People drive cars, and most cars take gasoline; many people like to get food quickly, and so fast food restaurants meet that desire. There’s nothing wrong with having gas stations or burger joints in a town. One reads today that Whitewater will sell some city-owned land near a roundabout to a gas station chain, Kwik…
Economics
Economics, Economy, Taxes/Taxation, Trade, Trump
Trump’s Trade War, Explained
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a price to pay in the ongoing trade war with China and Mexico. Economist Joshua Meltzer, a global trade expert at the Brookings Institution, explains how tariffs could hurt the U.S. economy.
Economics, Economy, Free Market
The Largest Electorate in any Community
by JOHN ADAMS •
One might not be much for standalone quotes (as they’re often taken out of context), but Anna Lappé’s observation about consumer choice is, in-and-of-itself, wholly right: Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want. Yes, indeed. No clique, no faction, no party, no political authority is an…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Economics, Economy, Employment, Government Spending, Local Government, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC
The Empty ‘Jobs Created’ Pledge
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Wisconsin, these last years, one has often heard – so often that it might as well be a mantra – that corporate subsidies are necessary for job creation, to reward job creators. This repeated justification ignores evident realities: (1) in times of low unemployment job-creation subsidies are less necessary, (2) wealthy corporate recipients are…
Agriculture, China, Economics, Economy, Trade, Trump, Wisconsin
Worse Ahead for Farmers
by JOHN ADAMS •
The price of supporting Trumpism – whether on economics, immigration, or foreign policy – is decline. For it all, some farmers will choose their own humiliation, their own degradation, for the sake of supporting Trump. Tory Newmyer describes what awaits Midwestern agriculture in Farmers are bracing for more tariff pain. But they’re sticking with Trump…
Economics, Trade, Trump
Trump’s Bottomless Ignorance on Display (Yet Again)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Libertarian-leaning GOP Congressman Justin Amash responded this morning to Trump’s completely-wrong-no-good-and-backwards-beyond-belief Twitter claim about trade deficits: Trump: We have lost 500 Billion Dollars a year, for many years, on Crazy Trade with China. NO MORE! Amash: A trade deficit is not a loss of money. If you buy from a supermarket or go to a…
Economics, Economy, Federal Government, Trade, Trump
The Cost of Trump’s Tariffs
by JOHN ADAMS •
Heather Long reports Trump’s steel tariffs cost U.S. consumers $900,000 for every job created, experts say: President Trump has shown little interest in removing the steel and aluminum tariffs he imposed more than a year ago despite growing evidence Americans are paying a hefty price for these tariffs and increasing pressure from Republicans in Congress…
Agriculture, Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Poverty, State Capitalism, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way, Trade, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
‘Stung by Trump’s Trade Wars, Wisconsin’s Milk Farmers Face Extinction’
by JOHN ADAMS •
After years of the ignorant scheming of tax incremental financing, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, capital catalyst grants, the Trump tax bill, and now Trump’s trade war, Alan Rappeport reports Stung by Trump’s Trade Wars, Wisconsin’s Milk Farmers Face Extinction (“The flagship industry in a pivotal swing state faces an economic crisis”): KENDALL, Wis. —…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, City, Crony Capitalism, Development, Economics, Economy, Environment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Speaker Vos, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn: The Closer One Gets, The Worse It Is
by JOHN ADAMS •
There is, about Foxconn in Wisconsin, a fair amount of ignorant insistence that there will be supply chain opportunities, etc. Public employees talking about the Foxconn project’s supposed benefit is the practical equivalent letting them recite limericks or play sheepshead: it’s not productive. For those near Foxconn, however, that project is more than wasteful talk:…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, Scott Walker, Speaker Vos, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC
Foxconn: Cleanup on Aisle 4
by JOHN ADAMS •
Following Trump and Walker with a mop, Gov. Evers arrives to clean up the Foxconn mess: Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday he wants to renegotiate the state’s contract with Foxconn Technology Group and emphasized the Taiwanese company won’t be creating 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin as originally envisioned. “Clearly the deal that was struck is no longer…
Babbittry, Beautiful Whitewater, CDA, Culture, Demographics, Diversity, Economics, Economy, Good Ideas, Lifestyle, Local Government, WEDC
‘Migration Key To Wisconsin’s Workforce’
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Crony Capitalism, 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, 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…
Agriculture, Bad Ideas, CDA, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Free Market, 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…