"The popular narrative in Motown, near where I live, has it that the city is back!
In the downtown core, business is booming, streets are buzzing, eateries are opening, and apartments are renting.
And all of this is credited to the hard-work and big investments of rich billionaires, particularly Quicken Loan's Dan Gilbert, who have all banded together and adopted this city to nurture it back to health.
But Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations warned, when business meet up, "even for merriment and diversion," the conversation inevitably "ends in a conspiracy against the public."
And so it is in Detroit where Gilbert and his pals are turning crony capitalism into a high art.
They are cramming this city, whose population is about a third of what it used to be, with one structure after another: Stadiums, high-rises, light rail.
Why?
Because they get taxpayers to subsidize part of their construction while they keep the entire profit from its use.
But the latest brownfield transformation scam – ooops, legislation -- that Gilbert is pushing in the state would put all of these previous schemes to shame..."
Read on!
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