An article in the Washington Post about Google's secret land and tax breaks for data centers (with mentions of Amazon and Apple):
"Google reaped millions in tax breaks as it secretly expanded its real estate footprint across the U.S."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/google-reaped-millions-of-tax-breaks-as-it-secretly-expanded-its-real-estate-footprint-across-the-us/2019/02/15/7912e10e-3136-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.html?utm_term=.8f2f1f701adb“I’m confident that had the community known this project was under the direction of Google, people would have spoken out, but we were never given the chance to speak,” said Travis Smith, managing editor of the Waxahachie Daily Light, the local paper. “We didn’t know that it was Google until after it passed.”
“So Google comes in and pays no taxes for 10 years, and only brings in 40 jobs hmm sounds like a great idea,” wrote another.
Smith, the managing editor of the paper, said, “I’m not going to say we’ve been lied to, but we’ve been strung along.”
=========
An opinion piece in the Washington Post about the Amazon deal in LIC:
"Amazon’s political mugging in New York is a warning for American business"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/amazons-political-mugging-in-new-york-is-a-warning-for-american-business/2019/02/15/0f9686d8-313e-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.html?utm_term=.dc05b62d9a86"While Amazon reflects many of the best attributes of American capitalism — its efficiency, its creativity, its risk-taking, the choice and value it offers consumers, and the wealth it creates for shareholders — it also exhibits some of its worst traits. (Usual disclaimer: The Washington Post is owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive.) The ruthlessness. The instinct to dismiss critics and criticism. The arrogance and insularity of top executives. The fixation on secrecy and control. The disdain for government and the disregard for the public interest. The too-easy acceptance of extreme inequality. Many of these traits were on display in the HQ2 process.
The political mugging that Amazon received in New York is a preview of what is in store for American business if it fails to repair the social contract and replenish the social capital it has depleted. The choice for the business community is either to embrace rules and practices that strike a better balance between shareholders, workers, customers and the public, or have rules and practices much less to its liking imposed by an angry and sometimes irrational public."
