An investigative piece in the Wall Street Journal last week took an inside look at how states and cities come to compete against each other, seemingly giving away their treasuries to land companies that promise jobs and economic gains in the future.

We in Wisconsin have come to know the practice well, thanks to the Foxconn deal engineered by former Gov. Scott Walker and his cronies in the state Legislature.

Foxconn and Wisconsin happen to be a major example of how a new niche of consultants called "site selectors" pit communities against each other in multi-state bidding wars to maximize tax breaks, grants, land deals and other incentives.

The Journal's reporting showed how it worked with Amazon as the company conducted a nationwide "search" for the best place to build its second headquarters.

A major focus of the article was how site selectors from Ernst and Young, the international professional services firm, were able to achieve the richest incentive package in Wisconsin history to land Foxconn's supposed LCD plant and a promise of 13,000 jobs for Racine County.