Overregulation
Blog
Is There A Limit To The Abuse California Businesses Will Tolerate?
This isn’t the sort of insanity of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, but the type of insanity that doesn’t care what the outcome is. California’s Cartwright Act is the state’s primary antitrust law. It allows both government and private actors to make antitrust claims against businesses. A California Supreme ...
Blog
A public bank in California would be costly, risky and unnecessary
But lawmakers were pushing forward anyway. AB 2243 would have established a taxpayer-funded commission to study the feasibility of a public bank and how it could act “as an additional financial tool to lower borrowing costs, strengthen local lending partnerships and help finance urgent public needs like affordable housing, infrastructure, ...
Blog
California’s ‘Scarcity Mindset’
The late, great comedian Sam Kinison once said that instead of sending food to starving nations, we should send U-Hauls because, he would scream, “there wouldn’t be world hunger if you people would live where the food is! You live in a desert, understand that?! Nothing grows out of here!” ...
Blog
California Governor Candidate Becerra’s Price Controls Would Backfire on Families
At a recent California gubernatorial debate, former Attorney General Xavier Becerra was asked which specific cost, gas, groceries, utilities, or childcare, would he lower first as governor. He answered: “…one of the things that I will do immediately is I will freeze utility rates, and I will freeze home insurance ...
Agriculture
What’s in a label?
“Free range,” “cage free,” “organic,” “non-GMO,” “hormone free,” and now “ultra processed” are all food terms that can confuse even the most astute shopper. As consumers move farther from the farm but express deeper concern about where their food comes from and how it is produced, answering those concerns becomes ...
Blog
California Should Get Out of the Way of the Charter-Cox Merger
Of course, the CPUC regulates public utilities in California. The Commission gains a say in many mergers because of its broad oversight to evaluate potential effects on the price and access to telecommunications services for California residents. In that, the CPUC works with the Federal Trade Commission to align state ...
Blog
California Risks Deepening Home Insurance Crisis with Latest Bills
One measure, Senate Bill 876, would establish accelerated timelines for insurers to pay the cash value of both damaged property and associated replacement costs in the event of an emergency. Residential property insurance policies would have to offer at least 50% extra replacement coverage beyond the policy’s stated limit. To ...
Blog
Death by a Thousand Cuts: Andrew Gruel on the Cost of Regulations for California Restaurants
The challenge is not a single overwhelming regulation, it is accumulation. California layers rule upon rule, each one defensible on its own. Over time, those requirements reshape how restaurants hire, price, expand (or not), and compete. What appears manageable on paper becomes costly in practice. Restaurants are high-transaction, high-labor businesses. ...
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
How New State Law Will Be Another Costly Business Burden
On October 13th, 2025, the California legislature passed into law AB692, a bill which would void any contract that requires employees to repay their employer, training provider, or debt collector upon termination of their employment. These training repayment agreement provisions, colloquially known as TRAPs, allow employers to recoup investment and ...
Is There A Limit To The Abuse California Businesses Will Tolerate?
This isn’t the sort of insanity of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, but the type of insanity that doesn’t care what the outcome is. California’s Cartwright Act is the state’s primary antitrust law. It allows both government and private actors to make antitrust claims against businesses. A California Supreme ...
A public bank in California would be costly, risky and unnecessary
But lawmakers were pushing forward anyway. AB 2243 would have established a taxpayer-funded commission to study the feasibility of a public bank and how it could act “as an additional financial tool to lower borrowing costs, strengthen local lending partnerships and help finance urgent public needs like affordable housing, infrastructure, ...
California’s ‘Scarcity Mindset’
The late, great comedian Sam Kinison once said that instead of sending food to starving nations, we should send U-Hauls because, he would scream, “there wouldn’t be world hunger if you people would live where the food is! You live in a desert, understand that?! Nothing grows out of here!” ...
California Governor Candidate Becerra’s Price Controls Would Backfire on Families
At a recent California gubernatorial debate, former Attorney General Xavier Becerra was asked which specific cost, gas, groceries, utilities, or childcare, would he lower first as governor. He answered: “…one of the things that I will do immediately is I will freeze utility rates, and I will freeze home insurance ...
What’s in a label?
“Free range,” “cage free,” “organic,” “non-GMO,” “hormone free,” and now “ultra processed” are all food terms that can confuse even the most astute shopper. As consumers move farther from the farm but express deeper concern about where their food comes from and how it is produced, answering those concerns becomes ...
California Should Get Out of the Way of the Charter-Cox Merger
Of course, the CPUC regulates public utilities in California. The Commission gains a say in many mergers because of its broad oversight to evaluate potential effects on the price and access to telecommunications services for California residents. In that, the CPUC works with the Federal Trade Commission to align state ...
California Risks Deepening Home Insurance Crisis with Latest Bills
One measure, Senate Bill 876, would establish accelerated timelines for insurers to pay the cash value of both damaged property and associated replacement costs in the event of an emergency. Residential property insurance policies would have to offer at least 50% extra replacement coverage beyond the policy’s stated limit. To ...
Death by a Thousand Cuts: Andrew Gruel on the Cost of Regulations for California Restaurants
The challenge is not a single overwhelming regulation, it is accumulation. California layers rule upon rule, each one defensible on its own. Over time, those requirements reshape how restaurants hire, price, expand (or not), and compete. What appears manageable on paper becomes costly in practice. Restaurants are high-transaction, high-labor businesses. ...
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 ...
How New State Law Will Be Another Costly Business Burden
On October 13th, 2025, the California legislature passed into law AB692, a bill which would void any contract that requires employees to repay their employer, training provider, or debt collector upon termination of their employment. These training repayment agreement provisions, colloquially known as TRAPs, allow employers to recoup investment and ...