Today is the official start to the Christmas shopping season. It has come to be called “Black Friday” for black ink, instead of red ink, on retailers’ balance sheets. One would think it should be “Green Friday” for the amount of green (cash and otherwise) spent today, but it isn’t.
My [...]
Earlier this month I wrote about the Ripon Area School District’s crowing that it chose “to invest in education and preserve the quality of Ripon schools by increasing local property taxes to fill the gap left by the state’s reduction in state aid for the 2009-10 school year.”
This is [...]
Thursday is Thanksgiving, a day when we should remember what to be thankful for and why. (FoxPolitics.net has some thoughts.)
Thursday is also a day of NFL football. The Packers’ Thanksgiving opponent, Detroit, traditionally hosts the first of the three Thanksgiving Day games. (The Packers’ record with Detroit and [...]
From the Nov. 24, 2009 Marketplace
Marketplace’s first issue was published in October 1989.
In February 1990, Marketplace’s cover story featured G. Allen Bubolz, who left his job as CEO of Secura Insurance to become CEO of the John Birch Society, which says it “believes and works to expose a semi-secret international [...]
My guess is that the majority of Marketplace readers will be working Friday, the day after Thanksgiving or Black Friday. My guess is that the majority of public-sector employees will not be working Friday.
So we begin with the pernicious effects of government employee unions. The Heritage Foundation reports that [...]
Today is the 46th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who was 46 years old when he was assassinated.
Kennedy’s assassination was to my parents’ generation what 9/11 is to my generation — one of those moments where everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing.
The [...]
Warning: This may make you spit out your coffee:
If Andy Schlafly has his way, there will be no socialists or snake handlers in the Bible. No woman caught in adultery. And, definitely, no Stephen Colbert.
Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia.com, wants to save the Scriptures from liberals with his latest [...]
It appears that the 2010 Packer–Viking games will be angst-ridden melodramas like the 2009 games were:
Vikings quarterback Brett Favre already has had his revenge on the Green Bay Packers by defeating them twice this season, proving they should have retained him after the 2007 season.
It’s unclear whether [...]
Those football fans who believe statistics are the measure of a player might agree with ESPN.com’s LZ Granderson that Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers should be a Pro Bowl selection:
As long as Brett Favre is playing, probably even after he retires (if he ever does and then stays retired), we’re [...]
On Saturday, the gun deer hunting season begins in Wisconsin. On Sunday, the Packers host San Francisco.
How could the Packers combine those two institutions?
(Packers uniform templates courtesy sportslogos.net.)
Now that your eyes have stopped watering: First, uniform change proposals seem to be in [...]
From U.S. News and World Report’s James Pethokoukis:
Guess what? It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plans would impact America’s huge fiscal deficit. Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed [...]
If you asked readers of Marketplace, most of them would say their number one business expense is employee costs.
So if you believe that state spending is too high, how do you reduce state spending? The Daily Reporter’s Matt Pommer reports:
Republican gubernatorial front-runner Scott Walker is vowing to [...]
Anyone who has followed the disaster that is state government finance could hardly have been surprised at this news:
Wisconsin residents should brace for more tax increases and service cuts, based on an analysis that rated the state’s budget predicament among the 10 worst in the country.
The rise in unemployment [...]
Former state Rep. Terri McCormick, who lost the Eighth Congressional District Republican primary in 2008, will be, according to my email, holding an “Announcement Reception” Tuesday morning and evening at which she “will announce if she will run for U.S. Congress in the Eighth Congressional District in Wisconsin in 2010.”
The [...]
I got this email from the American Small Business League Thursday:
On Oct. 21, President Barack Obama announced he would convene a small business conference to address increasing access to capital for small businesses. Yet less than a week before the conference is set to convene on Wednesday, Nov. 18, [...]
WKOW-TV in Madison connects the dots and concludes that biotech executive Kevin Conroy is running for governor.
(For one thing, there is a Web site, www.conroy2010.org. Conroy seems unlikely to run for such other offices as the U.S. Senate against fellow Democrat Russ Feingold, or Congress against fellow Democrat [...]
