What has that got to do with Walgreen and Medtronic? Both are giant for-profit American corporations maneuvering to buy European companies to free themselves from U.S. taxes by moving their headquarters abroad. Walgreen is considering merging with Alliance Boots, a drugstore chain in Europe and moving its base from Illinois to Switzerland; Medtronic is buying competitor Covidien and moving its home from Minneapolis to Ireland. As Steve Pearlstein wrote in The Washington Post about Medtronic, addressing the Medtronic CEO: