FREE WHITEWATER

Economics

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

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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.

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  1. Narrow of mind and small of heart. See the FREE WHITEWATER category on Boosterism. ↩︎
  2. Avaricious schemers failing time and again to match the accomplishments of the generation before them. See the FREE WHITEWATER category on Special Interests. ↩︎
  3. 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. ↩︎
  4. An authoritarian populist movement of recrimination and revenge. See Defining Populism. ↩︎

Hubble views of Mars and more for space telecope’s 35th anniversary:

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is celebratiing 35 years in space. See images of Mars, planetary nebula NGC 2899, Rosette Nebula and galaxy NGC 5335 to celebrate.

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

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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:

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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:

The Hubble Space Telescope has caputured new imagery of 9.5 light-years tall portion the Eagle Nebula, located 7000 light-years distant from Earth.

Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 4.11.25: Clueless and Cowed

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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:

Fatou, the world’s oldest gorilla, was presented with a basket full of fruits and vegetables as she celebrated her 68th birthday at the Berlin zoo.

Authoritarian Populism, Authoritarianism, City, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Nativism, Never Trump, Recession, Special Interests, Tariffs, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.4.25: Is Hyperlocal Politics Finally Dead?

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:31 and sunset is 7:25, for 12 hours, 54 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 45.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1865, a day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, President Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.

In this last generation, Whitewater, Wisconsin has felt the effects of national calamities: the Great Recession, a pandemic, an insurrection, and now a trade war.

In each case, a small group of local men and women carried on as though local affairs were paramount1; in each case, they did so while conditions in the city grew worse from those national calamities.

Now comes another calamity, and with it a few likelihoods.

Those who supported the authoritarian movement that made a pandemic worse, inspired an insurrection, the return to power of a would-be king, and now a global economic crisis will never admit that they were wrong. Never. They wanted this and they will continue to want this, all of it.

Those who cannot see past Townline Road won’t develop broader horizons. It’s all roads, press releases, and sanewashing with that crew. They’ll keep thinking that if you talk to a hyena in a soft voice that foul creature will give up meat for vegetables. They’d probably keep thinking this even as that carnivore crunched on the nearest human femur2.

There are, however, many more residents in this city, in this state, and this nation who will stand opposed to wholesale ruin.

Of that ruin, there are months and years of damage3 ahead, with this only a portion:

Is “recession” now spelled T-A-R-I-F-F? 

Markets were gripped by the recession trade after President Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday threatened a global trade war. Treasury yields, stock futures and the dollar all plunged.

This isn’t mere market hyperbole. Thursday was only the sixth time in history that the S&P 500 had fallen more than 4% while the dollar also fell more than 1%—with investors shocked that the greenback had failed in its usual role as a safe haven.

The carnage in the markets might be just the beginning: If the biggest U.S. tax rise since at least the 1950s causes the economy to shrink, stocks and Treasury yields still have a long way to go down.

As recessions take hold, stocks are hit both by lower earnings and by lower valuations, as spending falls and savers switch to safer assets. Defensive stocks better able to maintain sales—such as sellers of food and other household staples—beat those selling optional purchases such as luxury goods and cars, known as cyclicals.

See James Mackintosh, Market Upheaval From Trump’s Tariffs Could Be Just the Beginning, Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2025.

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  1. By contrast, this libertarian blogger has argued that the betterment of the city comes from applying the best of the nation. See FREE WHITEWATER, ‘How Many Rights for Whitewater?’, ‘What Standards for Whitewater?’, and ‘Methods, Standards, Goals’ (2013). ↩︎
  2. The last words of these sad types would likely be along the lines of ‘but I tried to be bipartisan!’ ↩︎
  3. The greater losses have been and will be to individual rights. ↩︎

We’ll have more than egg prices to worry about:

See Matt Grossman, Near-Term Inflation Expectations Surge, Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2025.

Business, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Tariffs, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.24.25: Retaliatory Tariffs Target Wisconsin Industries

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:50 and sunset is 7:12, for 12 hours, 22 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 28.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM and the Police and Fire Commission at 6 PM.