The Packers’ schedule for the second half of the season:
Sunday: Dallas (6–2).
Nov. 22: San Francisco (3–5).
Thanksgiving: at Detroit (1–7, but the Lions are 35–32–2 on Thanksgiving).
Dec. 7: Baltimore (4–4).
Dec. 13: at Chicago (4–4).
Dec. 20: at Pittsburgh (6–2).
Dec. 27: Seattle (3–5).
Jan. 3: at Arizona [...]
Last week I made a Scrooge-like comment about two Northeast Wisconsin radio stations (and there may be others I haven’t heard yet) who are already playing all-Christmas music.
Playing Christmas music two months before Christmas is an extreme example of theme programming — blocks of radio organized around specific themes. [...]
While looking through old issues of Marketplace for our 20th anniversary issue, I came upon a comparison of the dueling economic development plans of 2002 gubernatorial candidates Scott McCallum and Jim Doyle, in convenient bullet-point form. McCallum, you’ll recall, was running for his first term after taking [...]
The Wisconsin Technology Council's Tom Still evaluates the state/Fond du Lac County/City of Fond du Lac incentive package to keep Mercury Marine from leaving:
The fight to keep Mercury Marine Inc. from moving its Fond du Lac operations to Oklahoma could cost Wisconsin taxpayers $70 million in public assistance to [...]
I'm not sure I agree with Serigraph's John Torinus that "the Wisconsin economy is so lifeless," but the rest certainly requires your attention:
A general agreement has developed that the Doyle administration was animated more by other issues — the environment, education and health care access. Its economic strategy had' [...]
Today is the 100th anniversary of the public unveiling of the University of Wisconsin’s “On, Wisconsin,” acclaimed as one of the top three college fight songs in the country. (The others are Michigan’s “The Victors” and the “Notre Dame Victory March.”) As an alumnus and, more importantly, UW [...]
This appeared in a Wisconsin newspaper (hat tip: Charlie Sykes):
Original post blogged on b2evolution.
[...]Yesterday I wrote that what the Obama administration has given voters is not what voters voted for a year ago.
So what did voters in last week’s election vote for? Not, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger, Democrats. Or Republicans.
What was learned Tuesday is that the American [...]
It’s always interesting to read an opposing point of view from yours. The American political left (which has far too many fellow travelers in this state) could be said to be the opponents to not merely the American political right, but to the readers of Marketplace — not specifically for [...]
This is a priceless lead from the Chicago Tribune:
Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include [...]
Now that we’ve gotten all the anger out of our systems over how the two Packers–Vikings games went (including the only 38–26 game in the history of the NFL), WTMJ radio’s Dan O’Donnell suggests what could be considered contrary to conventional wisdom before Nov. 1:
So why am I [...]
The Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce sent this missive to its members and others to contact U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen (D–Appleton) before Congress votes on the H.R. 3962 health care reform bill, possibly as early as Saturday:
Health care reform is necessary, and there are many changes everyone can [...]
WTMJ radio’s Charlie Sykes has some advice for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who is pondering whether or not to run for governor in the wake of other Democratic candidates’ dropping out:
As you prep for your discussions with the White House, you might want think a bit [...]
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Patrick McIlheran brought up a way to improve health care without Congress’ health care deform plan:
Most Americans, polls say, are pretty happy with their own health coverage. They worry, though: You develop heart trouble, you change jobs, you’re toast: If your ticker’s a pre-existing condition, [...]
The winner of the Euphemisms of the Month Award is the Ripon Area School District, where my three children go to school:
The Ripon Board of Education voted at its special meeting on October 26 to invest in education and preserve the quality of Ripon schools by increasing local property [...]
The big question in the Green Bay area today is: Should he be fired or not?
Well, of course he should be fired. His offensive line is going to get his quarterback killed, his defense reeks, his team can’t win the big game …
What? You're not talking about Mike McCarthy?
The subject' [...]
