The u. S. Corporate tax rate is among the worlds highest, but in a move to lower tax bills, more and more u. S. Firms make merger deals with Foreign Companies and move from the United States to a country with a lower tax base. Its called a corporate inversion. Is that greed or Good Business . Thats our cover story this week. Wisconsin based wisconsin controls and tyco in ireland planned to merge with the company in ireland. While the deal is not only for tax reasons, the move is expected to save 150 million every year. They are part of a trend businesses moving overseas and lowering the tax bill in part because the taxes are 39 , but with deductions and loopholes, few pay that rate. Using inversion, they reincorporate in another country and pay that nations lower tax rate on the income earned there. The largest inversion deal was announced last year to combine pfizer and allergan to ireland with a tax rate of 12. 5 . They are not alone. Theres medtronic that moved to ireland, and burger king memplged with tim hortons and became ka neighborhocanadian. So far, mergers continue. When American Companies shift their legal headquarters abroad for a lower tax bill, who wins . Who loses . Walter issacson, president and ceo of the aspen institute. Walter, thank you for being with us today. Good to be with you, becky. What do you think . Is this Good Business or greed . Balance the question whether a corporation is supposed to be focused only on the short term return to the shareholder or whether the corporation has other stake holders, you know, to do things for its own long term advantage and for stake holders like the people in the communities where they live. Weve always had that debate. Its got to be a balance. The problem is with a 39 Corporate Tax rate and 150 million made eachi ieyear like one you talked about, the balance tips and they move overseas. Take away the perverse incentive in the tax code that allows these things to happen. I agree completely. Its law of physics, capitals go where best treated. Maybe capitals stick around where rates are marginally lower, but its 39 tax to 12 with ireland. How did we get this far out of whack . Whats whacky is we have a 39 Corporate Tax base, but corporations pay a lower rate than any other industrialized country. Some corporations. For gdp. Well, on average because we have a very, very complicated tax code with all sorts of loopholes and deductions, and across the board you have support for simplifying the tax code allowing you to bring the rate down to 25 , which i think would solve a lot of the problems. Sets up the uneven playing field. I think usually Big Companies have ways to find other than small companies. P poisons our political system whether its donald trump on the republican statewide or Bernie Sanders on the democratic side. They are fighting against corporations that are messing up, movie ining jobs oversea, a theres a sense its rigged with big corporations and lobbyists. Not only do you have a bad Economic System with the complex code, but you pervert the whole political process, and you have people on both extremes of the political spectrum attacking corporations. You said it yourself, though, this is a situation where theres bipartisan support. Democrats and republicans alike agree its a stupid tax policy. How come nothings changed . You can see certain things easily to be done to simplify the tax code. Why is it not happening . Partly because the people who are worried about crony capitalism are right. Theres big lobbyists who want this deduction for data, this way of accounting for things to make the tax code more complicated, and, secondly, we have a political process that just doesnt work well these days, so i would hope that the next big push would be a great bipartisannonpartisan push to simplify the tax code and bring rates down somewhat. Its been 30 years since we had an overhaul in taxes back in 1986. Do you think we can get both sides together, and, by the way, can Corporate Taxes be restructured without touching on individual taxes too . Yeah. I think you could probably do a simplification of the Corporate Tax rate. You know, obviously, if you had a really great working political system, youd simplify personal and Corporate Tax rate. You know, also not give the perverse incentives to say acquired debt, other than equity financing. All things that are now built into the system, and maybe one easy way to push politics is make companies be more transparent about their tax returns so people can look at the tax returns of corporations and say, woah, i didnt know they were allowed to do that. That is a great idea. If you had to break it down to the most basic level and explain to people why they should care about this, what would that be . You want to have america be in the 21st century, the most competitive, creative, innova innovative country in the world like it was in the 20th century. That really requires the ability to raise capital, funnel into the places most productive, not funnel in the places because they are perverse incentives and not have companies wanting to move out of the United States. This is good for jobs. Its good for america if you simplify the Corporate Tax code but also make it so corporations understand they have a responsibility thats just a little larger than the short term banking they are doing. They have to invest in long term research, development, creation of value so american corporations create value better than corporations anywhere else. Walter, it is always a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. Now heres a look at whats making news as we head into a new week on the money. Not a lot of growth for the u. S. Economy in the last quarter of 2015. The Gross Domestic Product rose by. 70 , below estimates. Consumer spending was up by 2. 