Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will again be windy with a high of 93. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 11.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1944, President Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of…
Economy
Business, Daily Bread, Economy, Tariffs
Daily Bread for 6.9.25: Three Risks Facing the U.S. Economy This Summer
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 64. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:32, for 15 hours, 16 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Plan & Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM. On this day…
Daily Bread, Economy, Employment
Daily Bread for 6.6.25: National Hiring Reported for May, Unemployment at 4.2%
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:30, for 15 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 80.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1944, Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, commences with the execution of Operation…
Daily Bread, Economy, Housing
Daily Bread for 5.29.25: Higher Lumber Prices Will Affect Homebuilding
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bad Ideas, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation
Daily Bread for 5.18.25: Let Them Eat Tariffs
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 61. Sunrise is 5:28 and sunset is 8:14, for 14 hours, 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1863, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant begin the Siege of Vicksburg during the…
Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs
Daily Bread for 5.15.25: Retail Sales Stall
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will see afternoon thunderstorms with a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:31 and sunset is 8:11, for 14 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM. On this day in 1911,…
Business, Daily Bread, Economy, Tariffs
Daily Bread for 5.7.25: Small Businesses Face Tariff Shock
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 69. Sunrise is 5:40 and sunset is 8:02, for 14 hours, 22 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 78.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Starin Park Water Tower Committee meets at 6 PM, and the Landmarks…
Agriculture, Daily Bread, Economy, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.28.25: Needless Uncertainty During Wisconsin Agriculture’s Planting Season
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with evening thunderstorms and a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:52 and sunset is 7:54, for 14 hours, 0 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s School Board meets at 5:15 PM, goes into closed session at 5:30 PM, resuming open session at 7 PM. Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1845, the first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.
Where agriculture requires as much certainty as possible, Trump brings uncertainty beyond mere vagaries of the weather:
As Wisconsin’s planting season gets underway, cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and fluctuating tariffs on foreign trading partners are creating a new level of uncertainty for farmers.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the USDA has ended two programs that gave food banks and schools money to buy food from local ranchers and farmers. One of the programs, the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, was used in more than 40 states, accordingto Politico.
The other program, The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, was used in all 50 states and provided up to $900 million in funding, according to the USDA and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
See Trevor Hook, Wisconsin’s growing season arriving with uncertainty amid USDA cuts, tariffs (‘Reciprocal tariffs on US agricultural products and cuts to the federal agriculture department are adding new complexity to Wisconsin’s planting season’), Wisconsin Public Radio, April 25, 2025.
A New York Florida real estate man, having failed time and again at his business ventures, was the last person on Earth to grasp the needs Midwestern agriculture. See also Farmers and Farmers, Part 2 (Slogans and Reality).
America, Babbittry, Boosterism, City, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Special Interests, That Which Paved the Way, Trumpism, Willful Ignorance, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.26.25: Consumer Sentiment Falls, and Web Searches for Economic Calamity Rise
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 59. Sunrise is 5:55 and sunset is 7:50, for 13 hours, 54 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1954, the first clinical trials of Jonas Salk‘s polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Two charts tell the tale of Americans’ economic concerns:
See Alex Harring, Americans are getting flashbacks to 2008 as tariffs stoke recession fears, CNBC, April 26, 2025.
When sentiment declines, it’s understandable that Americans would look for examples of other difficult times.
For modern Whitewater, the Great Recession’s influence is the key to understanding both economics and politics in the city. It is Whitewater’s signal modern event. Those difficult years from 2007-2009 led to an aftermath that still afflicts the city.
The failure of local officials and community leaders during that time was astonishing: the boosters1 wanted to deflect past others’ suffering, the special-interest men diverted valuable resources to their own schemes while Whitewater stayed poor2, the center-left grew but still struggles to land a decisive blow3, and the rightwing populists4 now in the city owe their present role as a faction to forces they can’t or won’t grasp.
