Brian Gongol
Short attention spans
The big story this week is going to be the President's plan to put National Guard troops on the border with Mexico. Unfortunately, the buzz machine means that an important story that needs thoughtful consideration is being portrayed as the Crisis to End All Crises. And, of course, in six months, all the talking heads will be obsessed with something else altogether.
Governor declares Iowa for sale
After shelling out $8.4 million in tax dollars a few years ago to keep the Maytag plant open in Newton, Governor Vilsack made an offer that Whirlpool officials apparently could refuse. Unfortunately, now every big company knows that our love is for sale at the expense of our pocketbooks. What's going to stop other companies from simply threatening to leave just to extort huge incentive packages?
Related information: What Iowa's gubernatorial candidates think of the Iowa Values Fund and other incentive plans.
Yay Capitalism, Baby!
Yahoo says it's not for sale, reinforcing the notion that even in a market (like the one for Internet search engines) where one player (Google) has lots of power, there's still enough incentive for a #2 or #3 player to stay independent. And government doesn't have to intervene.