2 . Janet yellen led Federal Reserve led Interest Rates untouched this week. Theres market turmoil but gave no indication they will raise rates throughout the year. The fed next meets in march. That, in turn, did no favors for the market. The dow tumbled 220 points wednesday after the statement, and stocks continued recent volatility and declined in lock step in the price of oil. They recovered later in the week. In the thick of earnings season, Big Name Companies are doing well. Facebook with a blow out quarter, and apple beat estimates, warning about slow downs in china, and microsoft was ahead of expectations, and amazon fell far short with the stock taking a beating. Up next on the money, going, going, going, seat upgrades up for auction. Helping our hurting your wallet . Kids who wanted more school, demanding lessons and money and how they got it. Heading into the break, look at how the stock market ended the week. If you plan on flying this year, listen up. The empty first class seat you have been eyeing goes to the highest bidder. Ken harris is the ceo of plus grade, the Company Behind the auction bidding technology that 45 airlines around the world are currently using. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. Hows it work . Book a flight with one of our partners, you get an invitation whether its after booking or email in the inbox inviting you to say how much are you willing to pay if theres an empty Business Class seat. Its a hard sell with me. I travel a lot. I thought the seats were going to frequent fliers who get the things for free because they are good customers. How come i pay for it now . You dont. Frequent fliers still get flee upgrades. This comes after when theres still empty Business Class seats. Ive been on so many flights with every Business Class seat is filled already. There has to be some loss of inventory this is going to. Depends on the airline and what the strategy is. Some have a strategy they want to, you know, marry revenue upgrade and frequent flier benefit, and other airlines might have strategies where they put it after frequent flier benefits. Its up to the airline, but those from around the world, they have frequent fliers top in mind. I will say it makes perfect sense from a business perspective, but as a customer, its another way the airlines nickel and dime you on top of every other fee they charge me from the bags, boarding early, as a consumer, as a flier, you feel like theres a price for everything these days. I can see that per spective, but if theres a price for something, its value added and enhances experience. Airlines see this as value added revenue stream. I totally understand why you came up with this, but i do see that theres a way this can backfire. What have you heard from partners using it . We have, lets see, 45 partners, all thrilled not just with the revenue generated, but the good will they generate with the passenger. What better thing can happen when upgraded . If you have thousands of people flying up front rather than in the back saying airline x, thank you, airline y, its, you know, they are generating healthy profits and having happy passengers. What does it cost . An auction is different every time, but roughly what do i pay to upgrade on a Cross Country flight . Cross country is anywhere between 200 500. One way . Each direction. Transatlantic, 4001,000 depending depend ing on the airline. Have you seen the commercial where the guy is eating chips, something, and hes trying to act as obnoxious as possible. Does that work . Well, maybe on some airlines where theres not assigned seatings, but ones they are, i would love that. Both products are based on the prospects if you are in economy, you want in Business Class, and if youre in Business Class, you want no one next to you. Theres a demand for it. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, on the money, reading and writing, the High School Students who decided they were missing something crucial in their education. Its been ten years since Everybody Loves raymond left the airways, and we talked about the new show and role in front of the camera. Weather its paying for college or living on a budget, teenagers need to understand money. High schools are failing when it comes to teaching these important lesson. The council for Economic Education says twothirds of states have no requirements for Financial Education classes. Senior correspondent found one School District where students pushed for changes. Reporter they are only teenagers, but todays High School Students, like these seniors at East Greenwich high school in rhode island make tough Financial Decisions. A credit card would not be in my future. I lay out how much money i need in the week to pay for gas or go out with friends. Price of college today is insanely high. Reporter how to manage money is a lesson many u. S. Schools are failing to teach. Until 2014, rhode island had no basic standards for teaching Financial Education, an issue that was a big concern to patricia paige, spending years in the private sector before becoming a business teacher. Graduating a generation of students compelled to make substantive Financial Decisions even before they Left High School walls, and they were illequipped to do so. Good afternoon, financial scholars. Reporter some students took action successfully petitioning the state board of education to adopt financial literateeracy standards. When you learn from parents, it feels the same as putting your money