Growing Pains

James Rowen, at the Political Environment, has covered, in detail and with clarity, the expensive, sprawl-encouraging, Waukesha water diversion proposal. He also critiques the unthinking and misguided Journal Sentinel editorial page's support for such exurban development. Though the editorial does mention an environmental impact study, this seems more an obstacle than a true concern. There is no sense of caution for the underlying environmental issues. Growth is good, keep the sprawl train moving.

The editorial page's boosterism is surreal. They state the water diversion must be studied and done carefully. Yet, in their closing, "Growth in the region helps the entire region. And making sure Waukesha has a safe water source should be in everyone's interest." Basically, let's go through the steps, but, in the end, let's find a way to keep growing at the edges.

If only the Journal Sentinel were full of such vigor in pushing for improvements and pointing out the strengths of the City. How about editorializing for an more integrated public transportation system connecting inner-city poor with suburban job growth? What's good for the City is good for the region, too.

Encouraging enclaves of segregated growth only increases income inequality and solidifies the isolation between suburb and city.

For Further Reading:
More Suburban Shopping Lifestyle
The Suburbanization of Poverty

All Things Economic

Dean Baker on:
Defense Spending
Government Spending
Small Business
Social Security & Medicare
Underwater Mortgages

"Only" $9 Million

Why shouldn't we tax the sh@# out of such ill-gotten gains?

The Sky is Falling

Paul Ryan is wrong again. And, as usual, the Journal Sentinel is spreading his drivel.

Paul Krugman addressed and debunked these fiscal fallacies and scare-tactics (such as those Paul Ryan purveys) in his latest column.

The economy is, historically, worse under Republican administrations. When conservatives are in power: deficits increase, wage-growth slows, and general socio-economic indicators worsen.

It's time we stop listening to these free market, government-is-the-problem, snake-oil salesmen whose only track-record is failure.

Basket Case

The sales tax used to help pay for Miller Park may be extended past it's 2014 sunset date to pay for Bradley Center replacement or renovations.

These money losers - stadiums, convention centers, etc. - always have boosters and proponents pushing for the use of public dollars to fund such private playgrounds. In such instances, these normally government-averse, anti-tax crusaders, become big government supporters and partners. Suddenly government spending is a good thing that will create jobs and be an economic catalyst for the region. Or so the well-worn story goes. In the majority of cases, the reality is just the opposite.

These stadium subsidizers are against well-paid public employees, a well-funded public transportation system, or a targeted tax to pay for park system maintenance. But hundreds of millions for a sports stadium, that's a wise investment? Which of these investments returns more to a city or region long-term? Seasonal, retail/entertainment establishments? Or the infrastructure and amenities that citizens and businesses count on in everyday life?

For Further Reading:
Bucks Need New Arena
Miller Pork
Misplaced Priorities
New Kings Arena Would Add 229 Permanent Jobs
Sales Tax Ending Between 2015, '18
Stadium Rip-off(s)
Stadium Swindle
Will A New Soccer Stadium Help or Hurt the Bucks?
Yanking Away Taxpayer Dollars

Obama Getting His Groove Back?

Presidential remarks at the House Republican Conference.

Insanity*

The Journal Sentinel reports, Cabela's lures little retail growth.

Our economic development paradigm - of subsidizing retail, conventions, stadiums, etc. - is a stupendous waste of money. Yet even though the Journal reports on the failure of these schemes, just as they reported on the failure of privatization, nevertheless, I expect to see articles in the near future touting the need for public subsidization of private developments and supporting the privatization of public jobs.

* Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

False Corollary

Wise words from Jack Norman of the Institute for Wisconsin's Future.

Pushing On A String

John Torinus has penned another misguided and misinformed piece, Entrepreneurs, rather than government, will help create jobs, for the Journal Sentinel.

I've already taken Torinus to task for his fictitious claims regarding small businesses and job creation. His latest drivel is merely a variation of the same theme.

He also uses this most recent column, in a very roundabout way, to bring it all back to a classic right-wing panacea for anything that ails us - the business climate. Which, to translate from Republican, means lower taxes. Another topic on which I've had the pleasure of throttling Torinus and his mistaken ideas.

The most glaring error in Torinus' latest mess is his obliviousness to our current recession. Spewing on about entrepreneurs opening new businesses and creating jobs is a cliched though plausible suggestion in a normally functioning economy. In the midst of a recession, with lending contracted, and extremely reduced demand, such a proposition is preposterous.

Suburbs Under Attack

In the latest issue of The American (The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute), Joel Kotkin - ever more so, a delusional apologist for suburbia - writes about a War Against Suburbia.

In what can only be described as ultra-paranoid, Kotkin talks of the Obama administration as an "urban-centric regime." "The suburbs are under a conscious and sustained attack from Washington," declares Kotkin. The President is trying to impose an urban agenda on America? Or, as Kotkin puts it, "A deep-seated desire to change the way Americans live."

He rewrites suburban history as simply people voting with their feet. He mentions nothing about this being an auto-centric and unsustainable lifestyle. He mentions nothing regarding government and business outright pushing/subsidizing people out of the city. He appears unaware of the water problems many of these developments face.

Never does Kotkin address the fundamental critiques of suburbia as relating to long-term, sustainability. His defense is that of anecdote. Everything wrapped in an - gosh-golly; Leave it to Beaver; the people like their SUVs, highways, and stripmalls, and so it must be - attitude. The growth of suburbia has been present for the past 50 years and therefore it must be a natural process. He doesn't seem to realize that, just as the suburbs were encouraged, they can be discouraged. There is nothing in our DNA that hard-wires us toward low-density living.

And, his magical solution to congestion - telecommuting. Yes, everyone can just work from home. This is part of Kotkin's reasoning whereby "technology will undermine much of the green case against suburbia." We can slowly move our working environment to the home office. This would not do wonders for a sense of community, relieving isolation, nor the retail businesses located in business districts, which depend on the agglomeration of workers each day for their livelihood.

Frozen Hope

President Obama's spending freeze idea is terrible. The economy is still in horrible shape. We should not be worried about inflation and we should be spending more.

For Further Reading:
A First Look At The Budget Freeze
Don't Let America's Red Ink Scare You
Spending Freeze Could Spell Disaster
Why Young People Should Want A Deficit Now

Poor Population Increases Over 15 Percent

During the Bush era, the number of persons living in poverty increased 15.4 percent.

It's Good To Be The King

Wisconsin taxes the rich less than it taxes the middle-class and the poor.

All Things Economic

Poor Warren Buffet, he's upset that Obama wants to tax his ill-gotten gains.

Consumer debt - pushed by are easy-money, predatory lending, and our commercialized society - is out of control.

Dean Baker shows that the abilities of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council head Larry Summers to avoid a complete financial collapse really was not that extraordinary. No major country had a complete financial collapse.

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and economics professor, thinks banks have failed at their basic societal mission.

Bush Era Errors

Lest we forget, this is not Barack Obama's economy, he did not start two wars (although, sadly, he does continue them), he did not push huge tax cuts in times of incredible spending, and he did not take a budget from surplus to deficit. President Obama simply had the unfortunate timing of following the worst president in the history of the U.S.

Remember the Bush administration lost $12 billion, being delivered on pallets, in Iraq. Plus, the Iraq war, overall, will cost us over $3 trillion.

Bush also increased spending faster than any other president in the last 30 years.

The Republican tax cut strategy, again, failed to deliver.

Bush's policies are also responsible for the majority of our deficits.

And, let's not forget the warnings the Bush administration ignored before the 9/11 attack.

For Further Reading:
Please Call Out Conservatism For The Disaster It Is

Nowhere Else To Go

Crooks and Liars reports that Andy Stern, the head of SEIU, has warned Congress and the administration, if they falter with health care reform, they can forget about Labor's support during the midterms.

Really?

If not the Democrats, who else is Labor going to vote for?

Republicans? Sorry, but they really, really are against health care reform.

Yet another problem of our money-driven, two-party system.

Government For Sale

Bush Backed Supreme Court Thinks Corporations Are People Too
Campaign Finance Decision Worst Since Dred Scott
Campaign Finance Reform Reflect Supreme Courts Growing Audacity
Shed A Tear For Our Democracy
Supreme Court's Radical and Destructive Decision
Supreme Court Ruling Means Big Business Can Spend Billions
The Court's Blow To Democracy
The Man Who Took Down Campaign Finance Reform
Will Corporate Ads Buy 2010 Voters?

Weekend Reading

Entering the Repossession Lane
How American Awfulness Stacks Up
How the Federal Reserve Earned Its Profits
The Military-Industrial Complex is Ruining the Economy
Time to Reign in Out-Of-Control Corporate Influences on Our Democracy

Doing Nothing, Destroying Everything

Stephen Colbert explains the media coverage of President Obama. More precisely, the biased conservative coverage.

Jon Stewart gives perspective to the Massachusetts (not national!) election. (Colbert weighs in on the Massachusetts election.) Here Stewart explains Wall Street bonuses.

For Further Reading:
Brown's Victory is Hardly a Repudiation of Health Care Reform

Heard It Before

Scott Walker claims (again!) privatization is the answer. I will literally fall out of my chair the day a conservative actually utters an original idea (rather than merely regurgitating the same old, worn-out Republican talking-points).

This claim has been debunked (here and here) before. Even the Journal Sentinel has found, in the majority of cases, contracting work to private sources has no cost savings.

Scott Walker is also a bigger spender than those bleeding-heart liberals, Mayor Tom Barrett and Governor Jim Doyle - a fact probably unbeknownst to most local media readers. The tax levy on Milwaukee County has increased $45 million over the Walker tenure.

Don't Stop Believing

PBS recently broadcast Milwaukee Water 2015. Mike Gousha spoke with Mayor Tom Barrett and UWM chancellor Carlos Santiago regarding Milwaukee's water hub endeavor and economic development, in general.

Dr. Santiago expressed the opinion that anyone disagreeing with/questioning the "Milwaukee as a water hub" meme was not being helpful and is a pessimist who believes Milwaukee can't "turn it around."

It's not that such initiatives have not worked in the majority of other cases and therefore some are skeptical of Milwaukee/UWM putting all their eggs in this one basket. No, that's not it. These doubters just don't have hope. They don't believe in Milwaukee. They're unwilling to take a chance on Milwaukee.

Is this really the debate? Hope-ers versus Doubt-ers? Or is chancellor Santiago using childish smear tactics to avoid the well-supported critiques of the skeptics. He appears to be attacking the messengers and not their message.

It doesn't matter to Santiago that such initiatives don't work more often than they do work.

Maybe we should have a broader investment initiative, rather than just a few magic bullets prefaced on hope.

[I do agree with a Mayor Barrett regarding a framing issue: we should be labeling ourselves The Fresh Coast rather than allowing others to call us The Rust Belt.]

For Further Reading:
Colleges: Cash Cows?
Save Our City
Watering Down Corporate Accountability

Private Gain, Public Pain

Two recent articles [below] highlight the misguided efforts of entrepreneurializing government and public agencies. If we all act like a business, worship the market, and strive for bloated profits, all will be right with the world.

This snake-oil has caused us to believe public goods and infrastructure no longer matter. Everyone and everything must compete.

And, for some reason, we keep banging our collective head against this wall even though it has increased volatility and risk, while concentrating gains among a select few and leaving the increasing loses the responsibility of the taxpayers.

For Further Reading:
Public Benefits, Taxpayer Pain
The New Threat From Wall Street

Worth

The Journal Sentinel wants to know, How much is a mayor worth?

I hope they'll be following this up with an analysis of private-sector executive compensation and company performance. Many of which also receive public monies in the form of tax breaks, exemptions, and subsidies.

Lost Decade

Workers see another decade of diminished returns.

China Bubble?

Is China a bubble? One of Wall Street's most successful money managers (and also a native of Milwaukee) thinks so.

The Compensation Quackery

We're told bankers, executives, and financiers must receive huge sums of compensation to ensure the brightest and most talented are growing our economy. (Regardless of whether or not they are growing the economy or their company.)

Yet, as Neil Irwin reports in the Washington Post, "the Fed's earnings for the year will dwarf those of the large banks, easily topping the expected profits of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase combined."

And what staggering sum was Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, paid for earning such a stellar return for the public? To keep such talent working for the Federal Government we must be paying tens of millions of dollars. Right?

Dr. Bernanke makes $199,700.

Now what excuse will these overpaid hucksters claim to justify their ill-gotten gains?

The Power of The Anointed Few

A really great article - No sense in relying on feudal capitalism

Neighbors Be Gone

Pat, move to the suburbs already. I've never seen someone, who works for Milwaukee's newspaper and lives in Milwaukee, write so much about the wonderful suburbs.

His latest defense claims suburbs are transforming themselves into quasi-urban locations through "innovative" subdivision developers. McIlheran's hero in this suburban quest is Rick Harrison, of suburban Minneapolis.

Mr. Harrison revealed his development philosophy, "People don't want to walk five minutes to a park. They want to see it outside their window. And they don't want to see their neighbors and they don't want to sit on their porch all day." Yeah! The dream of suburbia is having a park for a back yard, never seeing another human near one's home, and porch-less facades as far as the eye can see. What a wonderful community. Can't you feel the love?

But there you have it: like big, overgrown babies, the Harrisons and McIlherans of the world feel they should be able to live as they please, screw everyone else! They've had it up to here with all these rules!

The point - of conservation, environmental awareness, density, etc. - is to end sprawl and growth in the suburbs, not to just green over such misplaced development.

These Pollyannas with their heads in the sand, when will they learn? Even though you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig.

Tax Injustice

David Cay Johnston wonders, Is Our Tax System Helping Us Create Wealth? [hat tip Economist's View]

Tax Justice

More stellar research and analysis from Citizens for Tax Justice:

Bush tax cuts cost two and a half times as much as House Democrats' health care proposal
Multinational Corporate Tax Abuses
Principles for Tax Reform
Spending Program Buried Within Tax Code
Why We Need A Strong Estate Tax

The Cost of Quality

There is a wolf at the door. But not the County budgetary wolf the Journal Sentinel invokes. The wolves are the scofflaws who refuse to pay their fair share of taxes.

We've cut ourselves into diminished services leading to pothole-filled roads, fewer libraries and parks, and fewer public transportation routes. Thus a lower quality of life for residents, and a less attractive environs for potential businesses and homeowners.

It would be nice if the largest newspaper in the state and the conservative politicians could come to grips with the fact that a decent life costs money. Services cost money. Maintenance of infrastructure costs money. And, well-paid public jobs with the promise of a stable retirement are not part of the problem nor a 'bad thing' for a community.

If only our media and the conservative pundits would investigate tax evaders and the inequity of taxation with the vigor they push for more and more tax cuts, we'd all be better off.

For Further Reading:
Change?
Obliged To Avoid Taxation
Paranoia Overdose
Selling Our Soul To The Company Store
Tax Burden Illumination
Torinus' Taxed Reality

The Planet Can Wait

Don't worry about saving the planet. Al Gore is a liar. "Climategate" supports such conclusions.

Or so Pat McIlheran, Journal Sentinel conservative hack, would have us believe.

The Associated Press and Media Matters debunked this weeks ago.

For Further Reading:
Scientific Consensus on Climate Change?

Change?

Here's a plan for raising all necessary revenue to correct: state and local budget shortcomings, infrastructure projects, health care, housing, and credit markets:

Increase taxes on the wealthy, scale back tax exemptions, close tax loopholes, increase the capital gains tax, and implement a Tobin Tax on financial transactions.

It really is that simple. 95 percent of the population earning under $150,000 annually would be largely unaffected by the tax increases.

By sharing a little more now, The Haves could accelerate the economic recovery's pace, thereby improving their own business prospects. For the owners, this is basically an investment in their own future. Even though a lost decade hurts low-income families the most, such a long period of stagnation can take quite a bite out of a corporation's balance sheet and stock value.

This back-and-forth, dog-and-pony show we're receiving from the Mainstream Media and Congress (basically a PR firm for big business) is exactly that, a show. A rather elaborate production with the drama of a soap opera, corruptly masking dubiousness and misappropriations.

It's really not that hard to get things done. FDR sure did get quite a bit done in 1933.

All Things Urban

How cities turn it around.
Parks and carbon-free living.
Public transportation more effective than highway building at creating jobs.
Some sweet subways.
Strasbourg, France abandons the automobile.
Turning point for American communities?

Eschweiler & Milwaukee Architecture

Kudos to Chris Liebenthal, of Cognitive Dissidence and Milwaukee County First, for illuminating the sorry shape of the County's Eschweiler buildings.

Milwaukee has a treasure trove of historically significant architecture. For us to willfully sit by as they disintegrate is sad and shameful.

For Further Reading:
Eschweiler Buildings
Historic Milwaukee Architecture 1, 2, 3
Milwaukee Architecture

Here's a few more examples of Eschweiler architecture:

Historic Milwaukee Architecture

The residence above is a Tudor Revival. The name is in reference to the Tudor dynasty, which reigned from 1485 to 1603. In America, this was a popular style between 1890 and 1940. The style is based on English Renaissance architecture from folk houses and Late Medieval mansions; sometimes containing Craftsman trademarks.

Within the Tudor style, there are sub-styles - Jacobean (1603-1625), Elizabethan (1558-1603), etc. This particular dwelling, built in 1912, was designed by Ferry & Clas. It's Tudor elements include: half-timbering, facade with cross gables, exposed rafters, and arched entryway.

Stadium Rip-off(s)

Sports stadiums are upwardly-redistributive, corporate welfare schemes.

A Dude Was Born...

most of us think was magic, but others don't.

Holiday Reading

America Without A Middle Class
Federalism and Its Discontents
Jobless Need Government to Create Jobs
Sarah Palin's War on Taxes - and History
State of Pay
That '70s Crisis

The Blind Leading The Naked

Why don't we build anything anymore? Why have imports skyrocketed while our exports have tanked? Why has the percent of value added by manufacturing as a percentage of GDP shrunk from 25 percent in 1947 to 11 percent today?

Upper Mismanagement

Equity Illusion

From The Equity Culture Loses It's Bloom:

• In the 1970s investors...held conservative portfolios that were heavy on bonds...The advent of individual retirement accounts and other defined contribution plans would change that in the coming decade. In 1985 individuals held $750 billion in IRA and DC plans; by the market peak in 2007, that number had rocketed to $9.2 trillion.
• The Standard and Poor's 500 index soared from 131.05 to 1,565.153, or 1,194 percent.
• As of September 30, long-term Treasury bonds had beaten U.S. stocks over the past 28 years.
• "Equities depend on capital gains, but income-producing assets, such as infrastructure, are pretty reliable through different economic cycles," notes David Richardson.
  

Moral Hazard

From Felix Salmon, The banks are getting bigger.

Historic Milwaukee Architecture

The residence above is a Georgian Colonial Revival. The name is in reference to King George IV, whom reigned from 1820 to 1830. In America, this was a popular style from the 1890s to the 1930s. This style tips it's hat to sixteenth century Italian architecture. Many other fine examples abound in Milwaukee's Upper East Side and North Point.

This particular dwelling was built in 1901; designed by notable Milwaukee architects George Bowman Ferry and Alfred Clas. Common colonial elements, and some particular embellishments, present in this example are: symmetrical facade, keystones above the windows, quoins accentuating the exterior corners, modillioned cornice, red brick and white trim, front door sidelights, roof balustrade encompassing a roof-top deck, and a marble-tread front stair.

Limp Logic

Suddenly the Journal Sentinel is a purveyor of "evidence-based" decision-making.

Too bad they don't use the same methodical thinking regarding university expansion, sports stadium subsidies, developer subsidies, and a whole host of other unproven development gambits.

New Firms Are No Job Engine

John Torinus, of the Journal Sentinel, assures us that new firms are the key to our recovery. Encouraging new firms using the typical incentives (job credits, small business loans, investment credits, grants, using pension fund money for speculative investment, etc.), he believes, will create jobs.

He also uses the education-as-magic-bullet talking-point to paint the image of a miraculous market machine, infused with newly educated college graduates, encouraged by credits and grants, creating new firms, thereby growing employment.

Yet, Torinus even points out that one-third of young companies fail to make it through a second year; what he calls a "messy churn." But lets ignore that fact, it would expose the false premise concocted in the article.

As Doug Henwood notes, "Small firms pay less than large ones, are less likely to offer health, pension, or child care benefits, and are often more dangerous to workers. With few exceptions, they're not all that innovative technologically...37% of the labor force changes its employment status every year...new jobs do not sprout in the greatest numbers at either fresh start-ups or small firms...Smaller employers do generate plenty of jobs, but they also destroy them in great quantities. If you add together creation and destruction, no clear picture emerges."

The recovery hinges on the destruction of neoliberal policies and a reclamation of the public good.

Oblique Journalism

The Journal Sentinel has an inanely meandering editorial - Not a tax hell, but state still needs better revenue mix - pushing for decreased taxes, service maintenance, alongside "innovation and entrepreneurial spirit," hinging on increased educational outcomes. Many good talking-points and topics-of-the-moment, but the editorial is quite sparse on actual numbers, comparisons, evidence, or needed actions.

The editorial incorrectly opines, "...as the state's taxpayer base ages, the ability of these citizens to pay for the increased services they will need will be limited even as the number of workers supporting them will be fewer." This is the same reasoning used by those selling the Social Security crisis. As I've noted previously, tax issues are primarily problems of incidence not burden.

Should we remove our manufacturing machinery and equipment tax exemption? Should we discontinue funding projects like the Moderne and Miller Park? Should we raise taxes on the wealthiest? Should we increase capital gains and corporate taxation? Or should we continue to cut programs and services, to lower our quality of life?

People expect services, coinciding with an increasing standard-of-living (paid for with taxes). To simply state property and income taxes are too high (a nebulous statement unless some type of comparison or operationalization is provided), may sell papers, but it does not explain or contribute anything to the discussion.

And, to throw in the (paraphrasing) Education Will Save Everything slogan is pointless. "A smarter, better-prepared workforce, after all, would be better able to compete and command higher wages." The problem is not a lack of skills, it's a lack of jobs.

To keep pushing the "Wisconsin taxes are a major deterrent to businesses locating here" mantra also conflicts with reality. And, as I've stated before, "If, as a nation, we are so concerned with taxation, then we need federally standardized tax rules, equally written and applied to all states. Not our current hodge-podge of individually state-controlled breaks, bribery, and favoritism." If these are crucial matters to the progress and growth of our local and national economy shouldn't we be cooperating on a more federal level, rather than continuing to operate under beggar-thy-neighbor policies?

The Journal also implies years of arduous taxation, in general, has been holding Wisconsin back. Nowhere is there mention of Wisconsin's lack of a modern transportation infrastructure as a hindrance to business location decisions. Newsflash: Infrastructure matters to business.

But then the editors offer a stunning conclusion, "Political leadership should work to keep taxes in check and to put the property tax on a diet. More important, they should ensure that schools and other essential state services are able to meet their obligations." There you have it; circular logic at is best. No real point, no real insight. The Fourth Estate has no clothes.

For Further Reading:
America's Granny Bashers
Hands Off Social Security
Obama Suggests Defaulting on National Debt
State Comparisons

The Giveaway

Michael Rosen, MATC economics professor, supports my opinion that Milwaukee should not be considering giving water away to attract business.

The Liability Con

Some enlightenment concerning recent deficit hysterics:

1994
Baselines, Counterfactuals and the Stimulus
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Deficits
No Exit
Notes on the Dollar Panic
The Budget Deficit Crisis

The meme that deficit spending, always, crowds out private investment and is, in general, morally wrong, is both short-sighted and misleading. We are a country - private citizens, business, and government - that has used debt to live a better standard of life, grow companies, and finance operations, especially since WWII. During recessionary episodes, the government accumulates debt to restore employment, fix crumbling bridges, improve water and air quality, provide health care, etc. All quite worthy and important causes for investment.

This false debate about rates, deficits, and "big," "bad" government is deceptive drivel. Just more smoke and mirrors of class warfare. The rich in this country have slowly lowered their tax burden, frozen wages for laborers, and methodically steered more of the country's wealth toward their own pockets. As public money (which would have been used for public goods) finds it's way into private pockets, less of the public commons is maintained. We all end up worse off. As is evidenced by the continually decreasing standard of living for most Americans.

America Without a Middle Class
Household Debt Service
Poverty Facts and Stats
U.S. Business: The American Way of Debt

Heal Thy Self

A very interesting article from Wired magazine, Placebos are getting more effective. Drugmakers are desperate to know why.

It raises some very good issues regarding the commercialization of pharmaceuticals, the real effectiveness of the medicine, and the power of the body to heal itself.

Historic Milwaukee Architecture

This is the first in a periodic series of Milwaukee residential architectural gems. Milwaukee has an assortment of historically significant home styles. I will showcase some of the more elaborate and stylistically-accurate examples Milwaukee has to offer.

The residence above is of the Victorian persuasion. The name is in reference to Britain's Queen Victoria, whom reigned from 1837 to 1901. In America, this was a popular style between 1860 and 1900. This was also an era of growing industrialization, which allowed the mass production of doors, windows, roofing, siding, and decorative detailing.

Within the Victorian style, there are many sub-styles. This particular dwelling, built in 1886, has many Queen Anne elements. Such as: the asymmetrical facade, the (nearly) full-width porch, cross-gabled roof, the square tower extending above the entryway (although typically at a corner of the front facade), decorative spindlework balustrades, the bay window, and the spindlework frieze of the front porch.

Sunday Reading

America's sea of red ink was years in the making
Arizona economy may be worse than Michigan
State and local budget cuts a time bomb for jobs
State and local budget relief needed
Steele's fuzzy math
Who's to blame for the deficit numbers?

Money For Nothing

Workers need to sacrifice, unions must make concessions, programs and services must be cut...belts need to be tightened.

Unless it applies to the highway lobby, then we've got $22 million (which will likely end up much more) available for temporary fixes. Subsidizing the sprawl of business and people with large highway interchanges at the edge of cities, enabling the auto-dependent life to continue, must stop.

How about a tax or a toll, so that those who use these concrete eyesores have to pay for them? If you must build on the edges, out in the middle of greenfields, miles and miles from other developments, a fee, a tax, whatever you care to call it, should be applied. There is no free lunch (or so they say).

Yet, suburbanites, through massive highway building, cheap gas, and weak environmental standards, have had their entire lifestyle highly subsidized. It should not be cheaper to build on open space than it is to reuse an existing, blighted inner city building. Our planning principles should be encouraging reuse. If a developer concludes he/she must build on open space, the cost should reflect this environmentally unwise choice.

It's many of the same suburban conservatives whom feel they shouldn't have to pay anything in taxes that primarily benefit from such highway building. Taxes actually do pay for a lot of things, which we obviously take for granted. Now because of years of disinvestment due to a "starve the beast" mentality (organized by anti-tax zealots: think Reagan) we're finding ourselves in need of repair and advancement of infrastructure we built during WWII.

Many important regional/national businesses are located near the interchange. They are important to the future of the region. But to persist in building highways to deal with our transportation needs does nothing to improve the situation. In fact, it encourages continued sprawl and auto-dependency.

If the Zoo interchange must be done, do a complete project now. And, tie it into other modes of transportation in the region, connecting it to businesses and neighborhoods. During a time when many people, businesses, and neighborhoods are hurting, this would be a dose of much-needed deficit-spending to ensure improved job numbers now, and a healthier overall outlook for the future.

Why Wisconsin doesn't have a holistic plan for a regional transportation system in place - efficiently and sustainably connecting metropolitan Milwaukee's airport, rail, buses and highways with Madison, Kenosha, Racine, Green Bay, etc. - is inexcusable. What have we been doing since it was announced federal money was available for transportation infrastructure? $51.2 billion was made available for transit in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

If we have financing available for the Moderne, the Bookends, Miller Park, and a host of other ancillary development, we should have funding available for a 21st century transportation infrastructure.

Unemployment has been climbing. Infrastructure projects create jobs, and they make locations more marketable and sought after for businesses and homeowners. We need some leaders and visionaries to step forward in the planning and infrastructure realm. The lack of imagination, the inability to make bold decisions, the unwillingness to invest in light rail, and the tunnel vision of continuing to follow the same unsustainable development patterns will lead to the irrelevance of Milwaukee and the region.

For Further Reading:
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Economic Development and Smart Growth
Making The Connection
Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit
Transit Oriented America

Tax Spanking

Enough of this bullsh@# trying to paint Wisconsin as a "tax hell." The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in step with their corporate cronies, complains continually about the taxes in Wisconsin. (The latest article states Wisconsin has improved, but, nevertheless, still implies we're onerous.)

[And, seriously, if, as a nation, we are so concerned with taxation, then we need federally standardized tax rules, equally written and applied to all states. Not our current hodge-podge of individually state-controlled breaks, bribery, and favoritism.]

We have a good standard of living and quality service-provision in Wisconsin. The total tax burden isn't the problem here, it's the tax incidence (who pays?).

For Further Reading:
Measuring Tax Burden by Progessivity and Social Justice
Shifting Tax Burden
Tax Burden Illumination
Tax Burden Shifting: Exemptions
Tax Fairness and Uniformity
Wisconsin Tax Truths in the Land of Tax Trickery

Smart Growth?

It's great that back in 1999 Wisconsin got on the Smart Growth bandwagon and required Wisconsin counties and communities to adopt a growth plan within 10 years. But how serious were we?

A month or so before plans are due many communities will fail to make the deadline. The State may lengthen the deadline to 2012, with no penalty. Another sign of how seriously we take our environmental responsibility.

Nine specific areas were to be addressed in the growth plan:

• Housing
• Transportation
• Utilities & Community Facilities
• Agricultural, Natural and Cultural Resources
• Economic Development
• Intergovernmental Cooperation
• Land Use
• Issues and Opportunities
• Implementation

The suburbs and communities that need to control their growth the most: 1) do not want to work with others, 2) do not want regional transportation networks (other than highways), 3) feel the best land use is building over the land with highways and parking lots, 4) have no interest in affordable housing, 5) want to be able to simply import/buy any resource their community may need (as if this was a sustainable policy), and 6) do not want any actions taken, or not taken, to cost or affect them in any way.

Can we really say we have a "smart" growth plan when we continue to ignore the elephants in the room - the continued growth of edge cities, the enabling of resource (water) starved exurbs, and our dependence on highways and automobiles?

And, yet, after all of this, many are certain there will be lawsuits over the development rules.

Smart growth is something that has to be done at the state-level. Otherwise parochial shortsightedness will rule the day and we'll accomplish nothing, other than costly courtroom battles for generations.

Eat The Rich

Great article by Sam Pizzigati, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Have The Rich Won?

Excerpts:

• Americans in the bottom 90% saw their average incomes increase a meager $47 a year between 1974 and 2007.
• The top 1% households made 12 times more income than the bottom 90% households in 1974, 42 times more in 2007.
• In 1955, our 400 highest incomes averaged $12.3 million...they paid over half their incomes, 51.2% in federal income tax. In 2006, the top 400 averaged an astounding $263 million each in income...paid, after loopholes, just 17.2% of their incomes in federal taxes.
• Between the 1940s and the mid 1960s, America's richest faced at least a 91% federal tax rate on earned income over $400,000. The top rate today: 35%.

Pizzigati also mentions an interesting idea about a "maximum wage." He states, "With a maximum set as a multiple of the minimum, society's richest and most powerful would only be able to increase their incomes if the incomes of society's poorest and least powerful increased first...A maximum coupled to the minimum would instantly create a counter-incentive: the higher the wage at the bottom, the better for the rich - and the better, of course, for the bottom, too."

Deficit Hypocrisy

From Crooks and Liars, Born Again Deficit Virgins.

Wisconsin Budget Reality

Some much needed perspective on Wisconsin's budgetary situation.

Housing Handouts

Gifts for home builders and expensive home buyers.

Park It

Yet another failure of privatization.

Walk(er) Away

Scott Walker rode into town, full of right-wing talking points, promising glory and growth for Milwaukee County.

He's failed. County could face another budget crisis in 2010.

He's gutted services, flip-flopped on serving only one term, terminated family-supporting jobs, all while digging a deeper budgetary hole for the county.

Scott should forget about being governor, go back to school and finish his college degree, then (try to) become a productive member of society. Public service is not his forte.

Scott, I'm sure CRG or WPRI will bring you aboard. You've robotically perfected parroting conservative one-liners.

Laughable Curve

Tax cuts as public policy prescription for economic growth have been empirically proven ineffective for decades. Arthur Laffer's curve is a laugher indeed.

As James Rowen highlights, John Kovari, of the Public Policy Forum, finds more corroborating evidence to support this conclusion.

The fact that we as a society and as policy makers have to point out, over and over again, that tax cuts are not a panacea for growth is depressing. As Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.

It's time we revert back to an evidence-based policy-making environment. We cannot allow the Republicans, and the pliant media, to keep telling us black is white. This debate should have ended long ago.

(Blind faith in the tax cut mantra...yet another reason Scott Walker is unfit for governor.)

For Further Reading:
Because I Said So Is Not An Answer
Failing To Pass The Laffer Test
Scott Walker Puts Milwaukee County Residents at Risk
Slippery Scott Selling Snake Oil
Tax Cuts Don't Boost Revenues
Tax Cuts: Myths & Realities
Who's Laffer-ing Now?

Drama Queen

Sarah Palin claims to not like drama. She’s much too sophisticated for such pettiness. Yet, every chance she has, she amplifies the drama.

This is all done, obviously, to keep her name in the media, to ensure book deals and speaking engagements, and to keep attention on someone whom, without such drama, would be a non-entity.

One would think she would be more upset over the tone of the article – which basically claims Palin is an incompetent goof, “bad news for the GOP and for everybody else” – than over the fact that Newsweek chose a picture of her in her running shorts.

Update:

Stephen Colbert comments on Sarah Palin's "steaming pile of s@#%" that is her book.

For Further Reading:
Sarah Palin's Top 10 Falsehoods
The 18 Biggest Falsehoods in Sarah Palin's Book

Discrimination

Ah, the stench of intolerance. Just what we want in a governor.

Job Creation

Two good articles from the Journal Sentinel (here and here) highlighting the need for job creation programs. This should be the focus of the next stimulus package.

For Further Reading:
It's About Job Shortage, Not Skills Mismatch
It's No Time To Cut Public Investments
Job Creation Versus Training
Potential Funding Sources for Public Job Creation Initiatives
Promising Findings From Ten Public Job Creation Initiatives
The Challenge of Job Creation

Watering Down Corporate Accountability

Lately, there's been a big push for making Milwaukee a water research hub. Richard Meeusen, CEO of Badger Meter Inc. and board member of WMC, has been one of the number one cheerleaders behind such efforts.

In 2003, Badger Meter paid $125, 728 in corporate income taxes. In 2004, they paid $418,391. 2009 net earnings of Badger Meter were $14.35 million; alongside $60.8 million in sales. The IRS recently allowed Badger Meter "a tax break on operations in France the company discontinued in 2006." Badger Meter has also outsourced some research and development as another cost-savings measure. Next year, the company will move one-third of it's factory jobs to Mexico. Even though Badger Meter's sales were down 11.6 percent from 2008 ($68.83 million) to 2009 ($60.81), their net income was up 146 percent ($5.83 million to $14.36 million).

In 2007 Richard Meeusen was compensated $842,331 (1.2 percent of earnings; 14.4 percent of net income). In 2008 he made $1,082,133 (1.8 percent of earnings; 8 percent of net income).

Are these the types of companies we want to lead our community forward? Public-private partnerships (taxpayers partially fund the costs, private entities get the profits) are the norm. But knowing this, why would we continue to push this inverse Robin Hood scheme of having general taxpayers finance private sector speculation? In this case, pumping private dollars into facilities and research and allowing the transfer of this knowledge to private entities for their profit. Why must the knowledge and discoveries of our universities and public sector be spun off to private entities? Why would we allow such efforts to be outsourced to Mexico? In the long-run it seems such efforts would be better kept in public hands under local control. Especially in the case of water, which is now recognized as our most valuable resource.

Badger Meter benefits heavily, already from the tax code. Now they are positioning themselves for yet another subsidy, by piggybacking the frenzied environment of "water research" in the City.

The same companies that benefit from such public investment are usually the ones barking in the media about a "government takeover," "socialist policies," and the unfairness of social programs and policies that support the neediest. (Even those these programs are only 1 percent of the State budget.) Contrarily, they never fail to have their hand out.

If these companies would also be promoting living wages, secure retirements, universal health care, unionization, and other social goods, I'd have no problem with a portion of public dollars investing in such responsible, community-oriented companies. Sadly, this is rarely the case. Therefore, it's time to turn off the subsidy/tax-break spigot and allow these companies to operate in the "free" market they so adore.

Update:

The Journal Sentinel gave an editorial platform to Richard Meeusen and Paul Jones, CEO of AO Smith, to disparage the University of Wisconsin investigating whether or not to implement water programs at 13 of the university's campuses. They feel it would dilute the efforts and spread the initiative too thin.

[If this water research initiative is the end-all, be-all, why hasn't their been any discussion and debate about it? The only opposition to putting all our eggs in one basket, came from UWM professor Marc Levine. The reaction to his research, which completely debunked the idea of an entrepreneurial university and Milwaukee as water research hub, was derision and unresponsiveness. UWM's water program deserves investment. (So do many other university programs.) But this isn't about whether or not they are deserving, it is precisely about placing all our bets on one roll of the dice. Being such astute businessmen, I'm sure Meeusen and Smith can appreciate portfolio diversification.]

I don't completely disagree with Meeusen and Smith's reaction. Although their view may have more to do with concentrating the efforts and investment near their businesses in Milwaukee, than with a truly altruistic dedication to water research. Campuses such as Green Bay, Superior, and Parkside, which are also on/near Lakes Superior and Michigan, could be valuable partners in water research.

Rectifying Reagan Fabrications

Paul Krugman corrects a few (of the many) Reagan myths.

Save Our City

We are finally beginning to publicly discuss UWM's "entrepreneurial" strategy, specifically their proposed engineering school on County grounds near Wauwatosa. Too bad much of the dialogue is condescending and superficial. The cabal of power brokers hell-bent on pushing forward with the suburban location are rather dismissive and disdainful of anyone questioning such a move.

Their well-reasoned and sound analysis, supporting such a suburban locale, comes in such stellar verifications as, "may offer," "difficult to measure," and "there is no guarantee that new research will bear fruit." Alongside such airtight assurances, platitudes such as, "Milwaukee needs to take a risk," and "we have to get in the game," are paraded out by sympathetic cheerleaders.

The "long-term potential is very strong," claims Rita Cheng, UWM vice chancellor for academic affairs. Just saying so, they seem to feel, makes it so. And, in the same article, Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel reports Michael Lovell, dean of UWM's College of Engineering and Applied Science, agrees. What a surprise that the dean of an engineering school would agree with an massive infusion of investment dollars into his department.

Their sloganeering and incessant boosterism is reminiscent of the lottery: "You gotta get in it, if you want to win it!" The problem is, the chances of UWM and Milwaukee winning with this investment are similar to the odds of actually winning the lottery. Faced with an actual analysis revealing the experience of the majority of universities over the past few decades attempting an "entrepreneurial" strategy has been a poor return on their investment, the cabal, like Pollyanna, bury their collective head in the sand and reaffirm, Stick To The Plan.