Earlier this week, I was asked whether I was going to comment on Sunday’s Vikings–Packers game in this space.
My initial answer was that I wasn’t sure what I could offer that someone else hadn’t suggested before, and that I wasn’t sure I was more informed than any other commentator. (To [...]
Part two of As Brett Favre Turns will take place at Lambeau Field Sunday at noon.
After the Vikings’ 30–23 win over the Packers Oct. 5, Packers radio announcer Larry McCarren said something interesting. I was driving when I heard this, so I can’t exactly quote him, but McCarren said [...]
From WisPolitics.com Monday:
Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan (D–Janesville) announced the creation of the Partnership for a Stronger Economy today, a diverse group of business and workforce leaders who are at the front lines of job creation and economic development in Wisconsin. The Partnership will be tasked with developing new strategies [...]
The political cynic believes that almost everything in politics is predictable. It's a certain candidate's time to run for office, these potential candidates won't run for a particular office, votes will always turn out a certain way, and so on.
But every once in a while, something happens that produces a' [...]
From the Oct. 27, 2009 Marketplace
Twenty years ago this month, Marketplace Magazine first arrived in Northeast Wisconsin mailboxes.
Marketplace was created for two reasons that became three — first, to report on business with the kind of depth, breadth, perspective and context (“news readers can use,” as one editor put it) [...]
We begin with a truly bad idea by U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen, M.D. (D–Appleton), who wants to, as Berry Laker describes it, tax your retirement:
Will anyone call Kagen out on this and ask him why he wants to tax everyone's retirement accounts? Wouldn't this tax all Americans and not' [...]
The Packers play at Cleveland coming off an uninspiring (to some) 26–0 win over Detroit.
Even though I’m not particularly an optimist about the 2009 Packers, it should be pointed out that (1) any win is better than any loss, (2) the 2009 Lions are certainly better than the [...]
Within 45 minutes of each other, I got the following pair of news releases:
How many times have you looked at the clock and were surprised by how often it reads 11:11 or 2:22 or even 3:33? One woman’s curiosity got the better of her when this kept happening and she [...]
The Washington Examiner’s Michael Barone wonders if Barack Obama is the president of the wrong country, or “union”:
Barack Obama’s European tendencies aren’t in doubt. His policies on government spending, taxation, health care and carbon emissions would all tend to bring America in line with European norms, to [...]
The Wall Street Journal reports that for Republicans nationwide, the Tea Party activists are a two-edged sword for the GOP:
Republicans are poised to pick up a number of seats in next year’s congressional elections, pollsters estimate, on the back of a deep recession, public unease about the growth of [...]
The Washington Examiner, Oct. 16: “Lefty anger splits Dems — and may sink them”:
Mainstream, non-progressive, non-pajama Democrats are now decidedly unhappy with the performance of their leaders in Congress. The presence of unbeatable Democratic majorities — 256 Democrats in the House and 60 in the Senate, backed up by [...]
The Department of Natural Resources has been busy sending us news releases announcing proposed area land buys under the state’s Knowles–Nelson Stewardship Program, in Door County and most recently in Green Bay.
The Door County news releases included the sentence that the land “will be open to the public [...]
To follow up Monday’s blog about drunk driving: State Sen. Randy Hopper (R–Fond du Lac) has been in the Legislature for less than a year, but he certainly has figured out government finance quickly:
It seems to be an unofficial rule of government budgeting: Spend money on the least [...]
Today being the Democratic National Committee’s national day of action on health insurance reform “committed to supporting President Obama’s agenda for change,” it is time to show the kind of change the DNC wants.
James Taranto, who edits the Wall Street Journal’s invaluable Best of the Web Today, has [...]
The Packers hosted Detroit Sunday. Many Packer fans watched the game at Lambeau Field, and more watched on TV, while enjoying their favorite adult beverage.
To at least one state legislator, we are all bad, bad people.
The specific legislator is Rep. Terese Berceau (D–Madison), who believes the answer to the problem [...]
