Don't Say the "M" Word!
Amazon Wins!
Whoever enters here honors me; whoever doesn’t- pleases me.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Live Yet Pre-recorded- Episode CXXVII of:
Don’t Say the “M” Word!
A Silent Radio Hour!
“I understand people believe I'm just a statistic
I say to them I'm different”
10th grader, Antwon Rose
“De l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace!” [“Audacity, audacity, always audacity!”]
-Georges Danton
“The power of the powerless!”
-Vaclav Havel
Yves Smith
NSPB: Welcome back cherished listeners! Now! Before we begin! Warren has another special report concerning The Mighty Amazon! Warren, please!
RAT: Amazon Wins! And well! What did you expect? With 238 applicants and 20 finalists! TheAmazon HQ2 location play-offs resulted in a resounding victory for TheAmazon! Billions of dollars in subsidies and binders full of detailed information on the contestants.
J: Work hard!
D: Have Fin!
NSPB: Make History!
RAT: Hurrah!
NSPB: Thank TheBezos children!
J&D&RAT: Thank you Jeff Bezos!
J: Bad Bezos! Bad dog! Bad dog!
NSPB: And concerning this matter! This Amazonian Rip-Off or TARO!
J&D&RAT: TARO! TARO! TARO! Piece by piece the world’s being ripped off by TARO: This Amazonian Rip Off!
NSPB: Today’s special guest is Mr. Yves Smith or MYS from the internet News Agency: ‘Naked Capitalism!’
J: Yves?
MYS: Yes! And you are?
J: Jonathan!
MYS: Why do you look so familiar? And why does that other guy look just like you?
J: Because!
D: We’re!
J&D: Jonathan and Drew who are not the Property Brothers!
MYS: Are they serious?
RAT: Afraid so!
MYS: And you are young lady?
NSPB: I’m the New Show Producer Becka or NSPB!
MYS: Marvelous!
NSPB Shall we begin!
MYS: Why not!
RAT: Mr. Yves Smith or MYS? Aren’t you in the least bit surprised if not suspicious as to where you are and how you got here? And that’s not to mention: Why are you here?
MYS: Not really! I’ve been so many places that I lose tract all the time! Just another stop along the way! Can we get this over with? I’m in need of refreshment!
D: How about some TT?
MYS: TT?
W: Have some more Good Ole Fashioned Chinese Green Tea or GOFCGT sold by Mother Eu-funh or Playful Phoenix, a Mom and Pop Corner Tea Store in Hong Kong, China or MEPPMPCTSHKC and popcorn?
MYS: Oh yes please!
W: Such a handsome gentleman!
J&D&NSPB&RAT&TheSASMO: Us too! Us too! We’d like some Good Ole Fashioned Chinese Green Tea or GOFCGT sold by Mother Eu-funh or Playful Phoenix, a Mom and Pop Corner Tea Store in Hong Kong, China or MEPPMPCTSHKC and popcorn, please!
W: Not to worry my darlings! There’s plenty here for everyone!
J&D&NSPB&RAT&MYS: Thank you!
W: You are all so very welcome! Be right back with your Good Ole Fashioned Chinese Green Tea or GOFCGT sold by Mother Eu-funh or Playful Phoenix, a Mom and Pop Corner Tea Store in Hong Kong, China or MEPPMPCTSHKC and popcorn!
J&D&NSPB&RAT&TheSASMO&MYS: Thank you!
W: Such polite darlings you are!
MYS: Do we know one another Ms?
W: Possibly?
MYS: Baghdad?
W: Possibly?
MYS: Post-Hittite Empire?
W: Possibly?
MYS: Mayan Empire in Tikal?
W: Possibly?
MYS: Pre-Colombian?
W: Possibly?
MYS: At Mother Eu-funh’s or Playful Phoenix, a Mom and Pop Corner Tea Store in Hong Kong, China or MEPPMPCTSHKC?
W: Most recently!
