Weekend Reading

Jen Psaki Bombs Peter Doocy For Absurd Unemployment Claim

High-speed rail may hurt intermediate places: The role of long-haul economies

Housing and the Rising GDP

What to Look for In the First Quarter 2021 GDP Report

Why are American workers becoming harder to find?

There’s No Labor Shortage. Pay Workers What They Deserve.

U.S. labor shortage? Unlikely. Here’s why

Low Wages and Crappy Jobs Gave Us the Labor “Shortage”

U.S. Labor Shortage? No, We Have a Crisis of Low Wages.

WILL lawyer, Wisconsin farmer appear on Tucker Carlson Show to allege racism against white farmers

Esquire ranks Milwaukee among five domestic cities that are 'unexpectedly awesome'

Lumber mania is sweeping North America

Holiday Reading

Amazon's Internal Injury Records Expose The True Toll Of Its Relentless Drive For Speed
The Danger Of Centrist Conventional Wisdom
How To Reform Today's Rigged Capitalism
The Massive Triumph Of The Rich, Illustrated By Stunning New Data
It's Becoming Clear That High-Speed Rail Would Benefit Wisconsin More Than Foxconn
Foxconn May Cut State GDP By $6 Billion
Charter Schools Wasted $48.6 Million In State Grants
Trump Tariffs Cost State $800 Million
Foxconn Says It Can't Find Workers
Showdown In Wisconsin Valley
The Jobs Market Isn't As Healthy As It Seems

Weekend Reading

The Tax-The-Rich Movement Keeps Growing
The Hypocrisy Of Trump's Job Claims
California High-Speed Rail And The American Infrastructure Tragedy, Explained
The Global Con Hidden In Trump's Tax Reform Law, Revealed
Lots Of Presidential Candidates Talk A Good Talk. Look At Their Records Instead.
Bill And Melinda Gates And The Problem Of The "Good Billionaire"
How Republicans Bought Their Own Tax Cut Snake Oil
Trump's War On California
The CIA's Masterful Use Of Fake News

Weekend Reading

Amazon Is Thriving Thanks To Taxpayer Dollars
The Mathematicians Who Want To Save Democracy
High Speed Rail Study Shut Down In The Midwest
The NFL's Secret Formula For Saving The U.S. Economy
No, Donald Trump Has Not Made The Economy Great Again
Foxconn's Low Return On State Investment
Bill Helps Real Estate Industry
Massive New Data Set Suggests Economic Inequality Is About To Get Even Worse

The Latest Scott Walker Shenanigans

Walker Proposals Would Add Millions To Wisconsin Budget Shortfall

The figures released by Wisconsin's Legislative Fiscal Bureau show that Walker's proposals to cut property taxes and install worker training bills stand to add $180 million in costs. Implementation would swing a current surplus to a $725 million deficit for the 2015-2017 calendar period, according to the report.

What Washington Needs To Learn About Scott Walker 

As governor, Walker has cut 92,000 working Wisconsinites off their health care, slashed funding for public education at all levels by record amounts, while larding the wealthy and special interests with massive tax breaks and signed into law programs to reward politically connected but unqualified cronies with state tax dollars. 

The result has been that Wisconsin has significantly lagged the national and regional pace of job creation and economic recovery.

Mining Bill On Access Would Save Landowners Nearly $900,000

The owners of land that could become the site of a massive iron ore mine could avoid paying the state nearly $900,000 if legislators pass a bill that would allow the mine's developers to restrict public access to the property.

Scott Walker's Totalitarian Tendencies 

As Milwaukee County executive, he reduced bus service and fought defined bike and bus routes, opposed using available federal funds for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s streetcar concepts, and blocked the KRM, a 35-mile train route with Metra links into Chicago. As governor, he and his minions even repealed the KRM funding mechanisms ,despite six years of deep planning by business and community leaders to elevate passenger and freight service in southeastern Wisconsin. 

