Mark your calenders folks. In an American economy where even the most rabid Keynesian economists are warning about the prospects of a coming "third depression," the one-trick ponies at city hall are gearing up for another round of tax increment financed (TIF) borrowing and spending. As Ace Reporter Schwebke reports in this morning's Standard-Examiner, the city council last night calendered a public hearing for the evening of August 10, 2010, to consider adoption of a proposed urban renewal project area plan for the East Washington Urban Renewal Area in downtown Ogden. Despite the miserable condition of the economy, and notwithstanding the obvious failure of economic stimulus on the national level, Boss Godfrey's apparently cooking up a local economic stimulus plan all his own:
• Ogden council OKs public hearing on urban renewal proposalOgden City Community & Economic Development Department Director Richard McConkie is of course ecstatic about embarking upon this boondoggle, as he pulls optimistic "blue sky" numbers out of thin air:
The plan indicates if the entire project area were redeveloped with commercial, mixed-use and residential buildings within the next 20 years, the cumulative value of the investment would be about $99 million, said McConkie. An investment of that amount would generate about $17.2 million in tax increment that could be reinvested back into the project area, he added.Remember folks, we have a municipal election coming up in a little over a year; and we suppose its incumbent upon Boss Godfrey at this time to begin reassuring his friends and supporters that despite the terrible condition of the economy, there will neverthelss be gobs of taxpayer financed crony capital in the pipeline very soon.
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Who among our savvy WCF readers will be the first to comment?
11 comments:
obvious failure of the stimulus??? really? Your evidence of this obvious failure is that 2/3rds of a group of economists responded to a poll indicating that they did not believe the stimulus had any effect. So would these be the same economists who didn't think the housing bubble was going to burst?
Krugman's Depression
So what about you, jmk? Are you arguing that Bush's TARP bailout, and Obama's government's stimulus package and jobs bill "worked?"
Are you arguing that the American economists who were polled in this latest survey were wrong?
We await your hopefully non-evasive reply with abated breath.
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek - an abridged and unauthorized online version
Comment bumped to front page
Rudi, first of all we must define "worked." Do we know what the unemployment rate would be today had it not been for Obama's stimulus plan? Not sure that we can know that. Second, I'm not sure that polling a bunch of economists as to what they perceive to have been the impact of the stimulus counts as proof that it did not work. Third, and even among economists who say that it did not "work" they might disagree as to why. Some (like Krugman) might argue that the stimulus package was not large enough to work effectively. Hope this was not too evasive for you.
JMK.
Well, we do know we are over 4 trillion stimulus dollars in the hole on the deal.
For that price, don't you think we should be able to at least say if something worked or not?
And as to your comment of not being big enough, are you serious?
As far as Godfrey's latest scheme, the quote I heard at the meeting that was of interest, was this.
Richard "Taco Time" McConkie was overhead saying, "They vote this &@$%* deal in, and I can coast into retirement managing the %*#$%. The property owners can all go *@^$*&%. Hey, anybody want to go get tacos?"
Dream on, jmk. Any American with a handfull of functioning brain cells knows that the economic stimulaus bills of Bush and Obama were abject failures:
June sees drop in consumer confidence
Maybe you should have a cup of coffee or two. Rumor has it that caffeine is a good treatment for your unfortunate condtion:
Caffeine May Slow Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, Restore Cognitive Function, According to New Evidence
Gotta confess, I crack myself up.
;-)
Rudi, Rudi, Rudi
"Any American with a handfull of functioning brain cells knows that" coffee doesn't do shit without a generous dose of Capt'n Morgan in it.
Stay off the comedy stage my man, stick with what you are good at - editorializin. An audience of one, in spite of how funny you think you are, will not pay the light bill.
Danny, I think you're selling Richard McKonkie short. He's a professional, a gentleman, and is deserved to administer the directorship of the CED.
For youto belittle, and misquote, a man of McKonkie's caliber shows your true character--slovenly.
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