If there was any lingering doubt regarding the great Red-Blue Economic Divide, it is put to rest with the new crop of communist mayors and city council members sweeping to power in many progressively governed cities and the concomitant exit of business and money.
Kimberly Strassel of the WSJ said it best when their archaic, failed economic theories run into reality, “one side is doing all the winning.”
Witness the unequal grudge match between NYC self-avowed Marxist mayor Zohran Mamdani and Citadel CEO, founder and Florida resident Ken Griffin.
Citadel, one of the nation’s largest and most successful hedge funds, abandoned Chicago due to escalating violence against employees and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s unwillingness to help.
Now Griffin is forced to rethink their NYC presence due to Mamdani’s personal attack on him as the poster child of “rich” owners of second homes in the city that do not pay their “fair share” of taxes.
This, despite the fact Citadel’s hedge fund team has paid nearly $2.3 billion in city and state taxes the last 5 years.
I guess those 15,000 permanent mid-town Manhattan jobs projected if Citadel redevelops a Park Avenue office building may be moving to southern Florida after all. Impressive footwork Mr. Mayor.
Closer to home there is Communist Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson laughing and waving “buy” to millionaires who threatened to leave Washington State to avoid the new 9.9% tax on high earners.
Former Starbucks CEO and Chairman Emeritus Howard Schultz has blasted her and the city’s leadership for “pushing socialist rhetoric” that vilifies businesses while still exploiting them as an endless source of ‘rents.’
Sadly, for Seattle and Washington State this doesn’t end with just heated words. After 40 years as a Seattle business mover and shaker, Schultz picked up sticks and moved to Florida.
Corporate Starbucks also announced its intention to cut Seattle jobs while simultaneously increasing its North American footprint by investing $100 million in a Southeast corporate office in Nashville.
Gee, I wonder if this reflects changing demographics of the great Red-Blue economic divide? Business follows the people and money.
Not willing to learn from their mistakes, or bend a knee to market discipline, at least a dozen more blue states are sprinting to adopt this same “millionaire’s tax.”
Maybe they’ll get the message when Bezos pulls the plug on Amazon and moves it south. He has already moved to Florida.
“History doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes” according to Mark Twain.
Reminds me of April 16, 1971, when real estate agents Bob MacDonald and Jim Youngren put the words, “will the last person leaving SEATTLE- turn out the lights” on a billboard near Sea-Tac International Airport.
Closer to home, Portland’s communist dominated City Council isn’t making it any easier on business or landlords with its proposed vacancy tax.
This is intended to “encourage” landlords to fill vacant properties and revitalize downtown: as if they like owning empty buildings.
Once again, government creates the problem with its failed progressive policies of more taxes, less law enforcement, more homelessness and drugs, fewer businesses, then scapegoats the private sector.
What they fail to recognize is businesses are no longer compelled to remain in specific geographic locations. The pandemic normalized remote work. The increased efficiencies offered by AI may exacerbate this.
Therefore, capital and capitalists will continue to move faster than the left wing lunatics “raving about injustice” (WSJ) can tax them.
The chasm between the economic haves and have nots will deepen.
It’s past time to consider your DST exit strategy.
