Rowena Itchon

Blog

The Streets of San Francisco

Lt. Mike Stone: You saw what he did, arrest him! Inspector Steve Keller: No. I didn’t become a cop to arrest street poopers. I quit. Lt. Mike Stone: Oh yeah, where you gonna go? Inspector Steve Keller: I’m going back to school — Berkeley Law. [A conversation between Stone and ...
Blog

A post-Janus California — will we look more like Wisconsin or Michigan?

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision on Janus, the State Controller’s Office announced that beginning in July, it would stop deducting “fair share fees” from the paychecks of state workers who are not full union members.  The fair share fee, or agency fee, is the fee that’s charged ...
Blog

Riddle: Who is single, has no kids, and getting a tax increase?

Tax Calculator Part 2 In my last blog, I ran some numbers on the Tax Foundation’s new tax calculator to show the average tax cut for California households by congressional district under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  But I thought what would be even more interesting is to ...
Blog

How Much Will You Save From the Trump Tax Cuts?

Leave it to the Tax Foundation to come with this cool online calculator to figure out how much you will save in taxes from the Trump tax cuts.  The calculator asks you to plug in your AGI, your filing status (single or married), even details such as your pre-tax 401k ...
Blog

Kilauea Volcanic Eruptions Spike Pensions for Hawaii’s Emergency Workers

“Pension risk includes lava,” said Keli’i Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute, a sister free-market think tank in Hawaii.  Recently, the Grassroot Institute hosted an event titled “Navigating risk at Hawaii’s public pension system.” Thom Williams, executive director of the Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System (ERS), discussed how unpredictable events such ...
Blog

Assembly Offers $120 million Bait to UC to Stop 401(k) plans

The great investor Warren Buffett once said, “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”  UC President Janet Napolitano probably had similar thoughts when she wrote to the Assembly opposing their offer ...
Blog

With California’s Rising Gas Prices, Driving Won’t Be So ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ This Summer

She drives real fast and she drives real hard, She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard. — The Little Old Lady from Pasadena, The Beach Boys, 1964 I loved this song when I was growing up, and I love it even more now that PRI’s Southern California office is on the ...
Blog

Is Buying Stock in Companies That Spend a Lot on Lobbying a Good Investment Strategy?

We’re all hearing it: the bull market is “long on the tooth,” and the market volatility we’ve seen so far this year is a sign that a big correction, or even a bear market, may be around the corner.  Interest rate fears, trade wars, and the ballooning debt are all ...
Agriculture

Victor Davis Hanson on the Wisdom of the Ancients

Spending time in April in New York, my PRI colleagues and I attended The New Criterion’s annual gala dinner which honored Victor Davis Hanson with the literary journal’s Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society. In his introductory remarks, Roger Kimball, the editor and publisher of The New ...
Blog

Today is California Tax Freedom Day

“April is the cruelest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot.  It’s especially cruel for Californians because today, April 23, is the day when California taxpayers have collectively earned enough money to pay their federal, state, and local tax bill for the year, according to the Tax Foundation. After working for nearly four ...
Blog

The Streets of San Francisco

Lt. Mike Stone: You saw what he did, arrest him! Inspector Steve Keller: No. I didn’t become a cop to arrest street poopers. I quit. Lt. Mike Stone: Oh yeah, where you gonna go? Inspector Steve Keller: I’m going back to school — Berkeley Law. [A conversation between Stone and ...
Blog

A post-Janus California — will we look more like Wisconsin or Michigan?

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision on Janus, the State Controller’s Office announced that beginning in July, it would stop deducting “fair share fees” from the paychecks of state workers who are not full union members.  The fair share fee, or agency fee, is the fee that’s charged ...
Blog

Riddle: Who is single, has no kids, and getting a tax increase?

Tax Calculator Part 2 In my last blog, I ran some numbers on the Tax Foundation’s new tax calculator to show the average tax cut for California households by congressional district under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  But I thought what would be even more interesting is to ...
Blog

How Much Will You Save From the Trump Tax Cuts?

Leave it to the Tax Foundation to come with this cool online calculator to figure out how much you will save in taxes from the Trump tax cuts.  The calculator asks you to plug in your AGI, your filing status (single or married), even details such as your pre-tax 401k ...
Blog

Kilauea Volcanic Eruptions Spike Pensions for Hawaii’s Emergency Workers

“Pension risk includes lava,” said Keli’i Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute, a sister free-market think tank in Hawaii.  Recently, the Grassroot Institute hosted an event titled “Navigating risk at Hawaii’s public pension system.” Thom Williams, executive director of the Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System (ERS), discussed how unpredictable events such ...
Blog

Assembly Offers $120 million Bait to UC to Stop 401(k) plans

The great investor Warren Buffett once said, “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”  UC President Janet Napolitano probably had similar thoughts when she wrote to the Assembly opposing their offer ...
Blog

With California’s Rising Gas Prices, Driving Won’t Be So ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ This Summer

She drives real fast and she drives real hard, She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard. — The Little Old Lady from Pasadena, The Beach Boys, 1964 I loved this song when I was growing up, and I love it even more now that PRI’s Southern California office is on the ...
Blog

Is Buying Stock in Companies That Spend a Lot on Lobbying a Good Investment Strategy?

We’re all hearing it: the bull market is “long on the tooth,” and the market volatility we’ve seen so far this year is a sign that a big correction, or even a bear market, may be around the corner.  Interest rate fears, trade wars, and the ballooning debt are all ...
Agriculture

Victor Davis Hanson on the Wisdom of the Ancients

Spending time in April in New York, my PRI colleagues and I attended The New Criterion’s annual gala dinner which honored Victor Davis Hanson with the literary journal’s Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society. In his introductory remarks, Roger Kimball, the editor and publisher of The New ...
Blog

Today is California Tax Freedom Day

“April is the cruelest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot.  It’s especially cruel for Californians because today, April 23, is the day when California taxpayers have collectively earned enough money to pay their federal, state, and local tax bill for the year, according to the Tax Foundation. After working for nearly four ...
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