John Seiler

Commentary

Boost police accountability to help improve urban policing

Especially as crime has increased in many cities the past two years, Americans want safe streets, but with responsible policing. They don’t want to get mugged, but also don’t want abuses such as the beating of Rodney King by the LAPD in 1992 or the death of George Floyd in ...
Blog

‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable

‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable by John Seiler At a time when many Western officials are reducing housing restrictions to promote building and thereby ease the affordable-housing crisis, they also are embracing a policy that runs contrary to these goals. Most Western states continue to create Urban Growth ...
Blog

Pothole vigilantes fill in for the government’s failure

One of my favorite movies is “Brazil,” by the Monty Python comedy troupe’s alum Terry Gilliam. In the most-telling scene, Harry Tuttle, played by Robert De Niro, breaks into an apartment, not to rob it, but to fix a broken air conditioning system. That’s because the vast government bureaucracy, Central ...
Blog

Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing

Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing by John Seiler There are many reasons for California’s housing crisis, but a major problem everyone acknowledges, but never comes close to resolving, is the inability to advance reform of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA (pronounced See-Kwa). It thwarts the ...
California

Local Governments Face Bankruptcy Quandary

Bankruptcy is the boogeyman haunting governments across America. It’s not a question of whether more cities will file for bankruptcy, but how many. The culprit is a decade of over-spending by governments, especially on pension guarantees, and an economic slowdown that refused to flip into a robust recovery. The money ...
Business & Economics

California ‘Jobs Gap’ Jumps to Record High

California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010, I devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California than the rest of America. The Jobs Gap is calculated by subtracting the national unemployment level from ...
Agriculture

Plunder! Dissects Government Unions

How’s your government treating you lately? I thought so. Unjust wars. Torture. Inflation. Wild spending. Record deficits. Record debt. Bankruptcy. Police brutality. Officious officials. Depression. It’s time to get even. Or at least get an explanation. That’s just what you get in Steven Greenhut’s shocking Plunder!: How Public Employee Unions ...
Business & Economics

Greenhut leaving the O.C. Register

I know what every government worker in Orange County is doing right now, this evening of Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009: Getting plastered on expensive booze, paid by their massive tax-funded salaries. They’ll be so hung over tomorrow don’t even try to do work with them. They’re celebrating because the scourge ...
Commentary

Boost police accountability to help improve urban policing

Especially as crime has increased in many cities the past two years, Americans want safe streets, but with responsible policing. They don’t want to get mugged, but also don’t want abuses such as the beating of Rodney King by the LAPD in 1992 or the death of George Floyd in ...
Blog

‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable

‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable by John Seiler At a time when many Western officials are reducing housing restrictions to promote building and thereby ease the affordable-housing crisis, they also are embracing a policy that runs contrary to these goals. Most Western states continue to create Urban Growth ...
Blog

Pothole vigilantes fill in for the government’s failure

One of my favorite movies is “Brazil,” by the Monty Python comedy troupe’s alum Terry Gilliam. In the most-telling scene, Harry Tuttle, played by Robert De Niro, breaks into an apartment, not to rob it, but to fix a broken air conditioning system. That’s because the vast government bureaucracy, Central ...
Blog

Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing

Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing by John Seiler There are many reasons for California’s housing crisis, but a major problem everyone acknowledges, but never comes close to resolving, is the inability to advance reform of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA (pronounced See-Kwa). It thwarts the ...
California

Local Governments Face Bankruptcy Quandary

Bankruptcy is the boogeyman haunting governments across America. It’s not a question of whether more cities will file for bankruptcy, but how many. The culprit is a decade of over-spending by governments, especially on pension guarantees, and an economic slowdown that refused to flip into a robust recovery. The money ...
Business & Economics

California ‘Jobs Gap’ Jumps to Record High

California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010, I devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California than the rest of America. The Jobs Gap is calculated by subtracting the national unemployment level from ...
Agriculture

Plunder! Dissects Government Unions

How’s your government treating you lately? I thought so. Unjust wars. Torture. Inflation. Wild spending. Record deficits. Record debt. Bankruptcy. Police brutality. Officious officials. Depression. It’s time to get even. Or at least get an explanation. That’s just what you get in Steven Greenhut’s shocking Plunder!: How Public Employee Unions ...
Business & Economics

Greenhut leaving the O.C. Register

I know what every government worker in Orange County is doing right now, this evening of Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009: Getting plastered on expensive booze, paid by their massive tax-funded salaries. They’ll be so hung over tomorrow don’t even try to do work with them. They’re celebrating because the scourge ...
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