Mountains Of Unused $1 Coins

Wow.From Bankrate.

The federal government will stop minting unwanted $1 coins, the White House said Tuesday. The move will save an estimated $50 million a year.

Earlier this year, we reported on the mountain of $1 coins sitting unused in government vaults. The pile-up—an estimated 1.4 billion coins—was caused by a 2005 law that ordered the minting of coins honoring each U.S. president.

We calculated that the unwanted coins had cost taxpayers some $300 million dollars to make. There were so many coins piling up that the Federal Reserve was redesigning a vault in Texas to help hold them all.

We got to see a vault in Baltimore. It was the size of a soccer field, filled with bags of dollar coins.

I’ll bet that they could clear those warehouses if they gave them away.

Attracting Kohl’s

It is just stunning how much of the taxpayers’ money that city officials were willing to spend to lure Kohl’s.

City, county and business officials cooperated on a strong effort, including over $100 million in public financing assistance, to try to draw Kohl’s Corp.‘s headquarters to downtown Milwaukee’s Park East strip, Mayor Tom Barrett said Wednesday morning.

[...]

The Menomonee Falls Village Board in August approved plans to spend up to $41 million in village funds to help finance new development, including a possible Kohl’s headquarters, at Woodland Prime Business Park. It is located north of Good Hope Road between Appleton Ave. and Highway 45, about five miles northeast of the current Kohl’s complex.

Let’s be clear… this is outright corporate welfare for a private, profitable business. We can all sit around and bemoan that this is how the game is played nowadays, but it is. And frankly, $41 million from Menomonee Falls to keep a company like Kohl’s headquartered there is probably a bargain. And $100 million from Milwaukee taxpayers for Kohl’s to build a massive new office and move thousands of higher-income earners into downtown was probably a bargain too. The economic impact of a corporate headquarters like that is huge and Wisconsin needs more of them. I can’t blame city leaders for throwing in everything and the kitchen sink to attract Kohl’s.

It is illustrative, however, to look at the likely decision factors, because there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle. The tax and regulatory climate of the two cities was a factor. The incentives were a factor. The location of the majority of Kohl’s existing corporate personnel was a factor. I’m sure there were other factors, like could Kohl’s even sell its current massive headquarters to anyone if they completely abandoned it?

The key is that these decisions are extremely complex and government officials can only do so much to influence them. For example, I’m sure Mayor Barrett was willing to be very accomodating when it came to things like permits and building contract clauses, but the Milwaukee Common Council has a horrible reputation in these things. Kohl’s is making a 20-30 year decision and can’t rely on the good graces of a single politician. And there’s nothing either city could do about Wisconsin’s overall business climate, but I’m sure the location of the current workforce and the risk and expense of moving out of state were all weighed. But politicians can, and should, do what is tithin their power to help businesses grow and thrive - read: make a crapload of money - because the money flowing into Kohl’s from all over the country flows right into Menomonee Falls and surrounding communities.

Kohl’s to Stay Out of Milwaukee

This is great news for Menomonee Falls. The likely reasoning is interesting.

The source didn’t have any information on the factors behind the company’s decision.

However, a downtown headquarters and parking structure would cost more to build than a similar project at a suburban site. That’s mainly because urban developments are built on smaller parcels, requiring taller buildings and multi-deck parking structures.

Also, a downtown building would have faced higher property taxes than a Menomonee Falls building.

Finally, a move from Menomonee Falls to downtown would have been disruptive for many Kohl’s employees.

Of those, I would suspect that the biggest reason is the employees. Most of the people who work there live in the surrounding suburbs. They don’t want to trek to downtown Milwaukee every day. The risk of losing some key talent would be too great.

Obama to Join Walker at Master Lock

This should be fun to watch the body language.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker plans to greet President Barack Obama in Milwaukee on Wednesday and accompany him on a visit to Master Lock.