On this day in 1603,  Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan.

Sowing, reaping:

Farm and construction equipment manufacturers started the year with high hopes for the economy, bolstered by President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to cut taxes on domestic producers and slash government regulations.

But that optimism has given way to fears of a possible recession, sparked by Trump’s international trade war, said Kip Eideberg, senior vice president for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, a national trade group based in West Allis.

“If we are dragged or pushed into a recession as a result of the tit for tat tariffs, that’s a whole ’nother level of pain,” he said. “That’s the biggest fear right now.”

….

China, Canada and the European Union plan to hit Wisconsin’s two largest industries, agriculture and manufacturing, with retaliatory tariffs. The moves come in response to Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum and his broader threats and use of tariffs.

Almost 10 percent of Wisconsin’s jobs — or nearly 300,000 — were in industries those countries are targeting. That’s the largest share of any state in the country, according to an analysis from The New York Times. 

See Joe Schulz, Retaliatory tariffs target Wisconsin’s top industries, Wisconsin Public Radio, March 21, 2025.

From the New York Times, here’s the portion of the story to which the WPR story refers:

Rural parts of the country are once again at risk from retaliation. Agriculture is a major U.S. export and farmers are politically important to Mr. Trump. And rural counties may have one major employer — like a poultry processing plant — that provides a big share of the county’s jobs, compared with urban or suburban areas that are more diversified.

The retaliatory tariffs target industries employing 9.5 percent of people in Wisconsin, 8.5 percent of people in Indiana and 8.4 percent of people in Iowa. The shares are also relatively high in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and Kansas.

See Lazaro Gamio and Ana Swanson, Trade War Retaliation Will Hit Trump Voters Hardest, New York Times, March 15, 2025.

Why humans have puzzle-shaped cells:

The shapes of these cells are puzzling. They have wavy edges and protrusions and fit together a bit like puzzle pieces. But what is it for? New research looking at the lymph capillary cells, found throughout human tissues, has determined how exactly these tiny vessels are able to let fluid and immune cells pass through between them while also being strong enough to resist rupturing under pressure. Their unusual shape seems to be key…

America, City, Culture, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.11.25: Doubling Down on Ignorant Economics

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 53. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 6:57, for 11 hours, 44 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 93.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.

Monday in America: The Rapidly Declining Economic Climate.

Tuesday in America:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, escalating a trade war with the United States’ northern neighbor and showing an indifference to recent stock market turmoil and rising recession risks.

Trump said on social media that the increase of the tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday is a response to the price increases that the provincial government of Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States.

“I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social.

After a brutal stock market selloff on Monday and further jitters Tuesday, Trump faces increased pressure to show he has a legitimate plan to grow the economy instead of perhaps pushing it into a recession. But so far the president is doubling down on the tariffs he talked up repeatedly during the 2024 campaign and throwing a once stable economy into utter turmoil as investors expected him to lead with deregulation and tax cuts instead of colossal tax hikes.

See Josh Boak, Rob Gillies, and Michelle Price, Trump doubles planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50% as trade war intensifies, Associated Press, March 11, 2025.

Update, 3.12.25: Only hours later on Tuesday, Trump reversed course. (Trump defines decisive down.)

The reporting is sound: tariffs do act as tax hikes, and Trump’s tariffs will be, in effect, colossal tax hikes on consumers and businesses. All America will feel them.

See Firefly’s Blue Ghost moon lander drill, vacuum and deploy electrodes:

The Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost moon lander has begun its work on the moon using its drill, vacuum and electrodes. Blue Ghost has drilled into surface to determine heat flow from interior of Moon. It has deployed four tethered Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) electrodes and an 8-foot mast to study the deep interior of the moon. Also, it’s Lunar PlanetVac collects lunar soil and more using pressurized nitrogen gas.

