Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
from Tales from the Trail:
For Portman, it all comes down to beer
Rob Portman is upset about the tax laws that make a real American beer hard to find.
The senator from Ohio, who is seen as a leading candidate to be Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick, spoke out at the Reuters Washington Summit against tax policy that puts American companies at a disadvantage.
"I'm a beer drinker and I'm particularly upset by the fact there is no big U.S. beer company any more," said Portman, a former budget director who criticized the Obama administration for failing to overhaul corporate taxes in the United States.
"Sam Adams is now the largest U.S. beer company, with one percent market share. All the rest are foreign owned now and driven by tax policy."
AT&T: Beer keg, please phone home
Next time a bartender draws a long, cool German brew on tap at your favorite U.S. bar, you might be sipping beer that made a mobile phone call along the way.
At the Reuters Technology Summit in New York, AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega, who heads its wireless division, described a firm that has fitted its beer with mobile devices.
“We had a customer in Germany that wanted us — and we have found a way — to track their beer kegs as they were shipped,” said de la Vega. He said the wireless devices track how cold the keg is, whether it was properly pressurized and its location.