_____
- Narrow of mind and small of heart. See the FREE WHITEWATER category on Boosterism. ↩︎
- Avaricious schemers failing time and again to match the accomplishments of the generation before them. See the FREE WHITEWATER category on Special Interests. ↩︎
- It does no good to talk to a hyena in a soft voice hoping that the vile creature will give up meat for vegetables. See Wisconsin Senate Democrats Hope Hyenas Will Stop Eating Meat. ↩︎
- An authoritarian populist movement of recrimination and revenge. See Defining Populism. ↩︎
Hubble views of Mars and more for space telecope’s 35th anniversary:
Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Trade, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.18.25: Tariffs Will Make Wisconsin’s Manufacturing Decline Harder to Reverse
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Good Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:08 and sunset is 7:41, for 13 hours, 33 minutes of daytime. The moon a waning gibbous with 73.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1938, Superman debuts in Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938).
Tariffs are supposed to be the cure for manufacturing. They won’t be:
Wisconsin manufacturers and farmers rely on exports, but the value of the goods they sell abroad has fallen over the last decade. And new U.S. tariffs could make it harder for them to reverse that trend, especially in the short term.
That’s according to a new report released Thursday by the Wisconsin Policy Forum looking at state exports in the wake of what it calls the “most expansive U.S. tariffs in generations.” The report examined what goods produced in Wisconsin sell to international markets, who buys those products and where in the state they come from.
Manufacturing and agriculture play an “outsized role” in the state’s economy, but many of those businesses have had a “bumpy ride” so far this year with the expanded use of tariffs, the report said. As of 2023, nearly 19 percent of the state’s private sector jobs were in manufacturing, according to the report. In 2022, the value of Wisconsin’s agricultural sales was the 10th highest in the country.
….
The report warns tariffs could negatively affect Wisconsin exporters by forcing trade partners to respond with their own tariffs on American products, making them more expensive.
“When we think about what it is we’re exporting, a lot of these heavy machines are long-term investments that are very expensive,” Byrnes said. “When you change the price by 10 or 20 percent, that may be millions of dollars. That’s something that a purchaser on the other side of the tariff barrier will have to consider.”
See Joe Schulz, New report highlights importance of exports for Wisconsin manufacturers, farmers
Trump tariffs will make it harder for Wisconsin to reverse decade of export value declines in the short term, Wisconsin Public Radio, April 17, 2025.
See also Turbulence for Wisconsin’s Export Economy, Wisconsin Policy Forum, April 17, 2025:
Tariffs are taxes, they’ll not boost manufacturing as we’ve not the labor pool for a boost, and they’ll risk the manufacturing exports Wisconsin now has. See also Federal Planning for Manufacturing Isn’t Planning at All (“We don’t have enough workers for the jobs that we have, let alone if we want to grow a job (field),” [president of the business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Kurt] Bauer with WMC said. “This is a significant challenge.”) and The Anti-Tax Crowd Backed a Taxman.
Hubble spies 9.5 light-year bit of the amazing Eagle Nebula:
Agriculture, Business, Daily Bread, Economy, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Trump, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.16.25: Farmers, Part 2 (Slogans and Reality)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 55. Sunrise is 6:11 and sunset is 7:38, for 13 hours, 28 minutes of daytime. The moon a waning gibbous with 89 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 2018, The New York Times and the New Yorker win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.
Yesterday’s post, Farmers, cited reporting on the effects of a trade war on farmers. Trump is aware of these concerns, and so he used his Truth Social platform to publish his position on a trade war’s effects on agriculture. Below are Trump’s remarks contrasted with real experiences.