Worse, after years of state planning and millions of dollars in preparation, Walker turned down President Barack Obama’s offer of $810 million in federal funding for higher-speed train service between Milwaukee and Madison. That project was intended as the opening round in a Minneapolis-St. Paul route through Wisconsin, and the building of a national train network with Wisconsin as a key player in spurring commerce and job growth thanks to its alternatives to highways. Wisconsin taxpayers have always provided the federal government more taxes than what’s spent within the state, so all Walker did was cheat them of federal largess, which was quickly grabbed by other states.

Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin Keeps Increasing Its Long-Term Borrowing

Under Walker’s 2013-15 budget, debt service will climb even higher, claiming 5.26% of general fund dollars in 2014 and 4.88% in 2015, according to WISTAX. The state’s historical debt level target has been 4%...

Walker has only added to the problem, some have argued, by rejecting $4.4 billion in federal Medicaid assistance, linked to Obamacare, over the next decade. 

Due to the increases, Medicaid expenditures now account for 15.1 percent of total state general fund spending. That’s a record high and up from an average of about 10 percent during 1985-2003. 

Conversely, K-12 school aids will comprise just one-third of general fund spending, the lowest percentage since 1996, a year before then Gov. Tommy Thompson committed to funding two-thirds of school costs in an effort to control local property taxes. 

In 1996, shared revenues to municipalities and counties accounted for 12.4 percent of spending but will be less than 6 percent by 2015, WISTAX found. 

While Medicaid accounts for the largest increase in spending, WISTAX notes that general fund dollars are also funding transportation, a relatively new phenomenon. 

The Walker budget shifts $213.7 million from the general fund and $44.5 million from the petroleum inspection fund to pay for transportation needs. It also pays for the debt service on another $200 million in transportation borrowing with general fund dollars.

The Lost Years

Scott Walker is all about jobs. At least that's what he keeps saying.

Part of his electoral success was due to his message of stopping rail expansion in Wisconsin. Trains are so antiquated; we shouldn't be spending taxpayer dollars on these pie-in-the-sky rail initiatives.

[We'll put aside, for the moment, the fact that the Federal government was going to pick up much of the cost, and we'll ignore all the jobs that would have been created.]

Using public transportation options to more easily and efficiently connect citizens and business over a larger area (in this case: from Gary, IN to Minneapolis, MN) just didn't make sense to Scott Walker.

Now, with terrible job growth and and burgeoning pressure to provide good economic news, Gov. Scott Walker endorses Milwaukee-Chicago metroplex initiative.

Hmmm, how odd. Mr. Economy wins two elections claiming job growth omnipotence and belittling transportation linkages. Now reality has shown (again) Republicans' claims of knowing 'how to grow the economy' are bullshit!

So, what does Mr. Economy do now? He flip-flops and takes the position of his opposition (connect the region, and use public transportation to help facilitate such), which he has railed (no pun intended) against for the past few years.

Of course Walker hasn't called for improved rail linkages. But just admitting there is something to be gained, economically, from better regional linkages is a big step in the right direction.

Wisconsinites have had the misfortune of waiting years for Mr. Walker to have this economic revelation. Time wasted, money lost, and jobs squandered.

Wow! Imagine that, working with others is more economically-beneficial than trying to simply poach jobs with platitudes ('Open For Business').

For Further Reading:
Great Lakes Megalopolis
Great Lakes Megaregion
Megaregions

Weekend Reading: Scott Walker

Job Slump Is Walker's Fault

Governor Walker's Fateful Decision On Rail

Now imagine an updated rail system carrying people from the Twin Cities to downtown Chicago in less than six hours — even faster than driving and on a par with a complicated airline connection. 

Oops! Don't consider it. That scenario is precisely what Walker killed when he gave back the $810 million — federal funding that would have paid the full capital costs of connecting Madison to Milwaukee... 

"Failing to invest in the infrastructure that undergirds the economy is a very dangerous move," says Kevin Brubaker of the Environmental Policy and Law Center. He rattles off the names of prosperous 19th-century American cities that decayed when their transportation links became obsolescent. 