Walker’s spokesman Chris Schrimpf confirmed Tuesday that Walker will meet the president at the tarmac and join him on the company visit.

Not All Recoveries Created Equal

Ah yes...

The economy grew at 4.5% in 1983, with a few quarters of growth north of 8%. In 2011, meanwhile, the economy grew just 1.7%.

In just one month—September 1983—the economy added more than a million jobs. For the full year, the economy added almost 3.5 million jobs, a trend that continued into 1984, an election year in which Reagan captured 49 states in a landslide victory.

Obama can claim job growth of 1.8 million in 2011. A welcome comeback, but still tepid by comparison.

Looking ahead to 2012, Obama could replicate the 243,000 jobs created in January over each of the next 11 months and still not approach Reagan’s total for 1984 of 3.9 million.

Indiana Now Right-to-Work

Welcome to the 21st Century, Indiana!

Gov. Mitch Daniels signed “right to work” bill this afternoon without ceremony making Indiana the 23rd state in the nation with the law,

And to the union folks in Indiana whining about the change—if the services your union provides are as valuable as you say they are, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Interesting

The most interesting part of this ad is Obama’s statement that he doesn’t know why the woman’s husband is having trouble getting placed. Not “getting a job.” Not “getting hired.” “Getting placed.” For someone to get placed, someone else must place them. It reveals Obama’s perspective on working Americans.

Pipeline to China

While I know some in our readership assume that the Keystone pipeline will be adjusted and built anyway, some Canadians may disagree. If I were Canada, I would certainly be considering diversification after being slapped in the face.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada’s national interest makes the $5.5 billion pipeline essential. He was “profoundly disappointed” that U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the Texas Keystone XL option but also spoke of the need to diversify Canada’s oil industry. Ninety-seven percent of Canadian oil exports now go to the U.S.

“I think what’s happened around the Keystone is a wake-up call, the degree to which we are dependent or possibly held hostage to decisions in the United States, and especially decisions that may be made for very bad political reasons,” he told Canadian TV.

[...]

Meanwhile, China’s growing economy is hungry for Canadian oil. Chinese state-owned companies have invested more than $16 billion in Canadian energy in the past two years, state-controlled Sinopec has a stake in the pipeline, and if it is built, Chinese investment in Alberta oil sands is sure to boom.

“They (the Chinese) wonder why it’s not being built already,” said Wenran Jiang, an energy expert and professor at the University of Alberta.

The High Cost of College

Here’s another story about the high cost of college.

The cost of college has far out-paced inflation over the past five decades, making it harder for students to work their way through college and come out debt-free, or even with manageable debt. Tuition, books and living expenses for an in-state student living on an adequate but moderate budget is estimated at $22,542 at UW-Madison for 2011-12. It was $1,430 in 1960, which equates to $10,867 in 2011 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s an issue that leaders at both the state and national levels are looking at closely. President Barack Obama unveiled a plan Friday to tie a college’s eligibility for federal aid to the institution’s success at improving affordability. The UW Board of Regents will discuss how to keep costs down at its February meeting.

The reporter tells the tale of a young lady who is struggling to pay for school at UW Madison as the costs continue to go up. It’s an important issue with a lot of layers. How much should taxpayers subsidize college education? If so, how much control should the taxpayers exert over universities? Why are costs going up so much faster than inflation? Etc. There were two things that caught my eye about this particular story. Here’s the first one:

“It is much harder to work your way through college than it was,” Baum said. “That said, there didn’t used to be all this financial aid.”

Hmmmm… that’s interesting. So is the availability of “all this financial aid” driving the price of college? Generally speaking, when one is having to work to pay for something, they are generally more particular about what classes they are willing to pay for. Is the availability of “free” money (and I say “free” including borrowed money which many college students never think about how they will pay it back) resulting in colleges expanding into unwise areas just to soak up those dollars? It wouldn’t be the first time that “free” money created an entire industry designed to get it.

