Comedian: Budweiser has a recipe?

Lewis Black is completely right about American being up for sale. Unless action is taken by our government Anheuser-Busch will be just one of the first sales in the yard sale of America.

Why would it be the GOVERNMENTS resposibility?!?!? We are a FREE MARKET society… we want to keep the gov’t out of these types of decisions. They can’t manage a budget ( and haven’t for decades) why in the world would you be looking to them for any type of “business” related support…

The purchase of AB by In-Bev was the result of a Family selling off their Stake in the company, the Company dissolving the barriers of protection (tiered board, etc…) that traditionally prevent these types of takeovers.

This is not the Gov’t.s domain they should not interfere… they will only muck up the waters even more…

It is the government’s responsibility to protect our currency and not de-value it like they have been doing for the last 8 years. They have created an environment ripe for the plucking by forign countrys.

larry couldn’t have said it better.
A stronger dollar would have prevented the sale of AB.

The cost of war, the tax cuts, the government spending…..

GWB is the worst president ever, poor excuse for a Republican.

I didn’t want to dive into that with all of the other shortcomings our Gov’t has piled up… That being said, ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!! it’s easy to buy a company for 70 billion US when the Euro:USD rate is over 2…

Well said Larry

That’s because americans have become accustomed to sitting in their big old Wal-Mart waffle bottomed jeans WITH the fur all the time IMing and texting at der, pay it later no pay it now,learn nothing and breed more now…dey gots low, low, low,low,low,low…LOW

I have to agree that the “blame”, if any, belongs on the doorstep of the Busch family. Their lack of care in regards to protecting their company, along with their slow response to the need for international growth gave this take over a big push. The strong Euro versus the weak Dollar did indeed help things along, but it isn’t the only reason.
Funny, but I’m pretty sure true economists would agree that the dollar was beginning to weaken long before GWB took office. Do all the liberals have amnesia in regards to Clinton?

I’m not specifying any one regime… this has been a cross party collabrative effort spanning many, many years.

Why is anybody upset over this? The Busch family and AB’s stockholders made a killing on this deal! The IV hasn’t done anything to improve AB in years, and got rewarded by making a fortune on the takeover. They only fought the initial offer in order to get more out of the deal, not because they cared about owning the company. Miller got bought years ago by the South Africans, so did Coors after it merged with Molson of Canada.

I do think its funny that theres this blame Bush notion when it’s more than just him at fault. He gets a good share of it, but the budget comes from Congress. If Democrats cared, they’d do what IS in they’re power and cut spending massively. It would put even more focus on Republican spending and the Iraq War. But it’s impossible because no matter how much money Bush spends, Democrats actually want to spend more. They are independently thinking about a second stupid stimulus package after complaining how bad the idea was in the first place. Stop spending.

And Obamas gonna make it all better by increasing taxes by $1 trillion dollars and spending EVEN MORE. No stop spending and offer tax incentives for local economic development.

InBev would’ve had a much harder time if the dollar were stronger. But as things were, the Busch family - all together - has less than 3% ownership of A-B. The signs have been pointing towards this buyout for around 2 years, and the recent drama was just the last act of a long play.

Frankly even with a stronger dollar, Carlos Brito was so focused on this acquisition, especially with InBev’s sales continuing to suck, that there was no way he’d stop until he gained control.

What I want to know is what happens now to all the philanthropic and ecological concerns that A-B funds/supports? Those don’t generate profit, so you can’t expect Brito Bandito to embrace anything which doesn’t improve the bottom line….

Here is why the AB takeover took place from the WSJ On-line:

But here’s the real question: Was the takeover basically financed by the savings Anheuser expected from escaping America’s increasingly uncompetitive corporate tax system? According to the Tax Foundation, Belgium’s corporate tax rate is 33%, but the effective tax rate can be half the nominal rate thanks to adjustments for something the OECD calls a “notional allowance for corporate equity.” Bottom line: InBev was paying around 20% of its profits in corporate taxes, compared to Anheuser-Busch’s rate of 38.4%.

Things have gotten pretty bad when U.S. companies relocate to Europe to cut their tax payments. But a research analysis by Morgan Stanley finds the combined company’s corporate tax bill will be lower than in the U.S. and that the tax differential indeed figured into the economics of the sale.

So while John McCain may have benefited from his wife’s ownership of Anheuser stock (estimated at between 40,000 and 80,000 shares), the country will continue to see its competitive edge wither away without a corporate tax rate cut. Mr. McCain to his credit wants to cut the corporate tax rate to 25%, close to the global average. Senator Obama is more interested in raising tax rates than cutting them.

Wall Street dealmakers tell us to expect more sales of U.S. companies to European rivals thanks to the combination of America’s higher corporate taxes and the weak dollar. They’re right. New data from the OECD for 2008 indicate that the international average for corporate tax rates fell by another percentage point last year, meaning the U.S. is pricing itself out of the market as a corporate headquarters. “America’s 35% corporate tax rate is not just bad economics, it’s downright unpatriotic,” says tax expert Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute.

I agree by taxing corporations to death it drives up the chances of them selling/moving to Europe.
We need to cut the wasteful spending in this country. Put me in charge for one day and the first thing I would cut would be the space program. WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY. Who cares and how do the people/country benefit from the fact that we found ice crystal on Mars.