-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Stellantis delayed retooling a shuttered plant in Belvidere, Ill., for EV production. The Energy Department awarded Stellantis $335 million in subsidies to convert the plant to make EVs. President Biden boasted about the plant in his State of the Union address this year. Before I came to office the plant was on its way to shutting down. Thousands of workers feared for their livelihoods,” he said. “A new state-of-the art battery factory is being built to power those cars . . . 4,000 union workers with higher wages will be building that future, in Belvidere, in America.” Or not. Belvidere Mayor Clint Morris took a dig at the Biden EV promotion, saying he didn’t think the marketplace should be determined by political “winners and losers.”
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Nobody wants EVs, and nobody wants Joe Biden either. Enjoy the home Joe. They have plenty of ice cream just waiting for you.