in a piggy bank. Learning in a classroom, its seeing in the broader scope whats going to happen to me as im growing up. Reporter studies Show High School graduates who took a personal finance course are likely to pay bills on time and get higher Credit Scores as adults. Still, many states go not require students to take a personal finance course to graduate. Just 20 states require students to take an economics course before graduation. That number drops to 17 for personal finance classes, but the impact on those who take classes is clear. Its important to know about the Federal Reserve because they sort of regulate the economy. Its definitely contributed to the successfulness of my small limit business. Reporter helping ining stud make smarter Financial Decisions while in high school and the rest of their lives. For on the money, East Greenwich, rhode island. The students need to lead the charge pushing for more states to add Financial Education requirements. Up next on the money, a look at the news for the week ahead, and the man who created Everybody Loves raymond makes a Career Change talking food, beer, and the business of television. Do you think that you could get Everybody Loves raymond on television today . No. You can go to our website, and you can follow us on twitter onthemoney. Stories coming up impacting your money, earnings from exxon, pfizer, merck, and dunkin. Theres sales figures reeliased from last month, and spring early this year . Tuesday is ground hog day. On wednesday, well get an idea how the Services Sector is doing when the institute for supply management releases nonmanufacturing index for january, and friday, the big number of the week, the employment report that shows us how many jobs the economy created in january. There is no business like show business, and its a business that is constantly changing, especially when it comes to whats on your television. Phil rosenthal was the executive producer of Everybody Loves raymond, and now hes in front of the camera with his travel and lifestyle show, ill have what phils having, currently on netflix. I talked about the transition from behind the screen to front and center. I studied theater in school. In school, you dont know theres writing, directing, and producing, abut thats what i did, but transition to writing came when we wrote a show for ourselves to be in, and i realized, oh, i can now eat something more than tuna every night if writing is like a hair above acting in the world in terms of getting a job, so i went to hollywood, and i started writing, and then i was lucky enough to create that show, and that took me nine years, but during that show, i found this love of travel and food and i took ray ramano himself and took him to italy. He was not happy to travel. He did not want to travel. He never traveled before. I saw what happened to ray the character happened to ray the person. I remember that one. Exactly right. That was the seed i saw in him, i said, if i could do this for this guy, maybe i could do it for other people. So in ill have what phils having, you go to Different Countries and find of the best of the best of the new tastes and flavors we have not tried yet . Yes. The food and hopefully the humor is my way of connecting with people. I tell people im like Anthony Bordain if he was afraid of anything. Im like you on the couch watching him saying, hes a super hero. Im not doing what hes doing. I cant do that. Right. But i think if they looked at a guy like me, if that guy goes outside, maybe i can too. Twothirds of americans dont have a passport. Yes. So im trying to say, come on, the world would be better if we all experienced just a little bit of someone elses experience. Lets talk about the changing nature of television. Yeah. Its changed a lot since the time youve been in it. Yes. Whats surprised you the most . What do you find the most disturbing . One of the crazy things to me is no matter where you pitch, they all want to get younger. Right . The demographics watching, you mean . Exactly, but the numbers on paper says they are not watching anyway, and the loyal audience and the people with the disposable income, look, talking about money, but they are the ones loyal to tv. I just read an article bill carter wrote about the median age of people who watch jimmy fallon. You think its kids watching. The median age of that show is 55 years old. Oh, my gosh. Yes. Yes. Thats whos watching television. Thats whos watching, especially at 11 30. Kids are out or on the computers or phones or whatnot. Why not have something for people our age. When i say our age, i dont mean yours, but mine. No, mine too. Do you think you could get people for Everybody Loves raymond today . No. Youre kidding. It was huge. It was huge, but even then it was mild. Its a guy who lives with his family and parents live across the street. Nobodys jumping up and down, oh, my god, what a hot sexy idea, we have to have the show. Think of the demos. Nobodys thinking about that. We barely got on air then, we would never get on now. With the new show, im trying to connect to people in what i think is an oldfashioned way without being old and staunchy. Were going to places that are current now. Were eating exciting things. Look, i ate an ant. Im trying to connect with everyone, and, you know whats sweet . Im hearing from people that they are watching with their kids. Theres app idea. Thats how it used to be. So the entire family can watch. Yes, yes, and grand ma is not upset they said a terrible thing. Phil, i cant tell you how pleased i am youre here and how excited i am about the new show. Thank you very much. Thank you. Zplmplg thats