Mike corbat, the ceo of citigroup, as steve mentioned, the worlds global bank with 200 million customers and accounts within 160 countries. Huge from anybodys measure. Since becoming ceo in 2012, he has focused on leveraging citis Global Network to serve its institutional and banking clients with an emphasis on strong execution and the highest ethical standards. Mr. Corbat has been at citi since his graduation from harvard in 1983. Prior to his current role, he has held a variety of ceo positions for citigroup, including ceo of europe, middle east, and africa, ceo of citi of the Global Wealth management unit, and the Global Corporate and commercial bank. He is actively involved with several civic and cultural organizations, including his roles as executive Committee Member of the partnership for new york city and as a board of trustee of the United States ski and snowboard association. I would like to introduce dustin walsh who will be moderating today. Hes an awardwinning senior forr for the crane decrains many of us his articles on a regular basis. He has covered the Automotive Industry collapse and resurgence, several bankruptcies and multibilliondollar mergers and acquisition deals. Things many of us are familiar with over the years. He served as an expert source on national and local television and radio programs. Hes also won several awards including the alliance of Area Business publications best local coverage of a National Economic story award for his coverage of insourced manufacturing from overseas in 2012. He attended grand Valley State University and studied journalism. I would like to bring mike up to the stage. If you want to come up and we will hear some remarks. Thank you. [applause] michael thank you for that very warm welcome. I would like to thank steve and the leadership of the joint Economic Club for the opportunity to speak to such an influential group. When business and government leaders found this forum during the depression, our nation faced tensions and challenges that were exacerbated by both the social and political environment. I think the same, in many ways, can be said of our country today. Americans have lived through the financial crisis, while the governments response, at least in my opinion, was the right one. The crisis left many feeling as if the system is stacked against them and absolving wrongdoers of accountability. To many people, it feels like our eras defining economic trends, including things like globalization, hurt them economically. While we have historically low unemployment, wage growth has been stubborn, and many live at the anxiety of having their jobs disrupted by technology. The wealth gap is widened. Too many believe their children will have fewer opportunities than they had. Many in our country have lost faith in the american dream. I think that is caused some to question whether our capitalist system is in fact the right one. For my part, i believe in capitalism. I believe in free markets. I believe in the right of Free Enterprise to conduct their business. I believe in responsible and reasonable regulation. We would not be the country we are today without these. But, i also believe, for our business to strive and thrive in todays society, we need to help solve the societal challenges we all face. We cannot be on the sidelines. We need to have Business Models that have a positive impact on society and dont rely solely on philanthropy to show we are solid corporate citizens. Creating shareholder value, in my opinion, will always be necessary, but creating stakeholder value is critical. Today, these two goals are more closely connected than ever before. People increasingly are demanding that private enterprise play a role in finding solutions to the challenges we face. Employees, for their part, want to work at companies that reflect their values and their priorities. Theseproach to some of issues is that, at our core and at our best, we work with our clients to solve problems. With significant Financial Resources to deploy, we are scaled to serve clients and help them compete in the economy. The clients could be anything from a multinational company, like ford where i had the pleasure of spending time this morning, it could be one of our commercial banking clients, like edward leavy, a legend in Road Construction founded on a handshake between its namesake and henry ford. Or, it could be a Public Sector client, including local governments like the state of michigan. Our commitment to solutions can be seen through three decisions we make every day. Who we work with, how we work with them, and how we treat the people who work for us. Think about one of the Biggest Challenges facing our nation today. That is our failing infrastructure. The American Society of civil engineers, today, estimates we will fall 1. 5 trillion short of the required Infrastructure Investment needed by 2025. Not only are there implications for Public Health and safety, theres an Economic Cost to the status quo. The estimated annual cost of highway congestion, 120 billion. Airport congestion and delays, another 35 billion. Is where a bank like ours can help. Our Balance Sheet allows us to finance projects that would be out of the reach of some smaller institutions. Just last year, citi provided financing for 26 billion in u. S. Infrastructure projects, including bridges, hospitals, airports, water, and public power. Id like to mention one project we did in detroit which we are particularly proud of. That was, during the bankruptcy, citi committed 60 million and subsequently underwrote another 200 billion in bonds on behalf of the Public Lighting Authority of detroit. Those funds financed