Jay W. Richards, author of Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem, argues the assertion of the American financier Gordon Gekko, who famously said, “Greed — for lack of a better word — is good”:
Most Americans are at least nominally religious, with [...]
U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen (D–Appleton) and his PR machine (“Kagen Makes It Easier For Veterans To Buy Their First Homes”! “Kagen Provides Aid To Dairy Farmers”! “Kagen Is Investing Our Tax Dollars In Northeast Wisconsin”!) congratulated themselves on the job effect of federal stimulus funding in [...]
Our Oct. 27 issue will celebrate Marketplace’s 20th anniversary. One story you’ll read will be about the past 20 years of the Green Bay Packers, arguably the biggest business — in terms of impact — in Northeast Wisconsin.
Marketplace, for obvious reasons, has covered the Packers as a business ever since [...]
You may be wondering at this point why, other than an anti-Obama diatribe, should someone in business be concerned about President Obama's being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
(If nothing else, it illustrates the occasional absurdity of the prize — award-winners in the previous three decades include International Physicians for' [...]
Count the Wisconsin State Journal's Scott Milfred as wondering where the gubernatorial candidates more impressive than Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton are:
Where have all the Democrats gone? Where is all of the bottled up political ambition? ...
Maybe the job of governor, given the weak economy and doomed state budget, [...]
No, this is not about all the government employees having Monday off while their supposed bosses, we taxpayers, worked.
This is about the failure of our Congressional delegation to bring enough federal money in our direction, in the opinion of Madison journalist Marc Eisen:
… However you apportion responsibility, the [...]
This could also be called “Your Monday-morning-when-you-have-to-work-but-government-employees-don’t reader,” since today is Columbus Day. My father the banker used to have today off, but now most banks are open (though he does have the day off, because he’s retired), but most federal and state offices are closed.
A common complaint about the [...]
I wrote one week ago about my interest in places too small for road signs.
In keeping with the concept that change is inevitable, but positive change is not, you may conclude that some of the original names for Northeast Wisconsin places were better, or at least more unique, than [...]
When passing legislation, it’s helpful if the legislation being passed actually addresses the problem for which the bill is intended.
That doesn't seem to be the case with the Legislature’s rush to stiffen the state’s drunk driving laws. Having discovered a crisis of drunk driving, the Legislature wants to punish' [...]
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to the St. Louis Post–Dispatch.
Which leads to two predictions:
(1) Should Limbaugh’s bid be successful, the team will probably run a conservative offense and defense.
(2) And on offense, all the plays will be run [...]
With the Major League Baseball playoffs starting today, Daily Reporter columnist Matt Pommer notes the role of baseball in state politics for decades:
The 1995 vote to assess a five-county sales tax to pay for a new Milwaukee Brewers stadium resulted in the recall of a Republican state senator [...]Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist John Torinus on an economic development study expected to be completed in the spring, just in time for the 2010 election campaign:
The expectation is that jobs and the economy will be the central issue in the campaign. What else could it be when the jobless [...]
I have tried to avoid commenting about the sturm und drang surrounding former Packer quarterback Brett Favre’s move to Minnesota, which culminates in tonight’s Monday Night Football game and the Vikings–Packers game at Lambeau Field Nov. 1.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob McGinn is paid to comment about such things, and [...]
Q: When was the Packers’ first Monday night football game?
A: If you said Oct. 12, 1970 at San Diego, you are wrong.
The Packers–Chargers game was the Packers’ first Monday Night Football game, but not their first Monday night football game. (Note the capitalization.)
The Packers played at Detroit Sept. 28, 1964, [...]
Today, the first Monday in October, has been designated by the United Nations as World Habitat Day.
When I first saw the news release asking me to promote World Habitat Day, I assumed it was some kind of wildlife event, particularly since we’ve been discussing the outdoors recently.
Instead, [...]
As I’ve written before, I am a huge fan of modern highways, particularly the Interstate Highway System and freeways. The four-lanes allow us the ideal combination of speed to get where we’re going and the freedom to decide where and when we want to go.
