Commentary
Business & Economics
More pension horrors, no fixes
SACRAMENTO It has become almost impossible to exaggerate the depth of the state’s pension scandals, as more details emerge not only about the city of Bell, but about common abuses in other burgs. A new report produced by the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, and championed by San Diego Councilman ...
Business & Economics
Golden State offers tarnished ideas
Huge deficits and mounting debt. Increasing concern about creditworthiness. Large and growing government. Constant calls for higher taxes. High unemployment and a discouraged, even fearful, business community. Welcome to California. If you thought we were describing Washington, you had good reason. In instance after instance, Washington has mimicked the failed ...
Commentary
Dangers of mandating medical loss ratios
John R. Graham of the Pacific Research Institute discusses the harms of the medical loss ratios mandated in ObamaCare (HR 3590): One of the ways in which ObamaCare will reduce individuals’ and businesses’ choices of health insurance is through regulating the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), a relatively simple concept: Take ...
Commentary
Noted PRI Economist Ben Zycher: Failing To Pass Prop. 23 Will Cost Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs
When Proposition 1A was “birthed” last year as a part of the terrible 2009 budget deal that gave us the largest tax increase in the history of any state, it was highly respected and noted economist Benjamin Zycher who poured over the details of the so-called “spending cap” in 1A, ...
Business & Economics
The Fed won’t relinquish its bigger role
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Financial analysts have been parsing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech at the August meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo. More worthy of attention, however, is the statement made earlier in August by the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. It not only represented a ...
Commentary
Employment Gains Expected if Prop 23 Passes
The California electorate next month will vote on Proposition 23, which would suspend the implementation of the state’s global warming (i.e., energy taxation) law (“AB32″) until the unemployment rate reaches 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. My new paper on the employment effects of this initiative can be found here ...
Commentary
‘Superman’ has a backstory you won’t see on the big screen
‘Waiting for ‘Superman,’” touted by Oprah, Bill Gates and other celebrities, is now playing in California theatres. Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim directed the film, best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Several back stories, and the star, will not be apparent on the big screen. “Waiting for ‘Superman’” follows ...
Business & Economics
Plundered by Our Own Employees
Steven Greenhut may be the most annoying man in America. No, it’s not because he’s a mean guy or that he has created some silly reality show like Jersey Shores. It’s because Steve, a former Orange County Register columnist, writes books that you need to read, but are totally infuriating ...
Commentary
Prop 23 Will Boost California Employment By Half Million In 2012, 1.3 Million in 2020, Study Estimates
If approved by the California electorate this November, Proposition 23 will suspend the implementation of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, until the State’s unemployment rate declines to 5.5% or less for four consecutive quarters. AB 32 requires a reduction in the State’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 ...
Commentary
Avastin: Helpful drug or too risky, expensive?
In an “Urgent Submission on Breast Cancer” to newspaper editors, Sally C. Pipes (president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and author of “The Truth About Obamacare”) outlined only the positive parts of the Avastin story and implied that saving money was the real reason for this recommendation. She ...
More pension horrors, no fixes
SACRAMENTO It has become almost impossible to exaggerate the depth of the state’s pension scandals, as more details emerge not only about the city of Bell, but about common abuses in other burgs. A new report produced by the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, and championed by San Diego Councilman ...
Golden State offers tarnished ideas
Huge deficits and mounting debt. Increasing concern about creditworthiness. Large and growing government. Constant calls for higher taxes. High unemployment and a discouraged, even fearful, business community. Welcome to California. If you thought we were describing Washington, you had good reason. In instance after instance, Washington has mimicked the failed ...
Dangers of mandating medical loss ratios
John R. Graham of the Pacific Research Institute discusses the harms of the medical loss ratios mandated in ObamaCare (HR 3590): One of the ways in which ObamaCare will reduce individuals’ and businesses’ choices of health insurance is through regulating the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), a relatively simple concept: Take ...
Noted PRI Economist Ben Zycher: Failing To Pass Prop. 23 Will Cost Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs
When Proposition 1A was “birthed” last year as a part of the terrible 2009 budget deal that gave us the largest tax increase in the history of any state, it was highly respected and noted economist Benjamin Zycher who poured over the details of the so-called “spending cap” in 1A, ...
The Fed won’t relinquish its bigger role
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Financial analysts have been parsing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech at the August meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo. More worthy of attention, however, is the statement made earlier in August by the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. It not only represented a ...
Employment Gains Expected if Prop 23 Passes
The California electorate next month will vote on Proposition 23, which would suspend the implementation of the state’s global warming (i.e., energy taxation) law (“AB32″) until the unemployment rate reaches 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. My new paper on the employment effects of this initiative can be found here ...
‘Superman’ has a backstory you won’t see on the big screen
‘Waiting for ‘Superman,’” touted by Oprah, Bill Gates and other celebrities, is now playing in California theatres. Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim directed the film, best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Several back stories, and the star, will not be apparent on the big screen. “Waiting for ‘Superman’” follows ...
Plundered by Our Own Employees
Steven Greenhut may be the most annoying man in America. No, it’s not because he’s a mean guy or that he has created some silly reality show like Jersey Shores. It’s because Steve, a former Orange County Register columnist, writes books that you need to read, but are totally infuriating ...
Prop 23 Will Boost California Employment By Half Million In 2012, 1.3 Million in 2020, Study Estimates
If approved by the California electorate this November, Proposition 23 will suspend the implementation of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, until the State’s unemployment rate declines to 5.5% or less for four consecutive quarters. AB 32 requires a reduction in the State’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 ...
Avastin: Helpful drug or too risky, expensive?
In an “Urgent Submission on Breast Cancer” to newspaper editors, Sally C. Pipes (president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and author of “The Truth About Obamacare”) outlined only the positive parts of the Avastin story and implied that saving money was the real reason for this recommendation. She ...
