Matthew Fleming
Blog
Newsom has failed on homelessness, and it shouldn’t be hard so hard to spot.
“I’m a notoriously tough grader, but I would probably give him a B,” said former Congresswoman Katie Porter, who is also a professor at UC Irvine. “I don’t think this has been an easy problem to solve, but I give him a lot of credit for calling attention to the ...
California
Newsom’s $19 Million Ad Campaign Can’t Polish California’s Image
It’s going to take a lot more than a $19 million advertising blitz to make people forget about California’s problems. Governor Gavin Newsom, who is known to love “big, hairy, audacious goals,” recently hired the communications powerhouse Edelman to rehab the Golden State’s image, which, in Newsom’s telling, has been ...
Blog
Price controls won’t save credit card borrowers
Americans are drowning in credit card debt, but President Donald Trump’s suggestion to cap interest rates at 10% for one year is not a particularly good solution. On its face, it sounds great. Americans largely hate banks and Trump’s suggestion gives the Robinhoodish illusion of robbing the rich to give to the ...
Blog
Government Shutdown Threatens Billions in IPO Funding
The federal government has been shut down since October 1 because of a funding disagreement between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. Though a deal could theoretically be struck at any moment, there does not appear to be any end in sight. Only services deemed essential are permitted through the shutdown, which means ...
California
California’s weak job market is a cry for help. Is anyone listening?
California’s job market continues to suffer from largely self-inflicted wounds, despite the fact that the overall economy is growing. In April, Gov. Gavin Newsom projected that California’s economy had grown larger than Japan’s, making it the fourth largest in the world (if it were its own economy, which it’s not). ...
Blog
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Abundance’ by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Abundance’ By Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson By Matthew Fleming | July 25, 2025 “Abundance,” a new book by liberal thought leaders Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, makes the case that a sustainable future doesn’t need to be driven by the politics of scarcity we see dominating America’s urban ...
Blog
More Rent Control Makes Things Worse
Rent control is the bad penny legislation that keeps turning up in California. It is widely regarded as crummy economic policy by economists, it ultimately leads to rental shortages and higher rents and it is based on the faulty idea that private property is somehow public property. And yet, here ...
Blog
Newsom’s Diaper Plan Stinks
Why a new program when the old one is working ok? The state argues that there are gaps in the existing program, which targets low-income parents. Instead of simply filling the gaps, the state wants to impose some elaborate scheme that is akin to killing a gnat with a shotgun. ...
Blog
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong Originally published in Sacramento Bee by Matt Fleming READ MORE Gov. Gavin Newsom often claims California is not a high-tax state. “So, this notion of even being a high tax state is B.S.,” Newsom podcasted in March. “Sixteen ...
Blog
Even liberal cities are taking steps to boost housing construction
The very liberal city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, just accepted the reality that excessive government regulations prevent adequate housing production. The city imposed what is being hailed as “one of the most ambitious changes to any city’s zoning in decades” by eliminating exclusionary zoning (permitting only single family homes) and allowing residential buildings ...
Newsom has failed on homelessness, and it shouldn’t be hard so hard to spot.
“I’m a notoriously tough grader, but I would probably give him a B,” said former Congresswoman Katie Porter, who is also a professor at UC Irvine. “I don’t think this has been an easy problem to solve, but I give him a lot of credit for calling attention to the ...
Newsom’s $19 Million Ad Campaign Can’t Polish California’s Image
It’s going to take a lot more than a $19 million advertising blitz to make people forget about California’s problems. Governor Gavin Newsom, who is known to love “big, hairy, audacious goals,” recently hired the communications powerhouse Edelman to rehab the Golden State’s image, which, in Newsom’s telling, has been ...
Price controls won’t save credit card borrowers
Americans are drowning in credit card debt, but President Donald Trump’s suggestion to cap interest rates at 10% for one year is not a particularly good solution. On its face, it sounds great. Americans largely hate banks and Trump’s suggestion gives the Robinhoodish illusion of robbing the rich to give to the ...
Government Shutdown Threatens Billions in IPO Funding
The federal government has been shut down since October 1 because of a funding disagreement between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. Though a deal could theoretically be struck at any moment, there does not appear to be any end in sight. Only services deemed essential are permitted through the shutdown, which means ...
California’s weak job market is a cry for help. Is anyone listening?
California’s job market continues to suffer from largely self-inflicted wounds, despite the fact that the overall economy is growing. In April, Gov. Gavin Newsom projected that California’s economy had grown larger than Japan’s, making it the fourth largest in the world (if it were its own economy, which it’s not). ...
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Abundance’ by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Abundance’ By Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson By Matthew Fleming | July 25, 2025 “Abundance,” a new book by liberal thought leaders Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, makes the case that a sustainable future doesn’t need to be driven by the politics of scarcity we see dominating America’s urban ...
More Rent Control Makes Things Worse
Rent control is the bad penny legislation that keeps turning up in California. It is widely regarded as crummy economic policy by economists, it ultimately leads to rental shortages and higher rents and it is based on the faulty idea that private property is somehow public property. And yet, here ...
Newsom’s Diaper Plan Stinks
Why a new program when the old one is working ok? The state argues that there are gaps in the existing program, which targets low-income parents. Instead of simply filling the gaps, the state wants to impose some elaborate scheme that is akin to killing a gnat with a shotgun. ...
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong Originally published in Sacramento Bee by Matt Fleming READ MORE Gov. Gavin Newsom often claims California is not a high-tax state. “So, this notion of even being a high tax state is B.S.,” Newsom podcasted in March. “Sixteen ...
Even liberal cities are taking steps to boost housing construction
The very liberal city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, just accepted the reality that excessive government regulations prevent adequate housing production. The city imposed what is being hailed as “one of the most ambitious changes to any city’s zoning in decades” by eliminating exclusionary zoning (permitting only single family homes) and allowing residential buildings ...