Blog
Blog
Ode to the Summer of Love
With our HQ in San Francisco, PRI can’t let the summer end without a nod to the 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love. I’m the last of the generation of Baby Boomers, starting kindergarten in 1967. The girls in my classes wore psychedelic mini-skirts, Vietnam POW bracelets, and macramé ...
Blog
U.S. Pharmaceutical Spending Is Below Average?
For the 30 nations that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies to improve the well-being of people around the world, pharmaceutical spending comprised, on average, 16.9 percent of total health care spending as of 2015. The OECD defines pharmaceutical spending as the expenditures on ...
Blog
Putting Thumb on Scale of California Elections Threatens Our Democracy
“To the victor go the spoils” goes the old proverb. This statement is true in many things in life, but certainly rings true in politics. Consider the ongoing effort to change California’s elections laws to try and help Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, who is the target of a recall election. ...
Blog
Tax Increase Proposal Would Not Make Housing More Affordable
California lawmakers, some of whom long ago demonstrated that they don’t understand why housing is so expensive across the state, continue to show that they have no idea how to fix the problem. Consider, for instance, the plan being moved ahead by Assemblyman Marc Levine, a Marin Democrat. He wants ...
Blog
Legislature Takes Two Steps Back on State’s Housing Crisis
California lawmakers can’t hide from the state’s housing crisis caused by a severe shortage of homes. They’ve even promised to do something about it. But a bill just signed into law last month indicates that the promise is likely to be hollow. Rather than lower government-imposed barriers to home building, ...
Blog
Beware of Tax Reform’s “Unintended Consequences”
There is little doubt that the U.S. needs comprehensive tax reform. The corporate income tax system is globally uncompetitive; the personal income tax system is so complicated that even the IRS can’t answer taxpayers’ questions. The right reform implements a simple flat tax system with globally competitive rates. What should ...
Blog
An (Artificially) Intelligent Future for California?
Californians harboring dystopian fears would have us believe that the state is sowing the seeds of its own destruction by leading in the development of artificial intelligence. Consider state legislation introduced this year that would fine companies like Uber $25,000 a day per vehicle if they operate self-driving cars without ...
Blog
Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In some locations, they’re ...
Blog
Will Largest Gas Tax Increase In State History Bring Traffic Relief?
It’s painfully obvious that lawmakers in Sacramento just can’t help themselves. Otherwise Gov. Jerry Brown and a majority of legislators wouldn’t support a $52 billion tax hike to fix Califor- nia’s gouged, pitted and cracked roads. They would find a way to do it with the resources they have. Republicans ...
Blog
Rent Control Would Put Housing Out of Reach for More Californians
The most unaffordable city in the world in which to rent a home is not New York or Tokyo or Hong Kong. The title belongs to San Francisco, where a single person who wants to live on their own needs to earn more than $85,000 a year to pay the ...
Ode to the Summer of Love
With our HQ in San Francisco, PRI can’t let the summer end without a nod to the 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love. I’m the last of the generation of Baby Boomers, starting kindergarten in 1967. The girls in my classes wore psychedelic mini-skirts, Vietnam POW bracelets, and macramé ...
U.S. Pharmaceutical Spending Is Below Average?
For the 30 nations that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies to improve the well-being of people around the world, pharmaceutical spending comprised, on average, 16.9 percent of total health care spending as of 2015. The OECD defines pharmaceutical spending as the expenditures on ...
Putting Thumb on Scale of California Elections Threatens Our Democracy
“To the victor go the spoils” goes the old proverb. This statement is true in many things in life, but certainly rings true in politics. Consider the ongoing effort to change California’s elections laws to try and help Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, who is the target of a recall election. ...
Tax Increase Proposal Would Not Make Housing More Affordable
California lawmakers, some of whom long ago demonstrated that they don’t understand why housing is so expensive across the state, continue to show that they have no idea how to fix the problem. Consider, for instance, the plan being moved ahead by Assemblyman Marc Levine, a Marin Democrat. He wants ...
Legislature Takes Two Steps Back on State’s Housing Crisis
California lawmakers can’t hide from the state’s housing crisis caused by a severe shortage of homes. They’ve even promised to do something about it. But a bill just signed into law last month indicates that the promise is likely to be hollow. Rather than lower government-imposed barriers to home building, ...
Beware of Tax Reform’s “Unintended Consequences”
There is little doubt that the U.S. needs comprehensive tax reform. The corporate income tax system is globally uncompetitive; the personal income tax system is so complicated that even the IRS can’t answer taxpayers’ questions. The right reform implements a simple flat tax system with globally competitive rates. What should ...
An (Artificially) Intelligent Future for California?
Californians harboring dystopian fears would have us believe that the state is sowing the seeds of its own destruction by leading in the development of artificial intelligence. Consider state legislation introduced this year that would fine companies like Uber $25,000 a day per vehicle if they operate self-driving cars without ...
Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In some locations, they’re ...
Will Largest Gas Tax Increase In State History Bring Traffic Relief?
It’s painfully obvious that lawmakers in Sacramento just can’t help themselves. Otherwise Gov. Jerry Brown and a majority of legislators wouldn’t support a $52 billion tax hike to fix Califor- nia’s gouged, pitted and cracked roads. They would find a way to do it with the resources they have. Republicans ...
Rent Control Would Put Housing Out of Reach for More Californians
The most unaffordable city in the world in which to rent a home is not New York or Tokyo or Hong Kong. The title belongs to San Francisco, where a single person who wants to live on their own needs to earn more than $85,000 a year to pay the ...
