Blog
Blog
Learn how much more you'll pay under $20 restaurant minimum wage
How Much Will Your Favorite Hamburger Cost After Minimum Wage Hike?
Didn’t someone say that raising the minimum wage would hurt most those it is intended to help? Yes, yes they did. And it’s been said many times. Yet here we are in the just-begun era of the $20-an-hour minimum wage and residents in the low-income district of South Los Angeles ...
Blog
Read latest on California's budget crisis
Governor Newsom’s Budget Crisis Is Déjà vu All Over Again
When we last updated you on efforts by Gov. Newsom and legislative Democrats to close the state’s $73 billion budget deficit, Senate Democrats had proposed a $17.1 billion plan to “shrink the shortfall” – of which, just 19.3 percent were actual cuts. Just before the Legislature’s summer recess on March ...
Blog
Let the market decide the right number of parking spots
Let the market decide the right number of parking spots By Kenneth Schrupp | April 5, 2024 First published in 2005, David Shoup’s “The High Cost of Free Parking” is, after nearly two decades, driving a national reconsideration of parking minimums. But while some cities from Austin to San Jose ...
Blog
Read about problems with government transportation planning
Book Review: ‘Transit’s growth, decline and pending demise’
Who said the following? “The basic objective of our nation’s transportation system must be to assure the availability of the fast, safe, and economical transportation services needed in a growing and changing economy. … This basic objective can and must be achieved primarily by continued reliance on unsubsidized privately owned ...
Blog
Read latest on corruption in local government
Corruption, crime, and cover-ups
The March 27 sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his role in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme brings closure to years of high living off the backs of his investors in his online crypto trading platform FTX. Fraudsters like Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Bernie Madoff, Jeff ...
Blog
Learn about the Biden budget plan
President Biden’s Fiscal Illusions
The President imagines that the federal budget is driving toward a fiscal cliff because tax revenues are too low, and the rich are not paying their fair share. Such accusations may make good political talking points, but they are demonstrably false. Let’s start with his vacuous accusation of tax fairness. ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Hey, Californians, How Do You Like the Governor’s EV Mandate Now?
A poll taken in the fall of 2022 found that 55% of registered California voters favored the state’s zero-emission vehicle mandate, which outlaws the sale of new fossil fuel-burning cars and light trucks beginning in 2035. Only 39% opposed it. While electric vehicles are being shunned in other states, EV ...
Blog
Read about latest anti-business mandate from Sacramento
In California, You Can Self-Checkout Any Time You Want – For Now
Self-checkout seems to have reached a peak. Some retailers are pulling back on the systems, apparently due to intentional and unintentional thefts, and there are signs that customers have grown weary of scanning their own purchases and waiting in long, slow lines while a single attendant tries to manage the ...
Agriculture
Read latest about war on agriculture
Solution to CA’s farm loss is through proactively working with ag community
The U.S. Census of Agriculture shows a distinct acceleration of farm losses between 2007 and 2022. Yet, farms are not altogether disappearing in California. According to census data released earlier this spring, there was a peak in the number of farms reported in California in 2007 with 81,033 recorded. In ...
Blog
Read latest on war on cars
Congestion pricing is mainly about punishing suburbanites
The privilege of working in or visiting Manhattan could soon be higher than the cost of lunch. As U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer put it in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, a proposed increase in the tunnel toll is “a greedy and unnecessary cash grab.” It ...
Learn how much more you'll pay under $20 restaurant minimum wage
How Much Will Your Favorite Hamburger Cost After Minimum Wage Hike?
Didn’t someone say that raising the minimum wage would hurt most those it is intended to help? Yes, yes they did. And it’s been said many times. Yet here we are in the just-begun era of the $20-an-hour minimum wage and residents in the low-income district of South Los Angeles ...
Read latest on California's budget crisis
Governor Newsom’s Budget Crisis Is Déjà vu All Over Again
When we last updated you on efforts by Gov. Newsom and legislative Democrats to close the state’s $73 billion budget deficit, Senate Democrats had proposed a $17.1 billion plan to “shrink the shortfall” – of which, just 19.3 percent were actual cuts. Just before the Legislature’s summer recess on March ...
Let the market decide the right number of parking spots
Let the market decide the right number of parking spots By Kenneth Schrupp | April 5, 2024 First published in 2005, David Shoup’s “The High Cost of Free Parking” is, after nearly two decades, driving a national reconsideration of parking minimums. But while some cities from Austin to San Jose ...
Read about problems with government transportation planning
Book Review: ‘Transit’s growth, decline and pending demise’
Who said the following? “The basic objective of our nation’s transportation system must be to assure the availability of the fast, safe, and economical transportation services needed in a growing and changing economy. … This basic objective can and must be achieved primarily by continued reliance on unsubsidized privately owned ...
Read latest on corruption in local government
Corruption, crime, and cover-ups
The March 27 sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his role in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme brings closure to years of high living off the backs of his investors in his online crypto trading platform FTX. Fraudsters like Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Bernie Madoff, Jeff ...
Learn about the Biden budget plan
President Biden’s Fiscal Illusions
The President imagines that the federal budget is driving toward a fiscal cliff because tax revenues are too low, and the rich are not paying their fair share. Such accusations may make good political talking points, but they are demonstrably false. Let’s start with his vacuous accusation of tax fairness. ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Hey, Californians, How Do You Like the Governor’s EV Mandate Now?
A poll taken in the fall of 2022 found that 55% of registered California voters favored the state’s zero-emission vehicle mandate, which outlaws the sale of new fossil fuel-burning cars and light trucks beginning in 2035. Only 39% opposed it. While electric vehicles are being shunned in other states, EV ...
Read about latest anti-business mandate from Sacramento
In California, You Can Self-Checkout Any Time You Want – For Now
Self-checkout seems to have reached a peak. Some retailers are pulling back on the systems, apparently due to intentional and unintentional thefts, and there are signs that customers have grown weary of scanning their own purchases and waiting in long, slow lines while a single attendant tries to manage the ...
Read latest about war on agriculture
Solution to CA’s farm loss is through proactively working with ag community
The U.S. Census of Agriculture shows a distinct acceleration of farm losses between 2007 and 2022. Yet, farms are not altogether disappearing in California. According to census data released earlier this spring, there was a peak in the number of farms reported in California in 2007 with 81,033 recorded. In ...
Read latest on war on cars
Congestion pricing is mainly about punishing suburbanites
The privilege of working in or visiting Manhattan could soon be higher than the cost of lunch. As U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer put it in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, a proposed increase in the tunnel toll is “a greedy and unnecessary cash grab.” It ...
