Below are the abstract and full study from George Mason University on The Economics of a Targeted Economic Development Subsidy (examining the Foxconn deal in Wisconsin). There’s much to consider in this work, for the Foxconn project, and by reasonable extension to other government-targeted business subsidies. Abstract: In an effort to spur economic growth and…
Economics
America, Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Boosterism, City, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Mendacity, Newspapers, State Capitalism
What the New Dealers Got Right – What Whitewater’s Local Notables Got Wrong
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s sound reason to doubt that the New Dealers’ economic solutions to the Great Depression were effective, but there’s no doubt that Roosevelt’s Brain Trust was hard-working, smart, and candid in its description of America’s economic problems. For a critical assessment of the New Deal, written accessibly, see The Forgotten Man: A New History of…
Dairy, Economics, Economy, Free Market, Language, Newspapers
Does Anyone at the Janesville Gazette Have a Dictionary?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Recently, the Janesville Gazette‘s editorialist tried to defend remarks from Trump’s secretary of agriculture, Sonny Perdue, about the demise of family farmers. See Our Views: Ag secretary’s reality check wasn’t callous. In that defense, one finds that the Gazette‘s editorialist neither understands the meaning of simple English words nor basic economics. The secretary of agriculture said…
Economics, Economy, Poll, Taxes/Taxation, Trade, Trump
Americans’ Support for Free Trade Reaches New High
by JOHN ADAMS •
A strong majority supports free trade and rejects Trump’s anti-market trade wars and tariffs. Mark Murray reports that Amid President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they support free trade with foreign countries, according to the latest national poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. That represents a…
Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Federal Government, Government Spending, Trade, Trump
Wastrel
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images John Bresnahan and Burgess Everett report Deficit Don? Red ink gushes in Trump era (‘The president endorsed a bipartisan budget deal without any of the spending restraints previously demanded by Republicans’): With a new bipartisan budget deal that does nothing to cut federal spending, Trump is on track for another $1 trillion…
Business, CDA, Economics, Economy, Poverty
Gas Stations, Fast Food, and What the Market Will Bear
by JOHN ADAMS •
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, 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:…
