January 31, 2019

WINNING THE WAR ON WAGES:

Wisconsin Is Finally Facing the Reality of Foxconn's Plans (Tim Culpan, January 30, 2019, Bloomberg)

So Foxconn Technology Group may not make display panels in Wisconsin after all.

Those who've been following Foxconn for a long time won't be surprised. Chairman and founder Terry Gou is as much a salesman as he is a manufacturer, having spent decades honing his pitch not just to clients but also governments. 

Then-Governor Scott Walker, backed by President Donald Trump, loved exactly what he sold: the promise of thousands of jobs to make stuff in the U.S. Walker loved it so much that he pledged as much as $3 billion in sweeteners, a deal that likely cost him his governorship.

Now, according to a Reuters interview with one of Gou's right-hand men, such plans to manufacture display panels may be scaled back or even shelved.

"In Wisconsin we're not building a factory. You can't use a factory to view our Wisconsin investment," Louis Woo was cited as saying. Woo was one of the key architects and negotiators behind Foxconn's deal with the state. 

Foxconn's Wisconsin-made screens likely would have been put into televisions. Woo this week admitted that "in terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S. ... We can't compete."

If Foxconn can't be competitive making electronics in the U.S., nobody can.

Posted by at January 31, 2019 4:00 AM

  

« DONALD WHO?: | Main | THE HIGH COST OF RACISM: »