slack and Marco della Cava
President Trump on Monday pledged to cut regulations by 75% and impose a major "border tax" on goods manufactured abroad and sold in the United States.
Echoing his campaign rhetoric, Trump told business leaders in a breakfast meeting at the White House that businesses spend more time on paperwork complying with government regulations than on making things.
"We want to start making our products again," Trump said. “If you look at some of the original great people that ran this country, you will see they felt very strongly about that.”
He said the border tax would help discourage companies from firing people in the United States, making products overseas, and then moving them back into the country to sell.
"They're going to have to pay a border tax — a substantial border tax," Trump said.
The president said other countries “charge a lot of tax” when American companies try to sell their products there, and he identified China by name.
“You want to sell something into China, it’s very, very hard, in some cases it’s impossible,” Trump said. “So I don’t call that free trade, what we want is fair trade, fair trade, and we’re going to treat other countries fairly but they have to treat us fairly.”
The meeting included chief executives from a dozen companies, including Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin and Dell.
Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow, said afterward that Trump asked them to come back in 30 days with "a series of actions" that might stimulate manufacturing in the United States.
Liveris said the group discussed the border tax, and who might be helped or hurt by such a move.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said "it was a very, very positive meeting."
Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson said in a statement afterward that she was “encouraged by the president’s commitment to reduce barriers to job creation,” including cutting regulations.
“I look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team on these important issues,” she said.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer said later Monday that the meeting was productive and ran a lot longer than expected, moving from the Roosevelt Room to the Oval Office, and Trump was eager to hear their suggestions for increasing manufacturing in the United States.
Spicer said it wasn't just about creating jobs, it's about higher-paying jobs. He said Trump plans to meet with the group next month and then quarterly after that.
"I think that’s what his focus is going to continue to be," Spicer said.
What exactly a Trump border tax would look like is unclear. He has previously made similar pronouncements that many interpreted to mean he planned to impose stiff, across-the-board tariffs.
Specialists say such tariffs would increase the cost of imported goods, and thereby increase prices for consumers. And they could hurt American companies that import parts and products from overseas.
Tariffs also could trigger trade wars as countries respond with their own taxes on American goods.
“One doesn’t want to bandy about accusations of starting a trade war lightly, but if, you know, a unilateral imposition of tariffs is pretty close declaration of a trade war as you can have,” said William Gale, co-director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “The only thing stronger would be to bar the good altogether.”
Scott Greenberg, an analyst at the Tax Foundation, said he believes Trump may be more likely to impose some sort of targeted tax on American companies that move jobs overseas. He pointed to congressional testimony last week by Trump’s pick to lead Treasury, Steven Mnuchin.
Mnuchin told lawmakers that Trump “has in no way contemplated a broad 35 percent border tax.”
“I think when he's referred to a border tax, OK, he's referred to a small number of companies that have moved their jobs, or are moving their jobs, putting products back into the United States, and taxing them,” Mnuchin said.
Greenberg said it would be difficult to speculate on what the consequences of such a tax would be on the economy or consumers without more details.
USA TODAY reached out after the White House meeting to the companies whose CEOs had attended. International Paper did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Four companies — U.S. Steel, UnderArmour, Whirlpool and SpaceX — referred reporters to the White House for comment.
The remaining corporations issued comments from their chief executives that universally praised the meeting as the start of an ongoing dialog about reducing obstacles that stand in the way of U.S. job creation.
“We had a very open conversation with President Trump and members of the new Administration,” said Arconic Chairman and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld in a statement. “I was encouraged that the first meeting on the first full week of the Trump administration was focused on how to increase the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing firms.”
Kleinfeld said Arconic — which recently spun off from aluminum giant Alcoa and focuses on engineering for the automotive and aerospace industries — employs almost 22,000 people in the U.S. “We look forward to working with the new Administration to further strengthen advanced manufacturing in America,” he said.
Echoing that theme was Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson. “The meeting was productive, and I’m looking forward to working with him and the new congress to support the enactment of polices that will increase America’s growth and competitiveness in these areas,” he said.
