FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Economics, Economy, Local Government

The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Economy

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You’ll find in the video above a concise, balanced assessment of China’s economic prospects from economist Tyler Cowen. The short-term is sure to be rocky, but there are good, long-term prospects for China. (Prof. Cowen doesn’t say so, but those long-term prospects are likely to include – indeed, to require – a China without the Party.)

One may be absolutely certain that Whitewater is not China; the video isn’t meant to offer a comparison between that big country and our small city. It’s just an informative summary on its own merits.

One can say, though, that even a few minutes of Prof. Cowen’s assessment illustrate how mediocre Whitewater’s own economic development specialists are – even his simple video summary is superior to any analysis ever offered from Whitewater’s CDA, Tech Park Board, etc.

Don’t think so? Fair enough: produce anything of comparable, concise understanding that any of our self-declared experts has ever demonstrated concerning local municipal finance and development.

Here’s the simple – and cold – truth:

One American university economist surpasses the combined competency of all local development specialists entrusted with millions of dollars from thousands of taxpayers in the city. Even worse, many residents of this city have children living at the poverty level, and still they’re supposed to defer to a local understanding that’s laughably thin, for projects that are utterly worthless to their well-being.

See, The rise and fall of the Chinese economy @ MARGINAL REVOLUTION.

Business, CDA, City, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, State Government

Gov. Thompson Rejects WEDC-Style Loans

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Republican Tommy Thompson, who served for fourteen years as governor, has written in opposition to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s loan program.  It’s the right position to take, and shows that Thompson understands the problems with WEDC.  Explicitly, Gov. Thompson’s opposition to WEDC-style loans includes local communities’ doling of loans through their own programs.  (Whitewater’s Community Development Authority has been one of several cities Capital Catalyst communities making a practice of this, and seeking more money to keep doing so.)

(There’s an irony here, of course.  Some of the local development men who have claimed close ties to Tommy Thompson are also the ones so strongly tied to the loan programs Gov. Thompson rejects.)  

Here’s Tommy Thompson, from his recent essay in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel :

My time away from public office has further convinced me of one thing: Government shouldn’t operate in the business lending space. I served our state for 14 years as governor and another 21 years in the Legislature, believing and operating under the assumption that there are few things that government does better than business. I left public service in 2004 and have spent more than a decade helping build companies in a variety of industries. I’ve repeatedly helped secure capital, meeting with successful institutional and private investors and have never once during the investment process been asked, “Why isn’t government investing in this company?”

What do all of our neighboring states have in common besides wishing they had Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback? Neither Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota nor any of the other states we share a region with provide a state-backed business loan program — and for good reason. Government — federal, state or local — shouldn’t be in the loan business; it’s neither built for the necessary rigors of the financial due diligence process nor is it best structured to withstand the political pressures that may be inserted into the process.

So very well said.  

See, in full, Tommy Thompson: Government shouldn’t be making loans @ Journal Sentinel. 

Thompson’s opposition, and the inquiry into state-backed loans, isn’t the end of these stories.  As I’ve mentioned, there’s a cluster of communities – including Whitewater (http://inwisconsin.com/entrepreneurs/assistance/capital-catalyst/)  – that have embraced this idea, with development gurus imagining themselves bankers of the highest order.  

Significantly, even the dodgy WEDC provides no oversight of these loans (“WEDC does not provide direct funding to businesses or review business applications under the program.”)  It’s all in hands of the men who have styled themselves development gurus, public relations experts, business lobbyists, etc. 

Having watched these same men make significant mistakes, pick the wrong priorities, and declare all of it a floral bouquet, one should not expect something different now. 

No matter, they’ve embraced the wrong policy, and the consensus (of policy and politics) against their efforts grows stronger each day.  

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.21.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have another mild day today, with a high of seventy-five under sunny afternoon skies.  Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset 8:02 for 10h 46m 28s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 56.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s Dizzy Gillespie’s birthday:

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (/???l?spi/; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer and occasional singer.[1]

AllMusic‘s Scott Yanow wrote, “Dizzy Gillespie’s contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis‘s emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy’s style was successfully recreated […] Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time.”[2]

Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge[3] but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizingbebop.[citation needed]

In the 1940s Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.[4] He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan,[5] Chuck Mangione,[6] and balladeer Johnny Hartman[5]

 

On this day in 1897, the Yerkes Observatory is dedicated:

On this date the Yerkes Observatory was dedicated. Founded by astronomer George Hale and located in Williams Bay, the Yerkes Observatory houses the world’s largest refracting optical telescope, with a lens of diameter 102 cm/40 inches. It was built through the largess of the tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes, who rebuilt important parts of the Chicago transportation system after the fire. Situated in a 77-acre park on the shore of Lake Geneva, this observatory was the center for world astronomy in the early 20th century and invited a number of astronomers from around the world, including Japan, for scientific exchange. [Source: Yerkes Observatory Virtual Museum]

A Google a Day asks a question suitable for a geography bee:

What two northernmost territories of India lie 1,100 km southeast of Calcutta? (In alphabetical order)

City, Local Government, Politics, University

Whitewater’s Major Public Institutions Produce a Net Loss (And Why It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way)

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I’ve often contended – and about this I’m sure – that most people are sharp and capable.  It’s only on this foundation that a prosperous and dynamic culture like America’s would be – could be – possible.