I [...]
In our ongoing reporting about state business climate comparisons, I can report there has been some improvement in one:
In 2008, Pollina Corporate Real Estate ranked Wisconsin 37th.
In 2009, Pollina Corporate Real Estate ranks Wisconsin 35th.
Pollina doesn’t really rate that as an improvement. Wisconsin ranks lower than Missouri (12th), [...]
Since there are no perfect political candidates, nearly every election campaign reaches the point of buyer's remorse — that point at which every announced candidate seems flawed, and pundits pine for either unannounced candidates or those who have taken themselves out of the race before it begins.
The Barbara Lawton campaign' [...]
In the entire 20-year history of Marketplace, there has never been a story quite like the few weeks when Mercury Marine appeared to be taking its 1,850 jobs out of state, only to bring to the state at least 300 and possibly upwards of 600 new jobs.
(You can [...]
I will be on WFRV-TV on its Channel 5 First News Tuesday around 6:15 a.m. (barring interrupting events, such as, say, fishing) to discuss the Sept. 29 Marketplace.
Original post blogged on b2evolution.
[...]You may have thought that Wisconsin’s being ranked 42nd in business climate by the Tax Foundation last week was bad.
Then came the Forbes.com annual ranking of state business climates, released late last week.
Wisconsin ranked 48th, five spots worse than in 2008. Better than only Michigan, in [...]
I do a lot of driving, even beyond the usual commute. (Which is one reason I took umbrage to World Car Free Day, which really should be called We Decide Where You Can Go Day. If you can’t drive, you can’t have a regional business magazine, or anything with [...]
Manitowoc Rep. and Manitowoc County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer identifies a priority for the state Legislature:
Unemployment has been too high for too long. Our area has been hit harder than most, as the pain of the national economy has been especially sharp in the manufacturing sector. As an area that [...]
Manitowoc Rep. and Manitowoc County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer identifies a priority for the state Legislature:
Unemployment has been too high for too long. Our area has been hit harder than most, as the pain of the national economy has been especially sharp in the manufacturing sector. As an area that [...]
The Tax Foundation issued its 2010 State Business Climate Index Tuesday.
Since the comparison evaluates state business taxes as of July 1, the beginning of most states' fiscal year, we now know one of the impacts of the $2 billion in tax increases we get to enjoy in the 2009–11' [...]
Today is World Car Free Day, in which those who want to take our transportation freedom from us couch their totalitarian impulses in "remind[ing] the world that we don't have to accept our car-dominated society."
Because we value freedom on this blog, we're big on transportation freedom as well. (Unlike [...]
Thursday was Constitution Day, the insufficiently celebrated celebration of the document that spells out our government's responsibilities and our rights.
In a case of interesting timing, several news items and opinion pieces refer to our constitutional rights, and how the federal government is trying to interfere with or ignore them.
Our' [...]
FightingBob.com blogger Bill Kraus (a former staffer for Gov. Lee Dreyfus, which makes him the oddball on the really lefty FightingBob blog) believes it's time for business people to “participate” in politics instead of outsourcing:
Several decades ago the Republican Party leaders came mostly from business and the professionals who' [...]
BipolarNation.com’s Dan Kenitz writes this just for you:
I believe in an essentially laissez-faire economy. We know that lower regulations and lower taxes often spur growth (see the example of Hong Kong here), and that economic freedom and religious liberty are what brought so many people to America throughout [...]
I am, I must admit, a little stunned over what happened on the gridiron last week:
The Packers won. Wisconsin, my alma mater, won. Ripon College, my wife's alma mater, won. Ripon High School, in the school district we live in, won. Madison La Follette, my high school, won.
Today is a day that should have as much stature in our country as Independence Day, but does not — Constitution Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1786.
Unfortunately, no one I know has today off. (Which is too bad, since the [...]
President Obama’s health care speech one week ago was so successful that the Democratic health care plan went from five points down in the polls to ... two points down in the polls. It seems that, while perhaps not echoing U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s ill-timed and disrespectful observation, [...]
