Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Big Government and Health-Care Stocks: A Happy Marriage?
Please read the entire column at Forbes.com: The Apothecary.
Business & Economics
Taking the Initiative
A series of bills pending in California’s state legislature would severely curtail the use of voters’ initiatives and referenda—and have already sparked a long-overdue debate about the virtues of direct democracy. Advocates for reform make some valid points about the problems with the initiative process; it’s certainly the case that ...
Business & Economics
Educated Legislators, Bad Economy
California has the most educated legislators, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education study. Those stellar academic credentials, unfortunately, have not lifted the state from its economic malaise. California’s unemployment rate, as of May, is nearly 12 percent, higher than every state in the bottom five of the study. ...
Business & Economics
Small-Business Health Care Tax Credits Are having a Miniscule Impact
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently surveyed 304 small business owners about how satisfied they were with the new healthcare reform laws tax credits. Nearly 90% had not applied for the credits. Some had no idea they existed, others were deemed ineligible, and more than a fifth found that ...
Business & Economics
Legislators Cry “Less Power to the People”
California legislators —- who seem unable to come up with an honest balanced budget, who always seek tax increases, and who won’t pass even modest reforms to the state’s unfunded pension system or to anything else, for that matter —- want to blame the government’s problems on voters, rather than ...
Business & Economics
California Amazon Tax Will Kill 25,000 Small Businesses
With the California legislature having just passed a flawed budget full of accounting tricks, budget gimmicks and money grabs, one area of small business is about to be taxed right out of business – just so that the state can fill a budget hole instead of making necessary and substantive ...
Business & Economics
It’s about free markets, not Texas
As California’s budget battle continues, Republicans and Democrats have engaged in a rhetorical battle regarding the relative merits and demerits of our lovely state and one of the nation’s other growing megastates —- Texas. This debate started after a legislative delegation made up mostly of Republicans went eastward in April ...
Business & Economics
Are low interest rates doing more harm than good? with Lee Hoskins
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announce that the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision would be to keep interest rates as they are for an extended period of time. PRI’s Lee Hoskins, Robert Heller, SDR Capital Market and William Ford, Middle Tennessee State University answer questions regarding the announcement and whether ...
Business & Economics
Brown Busts the Budget
The California Legislature just passed a budget. Less than 24 hours later, the governor vetoed it, leaving many scratching their heads why Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a budget from his own party. For the first time in history, the state budget has been vetoed, Brown said in a news conference. ...
Business & Economics
New consumer bureau will be a bust – guaranteed
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) formally begins operations. Republicans oppose President Obama’s top choice, Elizabeth Warren, to head the new bureau, which should not have been created in the first place. The CFPB will drive up prices, but won’t actually protect consumers. Consider first the sheer implausibility ...
Big Government and Health-Care Stocks: A Happy Marriage?
Please read the entire column at Forbes.com: The Apothecary.
Taking the Initiative
A series of bills pending in California’s state legislature would severely curtail the use of voters’ initiatives and referenda—and have already sparked a long-overdue debate about the virtues of direct democracy. Advocates for reform make some valid points about the problems with the initiative process; it’s certainly the case that ...
Educated Legislators, Bad Economy
California has the most educated legislators, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education study. Those stellar academic credentials, unfortunately, have not lifted the state from its economic malaise. California’s unemployment rate, as of May, is nearly 12 percent, higher than every state in the bottom five of the study. ...
Small-Business Health Care Tax Credits Are having a Miniscule Impact
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently surveyed 304 small business owners about how satisfied they were with the new healthcare reform laws tax credits. Nearly 90% had not applied for the credits. Some had no idea they existed, others were deemed ineligible, and more than a fifth found that ...
Legislators Cry “Less Power to the People”
California legislators —- who seem unable to come up with an honest balanced budget, who always seek tax increases, and who won’t pass even modest reforms to the state’s unfunded pension system or to anything else, for that matter —- want to blame the government’s problems on voters, rather than ...
California Amazon Tax Will Kill 25,000 Small Businesses
With the California legislature having just passed a flawed budget full of accounting tricks, budget gimmicks and money grabs, one area of small business is about to be taxed right out of business – just so that the state can fill a budget hole instead of making necessary and substantive ...
It’s about free markets, not Texas
As California’s budget battle continues, Republicans and Democrats have engaged in a rhetorical battle regarding the relative merits and demerits of our lovely state and one of the nation’s other growing megastates —- Texas. This debate started after a legislative delegation made up mostly of Republicans went eastward in April ...
Are low interest rates doing more harm than good? with Lee Hoskins
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announce that the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision would be to keep interest rates as they are for an extended period of time. PRI’s Lee Hoskins, Robert Heller, SDR Capital Market and William Ford, Middle Tennessee State University answer questions regarding the announcement and whether ...
Brown Busts the Budget
The California Legislature just passed a budget. Less than 24 hours later, the governor vetoed it, leaving many scratching their heads why Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a budget from his own party. For the first time in history, the state budget has been vetoed, Brown said in a news conference. ...
New consumer bureau will be a bust – guaranteed
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) formally begins operations. Republicans oppose President Obama’s top choice, Elizabeth Warren, to head the new bureau, which should not have been created in the first place. The CFPB will drive up prices, but won’t actually protect consumers. Consider first the sheer implausibility ...
