Beyond Amazon debacle, wider doubts about tax breaks as tools

It looked more than a little weird: One of America’s most successful companies decides not to locate a headquarters in New York, and some of the city’s most prominent politicians cheer.

A week after online retailer Amazon announced it was pulling the plug on its New York plans – and with it the prospect of some 25,000 mostly high-paying jobs – the backlash against those Amazon critics is as loud as their own chants of triumph in making the giant retailer feel unwelcome.

But according to a broad spectrum of conservative and liberal economists, those politicians on the left have a point: Cities and states often lose when they give away

‘What does that say to working people?’Questions of inequality