Housing

Business & Economics

Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
Business & Economics

FOR STATE BUDGET, NOTHING TO ‘LIKE’ ABOUT FACEBOOK IPO

Facebook’s stock price is currently hovering just above its all-time low. Shares have lost nearly half their value since they hit the market in May. The social network’s executives, employees and investors aren’t the only ones disappointed by the stock’s underperformance. The state of California was hoping for roughly $2 ...
California

New Book by Art Laffer on How to Fix California

Dr. Laffer Proposes a 5.8% Flat Tax for All Californians San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Sacramento, today released a new book by economist Art Laffer on how to turn around California’s ailing economy. In Eureka! How to ...
Business & Economics

Obama Defends Bailouts, Handouts and Cop-Outs

State of the Union addresses provide insight into the vision of America embraced by the president, and in that regard Tuesday’s address by President Barack Obama didn’t disappoint. He envisions a country where the federal government protects and creates union jobs and where the public sector is leading the charge ...
Business & Economics

Stop Rewarding Irresponsiblity

During the State of the Union, President Obama called for a new era of responsibility, and declared that there will be “no bailouts,” yet he offered a supposed solution for the ongoing mortgage crisis that rewards irresponsibility by promising even more bailouts for “underwater” homeowners. The president blamed the nation’s ...
Business & Economics

The Best States For Jobs

The Texas jobs miracle has received a lot of attention since Rick Perry announced his candidacy for president in August. The numbers are impressive. Texas added 1.2 million net jobs since Perry took office as Texas Governor in December 2000, while the U.S. as a whole lost 1.1 million jobs ...
Business & Economics

Honesty, No More Subsidies

President Obama’s plan to change federal lending rules so people who are under water in their mortgages can refinance will make a political point about Republican intransigence on his jobs package but won’t sway many voters. The truth: the housing market will not rebound until the banks get their backlog ...
Business & Economics

Hypocritical pension funds lecture others

The nation’s two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have been plagued by myriad fiscal problems, and even a corruption scandal in the case of CalPERS, and yet these systems continue to lecture the private sector on ethical corporate governance. ...
Business & Economics

California ‘Jobs Gap’ Jumps to Record High

California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010, I devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California than the rest of America. The Jobs Gap is calculated by subtracting the national unemployment level from ...
Commentary

Why Don’t Health Insurance Exchanges Work?

A previous entry reported and discussed the lackluster — basically non-existent — results of the Utah Health Exchange, and promised to explain why unsubsidized exchanges are unlikely to attract significant numbers of beneficiaries from the small-group market. The answer, I believe, is pretty straightforward: The administrative costs of operating an ...
Business & Economics

Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
Business & Economics

FOR STATE BUDGET, NOTHING TO ‘LIKE’ ABOUT FACEBOOK IPO

Facebook’s stock price is currently hovering just above its all-time low. Shares have lost nearly half their value since they hit the market in May. The social network’s executives, employees and investors aren’t the only ones disappointed by the stock’s underperformance. The state of California was hoping for roughly $2 ...
California

New Book by Art Laffer on How to Fix California

Dr. Laffer Proposes a 5.8% Flat Tax for All Californians San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Sacramento, today released a new book by economist Art Laffer on how to turn around California’s ailing economy. In Eureka! How to ...
Business & Economics

Obama Defends Bailouts, Handouts and Cop-Outs

State of the Union addresses provide insight into the vision of America embraced by the president, and in that regard Tuesday’s address by President Barack Obama didn’t disappoint. He envisions a country where the federal government protects and creates union jobs and where the public sector is leading the charge ...
Business & Economics

Stop Rewarding Irresponsiblity

During the State of the Union, President Obama called for a new era of responsibility, and declared that there will be “no bailouts,” yet he offered a supposed solution for the ongoing mortgage crisis that rewards irresponsibility by promising even more bailouts for “underwater” homeowners. The president blamed the nation’s ...
Business & Economics

The Best States For Jobs

The Texas jobs miracle has received a lot of attention since Rick Perry announced his candidacy for president in August. The numbers are impressive. Texas added 1.2 million net jobs since Perry took office as Texas Governor in December 2000, while the U.S. as a whole lost 1.1 million jobs ...
Business & Economics

Honesty, No More Subsidies

President Obama’s plan to change federal lending rules so people who are under water in their mortgages can refinance will make a political point about Republican intransigence on his jobs package but won’t sway many voters. The truth: the housing market will not rebound until the banks get their backlog ...
Business & Economics

Hypocritical pension funds lecture others

The nation’s two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have been plagued by myriad fiscal problems, and even a corruption scandal in the case of CalPERS, and yet these systems continue to lecture the private sector on ethical corporate governance. ...
Business & Economics

California ‘Jobs Gap’ Jumps to Record High

California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010, I devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California than the rest of America. The Jobs Gap is calculated by subtracting the national unemployment level from ...
Commentary

Why Don’t Health Insurance Exchanges Work?

A previous entry reported and discussed the lackluster — basically non-existent — results of the Utah Health Exchange, and promised to explain why unsubsidized exchanges are unlikely to attract significant numbers of beneficiaries from the small-group market. The answer, I believe, is pretty straightforward: The administrative costs of operating an ...
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