How odd that a pro-business Republican governor didn't understand that dynamic.

Walker Loves Milwaukee? We're Not Feeling It

In 1951, Milwaukee County received only $1 back for every $2.10 its residents paid in state taxes. It was not until 1954, when the Wisconsin Supreme Court intervened, that population alone became the basis for reapportionment, and it was not until 1964 that parity was finally achieved, again under court auspices. 

Almost 50 years later, the imbalance has returned in a different form. Republicans considered population in their 2011 redistricting scheme, but they studied voting patterns just as carefully. The GOP packed likely Democrats into supermajority districts and gave their own party the statistical edge in contested areas. The results were not just anti-Democratic but anti-democratic. In 2012, Republicans won only 46% of the total votes cast for Assembly but took 61% of the seats... 

"If you want to keep people in the city," Walker piously advised, "you should have a great city." 

Excuse me? Where do you suppose the Brewers and the Bucks play, governor? Which city is the home of such giants as Harley-Davidson, Northwestern Mutual and the Manpower Group? Where is the state's most vibrant theater scene? Who's got the greatest concentration of fine restaurants? The biggest zoo and the best museum? Where does the Calatrava spread its wings? Where will you find one of the most gorgeous urban shorelines on the Great Lakes? The world's largest outdoor music festival? The state's greatest range of housing choices or, for that matter, the greatest range of human beings? ... 

The pull of the suburbs has been a powerful force in American life for decades - not just in Milwaukee - and it's clearly in any city's best interests to make residency a condition of employment. Milwaukee's rule has been on the books since 1938, and applicants still line up for jobs by the thousands. Those who are hired live among those they serve, and where's the injustice in that? ... 

Perhaps Walker's true colors shone most brightly during last year's gubernatorial recall election. The governor didn't just run against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett; he ran against Milwaukee. His campaign ads showed polluted harbors and dead babies, and Walker actually said at one point, "We don't want Wisconsin to become like Milwaukee." You have to wonder if this guy even hears himself anymore. Most maps I've seen place Milwaukee well within Wisconsin's borders, but Walker ignored geography to score political points...

State-Shared Revenue To City Has Shrunk

Year	State-shared revenue
2003	$249,921,000
2004	$240,375,000
2005	$240,200,000
2006	$239,725,000
2007	$239,800,000
2008	$237,662,314
2009	$238,481,500
2010	$236,213,000
2011	$236,958,000
2012	$226,806,000
2013	$227,169,000

Share of budget for general city services	2003	2013
Fire Dept.	16.1%	17.9%
Police Dept.	34.6%	40.6%
Protective Services total	50.7%	58.8%

If Not For

While the election season heats up, among endless platitudes about 'getting the economy going' and 'job creation,' let's all take a moment to reflect (sadly) on Scott Walker's return of $810 million in federal aid.

Nationally, even though we've seen 23 consecutive months of private sector job growth, Republican politicians and pundits are claiming the economy is performing poorly. In Wisconsin, where we rank poorly in comparison to the other states in job growth during the recovery, Scott Walker is claiming 'job creation' success based on a slightly declining unemployment rate.

Where would Wisconsin be right now had it taken advantage of $810 million in stimulus? Where would the unemployment rate be? Where would the employment population ratio be? What long-term effects would be incubating and growing due to the massive investment in our public transportation? How many businesses, jobs, and residents will Wisconsin miss out on due to this lack of needed investment during a crucial economic time?

An opportunity cost is "the cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action."

Had Wisconsin taken the alternative action of not electing Scott Walker, Wisconsin would have seen a billion more dollars worth of investment during our country's second worst economic downturn. In the current economic climate, this billion-dollar disappearing-act should eliminate any thoughts of Mr. Walker's ability to govern effectively.

Just one [more] alarmingly significant reason for Wisconsinites to vote against Walker whenever the recall occurs.

A Giant Sucking Sound

Captain Caveman