Watch booktv every weekend on cspan2. Good evening. Good evening. Im steve we bert with the like librarys Public Affairs staff and i want to welcome you and thank you for being with us tonight. And thanks to rainy day books, our frequent and favorite collaborator and of course one over the nations great independent book stores. We operated ourselves here at the library among other things on the timeliness and the relevance of our signature programming, whether were holding forums on local issues or addressing emerging or hot button national topics. We certainly didnt intend on the particular timeliness of tonights presentation. Christopher leonard was a busy man at the end of last week. Taking reporter calls, wrote a coup of oped pieces for the New York Times and for cnn business. After the death of david koch. Chris spent aye eight years ee. Americaed in kochland, the place and title of his book, pulling back the curtain on the extraordinary Business Empire and the very potent Politic
Good evening. Good evening. Im steve we bert with the like librarys Public Affairs staff and i want to welcome you and thank you for being with us tonight. And thanks to rainy day books, our frequent and favorite collaborator and of course one over the nations great independent book stores. We operated ourselves here at the library among other things on the timeliness and the relevance of our signature programming, whether were holding forums on local issues or addressing emerging or hot button national topics. We certainly didnt intend on the particular timeliness of tonights presentation. Christopher leonard was a busy man at the end of last week. Taking reporter calls, wrote a coup of oped pieces for the New York Times and for cnn business. After the death of david koch. Chris spent aye eight years ee. Americaed in kochland, the place and title of his book, pulling back the curtain on the extraordinary Business Empire and the very potent Political Network that was put together by da
And Roger L Williams who was on a plane in the late 60s and a backup, we could talk about the cook family and charles kochland, but in 1967 when his father passed away, they were rearranging the firm and try to figure out what to name it. I specifically chose the name kochland because it was a family name but also completely with the character, hard to remember and without subscription. They were not a consumer Oriented Companies that want to develop a brand name. They wanted to avoid scrutiny. Largely because they were in oil business in the theory of the oil business was ops of the old saying whats good for the motor Oil Companies good for the United States. When oil prices shot up these companies were getting massive profits at the expense of ordinary people. The idea was when your business like this, these day in the background. He stayed behind the curtain and quietly make a fortune. Charles kochland is the second part of her born in the patriarch, early in the book you talk about
Point where there almost offsetting the benefits of the tax cut . Neil they are certainly dampening the benefit of the tax cut. There are two aspects of the tariffs on business that are impacting business. The first is the tariffs already in place and are at cost. The second is uncertainty of additional tariffs. That is playing out over the next several months with respect to china and even automobiles, with respect to tariffs on automobiles. And if you are running a company by the way, not just Large Companies if you run a company, you have difficult y planning, because you dont know the cost of goods you are buying to either sell to consumers in the United States or the cost of something you are making in the United States. That is a real problem. The other side of that is not just tariffs on our imports, it is tariffs posted in retaliation huge harm for the ag industry and increasingly manufacturers. Jeanna the university of Michigan Confidence numbers just came out. What we saw was
Impact of president trumps tariffs on imports and other chinese items. How big and impact is this hurting companies and compare it to the benefits of the tax cut in 2017, which reduced rates on business. Are these tariffs offsetting the benefits of the tax cut . Neil there are two impacts, the first is the tariffs in place and already at cost, the second is uncertainty of additional tariffs. That is playing out over the next several months with respect to china and even automobiles, with the respect tariffs on automobiles. And if you are running a company, by the way, not just Large Companies, if you run a company you have difficult planning because you dont know the cost of goods to sell to consumers in the United States or the cost of something you are making in the United States. And it is not just there tariffs on our imports, it is tariffs posted in retaliation for the egg industry and increasingly manufacturers. Janet the university of Michigan Confidence numbers just came out. W