David Leonhardt: Thank you, New York

The city did the rest of the country a favor. Corporate-relocation handouts are terrible economic policy. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, February 18, 2019 [NYTimes.com/David-Leonhardt »]( [Op-Ed Columnist] Op-Ed Columnist The initial reactions to Amazon’s abandonment of New York tended to involve fairly narrow questions, like how it would affect New York or affect Amazon. And I understand why. Those are important issues. But they’re not the only issues that matter here. They’re not even the biggest issues. [In my column this morning]( I argue that the rest of the country owes New York a big thank you. The handouts that cities and states have been strong-armed into giving to corporations over the past few decades are a terrible bit of economic policy. They do nothing to raise the nation’s economic growth rate. They mostly redistribute income upward, from taxpayers to big shareholders. I agree with the critics (including my colleagues [on The Times Editorial Board]( who say that New York would probably have benefited from Amazon’s presence in Queens. But I keep thinking about the larger principle here. If every city agrees to give billion-dollar handouts to companies, in the name of that city’s short-term interests, those handouts will never end. Other perspectives [Joe Nocera]( in Bloomberg Opinion, faults Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not doing a better job of selling the deal: “Assuming they didn’t need to do anything further after cutting the deal itself, Cuomo and de Blasio made no effort to organize Amazon’s local supporters, who were actually in the majority.” In The New York Daily News, [Hector Figueroa]( — a union leader — writes that New York had to offer overly generous tax subsidies to attract Amazon. But the company’s arrival, he says, would have signaled that New York’s mix of “strong unions, smart regulation and progressive taxation are not an impediment to growth.” In The Times, [Amy Liu]( of Brookings writes that Northern Virginia’s Amazon deal shows how public officials can be better stewards of the public interest: “As in New York, residents in Northern Virginia have expressed concerns around housing affordability and how local residents will benefit. Yet Virginia’s approach has muted the criticism.” [Zachary Karabell]( in Wired, predicts that Amazon will one day regret its decision. “As rising populism places both billionaires and mega-tech companies in an unfriendly spotlight, Amazon’s refusal to engage its opponents and address legitimate concerns head on suggests that it, like most tech behemoths, remains unprepared for a storm of regulation, antitrust questions, and public distrust built of animus to everything from privacy issues to wealth concentration.” [Derek Thompson]( in The Atlantic, argues that the impact of the deal’s cancellation will be negligible to both parties: “It is more likely that neither the city’s nor the company’s economic trajectory will be materially altered.” To me, that’s another reason to take some comfort in the deal’s collapse. For more, see the recent Times Op-Eds by [Mayor De Blasio]( [Kara Swisher]( and [Bryce Covert](. ADVERTISEMENT If you enjoy this newsletter, forward it to friends! They can [sign up for themselves here]( — and they don’t need to be a Times subscriber. The newsletter is published every weekday, with help from my colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick. David’s Morning NYT Read [What’s the Plan for Brexit? There Is No Plan]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD It may be time to stop the doomsday clock and start over. David’s Latest Column [New York Did Us All a Favor by Standing Up to Amazon]( By DAVID LEONHARDT Yes, Amazon’s departure will modestly hurt the city’s economy. But it’s also a victory against bad economic policy. The Full Opinion Report [How Mitch McConnell Enables Trump]( By ADAM JENTLESON He’s not an institutionalist. He’s the man who surrendered the Senate to the president. [Bill de Blasio: The Path Amazon Rejected]( By BILL DE BLASIO It could have answered the concerns of citizens. Instead it bolted. [A Better Way to Attract Amazon’s Jobs]( By AMY LIU Virginia can teach New York a few things about how to make a deal that actually works. [The King of Pop — and Perversion]( By MAUREEN DOWD A haunting new documentary lays bare Michael Jackson’s predations and forces us to wonder: Why does celebrity continually excuse perversion? [The Limp Caudillo]( By ROSS DOUTHAT How Trump’s incompetent power grabs are actually weakening the imperial presidency. [In Nashville, ‘Beauty Herself Is Black’]( By MARGARET RENKL The ballet ‘Attitude: Lucy Negro Redux’ is a forceful claiming of female desire and sexual self-determination. [Why Are We Still Dismissing Girls’ Pain?]( By LAURIE EDWARDS People continue to struggle with the idea that women are the authorities on their own bodies. [Cuba Must Not Return to the Dark Years of Censorship]( By RUBÉN GALLO A controversial new decree imposing limits on artistic practice threatens to derail a thriving cultural scene in Havana. [Time to Panic]( By DAVID WALLACE-WELLS The planet is getting warmer in catastrophic ways. And fear may be the only thing that saves us. [Trump Is Driving Out Precious Republican Voters]( By SEAN MCELWEE, BRIAN F. SCHAFFNER, JESSE H. RHODES AND BERNARD L. FRAGA The young in particular are slipping away. [The ‘Some of My Best Friends Are Black’ Defense]( By JOHN ELIGON It’s a myth that proximity to blackness immunizes white people from doing racist things. [Do Women in Politics Face a Double Standard?]( Readers discuss if and how gender bias and stereotypes play a role in politics, citing past presidential races. ADVERTISEMENT FEEDBACK and HELP If you have thoughts about this newsletter, email me at [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=David%20Leonhardt%20Newsletter%20Feedback). If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other non-journalistic issues, you can visit our [Help Page]( or [contact The Times](. 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