Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of sixty-nine. Sunrise is 5:41 AM and sunset 8:01 PM, for 14h 20m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 64.8% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the five hundred forty-second day.Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the…
179 search results for "Great Recession"
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 4.7.18
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of thirty-six. Sunrise is 6:24 AM and sunset 7:28 PM, for 13h 03m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 58.6% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}five hundred thirteenth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, State Capitalism, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way
‘Crony Capitalism and Social Engineering: The Case Against Tax-Increment Financing’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s residents may have heard, as I have, ignorant and false boasting about the benefits of tax incremental financing. It’s variously described as increment or incremental financing, but either way, it’s a plan to entice developers with taxpayer funds by segregating from the general fund, if any, the revenue generated from a development to pay…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 13 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This is the thirteenth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Six (2013) of Janesville (Chapter 54, A Glass More Than Half Full). Goldstein’s 54th chapter describes a 2013 dinner of Forward Janesville (a local “business alliance hell-bent on reviving the city’s economy”). Someone at…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 1 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
This is the first in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. Bloggers have the luxury of time, so I’ll happily use that abundance to write at length on Goldstein’s book, one for which many have been waiting these last few years. Before beginning, though, I’ll post an introduction to the book from the…
Books, Culture, Economy, Politics, Wisconsin
Considering The Politics of Resentment, ‘Reactions to the Ruckus’ (Part 7 of 9)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This is the seventh in a series of posts considering Katherine Cramer’s Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker. In Chapter 7, Cramer describes the conditions immediately before, during, & immediately after the Great Recession, with consideration of Obama and Walker’s candidacies. With regard to Barack Obama, there’s much here that…
Books, Culture, Economy, Politics, Wisconsin
Considering The Politics of Resentment, ‘A Method of Listening’ (Part 2 of 9)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
This is the second in a series of posts considering Katherine Cramer’s Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker. One might think that Cramer’s second chapter, ‘A Method of Listening,’ would be a dry (but useful & necessary) description of her methodology. It’s far from merely that: it’s an oddly…
City, Kakistocracy, Newspapers, Trump
That Which Paved the Way
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Adam Khan, writing at @Khanoisseur, has an answer for why Trump was able to prevail, despite myriad political & personal failings. Khan’s answer explains part of Trump’s success (and on the national front, I think he’s chiefly right): Investigative journalism was gutted at news rooms during the recession–partly why Trump was possible @fredericg https://t.co/SIPiRjLB62 — Adam…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.29.16
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be overcast and windy, with a high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:29 PM, for 9h 04m 40s of daytime. The moon is new, with .1% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}fifty-first day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip} It’s the…
Elections
Needless Election Anxiety
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a story over at Vox, from Brian Resnick, reporting that ‘Election anxiety is real. A majority of Americans report “significant stress” due to 2016.’ Resnick writes that [t]he American Psychological Association has released some preliminary data from its upcoming annual “Stress in America” report, on the nation’s level of anxiety specifically around this election.…
City, Development, Economy
Offer, Cooperation, Gentrification
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Let’s assume that one believes, as Whitewater’s political class has professed for the last generation, that attracting newcomer families to the city is a worthy goal. (I share this goal; for those who don’t, the conversation’s over, so to speak. They need say no more, and may watch out their windows as the city stagnates,…
Business, Press
A Prediction of Print’s ‘Fast, Slow, Fast’ Decline
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Earlier this spring, the public editor of the New York Times, Margaret Sullivan, wrote a post on how the printed newspaper would continue to be important to the Times. In reply, Professor Clay Shirky of NYU wrote with what he called a “darker narrative’ of print’s prospects. (See, at Sullivan’s blog, A ‘Darker Narrative’ of…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Government Spending
SHINE Fades
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at the Gazette, there’s a story that, ever so tentatively, lets readers know that the public-money-sucking SHINE project (to produce the molybdenum-99 isotope for nuclear medicine) isn’t faring so well in the marketplace. SHINE is, after all, the centerpiece of big-government conservatism in Rock County, having received millions in public money to fund a…
Education, Elections, School District
On School Board Candidate Dan McCrea
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
One may say a few things with confidence. First, those who have followed Whitewater’s schools & politics know Dan McCrea. He’s a member of the school board now, and is seeking re-election. Second, I’m not typically predisposed toward incumbents. Third, and this matters to me more than either of the preceding: Dan McCrea’s experience, ability,…