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…
Economics
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 • • 2 Comments
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…
Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Immigration, Local Government, Politics, Regulations, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way
Immigration as a Community Lifeline
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Art Cullen writes Help wanted: Rural America needs immigrants: President Trump argues that keeping immigrants and refugees out of our country is a matter of vital national security. He has made it his campaign thesis and shut down the government over it. Here in Storm Lake, Iowa, where the population is about 15,000 and unemployment is under…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Development, Economics, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, Poverty, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Transportation
Private Businesses Craving Public Money
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A private group may invite whom it wishes, but the guests invited tell much about the organization doing the inviting. Long years ago, straining even the finest recollection, private businesses relied on their own efforts for success (or so one has heard). Look about now, even in small and struggling places, and one finds well-fed…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Foxconn: When the Going Gets Tough…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The national press has reported extensively, and critically, on the Foxconn project. National technology site The Verge (part of Vox Media) has also noticed how local officials who flacked this project day and night are now, well, quieter. Nilay Patel writes Let’s all watch the Wisconsin local news desperately try to get answers about Foxconn:…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
‘Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
The published case against Foxconn – with reporting & analysis from some of America’s finest journalists and economists – is overwhelming. Their careful, published work has set out the plain facts for well over a year. And yet, as a multi-billion dollar public failure, there are even more startling accounts still emerging. Austin Carr reports…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Foxconn: The ‘State Visit Project’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Willy Shih, of Harvard Business School, writes that Foxconn’s Wisconsin Factory Is What The Chinese Call A ‘State Visit Project’: Last week I wrote that Foxconn’s giant flat-screen factory in Wisconsin was facing an economic reality check, and might not get built after all. On Friday, after a call between Foxconn chairman Terry Gou and President Donald Trump,…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC, Wisconsin
Laughable Spin as Industrial Policy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Alternative Title: Oh, no baby, of course I still love you… Josh Dzieza reports After a ‘personal conversation’ with Trump, Foxconn says it will build a factory in Wisconsin after all (At some point…): Days after Foxconn’s Louis Woo told Reuters that the company is no longer planning to build a factory in Wisconsin, Foxconn says the factory plan…
Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Hunger, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Planning, Poverty, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Fight Against Gravity
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Trump Administration wants to bolster industries that are market failures, with coal as an example. Catherine Rampell writes of that effort in The Trump administration learns that fighting gravity is hard: The Trump administration is learning that, as new data show that the industries it has worked hardest to prop up — through bailouts, tariffs…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Education, Innovation Center/Tech Park, State Capitalism, Trump, WEDC
Ignorant Policymakers Will Produce Ignorant Policies
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Rep. Justin Amash, who is as close to a libertarian as any Republican in Congress, offered this observation about Wilbur Ross, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce: It’s amazing that Wilbur Ross was nominated and confirmed to be secretary of anything. He’s shown over many years that he doesn’t understand basic economics, and to describe him as…
Bad Ideas, City, Congress, Culture, Demographics, Development, Diversity, Economics, Economy, Federal Government, Immigration, Trump
‘Our Guy’ Isn’t Our Guy
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Some months ago, in a radio interview to tout part of the Trump tax bill, the Whitewater Community Development Authority’s executive director Dave Carlson referred to Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner as ‘our guy.’ Sensenbrenner, a pro-Trump septuagenarian multimillionaire from a gerrymandered district, is – literally – Whitewater’s federal representative. Sensenbrenner has never been – and…
43rd Assembly District, Authoritarianism, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Economics, Economy, Immigration, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
The ‘Republican’ Candidate’s Meet and Greet
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One reads that the self-described Republican candidate for the 43rd Assembly District will hold a meet and greet next week at a private establishment in town. Good for him – free speech is a core political right. (He’s also scheduled to appear at a local candidate’s forum this week. See The First & Last Questions.) He’s a…
China, Economics, Economy
Chinese Government Turns Against Foundation of China’s Own Prosperity
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
China, ruled by a one-party dictatorship, owes its increased influence in the world to the economic liberalization that has unleashed the energies of Chinese people. The Party, however, lives not for its people but for itself, and now turns against the forces that created new happiness and greater autonomy for many millions, and toward greater…
Business, Congress, Economics, Economy, Federal Government, Free Markets
Elizabeth Warren & Capitalism
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A reader wrote in to ask me whether I thought that Elizabeth Warren was a capitalist. The question stems from an article in The Atlantic by Franklin Foer (‘Elizabeth Warren’s Theory of Capitalism.’) Frequent readers know that I link to The Atlantic often. (I’m a subscriber.) I’m also a free-market guy, so here’s a quick…