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Jeff Bezos is this week's champ, and Theresa May is the chump

The winner of Amazon’s HQ2 headquarters search wasn’t Long Island City, New York, or Crystal City, Virginia, or even Nashville, Tennessee. No, the only winner was $160 billion dollar man Jeff Bezos.

When Amazon (AMZN) announced it would be putting its second and third headquarters in New York and Virginia, the company said it would be getting $1.5 billion from New York and about $600 million from Virginia. Well, we did a little digging and it turns out it’s more like $4 billion they’ll be getting on behalf of taxpayers in those two states.

This eventually has to be paid for. New York and Virginia are going to have to issue bonds to pay for the $4 billion dollars they’re giving the world’s richest man, and those bonds are eventually going to come due. When that happens, the poor sap who’s in charge is going to have hard choices.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, speaks with employees. (Photo: Leonard Ortiz/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, speaks with employees. (Photo: Leonard Ortiz/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

1f you think the tax revenue from Amazon being in New York will offset this, you’re forgetting that New York basically promised Amazon that they wouldn’t have to pay taxes. You’re also forgetting the history of every city where a major sports stadium has been built with taxpayer money.

It doesn’t turn out well for the people who don’t own the team — or in this case, the people who don’t own the Amazon. And that is why Jeff Bezos is this week’s champ.

At the head of a messy table

This week’s chump is British Prime Minister Theresa May.

This Brexit thing is an absolute mess. The Brexit minister who wrote the Brexit agreement quit May’s government because he didn’t like the Brexit agreement.. May asked her Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs if he would be the new Brexit minister and not only did he say no, he also quit.

Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, listens to a question from reporters as she delivers a statement on the Brexit agreement during a news conference inside number 10 Downing Street in London, U.K., on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (Photo: David Levenson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, listens to a question from reporters as she delivers a statement on the Brexit agreement during a news conference inside number 10 Downing Street in London, U.K., on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (Photo: David Levenson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

If Theresa May is pushed out over all of this, the market watchers are pretty sure Britain could have a brand new election and maybe even another Brexit vote. So maybe the UK wouldn’t be leaving the European Union. And maybe that’s what Theresa May wanted all along?

Nevermind. Theresa May. This week’s chump.

Dion Rabouin is a global markets reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @DionRabouin.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

See also:

Wall Street managers have cost Americans more than $600 billion over the past decade

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and investors feel bullish

The dollar’s status as the world’s funding currency is in question

Why Trump’s trade war hasn’t tanked the market or the economy yet

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