Trump’s post:
Our farmers are GREAT, but because of their GREATNESS, they are always put on the Front Line with our adversaries, such as China, whenever there is a Trade negotiation or, in this case, a Trade War. The same thing happened in my First Term. China was brutal to our Farmers, I these Patriots to just hold on, and a great trade deal was made. I rewarded our farmers with a payment of $28 Billion Dollars, all through the China deal. It was a great transaction for the USA, until Crooked Joe Biden came in and didn’t enforce it. China largely reneged on the deal (although they behaved during the Trump Administration), only buying a portion of what they agreed to buy. They had ZERO respect for the Crooked Biden Administration, and who can blame them for that? Interestingly, they just reneged on the big Boeing deal, saying that they will “not take possession” of fully committed to aircraft. The USA will PROTECT OUR FARMERS!!!
The farmer John Pihl’s genuine experience with Trump’s subsidies:
The payments were helpful, Pihl said. But they weren’t a fix for the longer-term damage done by Trump’s first-term tariffs.
“That was just for the one year. What about the market loss that continued through his term and into Biden’s term? I think the amount is incredible,” he said.
Of Trump’s remarks:
- The greatness of farmers has not made them targets; Trump’s trade war has done that.
- As lifetime farmer John Pihl explains above, Trump’s deal in his first term did not make farmers whole, and that deal was insufficient on its own, apart from the Biden Admin. See also Adriana Belmonte, Trump’s massive farmer bailout failed to make up for the ‘self-inflicted’ trade damage, January 18, 2021. (Trump’s bailout was a failure even before Biden took office.)
- Trump claims that China has ‘behaved’ during his administration, but he admits in his post that (a) they’ve hit back at Boeing and (b) China has applied huge retaliatory tariffs across the board.
Meanwhile, here’s how ordinary Chinese are depicting the Trump Admin:
Even ordinary TikTok users on the other side of the world have Trumpism’s number.
One can and should oppose the Chinese government without stumbling into an inflationary trade war.
Meanwhile, where did Trump get all those gaudy gold appliqués with which he’s littered the Oval Office? Trump’s vulgar additions are surprisingly similar to what the Chinese sell on Alibaba:
Agriculture, Business, Daily Bread, Economy, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Trump, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.15.25: Farmers
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:12 and sunset is 7:37, for 13 hours, 25 minutes of daytime. The moon a waning gibbous with 94 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1922, U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
Farmers in the rural Midwest and across America will feel the consequences of Trump’s trade war:
Tariffs are making life more expensive for John Pihl. He’s been farming in Northern Illinois for more than 50 years.
“These tariffs are going to affect everything. It’ll affect our parts — it’s just across the board. Which is going to hurt everything,” he said.
Not only do tariffs affect the cost of farm supplies, but they also raise the risk of retaliation against exports of U.S. crops: a double-whammy for farmers like Pihl.
“It’s a good way to lose your customers,” he said. “And I think we’ll probably lose more on this round too, because I know that Mexico is our biggest importer of corn. But this time, they may figure out that they can get corn from South America just as easily as from the U.S.”
….
All told, the first Trump administration spent $28 billion bailing out farmers. This time around, the tariffs are much higher than they were six years ago, and it’s unclear how long they will persist.
NPR asked the White House for details on what relief is under consideration this time, but received no response.
The payments were helpful, Pihl said. But they weren’t a fix for the longer-term damage done by Trump’s first-term tariffs.
“That was just for the one year. What about the market loss that continued through his term and into Biden’s term? I think the amount is incredible,” he said.
See Danielle Kurtzleben, China put steep tariffs on U.S. exports. Farmers are worried, NPR, April 12, 2025.
But it’s all fake news, right? These consequences for can’t be true, can they? Mr. Trump has a plan, of course he does. (He had a plan before each of his six business bankruptcies, didn’t he?)
Come for the culture war, stay for the inflationary trade war.
Elephants huddle in ‘alert circle’ to protect young during California earthquake:
Business, City, Daily Bread, Economy, Employment, Excuses and Rationalizations, Planning, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Trump, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.14.25: Federal Planning for Manufacturing Isn’t Planning at All
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 59. Sunrise is 6:14 and sunset is 7:36, for 13 hours, 22 minutes of daytime. The moon a waning gibbous with 98 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Plan and Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1958, the Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.