Perhaps that sentence in the story caught my eye because of the second part of the story that got my attention:

Ohlinger is double-majoring in horticulture, and community and environmental sociology, with a certificate in global cultures.

That’s the lady whose story weaves throughout the article. OK… so here we have a young lady who is struggling to attend UW Madison. She admits that she’ll be $40,000 in debt after college and, on her 5th year, she’s easily going to spend $100,000 or more for her education. What’s the ROI on a $100 degree in Horticulture and community and environmental sociology? Might I suggest that if she is struggling to pay for school that she attend a less expensive university? Or get a degree in something that has better job prospects? And if there wasn’t so much “free” money available, would UW Madison even offer a degree in community and environmental sociology?

Workers Lose Pay For Obama Visit

Well, that’s lovely.

President Obama arrived in Chandler, Arizona Wednesday to talk jobs, but his appearance cost hundreds of laborers a paid day of work.

More than 1,500 workers building the Intel manufacturing facility where Obama appeared were ordered to stay home for security reasons and told they would not be paid for the day, according to KTAR in Phoenix.

An Intel spokesman said the days will be made up since the work still must be done, but some workers disagreed and expressed frustration that they were losing overtime pay.

Mining in Wisconsin

Responsible mining of our natural resources has long been acceptable and profitable. In Wisconsin, we’ve done it with lead (Badgers), timber, furs, and many other resources. Why not sand?

A major Wisconsin sand mining company is looking to build one of the controversial mines in Dane County, and at least one town is planning to strengthen its local zoning laws after landowners there were approached by the company and asked to sell their property.

Rich Budinger, regional operations manager for Wisconsin Industrial Sand Co., said his company has sought willing sellers who own land in the town of Berry, between Cross Plains and Black Earth, in recent months in the hope of buying enough contiguous land to build a large sand mine.

Budinger said those efforts have so far been unsuccessful. He added, however, that the company, which operates three large sand mines in central Wisconsin, is looking to buy land elsewhere in the county for a mine though he wouldn’t name a specific area.

Why Your iPhone Was Made in China

Interesting.

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

[...]

Companies and other economists say that notion is naïve. Though Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, executives say.

“the uncertainty was different”

Irrespective of whether the corporate welfare in this case is for good or ill, the process is telling.

“In the end, the dollars were not different; the uncertainty was different,” Klapmeier says in Flightglobal. “In Maine, they were trying to put together (financing) parts that would line up; in Wisconsin, they had the authority to get the pieces done.”

State officials say they have been working with Kestrel since a meeting at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh in July and the discussions got serious in September.

Sometimes being easy to work with weighs more then dollars.

Spectrum Stays in Wisconsin

Good or bad?

Spectrum Brands said Thursday it came close to transferring its world headquarters and Remington operations to Florida.

But the company said it has now dropped those plans and instead will move from Madison’s West Side to a new building in Middleton in late 2013.

The announcement was the first time Spectrum Brands, whose products include Rayovac, Remington, Cutter and Dingo, has disclosed any plans to move to Florida.

[...]

He also is seeking more information about the role of a $4 million forgivable state loan and how it might have influenced Spectrum’s decision to move to Middleton, Crawley said.

An earlier version of the story pretty much said that the $4 million loan was the reason for Spectrum staying, but that may have been speculation by the reporter.

So… here we are… assuming that the forgivable loan was the deciding factor, it may cost the taxpayers $4 million to keep Spectrum from moving to Florida. Is it a good deal? Absolutely, yes. $4 million is a small price to pay to keep a corporate headquarters and all that means in Wisconsin. Should the state’s taxpayers have to fork over corporate welfare to pay for it? In a perfect world, no. But that’s how the game is played nowadays.

Obama Rejects American Jobs

Gee, thanks Mr. President.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected a Canadian company’s plan to build a U.S.-spanning, 1,700-mile pipeline to carry oil across six U.S. states to Texas refineries, raising the stakes on a bitter election year fight with Republicans.