For an urban university to march forward with expansion plans in the suburbs, in this age of environmental awareness, borders on criminal. Growing within the City and encouraging others to do such...talk about an opportunity to have a long-lasting, sustainable, and community-friendly impact.

There is nothing quite as intellectually dishonest as academics, supposedly schooled in the scientific method, showing an aversion to data collection and analysis, open debate, and allowing the research to lead us to the most optimal conclusions. No. The cheerleaders will have none of that.

The Journal Sentinel editorial, as usual, is right behind, beating the drum. They believe UWM is "right to stick to the plan." They never corroborate why UWM must stay the course, provide any research findings or data collection of their own, or quantify why this facility, at this location, is a can't-miss and a must-do for Milwaukee.

The Journal editorial is a collection of anecdotes. The Journal, along with fellow boosters, completely ignores the actual return other universities have experienced regarding such developments [not] initiating collaborative efforts and [nor] attracting venture capital. All this in addition to the fact that the other supposed outcomes these snakeoil salesmen are promising have not been the results for the majority of other universities.

This doesn't mean not to build new facilities somewhere, or that the programs are somehow undeserving of investment. But maybe they can be scaled back a bit. Let's possibly revitalize older buildings or blighted strips in older neighborhoods of the city. (Which could spur investment in the most needy areas of the city, while also moving the university forward.) The investment could also be spread out over more of the departments at the university, capitalizing on numerous strengths, rather than putting all the eggs in one or two baskets.

There are more options available. There is no need to rush ahead with the suburban proposal. The University and the City need to look at this a bit more carefully before they make any decisions that will affect our City and it's largest public university for many generations to come.

The Funnies

Jon Stewart skewers Glenn Beck.

Stephen Colbert satirizes private health care and mocks privatization, in general.

Lies, Lies, Lies

As is their want, the right-wing is energetically espousing revisionist and false views, and accomplishing their objective of having these lies envelop and permeate public discourse, thereby, sadly, steering the debate.

Complaints regarding President Obama's employment numbers are simply petty, bitter, and nothing less than an attempt to besmirch the President and score political points.

First, stimulus policies have stabilized what could have been a second Great Depression. And, let's not forget which party was in office the last eight years, not dithering, but actively encouraging the bubble economy by continuing to deregulate, loosening monetary policy, and a completely disregarding any oversight.

Second, to expect the Obama administration to overcome this economic juggernaut of a mess in the ten months they have been in office [some started complaining merely weeks into his first term] is not only mind-boggling, it shows a complete lack of understanding of economics, business cycles, and previous economic downturns and their recoveries.

How many jobs did George Bush create per year while he was in office? 375,00 - the worst total among U.S. presidents. Unemployment increased from 4.2 to 7.2 percent during the Bush reign. This all after inheriting a surplus from the Clinton administration. The fact that Bush pissed that away with giveaways and tax cuts to his cronies didn't help matters.

These facts are never mentioned by the right and their sheep. They pretend Barack Obama created all of these problems since taking office. And, let's not forget, the initial $700 billion bailout was initiated by the outgoing Bush administration.

During an economic recovery, the initial-phase success gauge is "jobs saved." One can not seriously expect some magical initiative to simply revert the economy back to full employment overnight. Or are these cranks advocating a Public Works Program?

The general idea, and hope, is to return to a more stable and sustainable economy. Slowly returning to full employment, with the ability to create steady growth while maintaining less volatility in the market. Thus enabling, again, full employment.

To pretend trillions of dollars, due to the collapsed bubble, in lost wealth can be re-created within a few months is disingenuous and counterproductive to our discourse. These critics have two choices (as I see it): sit back, enjoy unemployment, and wait for the market to correct everything, which could take a while; or, allow the government to create public jobs (repairing infrastructure, etc.) and spend on needed policies and programs to make up the difference now.

Development Idea(s) Vacancy

More hilarity from the Journal Sentinel in Right Place, Right Time.

Yes, more development boosterism. They editorialize about the Moderne, on Third and Juneau, being a project that will "kick-start" the Park East. And it will only cost the city "about $10 million."

They quote a Wally Morics' (City Comptroller) report, "The City is not a bank, and the loans would set a precedent for city support." Newsflash: that precedent was set decades ago. Public-private partnerships are old hat. Taxpayers have been funding a whole host of private playgrounds for years.

We've been using, primarily, our bonding to fund private real estate speculation, rather than having our money invested in public transportation, sick leave, a living wage, and other more specifically public uses.

The article rambles on about, "special circumstances," and "the quality of this project." It's 203 apartments and 14 condos. How such a project addresses the "special circumstances" or is of such high "quality" is unknown.

The editorial also implies a need for more downtown apartments. No analysis is given to support such claims. Then, in the very next sentence, they talk of how the condo market isn't doing very well. Won't some of the vacant condo projects, that are already out there, be rented as apartments? We should subsidize more vacant space? Is that the best use of our investment dollar?

Luring Lunacy

The Journal Sentinel's 'bend over and take it for business' boosterism is on full display in Tax Credits, Loans Luring Entrepreneurial Start-ups.

The article basically rounds up the cast of giveaways Wisconsin (and others) uses to try to attract and retain business. It then concedes they work wonderfully and we need more. Yet the rankings and dollar amounts they highlight in the article hardly support any such conclusion.

There is no discussion in the piece regarding this 'site-consultant, tax break, war-among-the-states' paradigm upon which the development world operates. It is simply presented with no contemplation of alternatives. There could have been some deliberation or opposing viewpoints describing this system as inefficient bribery and blackmail, distorting more optimal and effective outcomes and locational decisions.

Does the Journal Sentinel report anymore or are they just corporate PR shills?

A Giant Sucking Sound

Half of the $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate mortgages due in the next five years currently owe more than they're worth.

We're not out of the woods yet. We should listen to Joe Stiglitz, nationalize bad banks, and get these toxic assets out of the system already.

For Further Reading:
Commercial Real Estate Is Next
Yet Another Bubble

Holding Cities Hostage

The Institute for Wisconsin's Future has the whole story of the Mercury Marine debacle.

For Further Reading:
Mercury Marine Twisted Saga

Soak 'Em

Shouldn't the water rate increase difference between the City and the suburbs be a disincentive for persons or businesses to locate in the suburbs? I can accept higher water rates as a City resident. But suburban rates should be substantially higher, to dissuade further sprawl. Shouldn't the cost of water be one of the main tools used in nudging greater density and more environmentally conscious development? [Kind of like the cost of gasoline, but that's for another day.]

The current City proposal wants to increase the City 28.5 percent and the suburbs 36 percent. The average City resident will pay about $.47 more per day. While the average suburban resident will pay $.59 more per day. Hardly enough to discourage unsustainable development.

Yet, even this minuscule increase has the suburbs up in arms. They feel they shouldn't have to pay more to "support Milwaukee's general fund, since they would see no benefits from more money for general city operations."

Yes, I guess the suburban leaders are really that ignorant. They believe their growth was in spite of and not due to or aided by Milwaukee. Freeways do nothing to help cities, since they allow the majority of traffic to bypass city streets. Yet, we keep building them to the benefit of the suburbs. Their shortsightedness and selfishness is really appalling.

Rather than offering free water to attract businesses to the City, they could just put in place a rate structure which would make the City the obviously better choice. Thus, making such a site selection decision a no-brainer because of the evident savings.

If the suburbs want/need Milwaukee water, I say, "Soak 'em!"

The Wind Beneath My Wings

Elizabeth Warren is the real deal.

I agree with Matt Taibbi.

Impatience

After eight years of shit, and Obama being unable to bring the world back from the brink of destruction in ten months, we need to keep banging our head against the same old wall.

Stimulation

Lets get the next stimulus package done now.

For Further Reading:
How We Know The Stimulus Is Working

Fair and Balanced Puerility

"A man-child...a large ego...narcissistic..."

The negatives, outlandish claims, and petty personal insults are aplenty in this "educational" interview.

Guess who?

Impetuously, and without a trace of self-awareness, that is Rush Limbaugh describing President Obama to Chris Wallace.

Taking The Long View

John Gurda has a great article with some thoughtful points regarding the future of Milwaukee, the public sector, taxes, and the irrelevancy we will face if we keep making the wrong choices.

All Wet

Do we have to give our water away?

The City of Milwaukee is considering giving free water to businesses that locate in the City and create jobs.

We have a comparative advantage in water and lower water rates than most of the country. This means "water-intensive" industries locating in Milwaukee would pay cheaper rates than they would in alternate suburban or water-starved areas. This is already a cost-savings for business.

The "low-cost" option, reduced rates for a defined period of time (contingent upon job creation and retention over that period) may be understandable as an additional attraction incentive. But completely free water seems a bit much.

In this new era of water wars, a reduced rate, alone, should attract business.

Water is a finite resource. Lets not give it away.

Growth At Any Cost

Just pondering here...

Our local "watchdog," the Journal Sentinel always supports (if not outright, at minimum with a subdued advocacy): real estate development, stadiums, convention centers, pretty much any spending proposed by our private sector growth machine.

I'm all for the unionized jobs created by projects. Especially if they're publicly-supported projects, they need to be employed with union workers. I just think there are projects that are more important and make more sense for our economy, now and in the long-run.

Do we need more apartments and condos? If so, how about we repair blighted buildings, rather than building anew. Why not steer the investment toward the most depressed and needful areas of our city? Aren't there more important issues to address, which will also provide a better return on investment?

Conversely, why is the Journal Sentinel always against: sick leave, prevailing wage clauses, community benefits agreements, union workers, pretty much any public-sector-related (or moral) issue, program, or project?

For Further Reading:
Sick Over Sick Days

The Middleman's Cut

One-third of the cost of our health care system is purely waste.

That's private sector efficiency for you. It's efficient at steering money into the capitalists' and their cronies pockets. But it doesn't do much for the rest of us.

Cutting out the wasteful, private-sector middle-man, by itself, would pay for universal medical coverage.

