Weekend Reading

Should Sheriff’s Budget Be Cut?

How to Spend Less On Police

Conservative Group Seeks Immediate Stop To Wisconsin Mask Mandate

Wisconsin Is on the Brink of a Major Outbreak

The truth about violent crime in American cities, explained in 11 charts

Revealed: pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies

Black people were 8 times more likely to be pulled over by Milwaukee police in 2019 than white people, new report says

Trump’s Closing Message to Seniors: I Don’t Care If You Die

Idaho pastor who encouraged congregants to go maskless is in intensive care unit after contracting coronavirus

GOP appeals ruling that extended time to count Wisconsin absentee ballots

A Disgusting Night for Democracy

Night Parking Rules a Tax on the Poor?

Covid-19’s stunningly unequal death toll in America, in one chart

When the American Dream Became the Urban Planning Nightmare

The Decline of Wisconsin’s Republican Party

GOP leaders go to court in support of effort to strike down Tony Evers' mask mandate

Trumpworld delighted in cruelty. Now that Trump has COVID, it demands empathy.

They Went Full Malkin. You Never Go Full Malkin.

‘A Symbol Of Your Own Failures’: Jake Tapper Takes It To Trump

Do Students Need Calculus Anymore?

Why Should Court End Mask Mandate, Judge Asks

Wisconsin’s Legislature Laziest in U.S.?

Suburban America Is On A Steady Decline

Job Piracy

“It’s a zero-sum game,” Nathan Jensen, a political science professor formerly at Washington University in St. Louis who recently started teaching at George Washington University, said during a recent conference held by the Kauffman Foundation. 

Simply shifting companies from one state to the next does nothing, at least not right away, to create new openings for the millions of still unemployed Americans, Jensen added while presenting some of his latest economic development research. Nevertheless, nearly every municipality across the country offers some type of tax incentives to encourage existing companies to relocate, costing taxpayers around $70 billion annually. 

Often, the hope is that those incentives will not only prompt employers to bring their existing jobs to this state or that city, but that it will also accelerate the company’s future growth and generate additional jobs for residents down the road. [source]

Ending Job Piracy, Building Regional Prosperity

Local job piracy – the use of subsidies to attract businesses from nearby communities in the same metro area – generates heavy costs for regions in terms of both lost tax revenues and externalities associated with sprawl while failing to create new jobs. But anti-piracy agreements used by the Denver, Colorado and Dayton, Ohio regions have cultivated an economic development ethos that is focused on shared regional prosperity.

Evaluating Firm-Specific Location Decisions

The use of financial incentives to attract and retain companies has become one of the most common economic development strategies of U.S. states and municipalities. Despite the widespread debate on the effectiveness of these programs, few systematic academic studies have examined how incentives affect job creation and local economic development. The result is that policymakers often lack objective data from which to draw conclusions about the benefits of these programs...

... Incentives recipients are statistically not more likely to generate new jobs than similar firms not receiving incentives.

Another Lost Opportunity

Demolition vs. reconstruction of Interstate 794

Tear down this freeway spur, replace it with surface streets and the results will be a better connected downtown Milwaukee, with more land for development and much lower road maintenance costs.

Weekend Reading

Bush Ignored Seven Warnings About Attacks
Dear Mr. Dimon, Is Your Bank Getting Corporate Welfare?
The Hard Lessons Of Wisconsin
How Policy Has Contributed To The Great Economic Divide
'Nuns On The Bus' Visit Paul Ryan's Office
Public Sector Layoffs
Reagan's Gone. You're Old. Get Over It.
The Rent Is Too Damn High
Revenge Of The Urban Nerds
The Scam Wall Street Learned From The Mafia
Twilight Of The Elites
Wages Continue To Fall

Weekend Reading

Barbecue Styles Across the U.S.
Economics In The Crisis
Free Trade Blinders
A Milwaukee Jobs Act
More Than 15% Obese In Nearly All U.S. Metros
School For Quants
Scott Walker Sets Up Legal Defense Fund
U.S. Cities With The Best Urban Policies
Wisconsin Employment Climbs...To 12,500 Below 2011 Levels

Sunday Reading

The Book Of Jobs
Corporate Profits Up. Taxes Not.
Fannie And Freddie Fantasies
Top 5 Tax Myths of The GOP Spin Machine
How Many Colberts Are There?
Structural Adjustment For The Middle Class?
The City Solution
Urban Development Legends
What Is The Contribution Of The Financial Sector?
What Is The Real Unemployment Rate, And How Could We Tell?

Midweek Reading

Are Wisconsin Public Employees Over-Compensated?
Child Poverty Rose Dramatically In Wisconsin Last Year
Does Right-To-Work Create Jobs?
Jim DeMint's Race To The Bottom
Milwaukee Income Drops 22% As Jobs Threats Continue
Smart Growth Law Would Be Gutted By Proposed Legislation
Tax Cuts Break The Bank
What's Wrong With Right-To-Work?
Wisconsin Has Lean Public Sector
Wisconsin Public Servants Already Face A Compensation Penalty

Midweek Reading

DC Fundraiser for Wisconsin GOP

Eight Civics Lesson for Scott Walker

Gas Prices & The Middle East (Not the EPA)

Liberal NIMBYs

Little Dictators: The Wisconsin GOP

The Mysteries of Labor Composition

Paul Ryan Endorses Obamacare

Public Pensions

Economy Has Been Bad to Public & Private Workers

Walker Cutting $165 Million From MMSD

Walker Tax Increases

We're All Mississippians Now