Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Town leaders knew of rising trash fees
Americans pay a “tort tax” of $865 billion a year, according to last year’s estimate by the Pacific Research Institute. This figure represents money taken out of the economy via awards, settlements, lawsuit-avoidance tactics and price inflation of products and services provided by litigation-prone industries. The scholarship is challenging, but ...
Business & Economics
On Those Oil Profits
When it comes to public hatred of big business, there’s no better target than oil companies. This hatred has been all the more intense since Exxon Mobil announced last year’s net income at $40.6 billion, the largest-ever profit for a publicly-traded company. With the threat of recession looming, many policymakers ...
Business & Economics
There’s Gold in That Net: Golden State’s Legislators Could Let Special Interests Mine the Internet
On February 22, the last day to introduce new legislation in the 2007-2008 session, California’s lawmakers unleashed more than 650 bills. In this barrage, legislators seek to derail one of the state’s thriving industries: the technology sector. This bipartisan agenda targets e-commerce, arming bureaucrats with vast new authority to monitor, ...
Business & Economics
Making the Mortgage Mess Worse
Recently the Bush administration unveiled a plan for homeowners facing foreclosure to receive a 30-day reprieve from their creditors. This might come as welcome news in Sacramento where a jaw-dropping 46 percent of December sales were foreclosed homes. Unfortunately, the latest plan-as well as earlier government ideas to freeze rate ...
Business & Economics
Re: Bill Stall, “Even Reagan Raised Taxes,” Opinion, Feb. 26
Letter to the Editor Re: Bill Stall, “Even Reagan Raised Taxes,” Opinion, Feb. 26 Stall needs a history lesson. In 1991, facing an inherited $14.3-billion budget deficit, Wilson and state legislators agreed to raise taxes by $7.2 billion. Politicians assumed that hikes would increase long-run tax revenues, thereby closing the ...
Business & Economics
Impact – February 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – February 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions.
Business & Economics
A Tribute to William F. Buckley, Jr.
The cause of freedom suffered an irreplaceable loss when National Review founder and intellectual decathlete William F. Buckley passed away at 82 on February 27. Mr. Buckley’s prodigious accomplishments are well known to PRI supporters, and in December, 2000, he teamed with Milton Friedman as keynote speaker for PRI’s gala ...
Business & Economics
Why California’s “Budget Wolf” Has Returned
SACRAMENTO – On February 16, Governor Schwarzenegger approved the California legislature’s plan to deal with the “fiscal emergency” that the governor declared on January 10, two days after he said that the “budget wolf” that California had managed to avoid for two years was now back at the door. The ...
Business & Economics
Terminating Fiscal Conservatism
“For several years, we kept the budget wolf from the door,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his State of the State Address. “But the wolf is back.” Two days after this speech — January 10 — the governor declared a “fiscal emergency,” forcing the legislature to develop a plan within ...
Business & Economics
Radio to the People
This week marked the anniversary of the announcement that the satellite radio firms Sirius and XM plan to merge, yet so far the companies have not been allowed to consummate the marriage. That’s because regulators are standing in the way, backed by well-heeled Washington lobbyists out to prove that ridiculous ...
Town leaders knew of rising trash fees
Americans pay a “tort tax” of $865 billion a year, according to last year’s estimate by the Pacific Research Institute. This figure represents money taken out of the economy via awards, settlements, lawsuit-avoidance tactics and price inflation of products and services provided by litigation-prone industries. The scholarship is challenging, but ...
On Those Oil Profits
When it comes to public hatred of big business, there’s no better target than oil companies. This hatred has been all the more intense since Exxon Mobil announced last year’s net income at $40.6 billion, the largest-ever profit for a publicly-traded company. With the threat of recession looming, many policymakers ...
There’s Gold in That Net: Golden State’s Legislators Could Let Special Interests Mine the Internet
On February 22, the last day to introduce new legislation in the 2007-2008 session, California’s lawmakers unleashed more than 650 bills. In this barrage, legislators seek to derail one of the state’s thriving industries: the technology sector. This bipartisan agenda targets e-commerce, arming bureaucrats with vast new authority to monitor, ...
Making the Mortgage Mess Worse
Recently the Bush administration unveiled a plan for homeowners facing foreclosure to receive a 30-day reprieve from their creditors. This might come as welcome news in Sacramento where a jaw-dropping 46 percent of December sales were foreclosed homes. Unfortunately, the latest plan-as well as earlier government ideas to freeze rate ...
Re: Bill Stall, “Even Reagan Raised Taxes,” Opinion, Feb. 26
Letter to the Editor Re: Bill Stall, “Even Reagan Raised Taxes,” Opinion, Feb. 26 Stall needs a history lesson. In 1991, facing an inherited $14.3-billion budget deficit, Wilson and state legislators agreed to raise taxes by $7.2 billion. Politicians assumed that hikes would increase long-run tax revenues, thereby closing the ...
Impact – February 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – February 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions.
A Tribute to William F. Buckley, Jr.
The cause of freedom suffered an irreplaceable loss when National Review founder and intellectual decathlete William F. Buckley passed away at 82 on February 27. Mr. Buckley’s prodigious accomplishments are well known to PRI supporters, and in December, 2000, he teamed with Milton Friedman as keynote speaker for PRI’s gala ...
Why California’s “Budget Wolf” Has Returned
SACRAMENTO – On February 16, Governor Schwarzenegger approved the California legislature’s plan to deal with the “fiscal emergency” that the governor declared on January 10, two days after he said that the “budget wolf” that California had managed to avoid for two years was now back at the door. The ...
Terminating Fiscal Conservatism
“For several years, we kept the budget wolf from the door,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his State of the State Address. “But the wolf is back.” Two days after this speech — January 10 — the governor declared a “fiscal emergency,” forcing the legislature to develop a plan within ...
Radio to the People
This week marked the anniversary of the announcement that the satellite radio firms Sirius and XM plan to merge, yet so far the companies have not been allowed to consummate the marriage. That’s because regulators are standing in the way, backed by well-heeled Washington lobbyists out to prove that ridiculous ...