Good Question

Why isn't 122 Dead Americans Every Day a National Health Care Emergency?

Stadium Swindle

The rumblings have been increasing for a few years now. Another boondoggle is about to be thrust upon the Milwaukee metropolitan area taxpayers: public subsidization of a new basketball arena for the Milwaukee Bucks. (The Bucks just received $5 million, over two years, for renovations from the State in the latest budget.)

The usual story-line is being presented. Many of the same characters and boosters of the Miller Park swindle are involved in securing public money to build a new private basketball stadium. Many of the same mantras and "benefits" are blathered about and claimed whether the project is a stadium, a convention center, an industrial park, a research park, and a host of other supposed economic "game changers" and "engines."

We need to do this. If we don't, the Bucks may leave. The team can't compete with such an outdated stadium. We have to keep the team to remain a "major league" city. [Whatever would we do with our leisure time and money if we didn't have a professional basketball team?] If you build it, many jobs will be created, it will attract tourists, and it will drive other business creation nearby the stadium and throughout the region.

In a few cases, this is true. In the majority of cities, these claims are demonstrably false. The modern-day, largely publicly-financed stadium is a white elephant representing regressive urban tax and economic policy. The primary beneficiaries of new stadium construction are the team owners and players.

The Bradley Center is Non-Union

Facilities built with public money should employ unionized workers earning a living wage, with health care benefits, a stable retirement plan, and the ability to collectively bargain. Public dollars should not be used to subsidize low-wage, seasonal employment.

Job Creation and Spillover

Economists whom have gathered the employment numbers of census tracts, cities, metro areas, and zip codes near newly built stadiums have found no meaningful improvement due to the construction of a new stadium. My own research uncovered declines in employment in the sectors most linked to stadium commerce (retail, restaurant, etc.) in the years up to construction and following completion.

These jobs are primarily seasonal, lacking benefits, and do not pay a living wage. Actively subsidizing such employment attracts less-skilled workers and does nothing to improve the future prospects for a highly-skilled, high value workforce.

New Business Creation

Likewise, the sectors most linked to stadium commerce also show no significant increase in new businesses. Again, many cities actually have experienced a decline. Most new stadium developments are self-contained islands with shopping, food, parking, and numerous other retail activities. People come to the games, park on expansive (and environmentally insensitive) parking lots, spend money within the stadium, and then drive home. Many newer stadiums are located off exit ramps; there is no pedestrian-friendly element that ties the stadium to the adjacent neighborhood. More often, the stadium becomes a competitive drain on other local taverns, restaurants, and retail stores nearby.

Intangible "Major League" Status

It sounds cool to say, "We're in the big leagues!" But what does it really mean? And how is it measured so that we may understand, quantitatively, how it is benefiting us. Policy and investment decisions should be based on rigorous analysis and visible rewards, not wishful thinking and snappy sloganeering.

Tourism Delusions, Realignment and Substitution

The majority of those attending games come from within the metropolitan area. For a city, or a region, to actually experience growth, to achieve some sort of gain from hosting games, people need to come from outside the region. Otherwise attendees are merely realigning their spending within the area; no growth is taking place. And, even if someone from Chicago does attend a game in Milwaukee, if the money they spend is money they would have otherwise spent in Chicago, there is no net gain for the region as a whole. Unless attending the game is money they otherwise would not have spent, growth is not occurring. A zero sum game.

"Fantasy City" Investment Strategy

Every city can not be a sports mecca, a convention behemoth, nor a tourism magnet. The more every city keeps trying to emulate each other with the same, largely unsubstantiated, development strategies, more will be losers. Development needs to build on comparative advantages, sectoral strengths, and labor force skills. Trying to mold a city's future to meet the successes of another with a completely different set of historical circumstances and skill-sets is lunacy. Largely, throwing money down the drain.

Opportunity Cost

Millions spent on stadiums can not be spent on other, more pressing, needs. Money given to the Bradley Center and Miller Park is money we can't use on replacing the Hoan Bridge, redeveloping the Pabst Brewery, cleaning up the Kinnickinnic River, building a high-speed rail network, cleaning up the Great Lakes, along with a litany of more important investment choices.

Conclusion

It's time private entities, especially those as extracurricular as sports, paid their own expenses. This is yet another sector of the economy where we've allowed a 'too big to fail' model hamstring our development options and leave us open to bribery and threats of leaving. Federal legislation is needed to end this war among the cities and to break up the cartel that is major league sports.

For Further Reading:
A Public Plan
Drowning in Delusions
Loot, Loot, Loot For The Home Team
Nudging Away Nonsense
Professional Sports Subsidies
Should Cities Pay For Sports Facilities
Stadium Subsidies
Subsidy Resources
Welcome to Walmart

Rewarding Corruption

Dean Baker wonders Why Are Contracts for AIG Execs Different Than Contracts for Autoworkers?

"Back in the spring, the Obama administration had no problem insisting that union autoworkers give up some of the health care benefits that they were entitled to in their contract. In some cases, workers had already put in more than 30 years earning these benefits. Note that this was before any of the manufacturers went into bankruptcy.

While these workers were forced to make large concessions on contractually promised benefits, we are told yet again that AIG, an effectively bankrupt company, has a contractual obligation to pay big bonuses to its top executives and traders. It would be interesting to hear why this would be the case and if it is legally committed, why shouldn't the company just go into bankruptcy now that the immediate post-Lehman panic is over."

Wack Jobs

Are Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman really referring to the Obama administration as a Chicago-mafia-esque, bunch of gangsters?

No stereotypical or racist overtones there.

Stay classy, right-wing.

Update:
Chris Wallace and the rest of FOX appear to be getting in on the act.

If It Wasn't For You Meddling Kids

The Journal Sentinel is against direct democracy.

"Last year, a coalition led by 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, put together a petition drive that ended up imposing a sick leave ordinance on businesses in the city of Milwaukee. The well-intentioned ordinance was in fact bad for business and economic development efforts, but it was approved anyway, although it later was overturned by the courts."

Development that benefits local workers, ordinances that allow people to take time off to care for a child or parent or personal illness, and businesses that encourage such activities are "bad" according to the Journal Sentinel.

The fact that this ordinance did not pass is yet another example of the spineless failures of the leadership of this City, including the local media. From throwing money at convention centers, stadiums, suburban research parks, or bribe-money to move a company two miles from Glendale to Milwaukee. Being one of only two major cities without or not planning a rail system. To continue beating our head against this same paradigm wishing for more equitable and stable results is insanity.

Also, the Journal Sentinel, good little soldier of the Growth Machine, could not forget to boost for Waukesha's water diversion. The suburbs are a big part (the majority actually) of the Journal's readership. Growth at the fringes, possibly selling more newspapers, is good for the Journal. Social justice and environmental sustainability be damned!

I'm sold glad these "watchdogs" are looking out for me.

For Further Reading:
Nudging Away Nonsense
Race To The Bottom

Extortion?

James Rowen sums up the "water war" nicely here.

Unequal

The Gilded Age returns. Until wages again reward productivity rather than speculation (which has occurred alongside the post late-1970s increase in inequality) we will continue to experience, more frequently, economic boom-and-bust periods.

Poverty Measurement Studies and Alternative Measures from the U.S Census Bureau.

Taxes...

What do you really get for your money?

clean(er) air
clean(er) water
roads
highways
bridges
dams
automobiles
public transportation (planes, trains, buses)
sewers
sanitation
electricity
parks
preserves
arboretums
sanding, salting, plowing
fire protection
police protection
judicial system
prison system
education
health care
retirement
coast guard
armed services

The list continues.

Is every cent spent wisely? No. I'd prefer we didn't hand out subsidies to the companies holding our cities hostage by threatening job loss. Instead, we should subsidize the companies that make sectoral, historical, and labor-force sense.

But it seems there is very little waste, comparatively speaking. We sure do get quite the bang for our buck through taxation for public service provision.

Place

The Daily Reporter's dismissive title, KK River project siphons from city tax base, misrepresents the beneficial investment opportunity for improving the habitability, sense of place, and aesthetics of the river. Not to mention the general cleanliness of the water and positive environmental impact.

This project would improve overall values by razing the floodplain homes, allowing this land to revert to its natural state, whilst simultaneously increasing the value of the property adjacent to this land, but that is unaffected by the possibility of flood water.

Infrastructure matters. It is the city.

These are the long-term investments that reap rewards for generations.

Also:
States Invest More In Energy Efficiency

FOXed Up

WOW! What planet are these "people" living on? A hot steaming pile of delusional incoherence.

Snow Job

Lower taxes = less services = lower quality of life

(Not So) Bright Lights

The Wisconsin Department of Commerce issued a report showing that film tax credits as an economic development strategy are not cost-effective. But so much for reasoned analysis, Wisconsin has maintained the incentives.

Cost Benefit Analysis of Wisconsin's Film Tax Credit Program

Cheerleading Inefficiency

Michael Rosen, economics professor and blogger of Midcoast Views, rebukes Scott Walker's proposal of an Office of Business Development for the County, in a Journal Sentinel article, Development Proposal is Grandstanding.

Rosen reminds us, "Lest we forget, Milwaukee County had an Economic and Community Development Division that Walker dismantled to cut costs." As Rosen shows, though, this one would be different because the employees would be appointed by Walker without input from the County Board.

The other stunning factoid in this ridiculous proposal from Walker is the support and boosterism it has received from the Journal Sentinel. The same paper that amps up drama around public-workers' contracts and pay (to sell papers), now is pushing for government expansion in what would be one of the most unneeded, duplicative bureaucracies yet.

Retirement Reform

Why It's Time to Retire the 401(k)

Insanity

The inequality and injustice gaps widen.

Update:
At Rescued Banks, Perks Keep Rolling

Inverse Socialism

Great article, from Bob Herbert, calling for an end to the Safety Nets for the Rich.

Deflation?

Dean Baker squashes the Deflation Nonsense.

