Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday appointed banking executive and frequent GOP donor Mark Hogan to lead the state’s troubled job-creation agency [WEDC]….. M&I Bank faced its own problems several years ago with bad loans and a crashing stock price and ended up being absorbed by BMO Harris of Canada in 2011. M&I loan losses during…
Business
Business, Film, Nature
Diving for Scallops
by JOHN ADAMS •
Business, Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Government Spending, WEDC
WEDC Leader Quits: “It is time for me to return to my previous retired status”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Having presided over the national embarrassment that is the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, WEDC leader Reed Hall now heads for the exit: The state’s top economic development agency, stung by a series of scathing audits, media reports about questionable loans and accusations of mismanagement, is once again seeking new leadership. After three years steering…
Business, Restaurant
The Restaurant Failure Rate, Real and Imagined
by JOHN ADAMS •
One often hears that almost all restaurants fail within their first year, but that’s not true. Turnover is high, but it’s nowhere near 90% in the first year: [H.G.] Parsa [then an associate professor at Ohio State, now at the University of Denver] says he spent three months trying to track down someone at American…
Business, CDA, City, Development, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, WEDC
Business Dependency in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
For residents facing poverty, one would hope for, and understand, a combination of private and public relief. Churches and other private organizations do much in this effort; government expenditures for the genuinely needy amount to a small portion of all government spending. Support of this kind is a worthy effort. Whitewater also has two large…
Business, Press
A Prediction of Print’s ‘Fast, Slow, Fast’ Decline
by JOHN ADAMS •
Earlier this spring, the public editor of the New York Times, Margaret Sullivan, wrote a post on how the printed newspaper would continue to be important to the Times. In reply, Professor Clay Shirky of NYU wrote with what he called a “darker narrative’ of print’s prospects. (See, at Sullivan’s blog, A ‘Darker Narrative’ of…
Business, City, Development, Economics, Economy, Health, Local Government, Planning, Politics, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Meetings & Motivations
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 11 in a series. This is series about a proposed digester energy project for Whitewater, one that would rely on importing other cities’ unwanted waste into Whitewater for processing. A series like this is only indirectly about general wastewater upgrades, at whatever price. It’s about waste importation, and officials’ claims that importation would be clean…
Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Free Markets, Gluttony, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park
Conservatives Against WEDC
by JOHN ADAMS •
Only a generation ago (not long, really), most conservatives would have rejected something like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s ineffectual, wasteful attempts to manipulate the economy for the benefit of a few insiders’ friends. Today, communities across our state are beset with any number of unctuous men hawking a kind of big-government conservatism, with false…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Government Spending
SHINE Fades
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Gazette, there’s a story that, ever so tentatively, lets readers know that the public-money-sucking SHINE project (to produce the molybdenum-99 isotope for nuclear medicine) isn’t faring so well in the marketplace. SHINE is, after all, the centerpiece of big-government conservatism in Rock County, having received millions in public money to fund a…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, State Government, WEDC
12 Points on the WEDC’s $500,000 Loan for Campaign Contributor’s Failing (and Lying) Company
by JOHN ADAMS •
Seemingly, all Wisconsin is discussing a $500,000 Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation loan to a failing company of a Walker political contributor. Here’s a summary of what’s known so far. 1. The loan was to Building Committee Inc. (BCI), a business owned by William Minahan, a Walker political contributor (and Minahan made contributions to other campaigns,…
Business, City, Government Spending, Health, Local Government, Marketing, Planning, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater’s Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 8 in a series. First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater Common Council from John Adams on Vimeo. In this post, I’ll look at the first vendor presentation on the digester proposal to Whitewater’s Common Council. (Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned chronologically based on when it was asked. All…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Government Spending, Marketing, WEDC
WEDC Slowly Crumbles
by JOHN ADAMS •
WEDC ‘CEO’ Reed Hall Looks Downcast. You Would, Too, If You’d Disgraced All Wisconsin Yet Again. AP Photo. On a Friday afternoon, there’s breaking news across Wisconsin. Having rejected free markets in capital, labor, and goods for cronyism and ineffectual manipulation of the economy, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation now slowly crumbles: Scott Walker calls…
Business, City, Government Spending, Health, Local Government, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Fifteen Months Later, at the School Board
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 7 in a series. 3.16.15 Wastewater & Waste Importation Presentation to Whitewater Unified School District from John Adams on Vimeo. Jump ahead almost fifteen months, from 12.3.13 to 3.16.15, and City Manager Clapper and Wastewater Superintendent Reel are at the Whitewater Unified School District. Months later, and millions in spending requests, but still lots…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, WEDC
WEDC Develops Its Own Foreign Aid Program
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that a big-business recipient of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s taxpayer-funded largesse is moving a plant and jobs…to Mexico: WATERTOWN (WKOW) — A global power systems management corporation that has received nearly $370,000 in tax incentives from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) since 2012 is shipping jobs from Wisconsin to Mexico for…