Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach reminds that people lost homes and land over the Foxconn proposal, and communities spent far over one-hundred millions on an idea that was – to any reasonable, discerning person – doomed to fail. Doomed to fail: dozens of analyses and warnings from across America, of which merely one is Tim Culpan’s Wisconsin…
Economy
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
WISGOP Assembly Speaker Vos Hopes You’re Stupid
by JOHN ADAMS •
With the news that Foxconn plans to drop manufacturing at a plant that was supposed to hire thousands of workers, for which people lost their homes, and that was the centerpiece of Scott Walker’s corporate welfare and crony capitalism, Speaker Robin Vos blames…newly-elected Gov. Tony Evers. Oh, brother: Vos must hope that Wisconsinites are stupid enough to believe…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Foxconn Talks of Folding Wisconsin Manufacturing Plans
by JOHN ADAMS •
No one who thought about Foxconn seriously would be surprised to read from a Reuters exclusive that Foxconn [is] reconsidering plans to make LCD panels at Wisconsin plant. The Taiwanese manufacturer has already broken its promises on the kind of panels it would build at the plant, and failed to meet even its low, first-year hiring…
Economy, Federal Government, Never Trump, Transportation, Trump
Commerce Slows
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, Friday afternoon: Trump folds under pressure agrees to a three-week re-opening of the federal gov’t. Of his Rose Garden address this afternoon (one that I watched in full), Jennifer Rubin observes “[m]aybe this is part of an insanity defense for the Russia probe.” One reads that under the shutdown, interstate commerce now slows: Significant…
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 •
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…
Economy, Federal Government, Trump
The Shutdown Brings…a shutdown
by JOHN ADAMS •
Troy Newmyer reports Economists worry ‘zero growth’ may be reality as shutdown drags on: Kevin Hassett, the Trump administration’s top economist, acknowledged yesterday the economy may not grow at all in the first quarter if the shutdown lasts that long. And White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is eyeing an even longer impasse. He…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Mendacity, Poverty, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Nationally and Locally: The Big-Government Conservatives Are Economy-Wreckers
by JOHN ADAMS •
Catherine Rampell, writing about the national GOP, accurately describes their economic policy under Trump in The GOP has become the Soviet party. This has been a building national problem for years, but a building local problem for about as long: a clique of slogan-rich but insight-poor local conservatives have wrecked economies like Whitewater’s economy with a steady diet of…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Foxconn Couldn’t Even Meet Its Low First-Year Goal
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here in Whitewater, the local private business lobby invited last year as a guest speaker a state operative to exaggerate wildly talk about Foxconn. See A Sham News Story on Foxconn. As it turns out, Foxconn hasn’t even been able to meet the low, first-year employment goals set for the publicly-subsidized project. Rick Rommel reports Foxconn falls…
Bad Ideas, City, Congress, Culture, Demographics, Development, Diversity, Economics, Economy, Federal Government, Immigration, Trump
‘Our Guy’ Isn’t Our Guy
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
Charity, City, Culture, Economy, Good Ideas, Local Government, Poverty
Political and Apolitical Means of Local Accomplishment
by JOHN ADAMS •
One test of an institution’s vitality is how eager people are to become members, and how interested a community is to learn who’s become a member. Strong institutions or organizations attract attention. When the institution is a city or county government, one looks to see who’s eager to run for office, and how many people…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, CDA, Charity, City, Corporate Welfare, Culture, Dogs, Economy, Education, Federal Government, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Police, Politics, School District, State Capitalism, State Government, University, UW System, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Broad Outlines of 2019
by JOHN ADAMS •
For many years, I would begin the year with predictions for the twelve months ahead. Events since 2016 have made predictions harder, but one can still discern some short-term developments for the city. These prospects, of course, form an online of topics to ponder, and about which to write (often requiring that one return to the…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
The Outrage of Corporate Welfare (Amazon, Foxconn, and others)
by JOHN ADAMS •
You may have heard by now that Amazon’s new headquarters will soon call the New York and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas home. This decision has engendered much criticism. But the Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson doesn’t think the vitriol is enough. “We should all be screaming mad about the state of corporate handouts in this country,” Thompson…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, Mendacity, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn Roundup: Outside Work and Local Land
by JOHN ADAMS •
Foxconn’s boosters each day inch closer to a corporate welfare version of Scientology: it doesn’t make any sense, but adherents keep to themselves and repeat a shared list of crackpot claims. The latest news to pierce the cultists’ bubble: Molly Beck and Rick Romell report Wisconsin taxpayers could pay Foxconn for work done outside of Wisconsin,…
Babbittry, CDA, City, Economy, Local Government, Poverty
Reported Family Poverty in Whitewater Increased Over the Last Decade
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over the last ten years, while Wisconsin and America recovered from the Great Recession, in Whitewater poverty among families with children actually increased. The Great Recession – deep and painful for many, lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. Afterward, most parts of America saw recovery, sometimes slow, sometimes rapid, but recovery by either definition. That’s why for…