From the moment then-Governor Walker signed the Foxconn deal, it was clear to national economists (from across the political spectrum) that it was a dubious idea. As the months wore on, one could find more – and detailed – critiques of the project. FREE WHITEWATER has post after post addressing these sound critiques. The posts…
Business
Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Half-Right About the WISGOP
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Thomas Edsall, writing in the New York Times, quotes Jerry Taylor and Will Wilkinson of the Niskanen Center think tank on Republicans’ political economics. Two quotes from Taylor Wilkinson stand out – one right, and one wrong (at least wrong for Wisconsin). From Will Wilkinson, a view of cultural issues’ importance: The G.O.P.’s success in…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Foxconn: When the Going Gets Tough…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The national press has reported extensively, and critically, on the Foxconn project. National technology site The Verge (part of Vox Media) has also noticed how local officials who flacked this project day and night are now, well, quieter. Nilay Patel writes Let’s all watch the Wisconsin local news desperately try to get answers about Foxconn:…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
‘Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
The published case against Foxconn – with reporting & analysis from some of America’s finest journalists and economists – is overwhelming. Their careful, published work has set out the plain facts for well over a year. And yet, as a multi-billion dollar public failure, there are even more startling accounts still emerging. Austin Carr reports…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Foxconn: The ‘State Visit Project’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Willy Shih, of Harvard Business School, writes that Foxconn’s Wisconsin Factory Is What The Chinese Call A ‘State Visit Project’: Last week I wrote that Foxconn’s giant flat-screen factory in Wisconsin was facing an economic reality check, and might not get built after all. On Friday, after a call between Foxconn chairman Terry Gou and President Donald Trump,…
Business, CDA, Development, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Crops in a Business Park
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It’s right to make bids for government services, just as it’s right to mitigate losses or vacancies. Yet, for it all, it’s telling that Whitewater’s Community Development Authority has so much vacant business space that it leases the empty lots out for cropland. The Community Development Authority of the City of Whitewater, Wisconsin (“CDA”) is…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC, Wisconsin
Laughable Spin as Industrial Policy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Alternative Title: Oh, no baby, of course I still love you… Josh Dzieza reports After a ‘personal conversation’ with Trump, Foxconn says it will build a factory in Wisconsin after all (At some point…): Days after Foxconn’s Louis Woo told Reuters that the company is no longer planning to build a factory in Wisconsin, Foxconn says the factory plan…
Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Hunger, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Planning, Poverty, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Fight Against Gravity
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Trump Administration wants to bolster industries that are market failures, with coal as an example. Catherine Rampell writes of that effort in The Trump administration learns that fighting gravity is hard: The Trump administration is learning that, as new data show that the industries it has worked hardest to prop up — through bailouts, tariffs…
Business, Congress, Economics, Economy, Federal Government, Free Markets
Elizabeth Warren & Capitalism
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A reader wrote in to ask me whether I thought that Elizabeth Warren was a capitalist. The question stems from an article in The Atlantic by Franklin Foer (‘Elizabeth Warren’s Theory of Capitalism.’) Frequent readers know that I link to The Atlantic often. (I’m a subscriber.) I’m also a free-market guy, so here’s a quick…
Business, CDA, City, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records 2
Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Grocery)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 6 Comments
Yesterday’s post addressed open government aspects of an unrecorded council meeting. See Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Open Government). This post will consider a slide presentation from the unrecorded Whitewater Community Development Authority presentation of 6.19.18 on grocery store recruitment. Embedded immediately below is that slide presentation, and a link to the 5.19.16 Perkins supermarket…
Business, CDA, Development, Government Spending, Local Government
Groceries & Co-ops
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater has more than one food-shopping option in town, but only Walmart is of significant size. Many residents would like something beyond what we now have here in Whitewater: a dedicated grocery or a co-op. Over these last few months, I’ve received emails from readers favoring one option, the other, both, or neither. (My thanks…
Business, Ethics, Politics
Why, Yes, It Was
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Cecilia Kang reports AT&T Chief Says Hiring Michael Cohen Was a ‘Big Mistake’: WASHINGTON — Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said on Friday that the company had made a “big mistake” by hiring President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, to advise on the telecommunications giant’s deal to buy Time Warner. “Our company has been…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Foxconn as Alchemy: Magic Multipliers
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Foxconn plant isn’t even built yet, but the Walker Admin and its allies (including a few local apologists for corporate welfare in Whitewater) now resort to fantastic, magical claims about how much economic development will come from nearly four billion in taxpayer subsidies. So magical, so fantastic, that they now claim an 18-1 multiplier…
Business, CDA, City, Development, Economy, Local Government, Poverty
A National Study on Big-City Economic Development
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
What’s the relationship, if any, between economic development and inclusion? A study from the Brookings Institution (Metro Monitor 2018) suggests that for large metropolitan areas, there may be one. (I’ll not try to fit these data into a local container. That’s why there’s no ‘The Scene from Whitewater Wisconsin’ logo attached to this post.) Here’s…