America, City, Conservative Populism, Culture, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Flop Sweat, Populists, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.10.25: The Rapidly Declining Economic Climate

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 66. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset is 6:55, for 11 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 87.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Plan & Architectural Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 2017, the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye of South Korea in response to a major political scandal is unanimously upheld by the country’s Constitutional Court, ending her presidency.

Whitewater is in Wisconsin, and Wisconsin is in America. The economic outlook for America is in decline. Whitewater will not escape national and state trends.

A man with six business bankruptcies now won’t rule out a recession in 2025:

“I hate to predict things like that,” Trump said when pressed about the possibility of a recession during a recorded interview that aired on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”

….

The rosy economic outlook that greeted Trump’s return to the White House has dimmed in recent weeks. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% in February, boosted by firings in the public sector. And consumer confidence fellby the most in any given month since August 2021. 

American consumers share concerns that tariffs will raise prices on everyday goods, while corporate CEOs are eager for clarity as the president has continually announced and then rolled back new tariff packages. His moves last week, levying and then delaying 25 percent tariffs on a major chunk of Mexican and Canadian goods until April, are just the latest example. The confusion has sent markets scrambling. The S&P 500 fell by more than 3 percent on the week.

See Gregory Svirnovskiy, Trump won’t rule out a recession in 2025, POLITICO, March 9, 2025.

The conservative populists have no sound grasp of economics, as theirs is a movement of cultural revenge, not economics. Trump’s first term was an economic failure, yet many of them delusionally imagine him as an economic guru.

Truth in advertising: Come for the culture war, stay for the recession.

Stocks take another tumble after Trump’s weekend comments on inflation:

Agriculture, Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, Dairy, Economics, Economy, Employment, Free Markets, Immigration, Labor

Daily Bread for 10.16.22: Our Dairyland Needs Dairy Workers

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Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 51. Sunrise is 7:10 AM and sunset 6:09 PM for 10h 59m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 60.9% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1923, The Walt Disney Company is founded. Embed from Getty Images…

Babbittry, Boosterism, CDA, Charity, City, Corporate Welfare, Culture, Daily Bread, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Housing, Local Government, Poverty, School District, Zoning

Daily Bread for 9.28.22: Local and National Views of Child Poverty

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Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 58. Sunrise is 6:49 AM and sunset 6:40 PM for 11h 50m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 7.6% of its visible disk illuminated.  Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.    On this day in 1781,…

Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Reasoning, Russia

Daily Bread for 8.2.22: The Russian Economy’s Not “Bouncing Back” (and What That Means for Local Policymaking)

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Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:48 AM and sunset 8:13 PM for 14h 25m 26s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 20.5% of its visible disk illuminated.   The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.   On this day in 1932, the positron (antiparticle…

America, CDA, Common Council, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Local Government, Regulatory Capture, WEDC

Competition: Good for Individuals and Society

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Pres. Biden plans measures to increase market competition. David Leonhardt reports Biden’s New Push (‘The U.S. economy suffers from a lack of competition. President Biden wants to change that’): The U.S. economy has been less dynamic in the 21st century, by many measures, than it was in the late 20th century. Fewer new businesses are starting.…

Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, Mendacity, Scott Walker, Trump, WEDC

Foxconn: New, More Realistic Deal Means 90% Reduction in Goals

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After years of flamboyant lies about what Foxconn would be able to achieve in Wisconsin, there’s a new deal with that foreign corporation. That new arrangement reflects a reduction of 90% or more in what Wisconsin expects and what the state will offer. Local governments have already wasted millions on absurdly grandiose, false promises Not…

Boosterism, CDA, City, Culture, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Politics, School District, That Which Paved the Way, University

Local Politics Hasn’t Been Merely ‘Local’ for Years

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Over at the Wisconsin Examiner, Henry Redman writes (with concern) that All politics is national (‘Candidates for local office are ignoring community issues, instead highlighting national culture wars’). First, Redman’s case, then a few remarks. Woodman [Kyle Woodman, a Republican running for Eau Claire’s city council] is part of a mostly conservative group of candidates…