The 21st annual Fox Cities Business Expo will be held at the Tri-County Arena in the Town of Menasha today from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Come to Booth 61, and (assuming the technology works, and you come over before 5:30 p.m., when I have to leave) you can watch [...]
After a win that was, dare we say, Favresque (not to mention Bart Starresque — the Glory Days Packers were known for bomb touchdown passes on third down and a yard to go) …
We begin today with the consequences of voting. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Mike Nichols uses [...]
The National Football League has a list of celebrity NFL team fans, which has but one Packer fan on it.
The fan is David Ortiz, first baseman of the Boston Red Sox. Ortiz perhaps became a Packer fan when he was playing for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.
The archrivals down I–94, the [...]
Today is two days before the kickoff of the Packers season, so everyone has an opinion about how the Packers will do this season.
At the risk of dislocating my shoulder patting myself on the back, even though I am not paid to cover sports, I did correctly predict every game [...]
I have borrowed for the headline of this blog entry the weekly Sports Illustrated feature chronicling the latest news that makes one think there is no more hope for the human race.
If you ever needed a sign that something is seriously wrong with this country, that sign arrived in the [...]
It is now 9:09:09 a.m. on Sept. 9, 2009 (9/9/09).
You’re again welcome.
News flash: According to “web chatrooms devoted to alien conspiracies, doomsday cults and numerology,” the world is going to end today. Or was going to end today.
Some warned of an outbreak of killer swine flu. Others that [...]
President Obama is speaking to a joint session of Congress on his (or is it Congress’?) sinking health care plan.
Former Gov. Tommy Thompson and former Speaker of the House Richard Gephardt (D–Missouri) suggest what Obama’s speech should include:
When President Barack Obama takes to the podium Wednesday in front of [...]
A Mercury Marine news release, sent early Aug. 30:
Mercury Marine on Sunday confirmed that the contract proposal formally rejected by union members Aug. 23 expired at midnight Friday, Aug. 29, without acceptance by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). ...
As a result, Mercury said it will [...]
Tuesday is the 43rd anniversary of the premiere of the first iteration of Star Trek. (Wednesday, by the way, was the 40th anniversary of the final episode of the first iteration of Star Trek.)
With that in mind, here are lists of the top 10 Star Trek inventions [...]
I will be appearing on WFDL (1170 AM) in Fond du Lac during its “Between the Lines” program today at 9:30 a.m. This vote going on in Fond du Lac is the subject, not musky fishing.
Original post blogged on b2evolution.
[...]Today begins the four-day version of the three-day Labor Day weekend.
Besides being the real end of summer (such as it was in Wisconsin), this weekend is probably the weekend whose purpose has strayed the farthest from its original intent. This country has celebrated Labor Day since 1882, and it’s been [...]
Friday is College Colors Day, “an annual celebration dedicated to promote the traditions and spirit that make the college experience great by encouraging people across America to wear apparel of their favorite college or university throughout the day of Friday, Sept. 4.”
So I should wear red — actually, cardinal [...]
The past couple of months have been an embarrassment of riches for commentators merely for two reasons — health care reform and the Mercury Marine saga.
The domination of those two issues in the business media can obscure other things going on that may be of longer-term importance.
One example would be [...]
Wisconsin Technology Council President Tom Still has some ideas for outgoing Gov. James Doyle and his would-be successors:
Improve Wisconsin’s economic competitiveness: While the Great Recession may be subsiding, unemployment likely will not for months — if not years. Productivity will return long before the jobs do, but many jobs [...]
For some reason, in my 21 years in the communications industry, I have been drawn like a magnet into strange situations.
I have chronicled some of these in this space. I have observed press box stairs collapse under the weight of someone with whom I was supposed to broadcast, leaving [...]
For some reason, in my 21 years in the communications industry, I have been drawn like a magnet into strange situations.
I have chronicled some of these in this space. I have observed press box stairs collapse under the weight of someone with whom I was supposed to broadcast, leaving [...]
