The Hill News

If you haven’t read Fortune magazine’s piece on its 2011 “Business Person of the Year”: Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz, it’s an interesting read. Reporter David Kaplan tells a compelling story not just of Schultz’s canny abilities in running a mega-powerful commercial titan such as Starbucks, but also how politically savvy the coffee magnate can be. Perhaps he never intended to wield such power, but according to the piece, he is.

And the president is paying attention as well. Evidently, earlier this September, Obama called Schultz to talk shop and seek his guidance on the current (weak) business climate across the country. Schultz had made it known that he was deeply concerned about the current trajectory (or nosedive) of the U.S. economy and what its leaders proposed to do about it.

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