For many years – and despite nearly a decade of corporate welfare and crony capitalism from the WEDC and local versions of it – Wisconsin has seen a decline in younger workers and families. Shamane Mills writes Report: Migration Key To Wisconsin’s Workforce (“State Has Seen Large Drop in Net Migration Of Families With Children…
CDA
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Local Government, State Capitalism, State Government, Trump, WEDC
Foxconn: Still Empty, and the Chairman of the Board Needs a Nap
by JOHN ADAMS •
Trump declared that Foxconn in Wisconsin would be the eighth wonder of the world, but one of the world’s true wonders would not depend on empty buildings and it wouldn’t have a leader who needs a nap, but here we are. Following his earlier examination on Foxconn’s habit of using empty buildings to dupe the…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn: Heckuva Supply Chain They Have There…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Not long ago, the executive director of the Whitewater Community Development Authority used meeting time to gush over the supply-chain possibilities Foxconn might present for Whitewater. The very idea is laughable; that his remarks were not met with peals of laughter shows how ignorant or confused the members of that public body truly are. See…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Federal Government, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation, Trump
Trump’s Tax Returns
by JOHN ADAMS •
If Trump wanted his tax returns to remain private, then he should not have run for public office. So many men want to be private figures and public officials at the same time, opportunistically claiming one role or another as it suits them. Small-town Whitewater has had a problem like this for years: tiny notables…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn: On Shaky Ground, Literally
by JOHN ADAMS •
Not long ago, Whitewater’s Community Development Authority discussed – laughably – that Foxconn’s screen production would offer a supply-chain opportunity for Whitewater. As it turns out, beyond all the other problems of Foxconn, the site probably cannot – literally – even support the production of high-quality glass components. Bruce Murphy at Urban Milwaukee explains: Except…
CDA, City, Elections, Local Government, Wisconsin
Local Election Roundup 2019
by JOHN ADAMS •
Wisconsin’s spring general election is over, and a quick discussion follows. For unofficial results, see the pages for Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock counties. Wisconsin Supreme Court. This was a close election, but for supporters of Lisa Neubauer (as I am), it’s a disappointing result. Neubauer performed not as well overall as Rebecca Dallet last year,…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Development, Economics, Economy, Government Spending, WEDC
The WEDC Republicans
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing yesterday at the New York Times, liberal economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman addressed economic challenges of rural communities in Getting Real About Rural America. It is a blog post about which reasonable observers of any ideology – left, center, right, or libertarian – could agree. Krugman writes There’s nothing wrong with discussing these…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn: Behind Those Headlines
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that today Foxconn is promising a less advanced facility in Wisconsin by 2020, and today’s promise has captured a few headlines. The truth – even if Foxconn follows through on this latest promise – is an embarrassing retreat, as Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan observes: Sounds like it’s more than a year late, and well…
CDA, Economy, Employment, Government Spending, Local Government
Non-College Men in the Labor Market
by JOHN ADAMS •
Adam Harris asks Where Have All the Men Without College Degrees Gone? (“Economists are trying to understand the steady decline of non-college-educated men in the labor market”): In the late 1960s, almost all prime-working-age men, typically defined as 25 to 54, worked—nearly 95 percent. That figure had dipped to 85 percent by 2015—a decline most acutely…
Agriculture, Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Gov. Walker, Local Government, State Capitalism, Trade, Trump, WEDC
How Walker and Trump Destroyed Dairies in America’s Dairyland
by JOHN ADAMS •
One has heard so much these last eight years about how Wisconsin has been ‘open for business,’ and for Walker and the WEDC that has meant countless subsidies and tax breaks for conservatives’ preferred businesses. Walker was never a free-market man; his whole approach rested on state capitalism (government funding some producers) and crony capitalism…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, WEDC
Foxconn: Evidence of Bad Policy Judgment
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Free Markets, State Capitalism, WEDC
Fruitless Embrace
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free-market economist Veronique de Rugy asks Why Are Republicans Embracing Economic State Planning?: China’s post-Mao economic boom has occurred only to the extent that the country became capitalist. With “Made in China 2025,” Beijing’s 2015 anticapitalist plan for an industrial policy under which the state would pick “winners,” China has taken a step back from capitalism. (It recently dropped the “Made…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, Newspapers, Press, Press Release, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way
The Middle Lane is a Dirt Road to Decay, Pt. 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last month, this site linked to media critic Margaret Sullivan’s observation that The media feel safest in the middle lane. Just ask Jeff Flake, John Kasich and Howard Schultz: Who is the media’s middle-lane approach actually good for? Not the public, certainly, since readers and viewers would benefit from strong viewpoints across the full spectrum…
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 •
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…