Studies
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started
Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started Wayne Winegarden May 2026 With the release of the May Revise, budget negotiations between the Governor, Assembly, and Senate will now kick into high gear. Tax revenues for the current fiscal year are better than ...
Blog
The Gordon Chang Report–China Has Proliferated Nuclear Weapons. What Should America Do?
READ THE PDF China Has Proliferated Nuclear Weapons. What Should America Do? “The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk,” Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, boasted in January 2018. “This ...
Book
America’s Smaller Cities Hold Big Answers for Urban Revival, New PRI Booklet Finds
As policymakers search for answers to the growing challenges facing America’s largest cities, a new study from the Pacific Research Institute – the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank – suggests they may be looking in the wrong places. PRI’s Free Cities Center today released Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s ...
Blog
The Gordon Chang Report–A New Phase of the North Korean Threat
READ THE PDF A New Phase of the North Korean Threat On March 20, Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles from its territory to Diego Garcia, the joint U.K.-U.S. military base in the Indian Ocean. Fortunately, both missed. Analysts were surprised that Tehran’s regime possessed a missile that could reach ...
Business & Economics
New PRI Study Finds California Job Growth Lags Nation, High Costs Turn State’s Income Advantage into 35% Deficit
A new study released today by the Pacific Research Institute finds that California’s economic performance has fallen sharply behind the rest of the nation, with job growth since the COVID-19 pandemic at less than half the national rate, while the state’s high cost of living is erasing its income advantage. ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Stock Market Volatility Is a Growing Threat to California’s Upcoming Budget
Stock Market Volatility Is a Growing Threat to California’s Upcoming Budget Wayne Winegarden March 2026 Warren Buffett famously noted that “when the tide goes out, you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Heeding Buffet’s wisdom, we will soon discover whether Governor Newsom and state legislative leaders are in need of some ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal
Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal Wayne Winegarden March 2026 Gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer supports “a special election to raise corporate taxes in his first year as governor.” Specifically, he favors removing the Proposition 13 tax limitations for commercial properties – an idea referred to ...
Health Care
ISSUE BRIEF: Government Policy Is Consolidating the Practice of Medicine
A new issue brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute—the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank—finds that certain states’ efforts to tighten corporate practice of medicine laws hurt independent physicians, empower hospitals to consolidate local provider markets, and raise healthcare costs. “Competition is a prerequisite for affordable, high-quality care,” ...
Blog
The Gordon Chang Report–Arctic: The Next Cold War
READ THE PDF Arctic: The Next Cold War “You have Russian destroyers and submarines and China destroyers and submarines all over the place,” President Donald Trump said in January, referring to the Arctic. Hostile powers are just about everywhere at the top of the world. In late summer 2015, five ...
Drug Prices
ISSUE BRIEF: Biopharma Drug Makers Are Not the Most Profitable Players in Health Care
A new issue brief released by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute finds that innovative drug manufacturers earn some of the lowest risk-adjusted returns in the U.S. health care system, despite making the largest investments in research and development. The findings challenge the ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started
Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started Wayne Winegarden May 2026 With the release of the May Revise, budget negotiations between the Governor, Assembly, and Senate will now kick into high gear. Tax revenues for the current fiscal year are better than ...
The Gordon Chang Report–China Has Proliferated Nuclear Weapons. What Should America Do?
READ THE PDF China Has Proliferated Nuclear Weapons. What Should America Do? “The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk,” Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, boasted in January 2018. “This ...
America’s Smaller Cities Hold Big Answers for Urban Revival, New PRI Booklet Finds
As policymakers search for answers to the growing challenges facing America’s largest cities, a new study from the Pacific Research Institute – the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank – suggests they may be looking in the wrong places. PRI’s Free Cities Center today released Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s ...
The Gordon Chang Report–A New Phase of the North Korean Threat
READ THE PDF A New Phase of the North Korean Threat On March 20, Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles from its territory to Diego Garcia, the joint U.K.-U.S. military base in the Indian Ocean. Fortunately, both missed. Analysts were surprised that Tehran’s regime possessed a missile that could reach ...
New PRI Study Finds California Job Growth Lags Nation, High Costs Turn State’s Income Advantage into 35% Deficit
A new study released today by the Pacific Research Institute finds that California’s economic performance has fallen sharply behind the rest of the nation, with job growth since the COVID-19 pandemic at less than half the national rate, while the state’s high cost of living is erasing its income advantage. ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Stock Market Volatility Is a Growing Threat to California’s Upcoming Budget
Stock Market Volatility Is a Growing Threat to California’s Upcoming Budget Wayne Winegarden March 2026 Warren Buffett famously noted that “when the tide goes out, you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Heeding Buffet’s wisdom, we will soon discover whether Governor Newsom and state legislative leaders are in need of some ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal
Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal Wayne Winegarden March 2026 Gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer supports “a special election to raise corporate taxes in his first year as governor.” Specifically, he favors removing the Proposition 13 tax limitations for commercial properties – an idea referred to ...
ISSUE BRIEF: Government Policy Is Consolidating the Practice of Medicine
A new issue brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute—the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank—finds that certain states’ efforts to tighten corporate practice of medicine laws hurt independent physicians, empower hospitals to consolidate local provider markets, and raise healthcare costs. “Competition is a prerequisite for affordable, high-quality care,” ...
The Gordon Chang Report–Arctic: The Next Cold War
READ THE PDF Arctic: The Next Cold War “You have Russian destroyers and submarines and China destroyers and submarines all over the place,” President Donald Trump said in January, referring to the Arctic. Hostile powers are just about everywhere at the top of the world. In late summer 2015, five ...
ISSUE BRIEF: Biopharma Drug Makers Are Not the Most Profitable Players in Health Care
A new issue brief released by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute finds that innovative drug manufacturers earn some of the lowest risk-adjusted returns in the U.S. health care system, despite making the largest investments in research and development. The findings challenge the ...