Making (Health Care) Sense

From the AFLCIO

Shaming The Hucksters

Great interview from Rachel Maddow. This is how reporters and journalists should cut through the endless drivel that is paraded in front of us by "credible" organizations, as "viable" opinions, and from "grass roots" movements. If only more in the fourth estate actually took their job seriously, we could have meaningful, useful, and timely debate and discussion.

The Slow Lane(s)

Is it me or is the Marquette interchange, especially since its expensive "upgrade," slower than it has ever been?

Could it be induced demand?

Republicans Heart Rape

Jon Stewart has more here.

Update:

Gang Rape and Republicans
The ACORN Standard

Thirsty And Cheap

If you don't want to pay the cost, get your water somewhere else.

Out Of Afghanistan

Michael Ware

Richard Engel

Ted Rall

Sunday Reading

ACORN: Federal Governments Best Investment
Affordable Housing Innovations
Economics of Models
Ending LEEDs Monopoly
High-Speed Rail: A No-Brainer
Midwest Has Highest Per Capita Rate of Iraq War Fatalities and Casualties
On Endless Growth
Owners No More
Perils of Waterfront Development
Private Equity Vultures
Problems With Securitization
Too Politically Connected To Fail In Any Crisis
Transport of Tomorrow
Whitopia

Bank Bullies

Why doesn't any meaningful reform - that benefits most working Americans - ever happen in D.C.? Barry Ritholtz explains.

Foxes In The Hen House

We should not be surprised when government, during periods controlled by those whom admonish the public sector, performs poorly - services are cut, deficits swell, programs disappear.

Conservatives criticize government for all its failures. But the economic failures are primarily concentrated under Republican administrations.

Maybe government isn't bad after all. Maybe the way Republicans govern is the real problem.

Colleges: Cash Cows?

Marc Levine (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee history and urban studies professor) has released a report, The False Promise of the Entrepreneurial University, questioning the validity, efficacy, and opportunity cost of UWM's 'university as economic engine' development strategy.

He is not stipulating that universities do not have any affect on economic development outcomes for their surrounding areas. As some have wrongfully, stunningly, and incoherently ranted. He merely shows the data which - when measured by a variety of socioeconomic indicators - exposes few of those whom have attempted such a strategy have reaped benefits to justify the cost.

John Torinus - Serigraph Inc. chairman and tax-avoider, and Journal Sentinel business-class mouth-piece - belittles the research. He sites Madison's University Research Park as one such 'entrepreneurial university' project that has worked, and therefore, forget the numerous examples and statistics that Levine has gathered, we should continue blindly moving forward, pumping money into ill-conceived, poorly planned, and empirically unsubstantiated ventures. Facts and well-reasoned discussion be damned!

John Wiley, chancellor emeritus University of Wisconsin-Madison, takes swipes at the research. Using much of the same anecdotal, status quo-clinging, vested-interest, economic development talking-points that have been mistakenly used over and over again in city after city.

I also see many commenters, whom I have to assume only bothered to read Levine's Journal Sentinel piece and not his full report, complaining that Professor Levine doesn't acknowledge UW-Madison's successes. Although, he mentions Madison numerous times in his report.

Simply wishing and hoping to be like another university (in this case, Madison) that has achieved entrepreneurial success, or throwing money at a "good bet," does not automatically make it happen. Taking risks can pay off. There are always risks in investing. But most want to minimize their risk and not just do something for the sake of doing something.

Also, I'm always a bit perplexed by those knocking the research of academics - the "cheap seats" as John Torinus put it. Or as one commenter said about Levine, "...directs a few campus centers and does not appear to have any major leadership experiences." Directing an academic center is not leadership? Who teaches those whom will become managers, executives and CEOs? Isn't it academics and professors? If professors don't know what they're talking about and they're not "leaders," why are we investing in the engineering and Water Institute professors? After all, they come from the "cheap seats," too.

Attack the message, not the messenger. If one can find holes in the methodology and analysis, fine, pick it apart. But to try and demean Professor Levine because he has raised questions regarding UWM's development proposal is childish and does nothing to substantively address the concerns he has documented.

UWM is on the right track in many regards. The University has made great strides in academics and in the community over the last few decades. But that doesn't absolve them from criticism and open discussion of their policies and community investment decisions.

Many detractors have made this into a Levine versus Santiago melodrama. That's too bad. The real point should be a discussion about what is the proper amount to invest, where, and toward what activities. Levine's research indicates we may want to look at other options for our limited investment dollars. We do not have to simply jump at any idea Mr. Santiago, his associated commercial interests, and the cabal of local power brokers pushes forward.

[Disclosure: I was formerly employed by the Center for Economic Development under the directorship of Marc Levine.]

Backstabbing Bankers

Bill Foy is back ranting his typical right-wing talking-points - government is bad, unions are bad, blah blah blah. Funny, as a former banker, he doesn't mention the cost to society of the debacle bankers have caused. I'm sure his next piece will hypothesize that securitization, mortgage backed securities, and collateralized debt obligations were the fault of unions.

Yes, even though taxes on business, and in general, have been falling, supposedly unionized public workers are driving up costs. The trillions of dollars that taxpayers are now insuring through the Fed, the Treasury, and the FDIC, somehow that money doesn't enter Foy's radar.

We've actually seen decreases in the number of public workers. These workers are paying more for insurance, taking furloughs, taking wage freezes, and making sacrifices. Alongside this, service provision is also being cut. Which is why pools and libraries are closing, potholes are not being repaired, parks are overgrown and unkempt, and a host of other cutbacks are taking place.

Look in the mirror, Bill. You and your cronies are to blame for the current economy and the volatility in the markets.

For Further Reading:
Deficit Financed Delirium
Failure Bonuses
Financial Services Organizations Lobbyists Influence
Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?
Union Yes

The Walker Journal Sentinel

Has the Journal Sentinel become Scott Walker's personal PR firm? Newsflash - hey Journal, Scott Walker is an adult (or so he says), let him defend himself against petty attacks [this complaint in no way is meant to justify Holloway's statement].

This is embarrassingly biased reporting. The Journal is out front on anything Scott Walker spews, reporting to us about his "great" ideas. Now they are also coming to his defense.

Democratize The Fed

Representative Mary Kaptur (Ohio) suggested to Ben Bernanke that he give as much power in the Federal Reserve decision-making process to the Cleveland Fed as is already given to the New York Fed. He would not do it.

A subtle, inquisitively nudging question illuminating the power disparity between finance and the real economy, between New York and Cleveland, and between the Haves and the Have-nots.

All this and more was discussed on the last Bill Moyer's Journal. Simon Johnson, of MIT and Baseline Scenario, also offers his perspective.

Corporate Communism *

Dylan Ratigan coins an appropriate term to describe our current political economy - *corporate communism. [Courtesy of Crooks and Liars]

Republican Amnesia

From Crooks and Liars: Paul Ryan spouts his usual lies and smears, I mean, Republican talking-points regarding health care. Barney Frank wonders why the Republicans didn't do anything about, or even mention, health care over the last 12 years when they controlled Congress.

Inequity

400 richest Americans lined their pockets with $30 billion.

Wisconsin Foreclosure and Unemployment Relief Plan

Wisconsin Foreclosure and Unemployment Relief Plan

Thugs

Union members are often referred to as "thugs." When you stand up for living wages, retirement and health care benefits, and worker rights, you're a thug, at least according to pro-business, market-hypnotized know-nothings.

At Serb Hall, Citizens for Responsible Government (actually a front group for the right-wing, uber-wealthy talking points) organized a gathering regarding Scott Walker's county budget. One of CRGs representatives, or sympathizers, pushed a pro-union woman and then grabbed a man and threw him down. Evidently because they disagreed with him.

I think we know whom the real thugs are in this class war.

Knuckleheads

I see knuckleheads at the County budget/contact rallies complaining, "No more taxes!" (While also acting like thugs.)

FYI: Taxes as a share of income have been falling in Wisconsin. And, Wisconsin business taxes are below average.

So, if taxes are your supposed beef...then you've got none. Move along.

For Further Reading:
Tax Cuts: Myths and Realities
Corporate Taxation

More Unbiased Reporting

In more stellar reporting, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reporting on the upcoming gubernatorial race, refers to the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute as a "local think tank." Ed Garvey, at Fighting Bob, has more on how laughable this is.

Journalistic Poverty

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the latest American Community Survey findings that Milwaukee is the 11th poorest city in the nation. It is good to bring attention to such discrepancies, but as I've said over and over here, the correct and complete context of what's being represented is crucial.

The Wisconsin poverty rate ranks 39th, the 12th best (including D.C.) in the nation. The County's poverty rate was 11.8 percent, with an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent in 2008.

This tells us that we've basically segregated the majority of our poor people in Milwaukee. Which puts a disproportionate budget burden on the City to provide services for the poor. And, this is the real problem. Milwaukee is the de facto dumping ground for those needing public services (health, shelter, police, food, etc.), and the City is left to find the resources to pay this bill.

This situation, in turn, obviously inflates the unemployment rate (among other negative indicators) for the City. But, poverty and unemployment are not just city concerns, they are state and national issues.

The article could have been a spring board to discussion about regionalism, affordable housing, jobs programs, and a whole host of ideas of how to better cope with poverty and unemployment, with some type of shared response.

For Further Reading:
Getting The Facts Right About Segregation
Quantifying Milwaukee's Segregation

Number of Unemployed Per Job Opening

A couple of illustrations, here and here, as to why a public works program would help.

For Further Reading:
Lessons From The New Deal Employment Programs

Consumption Is The Issue

George Monbiot has an interesting article dispelling the myth that population growth is the most serious threat to the environment.

Pulling Down, Out of Society

Why are conservatives so intent on attacking ACORN and SEIU? Rachel Maddow has the answer.

Health Care Hitmen

Five Terrible Democrats...Bums.

The Daily Show has more on spineless Democrats here and here.

Alan Grayson shows Dems how they should act.

Still On Track

Even though Chicago didn't get the 2016 Olympics, I hope the Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago rail project is still undertaken.