Whitewater’s major public institutions – her city government, school district, and local university – produce this unexpected result: although members of the government are certainly also sharp and capable individually, they often produce collectively a product that’s beneath their individual abilities or that of other competitive Americans.

There’s no doubt that many members of these public institutions are intelligent, educated, and capable on their own.

(There is one exception worth noting: the high-level leadership that former Chancellor Telfer gathered at UW-Whitewater is notably weak or troubled, exhibits a tendency toward act utilitarianism, and almost certainly faces greater disappointments ahead.  UW-Whitewater would have done better by picking almost any administrative leadership team than the one it did.  The worst is likely yet to come for – and from – that group.  A person of even moderate sense would stand as far from that upper echelon as possible.)

Yet, for the Whitewater School Board, or Common Council, do you not see plentiful talent?

I’m convinced that if one sat across the table from many of the elected or appointed leaders of these public bodies, just one-at-a-time, one would find capable and intelligent interlocutors who could easily hold their own in discussion and debate.  I’ve no doubt if it.

And yet, and yet, place those talented people together as a collective, and they produce so much less than their individual abilities would cause one to expect to produce.  I’ve no doubt of this, either.  Some of the collectively-produced projects in the city are simply ill-considered, counter-productive, or deleterious.

This odd result, in which talented individuals produce a collective result that’s less than a level of their individual abilities, is truly perplexing.

The whole should be more than the sum of the parts, that is, a true synergy.

Instead, for these public bodies, the result often seems to be a net loss in quality and accomplishment over that of individual members.  

I’ve no certain explanation for this, although over the years many people have suggested possible causes.

There is, however, a solution: each of these bodies could and should establish a deliberate, formal approach in which some of their talented members take a contrary position to the majority view, to test theories and projects.  In planning and debate, one would be left with (1) a group that advocated an approach and (2) those who intentionally took a contrary view to test the strength of that approach.  (That would be something like a Tenth Man Principle.)

This should be a serious, deliberate, formal process. (A few scattered questions at a meeting, sometimes at the last-minute, is not a serious, deliberate, formal process.  It’s a start, even sometimes a good start, but a start isn’t enough.)

A formal process of inquiry would produce much better work than government does presently.

Given the politics of Whitewater now, it’s much better – for clarity of thinking – to be outside a collective that produces work below the standard of its members or the community.  To trade individual clarity for collective confusion is a foolish trade.  An individual can do better than an addled collective.

Collective quality, however, can easily be improved through a formal, established process of questioning and inquiry.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.20.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be sunny, with a high of seventy-four. Sunrise is 7:14 and sunset is 6:04, for 10h 49m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 46.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.  There is an earlier public information meeting, from 4:30-6:30 PM, about the reconstruction of Center Street, Summit Street and Boone Court.

On this day in 1944, MacArthur returns to the Philippines:

On 20 October 1944, troops of Krueger’s Sixth Army landed on Leyte, while MacArthur watched from the light cruiser USS Nashville. That afternoon he arrived off the beach. The advance had not progressed far; snipers were still active and the area was under sporadic mortar fire. When his whaleboat grounded in knee-deep water, MacArthur requested a landing craft, but the beachmaster was too busy to grant his request. MacArthur was compelled to wade ashore.[198] In his prepared speech, he said:

People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil—soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples. We have come dedicated and committed to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring upon a foundation of indestructible strength, the liberties of your people.[199]

A Google a Day asks a history question:

Whose disciples founded Yellow Hats?

Blogging, Business, CDA, City, Free Markets, Gluttony, Local Government, New Media, New Whitewater, Politics

If Market-Based Solutions Are Superior to Cronyism, Why Are There So Many Cronies?

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Here’s a question, concerning even small towns like Whitewater, for which the Financial Times publishes an answer: If market-based solutions are superior to cronyism, why are there so many cronies?

First, there aren’t that many cronies (or insistent insiders) in Whitewater or elsewhere, but the few there are manipulate or intimidate weak reporters at local papers into representing their numbers as though they were all the community.  So they’ll commonly speak about how Whitewater does something, when the people acting are a few insiders in a room, for example.

(The truth of Whitewater is that the adult, non-student population in town is only about half the city’s total population, and by the time one accounts for natural differences in interest, outlook, and ideology, the number of big-business lobbyists in town is actually small.  Sometimes, it seems like it’s one person, and a guy who follows along beside him dutifully – if awkwardly – carrying signs or flyers.)

Why, then, does cronyism persist, despite the greater intellectual, practical, and ethical strengths of voluntary, unaided transactions in the marketplace?

Prof. Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago’s Booth School has the answer:

While everybody benefits from a competitive market system, nobody benefits enough to spend resources to lobby for it. Business has very powerful lobbies; competitive markets do not. The diffused constituency that is in favour of competitive markets has few incentives to mobilise in its defence.