The invited companies took pains to stress how many people they employed in the United States, not surprising given Trump’s campaign promise to boost U.S. hiring and his unalloyed criticism of companies that threatened to send jobs overseas.
In past weeks, Trump has made political hay of decisions by Carrier and, most recently, Ford Motor to favor domestic employment plans.
For example, glassmaker Corning, whose CEO Wendell Weeks attended the meeting, noted in an email that about a third of its global workforce, or 13,000 of 40,000 total, is in the U.S.
“This reflects a (U.S. force) growth of approximately 25% over the past 10 years (and) we plan to expand our U.S. manufacturing footprint significantly over the next several years as we invest in growing our Optical Communications, Environmental Technologies, and Life Sciences segments and create several new business opportunities,” the company said in a statement.
Corning plans to spend $10 billion to grow its business over the course of the next two years.
U.S. Steel has 18,000 employees in the U.S. and about 12,000 employees at its steel-making facility in the Slovak Republic, according to the company.
Ford Motor has 85,000 U.S. employees, out of 203,000 globally. “We employ more hourly workers in the U.S. and produce more vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker,” spokesperson Christin Baker said.
Lockheed Martin employs 98,000 globally, but did not break down the figure into markets.
Growing domestic jobs is one thing, but making sure that the U.S. workforce has the technical skills necessary to fill those jobs is another.
Silicon Valley companies have long been familiar with the challenges inherent in finding tech-savvy workers, although activists have charged that such companies aren’t looking hard enough for women and minorities in their searches.
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J&J Chair, CEO, Alex Gorsky, Offers Statement Following Manufacturer Meeting with Trump
Jan 23, 2017 | Benzinga Pro
"I was very pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the critical issues of job creation, corporate tax and regulatory reform directly with President Trump this morning. The meeting was productive, and I’m looking forward to working with him and the new congress to support the enactment of polices that will increase America’s growth and competitiveness in these areas."
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Jan 23, 2017 | FOX News
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/25802692?token=069fa4ee-241e-4544-b21f-8baaf9293a54
Rough Transcript: mark, was nice to come here and I wanted to sit next to him. [laughter] >> thank you very much, everybody. this is really our first official meeting and Andrew, it's nice to have you set everything up so well and I hear your company is doing well. and I really do, i appreciate, we'll get to know each other well, we'll have these meetings, whenever you need them, but i would say every quarter, perhaps. you could say monthly and all of a sudden, monthly becomes repetitive, as we know. sounds good, but then you have to do it and it gets repetitive, but i would say probably on a quarterly basis. you are great people, you've done an amazing job. and the biggest in the world, and this is a world-wide meeting. and what we want to do is bring manufacturing back to our country. vice-president pence, good morning.
>> good morning, mr. president.
>> is very much involved with me on that, one of my most important subjects, it's what the people wanted, it's one of the reasons i'm sitting here instead of somebody else sitting here, and i think it's something i'm good at. we've already had a big impact. i want to thank Mark and Ford because you've been great. i think that-- i think that Marilyn is going to be terrific, but we're going to find out soon, right? that's lockheed martin, and we are going to-- i think we're going to have a tremendous amount of business coming back. if you read today's papers, you'll see what's happening with four or five different companies announced they feel much differently, FoxConn is going to spend a tremendous amount of money on building a massive plant and probably more than one, so that's what we want. we want people, we want to start making our products again. we don't want to bring them in, we want to make them here, that doesn't mean that we don't trade because we do trade, but we want to make our products here. and if you look at some of the original great people that ran this country, you will see that they felt very strongly about that and make your products and we are going to start making our products again. there will be advantages to companies that do indeed make their products here, so we've seen it, it's going to get-- it's going to be a wave, you watch, there's going to be a wave, you watch. i always said by the time you put them in the massive ships and airplanes and fly them it’s going to be cheaper-- what we're going to be doing is cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies. and that's massively. we're trying to get it down to anywhere to 15 to 20% and it's now 35%, but it's probably more 38% than it is 35, wouldn't you say? that's a big thing.
A bigger thing, and that surprised me is the fact that we're going to be cutting regulation massively. we're going to have regulation and it will be just as strong and just as good and just as protective of the people as the regulation we have right now, the problem with the regulation we have right now, you can't do anything. you can't -- i have people that tell me they have more people working on regulations than they have doing product. and it's out of control. it's gotten out of control. i'm a very big person when it comes to the environment. i've received awards on the environment, but some of that stuff makes it impossible to get anything built. it takes years and years, you know, you can look at some examples, i read one recently where a man's been trying to build a factory for many, many years and his vote was going to be fairly soon and he gave up because he wasn't going to win the vote. spent millions and millions of dollars, actually ruined his life. and we can't have that so, if somebody wants to put up a factory, it's going to be expedited. you have to go through the process, but it's going to be expedited. we're going to take care of the environment and safety and the other things we have to take care of, but you're going to get such great service, there will be no country that's going to be faster, better, more fair, and at the same time, protecting the people of the country, whether it's safety or so many other reasons where regulations are. we think we can cut regulations by 75%, maybe more. but by 75%. have in a certain way better protections, but when you want to expand your plant or when mark wants to come in and build a big massive plant or when Dell wants to come in and do something monstrous and special you're going to have your approvals really fast.
>> thank you, sir.
>> the one thing that surprised me, i want to hear what you have to say, but one thing that surprised me in going around and meeting with a lot of the people at this table and meeting with a lot of the small business owners: if i gave them a choice of this massive tax decrease that we're giving for business, for everybody, but for business, or the cutting down of regulation, if i took a vote, i think the regulation wins 100%. now, in one case, it's hard dollars and the other case it's regulation, you would think that the regulations would have no chance. it's-- i've never seen anything like it, and virtually is happier with regulations than even cutting the taxes. so the regulations are going to be cut massively and the taxes are going to be cut way down. you're going to have now incentive to build. the one thing i do have to warn you about, when you have a company here, you have a plant here, it's going to be in Indiana, or it's in Ohio, or it's in Michigan, or it's in North Carolina, or Pennsylvania, anywhere in this country, when it decides-- when you decide, if you decide to close it and you no longer will have a real reasons because your taxes are going to be lower, by the way, if you go to another state, that's it, that's great. if you can go from Ohio to Indiana, or from Indiana to Ohio, that's fine, so you have 50 great wonderful governors to negotiate with, it's not like we're taking away competition, but if you go to another country, and you decide that you're going to close and get rid of 2,000 people or 5,000 people, i tell you, United Technologies was an example with carrier and i got involved, you know, two years after they announced. so in all fairness, that was tough, but United Technologies was terrific and they brought back many of those jobs, but if that happens, we are going to be imposing a very major border tax on the products when it comes in, which i think is fair. which is fair.
So, a company that wants to fire all of its people in the united states and build some factory someplace else and think that that product is just going to flow across the border into the United States, that's not going to happen. they're going to have a tax, a border tax, substantial border tax. now, some people would say that's not free trade, but we don't have free trade now because we're the only one that makes it easy to come into the country. if you look at China, if you look at many other countries, i don't have to name them, but many other countries, they can’t believe what we do. we bring in things free, and if you want to sell things to other countries, and china, it's very, very hard, in some cases, impossible. they won't even take your product, but when they take your product they charge a lot of tax. so, i don't call that free trade. what we want is fair trade. fair trade. we're going to treat countries fairly, but they have to treat us fairly. if they're going to charge tax to our country, if, as an example, we sell a car into Japan and they do things to us that make it impossible to sell cars in Japan, and yet, they sell cars to us, and they come in like by the hundreds of thousands on the biggest ships i've ever seen, we have to all talk about that. it's not fair. it's not fair. never was. i just can't believe it took so long for somebody to come along. so that's the only thing i will tell you. essentially i'm talking no tax, when you say trump is going to tax, there is no tax, none whatsoever. i want to tell you all you have to do is stay, don't fire your people in the united states, we're the greatest people and many other countries have great people, we all have great people, okay? this isn't that kind of a competition, everybody has great people, but if we're going to fire people and build a product outside, not going to happen. thank you. So with that we’ll take some questions.
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