FREE WHITEWATER

Government Spending

Foxconn: Still Empty, and the Chairman of the Board Needs a Nap

Trump declared that Foxconn in Wisconsin would be the eighth wonder of the world, but one of the world’s true wonders would not depend on empty buildings and it wouldn’t have a leader who needs a nap, but here we are. Following his earlier examination on Foxconn’s habit of using empty buildings to dupe the…

New Construction and Old Repairs

One reads from Patty Murray of Wisconsin Public Radio that 1,054 of State’s Bridges Need Repair: Wisconsin has 14,275 bridges. Of those, 1,054 — or 7.4 percent — have been deemed structurally deficient in a new report. According to the report issued by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, the state has identified necessary repairs on 1,955 bridges in Wisconsin…

Foxconn: Heckuva Supply Chain They Have There…

Not long ago, the executive director of the Whitewater Community Development Authority used meeting time to gush over the supply-chain possibilities Foxconn might present for Whitewater. The very idea is laughable; that his remarks were not met with peals of laughter shows how ignorant or confused the members of that public body truly are. See…

Foxconn: On Shaky Ground, Literally

Not long ago, Whitewater’s Community Development Authority discussed – laughably – that Foxconn’s screen production would offer a supply-chain opportunity for Whitewater. As it turns out, beyond all the other problems of Foxconn, the site probably cannot – literally – even support the production of high-quality glass components. Bruce Murphy at Urban Milwaukee explains: Except…

Local Elections 2019: City Council (Part 3 of 4)

In 1926, Hugo Gernsback began publishing Amazing Stories, an American science fiction magazine of fantastic, but entertaining, tales.  The magazine was benign: even if the stories described impossible or improbable events, they caused no practical harm. One cannot say the same about lingering fantasies of fiscal and economic policy in Whitewater, Wisconsin: they produce real…

Scrounging Through the Junk Drawer

When UW-Whitewater’s enrollment was expanding, and so student housing was in demand, some residents opposed to more rental properties rushed to local government in a futile effort to hold back the student tide, through zoning or code enforcement. Now that there’s a worry that student enrollment is declining, and rental properties are less in demand,…

The WEDC Republicans

Writing yesterday at the New York Times, liberal economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman addressed economic challenges of rural communities in Getting Real About Rural America.  It is a blog post about which reasonable observers of any ideology – left, center, right, or libertarian –  could agree.  Krugman writes There’s nothing wrong with discussing these…

Foxconn: Behind Those Headlines

One reads that today Foxconn is promising a less advanced facility in Wisconsin by 2020, and today’s promise has captured a few headlines. The truth – even if Foxconn follows through on this latest promise – is an embarrassing retreat, as Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan observes: Sounds like it’s more than a year late, and well…

Foxconn: Evidence of Bad Policy Judgment

From the moment then-Governor Walker signed the Foxconn deal, it was clear to national economists (from across the political spectrum) that it was a dubious idea. As the months wore on, one could find more – and detailed – critiques of the project. FREE WHITEWATER has post after post addressing these sound critiques. The posts…

Foxconn: The Roads to Nowhere

Pay-as-you-go is another lie from proponents of Foxconn.  Much has been paid, while the going is to nowhere.  Ricardo Torres reports Taxpayers have spent more than $225 million on roads around Foxconn: Between work done on Interstate 94 in Racine County and the local roads and state highways in the Foxconn area, roughly $225 million…

The Middle Lane is a Dirt Road to Decay, Pt. 2

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…

Half-Right About the WISGOP

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…