Pacific Research Institute | Business and Economics Blog

Rent Control – Temporary or Not – Won’t Bring Down Sacramento’s Housing Costs

September 19, 2018

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is trying to have his cake and eat it too. He announced in June that he opposed a local ballot measure being pushed by labor unions and activist groups to impose new rent control restrictions in Sacramento. That measure, according to the Sacramento...

California Supreme Court Ruling Takes Its First Scalp

September 18, 2018

It didn’t take long for a California Supreme Court decision to start claiming victims. Bottle & Barlow, a “get loose stay sharp” joint on trendy R Street in Sacramento, where a gentleman can sip whisky and also be stylishly shorn, has lost its entire staff...

The Wayfair decision and California

September 17, 2018

I used to tell my friends and colleagues to be sure to check out the Lord & Taylor website before they buy an outfit. Lord & Taylor doesn’t have operations in California, so the same Calvin Klein dress would be tax-free at Lord & Taylor,...

Why Skills Based Economics Should Be Focus of Free-Market Advocates

September 13, 2018

Business Economics

In this and succeeding columns, I intend to develop a new paradigm for thinking about economic progress for America in the 21st century. I believe that supporters of free markets are faced with both extraordinary opportunities and great cause for concern in the 21st century....

New PRI Chartbook Shows California’s Public Pension Monster Has Grown to Nearly $1 Trillion

September 05, 2018

New PRI-Open the Books Chartbook Shows California’s Public Pension Monster Has Grown to Nearly $1 Trillion More Realistic Market Estimate Show State Pension Funds are Just 28 Percent Funded...

Labor Day and the End of Work

August 27, 2018

Business Economics

Heading into the Labor Day weekend, we thought we would take a contrarian view of the holiday by reviewing Forbes columnist John Tamny’s new book, The End of Work. Last year, we interviewed him on our podcast on his previous book, Who Needs the Fed? No...

What We’re Watching – What Will You Bid?

August 24, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn6Xk8aCOOI Play everyone's favorite game show "What Will You Bid?" to learn about the broken competitive bidding process for providing durable medical equipment to Medicare patients. Read the new study by PRI's Wayne Winegarden to learn about free-market reforms to fix this broken process....

Other Countries are Abandoning Basic Income – Will Stockton Learn from These Failures?

August 23, 2018

During her recent campaign swing through California, Democratic socialist Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez visited the asparagus capital of America to meet with Mayor Michael Tubbs and explore ways to take a local universal basic income plan nationwide. “We talked about the similarities between her district and Stockton, about...

Sex and the City and Subsidies

August 21, 2018

We almost never find ourselves on the same side as celebs, so when “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon, now running for governor of New York, recently railed against taxpayer subsidies for the film industry, we couldn’t help but pop the popcorn. Bashing tax...

Sacramento’s Urge To ‘Police’ The Internet Is A Foolish Gesture

August 16, 2018

Just after the New Year began, California lawmakers, sore that the Federal Communications Commission restored a stolen freedom and repealed the Obama-era net neutrality rule, introduced their own net neutrality bill. The California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act was gutted in June, but...