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…
Foxconn
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…
Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, UW Madison
Foxconn & UW-Madison: Two Years and Less Than One Percent Later…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Kelly Meyerhofer reports UW-Madison still waiting on Foxconn’s $100 million pledge 2 years later: Foxconn Technology Group gave no money to UW-Madison over the past year, renewing questions about the company’s commitment to its $100 million pledge to the university nearly two years ago. UW-Madison received $700,000 in the first of a five-year agreement — less than…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Foxconn, Government Spending, Mendacity, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn’s ‘Innovation’ Centers: Still Empty a Year Later
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Over at the national tech website The Verge, Nilay Patel reminds that a year later, Foxconn has still done nothing with the ‘innovation’ centers that foreign corporation promised it would open around the state. They’re still empty: See FOXCONN’S BUILDINGS IN WISCONSIN ARE STILL EMPTY, ONE YEAR LATER. In Whitewater, the ‘Greater Whitewater’ Committee…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Public Relations, WEDC
Do Yorkshire Terriers Dream of Being Wolves?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Perhaps Yorkshire terriers dream each night of being ferocious wolves. If that should be so, and if even tiny dogs imagine themselves as mighty predators, then there may be a natural explanation – in animals and people – for the yearning of smarmy local development men for gigantic corporate welfare schemes. Of those men and…