Seven publicly traded U.S. corporations represented on PresidentBarack Obama's advisory council for jobs and competitiveness —including General Electric Co. and Intel Corp. — have devoted agrowing pool of their non-U.S. earnings to investments in othercountries.

As a group, multinational companies with current or former chiefexecutive officers on Obama's jobs council have, over the past fouryears, almost doubled the cumulative amounts they've reinvestedoverseas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

By doing so, companies may be able to take advantage offaster-growing markets or lower production costs, and they candefer U.S. income taxes on profits from overseas sales.Underscoring the difference between corporate interests and thenational interest, they're also investing money elsewhere thatcould be helping the U.S. economy, said former U.S. Labor SecretaryRobert Reich.