Pres. Biden plans measures to increase market competition. David Leonhardt reports Biden’s New Push (‘The U.S. economy suffers from a lack of competition. President Biden wants to change that’): The U.S. economy has been less dynamic in the 21st century, by many measures, than it was in the late 20th century. Fewer new businesses are starting.…
Free Markets
Education, Free Markets, University, UW System
The System Balks
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
For eight years, there has been a state-imposed price freeze for in-state UW System tuition. (This restriction applied to UW-Whitewater as a System school.) The WISGOP wanted this freeze, and it has lingered since Walker’s defeat in 2018. During its imposition, administrators complained about the freeze, and rightly so: price freezes, even short-term ones, are a…
Business, Economy, Free Markets, Labor, Lobbyists
Businesses, Workers, Goods, and Services
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at Dan Shafer’s Recombobulation Area, guest columnist Shawn Phetteplace reminds us that WMC Doesn’t Speak for All Businesses. Phetteplace, the state manager for the Main Street Alliance, writes that When former Gov. Scott Walker declared Wisconsin “Open for Business,” what he meant was it was open for deregulation, tax cuts, and special deals to…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Regulatory Capture
Texas (But Not Only Texas): Regulatory Capture
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Regulatory capture is a simple concept: it applies when regulatory agencies become dominated by the industries or interests they are by law required to regulate. These agencies begin to act to benefit particular incumbent firms or people in the industry they are supposed to be overseeing. The concept is also sometimes called agency capture or…
Business, City, Coronavirus, Economy, Free Markets
Buy Local Will Change
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The pandemic has made takeout and delivery more valuable than ever, not only for convenience but also for reduced exposure. In larger cities, some changes to restaurant delivery (among other services) have been building for years, and are likely to be permanent. See Heated patios, QR code menus and pop-ups: Milwaukee restaurants got innovative during…
Business, CDA, Charity, Development, Economics, Economy, Failure, Free Markets, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Poverty, Press Release
Markets and Markets
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
One reads that Whitewater now has an option, for most of the city, of grocery delivery from nearby cities. As it is, Whitewater has a Walmart, but no stand-alone, full-service grocery. Private delivery service is a benefit to the community. It’s better to have more grocery options than fewer. These are private enterprises providing private delivery…
Conspiracy Theories, Coronavirus, Culture, Disinformation, Education, Free Markets, Public Health
The Price of Ignorance is Widely Paid
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
As nationwide chains take sensible measures to require masks, ordinary workers at those chains find themselves the underserving recipients of abuse. Kelli Weill reports Walmart Workers Are Terrified of Enforcing Mask Rules: Even in a time of record unemployment, some of Dan’s colleagues at an Indiana Walmart have walked off the job. They aren’t quitting over…
Business, CDA, Coronavirus, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, Public Health, Retail/Merchants
Consumer Sentiment
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Much of the ‘reopening’ advocacy rests on the idea that after allowing a business to reopen, that business will see an adequate return of customers. While some businesses may see adequate customer demand, it’s almost certain that others will not. It has never been true that simply opening a business would assure its survival. If…
Coronavirus, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Public Health
Public Policy Responses to the Coronavirus: ‘You have to address the health side’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Economist Austan Goolsbee offers three scenes, in his words, for addressing the coronavirus pandemic. All three, in the order he presents them, are sound. Most economic schools of thought – and all sound ones across the continuum – would consider something like his suggestions in response to a pandemic. One obvious note – or at…
Babbittry, Boosterism, CDA, City, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Local Government, Poverty, School District, WEDC, Wisconsin
Local Public Policy as if Charitable Assistance
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
Whitewater’s policymakers, and those of other small, rural cities, should – in these times of economic stagnation, a lingering opioid crisis, failed business welfare, and an approaching recession – view their principal obligation as if it were charitable outreach. (It’s not charity, of course, but that’s how policymakers should view it: as both palliative and…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Local Government, Special Interests, WEDC
Miscellany on Development Policy in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
There’s a significant difference between local, political calls for urgency and genuine need. Recent discussions about development policy in Whitewater only bolster this view. A few remarks (as I’ve been asked more than once what I think of the last two months’ events) — Independence. The best decision one could make when writing about policy…
Free Markets, Special Interests
Pro-Market
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There is an issue that – while extremely important today – receives too little attention not only in the traditional media but also in the blogosphere, and academia: the subversion of competition by special interests. Following Adam Smith, the vast majority of economists believe that competition is the essential ingredient that makes a market economy…
Dairy, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Language, Newspapers
Does Anyone at the Janesville Gazette Have a Dictionary?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
CDA, City, Congress, Corporate Welfare, Free Markets, Gerrymandering, Government Spending, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, Republicans, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way
F. James Sensenbrenner Heads for the Exit
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
One reads that F. James Sensenbrenner, the pro-Trump septuagenarian multimillionaire congressman from a gerrymandered district that stretches all the way down to Whitewater, is retiring when his current term ends. Consigned to the minority forever must look unappealing. How time flies! It was not long ago that then-chairman of the Whitewater Community Development Authority was scampering…