EDC: Play Small Ball Rather Than Swinging For Fence
Memo to the brave souls willing to join (or stay with!) the EDC Board: please consider playing some small ball before you start swinging for the fences. There’s no way you could have stopped MetLife from moving 243 jobs out of Warwick short of repeating what your boss just called a “historically poor decision.” North [...]
George Nee Still On EDC
I was curious how the game of EDC board membership chicken between Gov. Chafee and George Nee was going to play out. Was Chafee going to raise the stakes by demanding, rather than simply asking for, Nee’s resignation (a win for the media and loss for all other parties involved: labor, the governor, the people [...]
Gary Sasse Op-Ed: Not Only Wrong, Not Constructive
Gary Sasse is generally an honest actor and sometimes a smart economist, but his piece in today’s Providence Journal displays neither of these attributes. Sasse argues that because the governor did not follow the bad advice of right-wing think tank he used to lead that, “Rhode Island leaders are denying economic reality.” Not only is [...]
38 Studios Shoe Drops
This afternoon, Governor Chafee announced the state would be pursuing legal action against not only the officers of 38 Studios, but also the financial advisors and the EDC staff who put the deal together. I highly recommend reading the actual complaint, but here is the part that stands out for me: The undisclosed risks included [...]
Pharmaceutical Company Asks EDC for Tax Break
Complain all you want about Rhode Island’s comparatively high corporate tax rate – at 9 percent we are one percentage point higher than Massachusetts and two higher than Connecticut – but our state tax code also has some built-in benefits for businesses that actually create jobs. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, which now employs almost 200 people in [...]
An Autopsy of RIEDC
As the dust slowly settles on the carcass of 38 Studios, plenty of questions remain, and you can bet the entrails will be picked over thoroughly. Some of the most entertaining questions are about how the debacle happened, since it’s such a delicious tale of arrogant insiders getting their comeuppance. (Of course it would be [...]
Governor Should Appoint Brian Hull to EDC Board
It was good timing for me that former RI Future owner Brian Hull had to focus on finishing his studies at Harvard University earlier this year, giving me an opportunity to take over this site from him. Now it’s good timing for Rhode Island. Hull just graduated from Harvard’s prestigious Kennedy School of Government with [...]
No Reckoning: The RI Corruption Video Game
This morning, former Red Sox Pitcher Curt Schilling blamed the State of Rhode Island for the failure of his video game company. According to the Providence Journal, he blamed the state for not giving him more tax breaks. Additionally, the Journal reported, Schilling has lost “33 pounds in the past 45 days, which he calls [...]
Chafee Passed Rule To Shrink Size of EDC Loans
Local conservatives are trying to deflect blame for their wounded warrior former Gov. Don Carcieri by wondering aloud just what current Gov. Linc Chafee has done to rectify the situation with the loan to 38 Studios that he campaigned against. Well, he made sure such a big gamble would never be made again, for one. [...]
38 Studios Debacle: RI’s Own Green Monster
Curt Schilling was a magnificent baseball player for a number of years. He was instrumental in removing the Curse of the Bambino for the Red Sox, and who can ever forget the ‘Bloody Sock’? Great stuff indeed. While it is evident that Mr. Schilling displayed significant talent on the diamond, his recent exploration into the [...]
Forget About Schilling, Stokes; Let’s Rethink EDC
As we think about the potential debacle that 38 Studios represents, it’s worth putting a quarter into the time machine and revisiting some great moments in EDC history. This is from a 2009 column I wrote about EDC (link – scroll down to “EDC: What’s the point?”). A report had just come out scolding EDC’s [...]
Stokes Pushed Too Hard for 38 Studios Deal
Expect Keith Stokes to lose his job as executive director of the state Economic Development Corporation over the debacle with 38 Studios. In fact, he ought to offer his resignation, if he hasn’t already. He pushed for the hugely risky deal and even begged at least one lawmaker not to propose legislation that would have [...]
Hard to Tell Who Knew of 38 Studios Deal
Rhode Island is hyperfocused on Curt Schilling. But unlike eight years ago when he heroically hurled us to a World Series victory, this time we have to rely on his business – not athletic – acumen. His video game company, 38 Studios, was given a taxpayer guaranteed $75 million loan to move from Massachusetts to [...]
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