the installation of over 65,000 efficient streetlights, improving the quality of life throughout the city. [applause] betsy thank you. Michael thank you. Another challenge, Affordable Housing. I mentioned the economic pressure to Many Americans feel acutely. Over 11 million lowincome households in the u. S. Today comprise over a quarter of all rental households. Of those, 70 spent more than half their income on rent and utilities. To address this urgent need, last year, citi provided 6 billion in financing for the construction and reconstruction of more than 36,000 Affordable Housing units. That level of support not only set a new record for us at citi, it maintained our ranking as the leading financier of Affordable Housing in the u. S. For the ninth year in a row. And, how about Climate Change . While some may doubt its existent, we believe it is real, and its accelerating, and our collective efforts to address it are the greatest combination of opportunity and risk we face. According some of the most recent compelling scientific assessments, we cant afford to wait to take action. Serious impact from Climate Change go well bond well weather events like the devastating hurricanes we have experience in the past few years, and at the same time, we need to recognize many people depend on the fossil fuel industry for their livelihood. We have clients in this sector, and we are not going to walk away from it. We are working to support their transition to a low carbon economy, creating green collar careers in the process. In 2014, we made a 10year, 100 billion Environmental Finance commitment, Funding Clean Energy and other sustainable projects, including the first offshore wind farm in the country. There is great demand for this capital. As a result of that, we will meet our goal this year, which will be four years ahead of our plans. Let me be clear. None of these projects are transactions i have described up rog x or transactions i have described up to this point are primarily rooted in philanthropic or idealistic content. They are core banking activities conducted on behalf of citi clients, and they all contribute to our bottom line. However, their value and benefits accrued to many stakeholders, including our communities, society, our economy, and more broadly, the Global Economy. In addition, our core activities as a bank, advance our economy and society by supporting nonprofit organizations that tackle such challenges head on. We have focused on the need to close the widening gap between the skills of young people and what they need to be able to compete in todays workforce. The u. S. Department of labor released a report last fall that found there are 7 billion jobs at any one time today that employers still cannot fill. Our pathways to Progress Initiative is designed to help close the job Skills Mismatch by providing 200,000 young people over six years with the tools they need through training, work experience, and entrepreneurial opportunities. At 100 million, it is the largest philanthropic commitment in our companys history. And, i hope it shows our willingness to put profits back into the communities we serve. Earlier this year, we broadened the scope to help 10,000 Older Workers who feel as if they have been on the wrong side of globalization or Digital Innovation to secure employment in Growth Industries like health care, transportation, technology, and construction. Several organizations in detroit are involved in this 10 million effort. Focus hope is launching a Robotics Program to support people looking to build careers in automation, advanced manufacturing and information technology, fields all helping to grow our economy right here at home. Beyond philanthropy, we also accept we have a responsibility to have a point of view on certain issues affecting our colleagues and our communities. One is the epidemic of gun violence. After several citi colleagues were impacted by the parkland massacre, we decided we needed to think about where our clients intersected with this issue. We dont seek to take the place of government, and we never intended to offer the perfect solution, much less a new form of gun control. I own guns for recreational purposes. Im a Firm Believer in the second amendment. Our commercial firearms policy simply asks our Retail Sector clients to use accepted best practices if they sell firearms. These include age restrictions, completed backgrounds checks, and no sale of bump stocks or high capacity magazines. This is followed by retailers including walmart and dicks sporting goods, and have strong public support, even among gun owners. We also recognize how we operate as a company is an opportunity to demonstrate our values. We focused on building a better, fairer culture at citi, making it is free of racial, gender, and other biases as we can. This year, we were the first u. S. Company to disclose what we call our unadjusted or raw pay gap. Our analysis revealed our medium is 71 of the median pay for men, showing we have a significant issue with the representation of women in senior roles at our firm. While transparency is great, it is what you do with your data where the rubber hits the road. We have set a goal to have 40 of our mid and seniorlevel leaders in our firm globally filled by females by the end of 2021. We measure our progress against that quarterly. While i focused on citi, im happy to say these issues are increasingly affected by our clients and the Business Community more broadly. In august, the business round table, an organization of ceos of major u. S. Companies companies, announced it had revised its principles of corporate governance. Our revised statement said responsible business should also take into account the interest of other stakeholders, such as colleagues, clients, suppliers, and communities. As an example, i have decided to show it is not just the case with other stakeholders win or shareholders lose. Business is not, nor should never be, a zerosum game. Up until recently, business did not have enough credibility to take on social issues, but earlier this year, some evidence emerged of a new attitude when the Public Affairs firm edelman published its annual trust barometer. The results revealed a profound shift in the degree of trust that people have for one class of company, and that is that is and that is their employers. 75 , or three out of every four people interviewed globally, said they trusted their employers to do what is right for them and for society. That is a welcome shift in perception and development that business should take pride in. I believe if company continue to see their role as creating value for stakeholders as well as shareholders, our country will be stronger, our system will continue to show why it creates more opportunity than any other anywhere. Thank you for having me here today, and i look forward to our discussion, and i would like to invite dustin on stage. Thank you. [applause] dustin just a second, let me get this thing going here. Thank you, that was delightful. I also dont want to show you where media placed on the trust list. Before i want to do a deeper dive into social topics that you spoke of, but first thing, i would like to get your barometer on the economy and where it is going. Usually, when the Global Economy or National Economy stumbles, detroit fall down a well. What are you seeing in the economy that we are seeing recessionary indicators . What do you think the longterm is here this year and next year . Michael i have talked publicly that, in my 36 years of being in the industry and being around companies and the economy more broadly, i have never seen a time like this. When you think about where we are today, we are 10 years into a recovery from the great financial crisis. Some people look and say, by historical standards, that is long. True, but we have to remind ourselves recoveries have no memory. As my friends in australia remind me, 26 years into their recovery. Second, as we look at the economy today, it cant be looked at three single lens. That is, when we look at the world, we have a combination of economic, social, and political, or we also have the tiering the strata of what we would think of as the consumer, business, and government. To understand where the u. S. Economy at the Global Economy is today, we need to take those apart. Simply, when you look at the United States today, two thirds of our economy is dictated by the consumer. By the way, the consumer is in pretty good shape. If we go back to the crisis and think about how intervention was done and where stabilization came from, effectively, to the consumer two things matter most. , one is their job. Do i have a job and can i keep my job if i dont have a and can i keep my job . If i dont have a job, can i get one . We could argue secondary around wages, etc. As we saw last week, we have to go back to 1969 to find a job market with lower unemployment than we have today. The second piece is housing. When we think about housing out there today, we could argue pockets are things, but people feel pretty good about their house. Certainly in america, many consumers around the world their home is their largest investments, often a proxy for retirement, and if you feel good about your job and about your home, the consumer will be engaged. That is what we see. Business has been a bit flighty. Throughout these 10 years, business has been engaged, disengaged on the back of tax reform are other things. In and out. But, business has been probably more conservative. I think the other piece is, we are 10 years into what i describe as this unprecedented, Massive Science fair project called quantitative easing. Unprecedented in terms of trillions of dollars around the world. As we look, and things we cant escape in this globally linked economy, is the impact it had on Interest Rates. Did we ever think any of us with seasoning in this room would look around and find a several Major Economies in the world with negative Interest Rates . We operate in those places. It is a strange phenomenon. When you go to somebody and say, give us your deposit, and by the way, you will pay to put your deposit in our bank, it redefines the traditional paradigm of how people think about things. I dont believe, and we have heard out of our central bank, the federal reserve, that it has not necessarily transmitted as well. And, for now, we are saying we are not a believer in negative rates, but you have to look at the other pieces. This morning, you wake up, and its china. Its brexit. It is usmca and what will happen. Volatility has been destabilizing to business, but fortunately, we have had the backbone of a healthy, strong, engaged consumer. Dustin i am running short on time so i want to get into this idea of corporate americas role in solving societys ills. Historically, it has been the governments role to provide wellbeing to its constituents. You now see that role is being taken on by corporate america. Does that mean the government is failing us or something has changed . What is the fundamental change to where your company does the things you talked about . Michael i would say, from our perspective, as we look at some of these issues as i talked a bit about guns, but if you look at issues we choose to get involved with, in many ways, it goes back and starts at home around our