This is where the media can play a crucial role. By gathering information on the nature and cost of cronyism and distributing it among the public at large, media outlets can reduce the power of vested interests. By exposing the distortions created by powerful incumbents, they can create the political demand for a competitive capitalism.

See, A strong press is best defence against crony capitalism @ The Financial Times.

Needless to say, I don’t think that the traditional local press (Gazette, Daily Union, Register) or an imitation (Banner) plays this role.  On the contrary, those publications are defenders of town squires’ repeated errors.

No matter: a new informational order now arises in many small places that progressively, effectively, decisively eclipses insiders to the benefit of those towns’ broader communities.

Tomorrow: Whitewater’s Major Public Institutions Produce a Net Loss (And Why It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way).

WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN

Option(s)

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WGTB logo PNG 112x89 Post 41 in a series. When Green Turns Brown is an examination of a small town’s digester-energy project, in which Whitewater, Wisconsin would import other cities’ waste, claiming that the result would be both profitable and green.

Sometimes a presentation of options is genuine; other times one option is merely a straw proposal to make a second option seem more palatable, less extreme, etc.

As we’ve seen, at the 12.16.14 presentation to Common Council, the Donohue firm presented two slides, about two supposed options for a digester-energy project in Whitewater.  (See, The December 2014 Presentation (Part 1), The December 2014 Presentation (Part 2), and The December 2014 Presentation (Part 3).)

Screen Shot 2015-10-19 at 6.53.22 AM
Donohue’s description of Trane’s conclusions


Screen Shot 2015-10-19 at 6.54.02 AM
Donohue’s ‘Baby-Steps’ Proposal
 

(Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned chronologically based on when it was asked. All the questions from When Green Turns Brown can be found in the Question Bin. Today’s questions begin with No. 267.)

Set aside for a moment – just for a moment – that the Trane study as has been publicly published amounts to no more than a slide and the profession of a few others that there was, in fact, a completed study.

267.  Considering the slides above, and the claims of city officials (City Mgr. Clapper, Wastewater Superintendent Reel) and Donohue that what Whitewater might do now is a ‘baby-steps’ program, isn’t it clear that the supposed second option is merely a thin-entering wedge for large-scale waste importation into the city?

(Even Donohue‘s description of Trane‘s alleged work implies as much, when one sees that Donohue begins by asking “does it make sense to build everything at once?” – emphasis added.  There’d be no need for ‘at once’ if Donohue and city officials did not plan, now, for a larger program of importing waste into Whitewater, later).

268. Under the supposedly baby-steps program, as outlined in slide 2, how much waste by volume would have to be trucked into the city to achieve the claimed revenue projections?

269. Under the supposedly baby-steps program, as outlined in slide 2, how much waste could be trucked into the city?

WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.19.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Our work week begins with milder temperatures: Monday will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-one. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset 6:05, for 10h 51m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 35.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets today at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1781, America and France defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown:

The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the Surrender at Yorktown or the German Battle, ending on October 19, 1781 atYorktown, Virginia, was a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, the siege proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War in the North American theater, as the surrender by Cornwallis, and the capture of both him and his army, prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict. The battle boosted faltering American morale and revived French enthusiasm for the war, as well as undermining popular support for the conflict in Great Britain.[5]

….After the British surrender, Washington sent Tench Tilghman to report the victory to Congress.[79] After a difficult journey, he arrived in Philadelphia, which celebrated for several days. The British Prime Minister, Lord North, is reported to have exclaimed “Oh God, it’s all over” when told of the defeat.[80] Washington moved his army to New Windsor, New York[81] where they remained stationed until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, formally ending the war.[82]

A Google a Day asks a science question:

What is the name of the anatomy text written by a physician from Bologna who is credited as “the restorer of anatomy?”

Animation, Books, Charity, Film

Sunday Animation: We Need to Talk About Alice

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GOOD BOOKS: "We Need To Talk About Alice" from Plenty on Vimeo.

(See all the process, character design, style frames, at plenty.tv/work/good-books-we-need-to-talk-about-alice )

“We need to talk about Alice” was commissioned by New Zealand based agency String Theory and created to be part of Good Books’ “Great Writers Series,” a collection of short films made to promote the non profit organization (gogoodbooks.com) which is an online charity book store that sells book and donates all proceeds to Oxfam, an organization that fights hunger and poverty since 1995.

In the last few years, a select group of directors have donated their time and knowledge to create animated shorts based on renowned literary works and authors to promote this charity. In 2012, Buck launched the amazing “Metamorphosis”, a tribute to author Hunter S. Thompson. Then came “Havana Heat” in 2013, a sensual animation produced by renowned duo McBess and Simon from The Mill.

Plenty had the honor of creating the third a 2:30 minute short film for Good Books based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s adventures in Wonderland” to commemorate the book’s 150th anniversary.

After a lot of dedication, hard work and passion for what we do, it’s our pleasure to introduce “We need to talk about Alice”

We’ll be posting more about the project soon! We have a 5 minute breakdown where you’ll be able to see the whole process for this amazing adventure we embarked in! A lot of process stills, extra content and some magical gifs!

We hope you love it! We were honored to be a part of a series of shorts that will leave a mark in the history of motion graphics.

Via Vimeo.