Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 6:28 AM and sunset 5:45 PM for 11h 16m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 6:15 PM, and the Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM. On…
Foxconn
Bad Ideas, Business, Daily Bread, Development, Foxconn, Government Spending, Trump
Daily Bread for 2.6.22: Food Dye, the Eighth Wonder of the World!
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be intermittently cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:02 AM and sunset 5:15 PM for 10h 13m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 30.9% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1967, nationally-known activist Stokely Carmichael speaks at UW-Whitewater as part of…
Daily Bread, Foxconn, Government Spending
Daily Bread for 12.22.21: Foxconn ‘Manager’ Feasts on Public Tab
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Bad Ideas, Books, Confidence Schemes, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Welfare, Daily Bread, Development, Foxconn, Mendacity, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, Trump, WEDC
Daily Bread for 12.11.21: A Christmas Gift For, and About, Scheming Development Men
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will see snow this morning, of little accumulation, on an otherwise cloudy day with a high of 36. Sunrise is 7:16 AM and sunset 4:20 PM for 9h 04m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 55.4% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1901, Morris Pratt…
Business, Daily Bread, Development, Foxconn
Daily Bread for 10.2.21: Foxconn Slips Away in the Night
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:54 AM and sunset 6:33 PM for 11h 38m 32s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 18.4% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 2018, the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered in the Saudi…
Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Government Spending, Scott Walker, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn: Perhaps – Perhaps – a Few Lessons Learned
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Scott Cohn of CNBC reports After Wisconsin’s Foxconn debacle, states and companies rethink giant subsidies. Rethinking is a hopeful prospect, but there has been significant lasting damage, as Cohn reports: Economic development officials in Wisconsin say they are more than ready to move on to other matters now that they have renegotiated a massive subsidy deal…
Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Development, Foxconn, Government Spending, Politics, Scott Walker, Speaker Vos, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
Adding the Amounts Spent for Foxconn (So Far)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Wisconsin’s new deal with Foxconn will reduce the cost to state taxpayers, but local governments have already spent vast sums on a project that will not – by Foxconn’s own belated admission – come close to what was originally, and ludicrously, promised. Bruce Murphy writes of The True Costs of New Foxconn Deal: the true cost…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Development, Foxconn, Scott Walker, Trump
Foxconn: Seth Meyers on One of Trump’s (and Walker’s) Biggest Scams, the Foxconn Deal
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Wisconsin Foxconn project that Trump, Walker, and local development men touted was a house of cards, with each card in the deck no better than a three of spades. Their supposedly serious effort now finds itself a national punchline. Previously: 10 Key Articles About Foxconn, Foxconn as Alchemy: Magic Multipliers, Foxconn Destroys Single-Family Homes, Foxconn Devours Tens of Millions from State’s…
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
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
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…
Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Development, Foxconn, Marketing, Mendacity, Public Relations, Scott Walker, Special Interests, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC, WISGOP, YMBFKM
Foxconn’s Venture Capital Fund
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Bruce Murphy has a solid assessment of Foxconn’s much-touted (by Foxconn) venture capital fund in About That Foxconn Venture Capital Fund. It’s well worth reading in full. A few key points: Unfulfilled: Louis Woo of Foxconn had promised this venture fund for startup companies would naturally connect to Foxconn’s innovation centers in Eau Claire, Green Bay…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, State Capitalism, State Government
After Years of Promises, Foxconn Will Think of Something…by July
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Years of claims, promises, declarations, announcements (and private homes destroyed along the way), and yet Foxconn still needs a bit of time to think of something to make. Just give ‘em a sec, they come up with something by July: Liu said that the company will announce what it will make in Wisconsin before July.…
Foxconn, Litigation
Private Developer Sues Foxconn, Others Over Failure to Build as Promised
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Richard Torres reports Lawsuit says Foxconn’s failure to create a high-tech screen plant cost local governments hundreds of millions of dollars: Foxconn Technology Group is in breach of contract for failing to construct a high-tech screen plant in Mount Pleasant, while local governments spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for the project, according to…
Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Speaker Vos, State Capitalism, Taxes/Taxation, Technology, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Highlight’s from The Verge’s Foxconn Assessment
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
No failure better reveals the bankruptcy of corporate welfare in the Walker and Trump years than the Foxconn project in Wisconsin: exaggeration upon exaggeration, but nothing productive. This was a failure of judgment so obvious and significant that everyone involved should retire from policymaking. Walker Administration, Trump Administration, the WISGOP, the WEDC, down to Whitewater’s Community…
Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Speaker Vos, State Capitalism, State Government, Technology, WEDC, WISGOP
Accountability Comes Calling at Foxconn
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
After years of grandiose – ludicrous, truly – claims about Foxconn from Trump to Vos to boosters in Whitewater, Accountability has made her way to Foxconn. If not Accountability personified, then at least Missy Hughes (the new, Evers-appointed leader) of a slightly-reformed WEDC. Josh Dzieza of the national publication The Verge reports Wisconsin denies Foxconn tax…