Pacific Research Institute | Business and Economics Blog

Go Ahead and Enjoy That Coke and Coffee – The Nannies Have Lost, At Least For Now

February 07, 2019

It doesn’t happen often enough, but sometimes freedom wins in California. In the most recent of these rare events, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – yes, the Ninth – affirmed late last month a lower-court ruling that said the San Francisco ordinance which forces beverage...

Identity Politics Comes to STEM

February 05, 2019

In January, PRI had the pleasure of hosting Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald at a luncheon in Southern California to discuss her new book The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine our Culture. One of the most disturbing...

Oregon’s Scheme to Save Union Slush Funds

January 29, 2019

Business Economics

It’s not often that another state can top California when it comes to protecting public employee unions. But Oregon’s House Bill 2643 takes the prize so far for the most audacious attempt to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision. Janus v. AFCFME allowed government workers...

Medical Economic Studies Should Come with a Warning Label

January 28, 2019

Business Economics

The old joke about the drunk and the policeman is apropos for far too many pharmaceutical studies. Typically, the joke goes something like the following: A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says...

San Francisco’s Proposition C Almost Claims Its First ‘Victims’

January 17, 2019

Making it more expensive to drink in San Francisco is not one of Proposition C’s objectives. But it was nearly one of its initial effects. Young’s Market Co., a wine and spirits distributor based in Tustin that does business across the western U.S., recently advised local...

Democratic Socialists Are Painting the Roses Red

January 15, 2019

Business Economics

We're painting the roses red, Painting the roses red, And many a tear we shed, Because we know, They'll cease to grow, In fact, they'll soon be dead. And yet we go ahead, Painting the roses red Just like the characters in Alice in Wonderland, Representative...

Firing the Deep State

January 08, 2019

Business Economics

Irate over plummeting stock prices in recent weeks, the media reported that President Trump wanted to fire his appointed Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. But can he really fire him? It turns out that the law is murky in this area. Trump can fire Powell, but...