MYS: Thought that was you!
W: Some more Good Ole Fashioned Chinese Green Tea or GOFCGT sold by Mother Eu-funh or Playful Phoenix, a Mom and Pop Corner Tea Store in Hong Kong, China or MEPPMPCTSHKC and popcorn?
MYS: Oh yes please!
W: Such a handsome gentleman!
J&D&NSPB&RAT&TheSASMO: Us too! Us too! We’d like some Good Ole Fashioned Chinese Green Tea or GOFCGT sold by Mother Eu-funh or Playful Phoenix, a Mom and Pop Corner Tea Store in Hong Kong, China or MEPPMPCTSHKC and popcorn, please!
W: Not to worry my darlings! There’s plenty here for everyone!
J&D&NSPB&RAT&TheSASMO&MYS: Thank you!
W: You are all so very welcome! Be right back with more Good Ole Fashioned Chinese Green Tea or GOFCGT sold by Mother Eu-funh or Playful Phoenix, a Mom and Pop Corner Tea Store in Hong Kong, China or MEPPMPCTSHKC and popcorn!
J&D&NSPB&RAT&TheSASMO&MYS: Thank you!
W: Such polite darlings all of you!
NSPB: That being said! Might we get onto today’s Episode or E of ‘A Silent Radio Hour’ live yet pre-recorded here in The Spank the Monkey Café in the heart of downtown Seattle, Washington kitty-corner to the Corporate Headquarters of Amazon.com or CHAc!
MYS: Is Master Milo in?
W: Possibly?
MYS: Very well then! Let’s begin! As to This Amazonian Rip Off or TARO as you call it! We seem to have gotten a surprise twist at the end!
D: I love surprises!
MYS: Wouldn’t doubt it! You see! When Amazon announced it would choose two “headquarters” instead of one. Of course, I never thought that having two headquarters made any economic sense at all! I said to myself: ‘Doesn’t that defeat the idea of a headquarters as a central coordinating site?’ And the same is even truer when you have three “headquarters” and so I suppose!
J&D: Well does it or doesn’t it?
MYS: Right! Leaving aside how Amazon plans to coordinate three headquarters’ operations? The subsidies boggle the mind! Truly! An insult our intelligence!
J&D: We’re insulted! We’re insulted! We’re insulted by TheAmazon!
RAT: All the time no doubt!
MYS: Let’s lay out what we know about the subsidies so far! And let’s remember! There are other subsidy elements that are likely to be discovered as things play out. That is what happened with Foxconn, for example:
D: Mr. Robert Reich or MRR laid that all out to us on “our” last Episode or E of ‘A Silent Radio Hour’ live yet pre-recorded here in The Spank the Monkey Café in the heart of downtown Seattle, Washington kitty-corner to the Corporate Headquarters of Amazon.com or CHAc!
MYS: Brilliant man Robert Reich! Listen! Subsidies in Wisconsin were originally $3 billion plus a “local” TIF or Tax Incentive Financing!
D: I don’t understand “local” Mr. Yves Smith or MYS?
MYS: I’m not surprised Drew! Not surprised at all! Local means the city where the business in question sets up shop! By June of this year! ‘Good Jobs First’ was reporting that further subsidies plus a huge TIF award brought the total to $4.8 billion! Also! A ‘Megadeals’ spreadsheet mentioned that something’s likely to up the total incentives Amazon will receive! Over if not above what we know today!
D: So you’re saying that both the State government as well as the city government’s giving away tax payer money to these Corporations or Cs?
MYS: Lots of it! And all the time! So? Which cities got half of HQ2?
J&D&RAT: The names! The names! The names! Give us the names!
MYS: Amazon split the project in half with 25,000 jobs set to go to Long Island City, Queens, New York, and 25,000 to Crystal City, Arlington County, Virginia. This much leaked out the week before the official announcement! But the November 13th official notification added that Nashville would get a 5,000 job consolation prize for $138.7 million in incentives no less as well as the incentive packages from each of these three jurisdictions! Well Hell’s Bells! Some of the incentives anyway!
J&D&RAT: God damn TheAmazon and its greed!
MYS: Agreed! Now as with Foxconn! This announcement was rapidly followed by the discovery of new incentives! Can you imagine?
J: All the way to the bank!
RAT: And it’s Banksters!
J: Forget about it!
D: And nothing for the workers!
MYS: Listen! I’ll skip the various updates and go straight to what’s currently known. First! New York City and state both provided large incentives to the company! State benefits comprise mainly $1.525 billion in Excelsior employment tax credits, a jobs program! Plus! Another $325 million based on the size in square feet of the Amazon offices! Or a total state package of $1.85 billion. New York City will provide a job creation tax credit of $897 million over 12 years! And on top of that! A partial property tax abatement of $386 million over 25 years according to a ‘Good Jobs First’ analysis of the city’s press release on the project!
J: TheAmazon seems to want every freakin’ thing in the world including the kitchen sink!
RAT: They want two of those as well!
D: Two kitchen sinks? Why?
J: Warren was using sarcasm Drew! Loud sarcasm at the outrageous behavior of TheAmazon’s Corporate Extortion or CE!
D: While children go hungry and people are homeless? Amazon.com steals from the state and gives to themselves!
J: Please remember Drew! TheBezos lost nearly $19.2 billion in the 25% latest crash of TheAmazon stock! He’s got to get his money back somewhere! We didn’t receive a dime for him and his Amazon on “our” Silent-A-Thon! I mean to say! What’s he gonna do?
D&RAT: Steal! Steal! Steal!
MYS: Not stealing guys! These dumb-assed governments are giving it away!
D: Than why not give it away to people who really need it?
MYS: Drew! Drew! Poor innocent Drew!
J&RAT: True dat!
MYS: If the government, according to neo-liberal ideology! If the government gave away “free” money to We the People? Those people would become dependant! Sick, lame and lazy! They’d never to able to fend for themselves! And so the theory goes!
J: Heard that bastard Paul Ryan of the House of Representatives say that very same thing! ‘Can’t give handouts to working people! It’ll make them dependant!’
RAT: He’s one Political Whore or PW if there ever was one!
J: Hear he’s leaving congress to become a Bankster Whore or BW! Or was it a Hedge Fund Manager?
MYS: Basically the same thing! But wait! There’s more!
J&D&RAT: Oh shit!
MYS: ‘Good Jobs First’ reports that the city will also provide a subsidy known as a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes or PILOT that could itself cost another $100+ million! Last, as far as we know, but not least! The project will be located in a Federal Opportunity Zone or FOZ which will provide further, though not-yet-estimated, benefits to long-term capital investors like CEO Jeff Bezos.
J&D&RAT: FOZ! FOZ! FOZ! Working people could certainly use of some that FOZ!
MYS: Righteously so! “Our” total so far? $1.850 billion + 0.897 billion + 0.386 billion = $3.133 billion and likely climbing! While Amazon wants to emphasize the cost per job of its incentives, it only considers the first of these subsidies in its public calculation. But with just these three programs, we are already at a cost of $125,333 per job.
J: $125,333 per freakin’ job? So if Amazon’s paying? Let’s say? $75 to $100 thousand annually for the average job performed? That’s somewhere in the line of $25 thousand Amazon’s making per head!
RAT: And the government’s picking up the $100K!
J: Great deal all around!
D: Yeah! But couldn’t that money go to working people?
J: But don’t forget what Congressman Paul Ryan said about giving working people “free” money: ‘Can’t give handouts to working people! It’ll make them dependant!’
MYS: Right! While this doesn’t sound horrible compared to some incentive packages we’ve seen recently! It completely omits the large number of jobs there are diminishing returns in the value of each job due to the increasing likelihood of dumping thousands of workers and their families on a locality’s infrastructure and educational system.
J&D&RAT: What TheSASMO?
MYS: TheSASMO?
RAT: The Stupid Ass Scratching Mark Oglesby or SASMO!
J: Author of ‘Zen & The Art of Mastur…’
D&NSPB&RAT: Don’t say the “M” Word Jonathan!
J: Wouldn’t think of it! ‘Experience the End of the Aeon at The Spank the Monkey Café!’ ISBN: 978-1-4089-4141-0!
D: Available at all fine “local” book stores worldwide!
NSPB: Also available at Amazon.com if you can believe that?
MYS: At this point young lady! I’ll believe anything! By the way! What’s so important about ‘Zen & The Art of Mastur…’
J&D&NSPB&RAT: Don’t say the “M” Word Mr. Yves Smith or MYS!
MYS: Wouldn’t think of it! ‘Experience the End of the Aeon at The Spank the Monkey Café!’ ISBN: 978-1-4089-4141-0?
J: TheSASMO’s book is an insider whistle-blower’s Tell Of Tales or TOT about Amazon.com!
RAT: It’s a top to bottom story about the daily life of Amazon.com. From the Executive Suite to the Fulfillment Center or FC floor!
D: Becka! Read the back cover of TheSASMO’s book!
NSPB: TheSASMO’s book uses deftly tongue-in-check humor and lyrically acrobatic prose which takes aim at the absurdity of working and living in “our” highly technical, commercialized society. With a plot that hopscotches across time and space and a cast of characters both foolish and farcical, Zen & the Art of Mastur…
J&D&RAT&TheSASMO&MYS: Don’t use the “M” Word Becka!
NSPB: Wouldn’t think of it! The book’s a satire in the vein of Tom Robbins and Joseph Heller’s ‘Catch 22’ holding a funhouse mirror up to the modern one-line retail monopoly and “our” own insatiable hunger for Stupid Ass Scratching Stuff or SASS!
MYS: I’ll check it out! Now! As I predicted in January! This deal…
J: Forget about it!
MYS: Wish I could! It normalizes the use of aid intensities above 100%: $3.133 billion/$2.5 billion = 125%! Mind you! This’ the nominal subsidy! Not at present value! But with the 10-year Treasury note at 3.08% on November 16! The proper discount rate will be in that low vicinity! As has been the practice of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD in estimating the present value of U.S. subsidies for over 20 years.
D: My head’s spinning!
J: As it should be Drew! As it should be!
D: Couldn’t we! Just like FDR! Put that government money directly into job creation such as infrastructure and other things of that nature? Wouldn’t that insure a balance in the national economy? I don’t think there’s any guarantee that will provide everything the government would since the government’s not a run-for-profit business!
RAT: Drew you little dickens!
MYS: Get this! To add a final insult to injury! TheAmazon site will be in a Federal Opportunity Zone or FOZ but the company’s project will destroy one of the things that would be most welcome there!
J&D&RAT: What? What? What? What’s welcome there?
MYS: Affordable housing! Politico, via Daily Kos, reports that the New York outpost of HQ2 will displace a planned 1,500 units of affordable housing from two developers.
NSPB: Thank TheBezos children!
J&D&RAT: Thank you Jeff Bezos!
J: Bad Bezos! Bad dog! Bad dog!
MYS: Something of that nature! Look! In Virginia! A second $2.5 billion investment, 25,000 job facility will be opened by Amazon as well. There, the company will receive $573 million in job creation tax credits. Virginia Tech University also plans to open a new “Innovation Campus” less then two miles from HQ2/Virginia. The $1 billion campus has been considered one of the biggest draws for Amazon in its location decision, and ‘Good Jobs First’ includes the entire $1 billion as a subsidy for Amazon.
J&D&RAT: God damn! God damn! May God damn TheAmazon!
J” Greedy little bastards!
MYS: I agree! And then some! Yes! Building new educational infrastructure will provide benefits to the students that they will always possess regardless of who their future employers may be! Therefore! I see the company as unable to capture much of the $1 billion as a subsidy! A university’s a great economic draw! But still! This extends far beyond any single employer. If we exclude the new campus as a subsidy! The aid intensity in Virginia’s only 22.92%.
J&D&RAT: YEAH!
MYS: Now! Combining the two locations! We find, even without the new Virginia Tech campus, that TheAmazon will receive $3.706 billion in subsidies for the HQ2 project proper. For the combined project? A drum-roll please! That brings us to an aid intensity of 76.1% of the investment.
NSPB: Thank the Whore Politicians or WPs children!
J&D&RAT: Thank you Whore Politicians or WPs!
J: Bad Whores! Bad Whores! Bad Whores are you Politicians!
MYS: Again! Agreed! Long-time readers know it’s time for a comparison with how this would be treated in the European Union under its regional aid guidelines.
J&RAT: Oh let’s do!
MYS: First! No region in the European Union is eligible for a 76.1% aid intensity! They’d be laughed at! Not even the poorest part of Bulgaria! Second! HQ2’s not going to the non-existent U.S. equivalent of Bulgaria! TheAmazon’s going to two of the richest places in the United States!
NSPB: Thank the Whore Politicians or WPs children!
J&D&RAT: Thank you Whore Politicians or WPs!
J: Bad Whores! Bad Whores! Bad Whores are you Politicians!
MYS: So what would TheAmazon get in state aid subsidies for locating such a facility in London or Paris? Not one penny! ZERO TAX DOLLARS! Rich regions can’t give investment attraction incentives! PERIOD! So the entire $3.7 billion and counting subsidy for TheAmazon would be disallowed if rational regulation of the bidding wars existed!
NSPB: Thank the US Whore Politicians or USWPs children!
J&D&RAT: Thank you US Whore Politicians or WPs!
J: Bad Whores! Bad Whores! Bad Whores are you US Politicians!
MYS: Now happily! Subsidies of this nature have come in for a great deal of criticism around the country!
J&D&RAT: About time!
MYS: As The New York Times editorialized, ‘New York’s Amazon Deal is a Bad Bargain.’
J&RAT: No shit people!
MYS: And how does it know New York overpaid? The same way I recommended back in 2014! Just compare it to a similar deal. And there’s no more similar deal than the other half of HQ2 that went to Virginia. Seeing that New York paid more than twice as much as Virginia for an equivalent project, the Times rightly concludes that New York paid more than it had to! Whether much political resistance to HQ2/New York develops or not! It’s great to see the press analyzing these deals well.
J&RAT: NY Times! NY Times! NY Times! I don’t think TheBezos will bless the NY Times!
MYS: Doubtful! Sorry to end on a sour note! But! We need to recognize the harm that TheAmazon auction’s done to transparency! The company made the finalists sign non-disclosure agreements!
J&RAT: The bastards!
MYS: Yes! A few did make it into the public eye! Newark, New Jersey, and Montgomery County, Maryland, two of the largest finalist offers, though it appears Pittsburgh topped them all! Hopefully some of the losers will now come forward. However! that’s not the point!
J&RAT: The point Yves! The point! Get to the freakin’ point!
MYS: The freakin’ points’ this! We need real-time transparency if there’s to be any democratic oversight of the multi-billion giveaways that look to become more common than ever. Aid intensity’s a metric, first used in the European Union that allows us to compare the size of subsidies regardless of the size of the project. It’s calculated as subsidy divided by investment! An intensity of 100% at present value means that the government’s paying the entire cost of the investment!
D: That’s the people’s money!
J: Not anymore Drew! It all belongs to TheAmazon!
RAT: May TheBezos and all his minions at Amazon.com rot in hell!
NSPB: Of which? We’ll have to wait and see as we’re once again all outta time! Good Night Irene!
MYS: I danced with her one moonlit night in the Catskills of Upper State New York!
RAT: I don’t believe this guy!
J: Neither do I!
D: I do! Bye now!
* * *
To our cherished listeners out there hopefully believing that “our” ‘A Live Silent Radio Hour’ which’s live yet pre-recorded formerly at The Spank the Monkey Café in the heart of downtown Seattle, Washington of the United States of Here’s Still Hoping for the Fifth Aeon to Finally Come and Save Us All Here or USHSHFAFCSUAH in: America which’s quickly Slipping Into Darkness or SID! Hopefully, we’ll be back next time! Who knows? Now listen! I’m Becka formerly known as Reject # 2 now known as the New Show Producer Becka or NSPB! I’m here in what’s entitled “Reject Square” where we’re now broadcasting live yet pre-recorded and so many thanks once again to “our” cherished listeners who are anticipating another Episode or E of ‘A Live Silent Radio Hour’! We’re so sorry that you have to live through these nasty “happenings” taking place daily here in America! I mean to say! Really SORRY! But I wish to thank all of you for tuning in once more while again leaving Any Semblance of Rational Thought or ASRT at the door as for the sake of TheBezos: How in the hell can you listen to silent radio? Never understood that one but hey folks! We’re back! (Inspirational Pause!) And please cherished “LISTENERS” return once again next time to hopefully Find-Out-the-Facts or FOFs concerning the nature and cause of our Collective Delusion or CD as we Tell Our Tale or TOT of Misery or M here in a land known as America! Please stay safe and always watch out for those Frenzied, Extremely Agitated Regrettables or FEAR “CAPITALISTS” who see their own reflection in the Mirrored Sunglasses or MSs of those who would Un-Naturally or UN ridicule our Blessed Way of Life here on Silent Radio or SR! And please! Make sure to thank TheBezos! And so I’m pretty certain! And Good Night Irene! Whoever “she” is? And hey Bezos! RESPECT US NOW: God dammit!
* * *
D: Jonathan?
J: Yes Drew?
D: What’s “our” waitress’ name?
J: I’m not certain Drew! Not certain at all?
D: What if it’s Irene?
J: Nah! Can’t be? Can it?
D: But what if it is?
J: What if it is? This! Everybody sing!
J&D&NSPB&RAT&MYS: Well, it’s a marvelous night for a Moondance With the stars up above in your eyes A fantabulous night to make romance ‘Neath the cover of October skies And all the leaves on the trees are falling To the sound of the breezes that blow And I’m tryin’ to please to the calling Of your heart-strings that play soft and low You know the night's magic, seems to whisper and hush You know soft moonlight, seems to shine in your blush Can I just have one more Moondance with you, my love? Can I just make some more romance with a-you, my love? Well, I wanna make love to you tonight I can’t wait ‘til the mornin’ has come And I know that the time is just right And straight into my arms you will run And when you come my heart will be waiting To make sure that you're never alone There and then all my dreams will come true, dear There and then I will make you my own And every time I touch you, you just tremble inside And I know how much you want me that you can't hide Can I just have one more Moondance with you, my love? Can I just make some more romance with a-you, my love? Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance With the stars up above in your eyes A fantabulous night to make romance ‘Neath the cover of October skies And all the leaves on the trees are falling To the sound of the breezes that blow And I’m tryin’ to please to the calling Of your heart-strings that play soft and low You know the night’s magic, seems to whisper and hush You know soft moonlight, seems to shine in your blush Can I just have one more Moondance with you, my love? Can I just make some more romance with a-you, my love? One more Moondance with you in the moonlight On a magic night, la la la la la in the moonlight On a magic night Can’t I just have one more Moondance with you my love?
MYS: Marvelous indeed!
D: Jonathan?
J: Yes Drew?
D: Where’s TheSASMO?
J: Busy filing complaints with local! State! And Federal agencies against TheAmazon!
MYS: Good for him!