One of the justifications for tariffs is to bring back manufacturing to states like Wisconsin. It’s ill-considered:
But one of the biggest barriers to bringing manufacturing back, both in Wisconsin and nationally, is a labor shortage.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reportsthe latest data show there were around 1.2 million more jobs open nationally than there were unemployed workers. Wisconsin, meanwhile, has had more openings than job seekers since 2021.
Over the last decade, [founder of the Florida-based Reshoring Initiative Harry] Moser said employers have told him the U.S. labor market is “weak, both in terms of quantity of people and quality of people.” He said there have been efforts in recent years that have helped some, pointing to high school apprenticeship programs. He says Trump’s goal of bringing manufacturing back hinges on workforce.
….
In Wisconsin, a 2023 research report from WMC found the state’s median age was older than the rate nationally, and warned if the population doesn’t grow at a faster rate, workforce shortages would worsen.
“We don’t have enough workers for the jobs that we have, let alone if we want to grow a job (field),” [president of the business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Kurt] Bauer with WMC said. “This is a significant challenge.”
See Joe Schulz, Trump says tariffs will bring back manufacturing, but Wisconsin’s labor shortage may stand in the way, Wisconsin Public Radio, April 14, 2025.
One hears talk in Whitewater on recruiting for manufacturing before any other priority. It’s more a diversionary tactic than anything else; these gentlemen are simply looking for something, however implausible, to shift the conversion.
Tariffs for Semiconductors Forthcoming:
Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 4.11.25: Clueless and Cowed
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 53. Sunrise is 6:19 and sunset is 7:33, for 13 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1945, American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp:
A detachment of troops of the U.S. 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, from the 6th Armored Division, part of the U.S. Third Army, and under the command of Captain Frederic Keffer, arrived at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945 at 3:15 p.m. (now the permanent time of the clock at the entrance gate). The soldiers were given a hero’s welcome, with the emaciated survivors finding the strength to toss some liberators into the air in celebration.
Later in the day, elements of the U.S. 83rd Infantry Division overran Langenstein, one of a number of smaller camps comprising the Buchenwald complex. There, the division liberated over 21,000 prisoners, ordered the mayor of Langenstein to send food and water to the camp, and hurried medical supplies forward from the 20th Field Hospital.
We hear so much from this rightwing party, from its leaders and activists across the nation, state, and city about low taxes. And yet, and yet, they supported the leader who said time and again that he would raise tariffs. These tariffs are taxes on Americans. Across Wisconsin, the Congressional Republicans who’d scream and squeal at the very mention of taxes are now silent:
A handful of Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing to give Congress more oversight over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, but Wisconsin’s Republicans are not among them.
In interviews with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the state’s GOP delegation largely dismissed questions about legislative oversight, instead praising the president for imposing the levies — some of which were temporarily paused this week — on scores of foreign trading partners.
Sen. Ron Johnson, the only member of the delegation to publicly express concerns over the tariffs, on Thursday predicted measures aimed at giving Congress a bigger role in the tariff process would fail. And Wisconsin’s House members stood in line with Trump’s moves this week that have shaken global markets.
“I like the way it’s playing out, actually,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald said Tuesday, when asked if Congress should play an oversight role on the implementation of the tariffs. “I think after a couple days, it’s playing out pretty well.”
See Lawrence Andrea, Wisconsin Republicans silent on tariff oversight as colleagues push for Congress to have a say, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 11, 2025.
Fitzgerald: not merely ignorant, but confidently proud of it.
Note well: At no time, over these many years, have any economic concerns that I have expressed at FREE WHITEWATER ever been about my situation; this libertarian blogger has no personal complaints to make. (Nor would I make them here, even if I had any.)
It’s simply the case that so very many loud & proud anti-tax men are silent on tariffs (being too ignorant or too hypocritical to admit how destructive they are).
World’s oldest gorilla celebrates 68th birthday at Berlin zoo: