Liberty
Indian Receiving?
At a recent Asheville City Council meeting, former vice mayor Chris Peterson estimated the city had spent over $9 million in incentives for New Belgium Brewing. Now, it is time…
New Belgium Brewing Company
nationally distributed brewery in the United States
Liberty
Still Slapping & Disagreeing
Buncombe County Commissioner Mike Fryar voted against the proposed budget. It may have been a throwaway vote, but he objected to the county giving $2.6 million to nonprofits. I’m not…
Liberty
Training Us to Pretend Our Leaders Are Magic
The local daily has a segment informing us that junkets are good for the economy. Here are some excerpts to make freemarketeers sad: And, when the topic of scientific research…
Liberty
An Uneconomic Remnant
The Asheville Tribune has a story about a meeting of the Asheville Area Riverfront Redevelopment Commission. Beer flowed compliments of New Belgium, and SoCon tickets were offered. Chris Peterson came…
Liberty
Creative Anachronism
According to the local daily: Speakers at the 15th annual Asheville Metro Economy Outlook on Thursday didn’t focus on the future. Instead, the talk focused on the regional economic development…
Liberty
Wiggity Upside of Capital Markets Holistic
I try really hard not to “make a man an offender for a word.” I am surely more at fault than anybody for typographical errors, garbled syntax, wrong word choice,…
Liberty
Not Good at Economic Multiplication
The print edition of the Asheville Tribune has an article querying what the “real price tag” is for New Belgium. The brewery received $8.5 million in an incentive package from…
Liberty
What’s Black & White & Green All Over?
My master plan of a chessboard where all ye are my little pawns. BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Jake Frankel of the Mountain Xpress asks what the Buncombe County Commissioners have done with their…
Liberty
Diversifying with Big Beer, Big Beer, and Big Beer
Maybe it was the abundant clean water, the freak culture, the history of moonshining. Maybe this place just drives people to drink. Regardless, a lot of people thought it would…
Liberty
If You’ve Nothing to Say, Shout
A little drama brought extra attention to the otherwise boring candidate forums. I stopped attending these events long after I had my full of false, uninformed promises. At the latest,…
Liberty
Beer politics in N.C.; or, why I prefer refreshing Reg Lite to stale Old Cronyism
View in your browser. Patrick Gleason of Americans for Tax Reform writes in Forbes in praise of North Carolina for, in the words of the article’s title, its Politicians Foster[ing]…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Brewing Economic Growth
In North Carolina and across the US, we’re used to governments trying to promote economic growth through incentives that attempt to pick winners but often fail. Incentives programs give millions…