And, why were the Republicans rooting against and cheering after America did not get the Olympics?

Update:
Midwest Transportation Revolution
Milwaukee-Madison Rail Route Still On Track Despite Olympic Vote
Olympics, Scandal, Bribery and Glenn Beck's Church
Wisconsin Submits Application For High-Speed Rail

Union Yes

Some, in arguing against unions, maintain that increasing union wages can only increase cost in the end because the companies paying higher wages will just pass on the cost. This opinion completely disregards the fact that maybe the executives and managers are overpaid. An equivalent decrease in executive pay alongside an increase in worker pay would therefore lead to no additional costs to the consumer. This is not hard to achieve since executives are making over 300 times as much as their workers.

Or are those arguing against better pay for workers merely unwilling to see management take home less? Is it that under no circumstances must executives receive less compensation, only workers must sacrifice? Executives can have golden parachutes, secure retirements, paid country club memberships, use of the company jet, and perks as far as the eye can see in perpetuity. But the workers are at fault for budgetary issues? The workers must sacrifice and go without? The $12 an-hour they are making is too much?

Second, I've see some defending corporations regarding the money they are making. Paraphrasing, "Not all received bailout money. So leave them alone." But as I've described in many previous posts, all, especially large corporations, do receive many forms of public largess. And, it has also been shown that public workers often would have cost less to complete a project rather than the contracted private company.

Third, unions don't "price themselves out of a market." Federal and state policies (influenced with corporate cash) eviscerate unions by making them compete with third world slave labor. We’ve allowed a regression to take place. We're watching all the struggles the labor movement fought for over the last two centuries go down the drain. As we use jargon like "globalization," "competition," and "efficiencies" to gloss over the fact that our government, complicit with multinational corporations, has allowed workers the world over to be exploited in pursuit of the profit for a select few. They are not pricing themselves out of anything. The money that workers were previously earning is now being siphoned off by executives and CEOs. As productivity of the American worker has increased, they have not seen a correlated increase in their pay. Yet, executive compensation has skyrocketed.

Efficient markets, the private sector, supply-side economics are all dead. The emperors have no clothes.

Health Care Reality

Some great videos concerning health care (courtesy of Crooks and Liars):

Grayson fires back at Republicans

Republicans pretending to be champions of Medicare

Props to Jay Rock

Plus, Monique Morrissey's Medicare Privatization: A Cautionary Tale

Levity

Some midweek humor from Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert:

Where The Riled Things Are government is bad, how dare they build infrastructure and try to prevent ecosystems from collapsing

America: Target America brainwashing children by helping them believe in themselves

Out of The Closet politicians real constituents: lobbyists

Blackwashing criticizing Obama isn't racist, it's patriotic

Desert Death

This is the epitome of Pollyanna planning. Arizona (for the most part) is a terrible experiment in unsustainable development. (The bright idea of trying to live a green lifestyle in a desert.) The plan is to add 400 more miles of highways by 2050. Why? Because of projected growth. We need federal policy to institute growth boundaries to eliminate any more irresponsible planning.

A Public Plan

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is rambling on about Scott Walker again, Walker economic development plan could find backers. Par for the course, context and criticism are absent.

A few thoughts ran through my mind thinking about this article and some of its broader implications:

Developing a county Office of Business Development? Really? Come on, guys. We can actually do some bold, innovative things in economic development. This is duplicative and more parochialism in the supposed age of regionalism.

And why the county won't turn over the Park East land to the city is vexing, to say the least.

A quick solution is to turn over county functions to city management. Not only would this transfer and make better use of institutional knowledge, it would achieve a quasi-regionalism with the City of Milwaukee representing the whole county. [I know...good luck with that one.]

Any work that is contracted out should be contracted to local firms, paying a prevailing wage, with a community benefits agreements, and with specific clawbacks in the contract.

Infrastructure - water, roads, garbage, etc. - should be handled by public workers: unionized, well-paid workers. First, the public sector acts as a safety cushion. During economic recessions they still spend - using restaurants, movie theaters, concerts, buying appliances, doing remodeling, etc. - enabling businesses to stay open and workers to keep their jobs. Establishing, at least, a respectable floor during downturns. Second, they maintain the roads, water ways, sewers, airport, and on and on, that we all - businesses and individuals - count on for nearly everything we are able to do in our daily lives. This is kind of an important function for a civilized society. Not something to be privately controlled by the best-connected bidder.

We as citizens and taxpayers should, through our investment (taxes), be building/exporting a model that gives individuals a step up. People attack public employees because they have health care or because they have a pension. Are these not assets that any worker should want? How does criticizing and thereby disintegrating such achievement of labor help anyone? The more bargaining power one group of workers gains (and thereby increased wages), the more every worker is able to achieve better pay.

Why is it that taxpayers criticize public worker earnings, yet they defend CEO compensation? The same CEOs that are subsidized and bailed out with our tax dollars. Public workers actually perform a service for you. What did AIG do for you?

How is it that just 30 years ago our society had:

• one breadwinner supporting a household
• wages that allowed families to be (realistic) homeowners
• a secure retirement
• health insurance with a close relationship between doctor and patient

Technological change, globalization, and other advancements, no doubt, explain some of the change. But the majority of it is explained by conscious policy choices by our local, state, and national government - which, coincidentally, tracks closely with our adoption of supply-side, free market worship. We had a just and equitable society, and we can again.

United States of Shanty Towns

I guess this is the health reform we can look forward to - waiting in lines, at large improvised tents, for medical attention.

More Hidden Costs

Great information from Good Jobs First about hidden taxpayer costs (excerpt below):

Wisconsin

In June 2007 the state Department of Health and Family Services posted an updated list of Wisconsin employers with the largest number of employees (or their dependents) participating in BadgerCare, the state's health insurance program for low-income working families. At the top of the list was Wal-Mart, which had 897 employees enrolled, plus an additional 776 dependents. The Department projected the annual cost to the state of those enrollees at $3.7 million. Other employers at the top of the list were McDonald's (248 employees; 149 dependents), the non-profit healthcare provider Aurora (193; 162), and home improvement chain Menard (163; 184). The 116 employers with 15 or more employees on BadgerCare were said to cost the state a total of $23.9 million a year.

In October 2005 Wisconsin Citizen Action published a report estimating that large corporations, led by Wal-Mart, were costing the state $46 million a year because of the participation of their employees in public medical assistance programs.

Sources: The Department of Health and Family Services list is posted at http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/badgercare/pdfs/employers0307.pdf. See also Stacy Forster, "Who Has Staff using Health Care Safety Net?" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 21, 2007. For coverage of earlier reports, see Stacy Forster, "Big Companies Fill BadgerCare Rolls," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 24, 2005; Anita Weier, "Wal-Mart Workers Need State Health Aid," The Capital Times , November 4, 2004, p.1A; Stacy Forster, "Tab for Uninsured Workers Rises 13%," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 30, 2006.

Faulty Foundation

Paul Soglin with an important post about why the media should stop reporting the Tax Foundation's nonsense. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has warned of the Tax Foundation's sloppiness on numerous occasions.

Privatize This

Give me a break! But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the Journal Sentinel thinks the idea of privatizing the Milwaukee Zoo needs further study. They support virtually all privatization, taxpayer subsidies for private projects, and general boondoggles pushed by development and budgetary hucksters.

Even though the Journal Sentinel actually researched the privatization issue and found that Wisconsin transportation contracts would have been cheaper in 125 out of 214 cases if the work would have been done by state employees rather than a private contractor.

But so much for reality. The market mystique cannot be questioned. Privatization of everything or bust!

Uneducated

Note to Hannity: Schools do not exist to merely regurgitate the opinions (or in your case, ignorance) and world views of the parents. Sean implies he wants Democrat and Republican, blue and red, schools. Is there any topic the right-wing will not politicize in an attempt at taking total control for their own sake rather than the sake of the topic or institution? Education, health care, and others, have become highly-partisan political struggles rather than a natural right of citizens.

The Boogeyman

Rachel Maddow reports the truth behind the racism/class warfare of the ACORN attacks. Not really a big surprise. More of the typical fodder we're lobbed by the MSM. The poor, the working class, immigrants, minorities, homosexuals, community advocates, they're all conspiratorial, trying to hurt and takeover America. Be afraid!

Master Bureaucrat: The Financial Sector

"Bureaucrat" stirs thoughts of a unproductive slacker, needlessly pushing papers in make-work employment.

This definition led me to think about how perfectly the financial sector fits this mold.

They produce nor create anything of value. Their job is to basically rearrange the chairs and call it work, while taking their cut. And what a mind-boggling cut it is.

Compare this to what we typically conjure when we spew "bureaucrat," the average public sector, government employee - one that fights fires, polices the streets, provides clean water, educates - making far less than their financial sector counterparts. They also seem to face much more scorn from the press and right-wing politicians as costly budgetary constraints.

So, sadly, the group (government public sector) that produces numerous "goods" for citizens at a relatively modest cost must be reigned in.

Yet, the largely unproductive and inefficient sector (finance) that costs an extravagant amount must continue to receive support; continue to be referred to as "the only way;" and continue to be given loopholes, tax breaks, exemptions, and giveaways.

American Socialism

The incentives, giveaways, and hand-outs of taxpayer dollars to the wealthiest are plenty. That is, we have a system whereby those whom need the least assistance have the most potential to avoid taxation, yet, at the same time, are offered the most opportunities to reap benefits from the system. This has led to an overall regressive tax system.

The tools are:

Mortgage Interest Deduction

Externalities

Depreciation Schedules

TIFs

Capital Gains

Exemptions

Site Selection

Tax Credits

Property Tax Abatement

And these are only a few of the tools used to fleece unsuspecting taxpayers against their own best interests.

For Further Reading:

Carrying Burden For Super Rich

Closing The Other Tax Gap

Corporate Taxes Under Attack

No Tax on the $845 Million Sale of the Cubs

Researching Economic Development Subsidies

State Tax Issues: Wisconsin

Tax Evasion

Selling Our Soul To The Company Store