Business & Economics
Business & Economics
GOP gets undeserved second chance
SACRAMENTO – President Barack Obama saved the Republican Party from itself. In a two-party system, when one party makes a mess of things, the only choice is to reward the other party and hope that, eventually, one of the parties learns the right lessons. The Democrats received a well-deserved comeuppance, ...
Business & Economics
In California gubernatorial election, outdated ideas linger
With the gubernatorial election tomorrow, Jerry Brown appears to have opened up a sizeable lead. Women are emerging as a bulwark of support for Brown, as they favor him by 21 points, according to the latest Los Angeles Times/USC poll. That’s surprising, as Brown’s stance on mammograms could not be ...
Business & Economics
Memo to DC: Don’t follow California’s bad example
In instance after instance, Washington has mimicked the failed policies of the Golden State. For the sake of the nation, it’s time Washington stopped following California and started heading in a new direction. Between the budget and legislation such as Obamacare, the Democrats have proposed large-scale increases in taxes on ...
Business & Economics
Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain:( A Teacher’s Guide)
The Constitution was written to protect individual rights from government power. The Founders believed property rights to be one of the most important individual rights. Eminent Domain is the concept of government taking private property for public use. Fifth Amendment to the Constitution grants the power of eminent domain to ...
Business & Economics
World Series policy lessons
Much of California and Texas are in a state of baseball euphoria. Either the San Francisco Giants or the Texas Rangers will win their first World Series title this week. (The Giants won it in 1954 but were a New York team then.) Unfortunately for Californians, the shared state of ...
Business & Economics
Scariest things on the ballot
While the rest of the nation is about to enjoy a much-needed corrective to President Barack Obama’s big-government fright fest, Californians can expect election results that range from disappointing to depressing. Perhaps it’s fitting that pre-election hysteria peaks right at Halloween. There are scary candidates on the ballot. We’ve got ...
Business & Economics
The government is paying people not to work
This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics went to Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen, and Christopher Pissarides for their work on “search theory,” especially as applied to labor markets. The irony is that their award-winning work provides peer-reviewed justification for a commonsense solution to high unemployment. Continuous extensions of unemployment benefits ...
Business & Economics
Proposition 23 and California Employment
Proposition 23, on next Tuesday’s ballot, would suspend the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) until the state unemployment rate, now 12.4 percent, declines to 5.5 percent for four quarters. A new study published by the Pacific Research Institute examines the employment implications of ...
Business & Economics
Costs and Consequences: Rate-of-Return Biases, Rate Suppression, and Market Incentives for Quality in Property/Casualty Insurance Regulation
The imposition of legal and regulatory constraints on market pricesprice controls, or rate suppression in the case of the property/casualty insurance marketis an important tool with which public officials can effect wealth transfers among groups and economic sectors. Rate suppression can take the form of allowed rates too low to ...
Business & Economics
California can’t mess with Texas
A study two years ago found that California substantially lagged behind Texas economically, based on the two states’ taxes, regulatory policies and government spending. That study, performed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, recently was updated. Not only does California continue to lag but, by comparison, it “has become even ...
GOP gets undeserved second chance
SACRAMENTO – President Barack Obama saved the Republican Party from itself. In a two-party system, when one party makes a mess of things, the only choice is to reward the other party and hope that, eventually, one of the parties learns the right lessons. The Democrats received a well-deserved comeuppance, ...
In California gubernatorial election, outdated ideas linger
With the gubernatorial election tomorrow, Jerry Brown appears to have opened up a sizeable lead. Women are emerging as a bulwark of support for Brown, as they favor him by 21 points, according to the latest Los Angeles Times/USC poll. That’s surprising, as Brown’s stance on mammograms could not be ...
Memo to DC: Don’t follow California’s bad example
In instance after instance, Washington has mimicked the failed policies of the Golden State. For the sake of the nation, it’s time Washington stopped following California and started heading in a new direction. Between the budget and legislation such as Obamacare, the Democrats have proposed large-scale increases in taxes on ...
Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain:( A Teacher’s Guide)
The Constitution was written to protect individual rights from government power. The Founders believed property rights to be one of the most important individual rights. Eminent Domain is the concept of government taking private property for public use. Fifth Amendment to the Constitution grants the power of eminent domain to ...
World Series policy lessons
Much of California and Texas are in a state of baseball euphoria. Either the San Francisco Giants or the Texas Rangers will win their first World Series title this week. (The Giants won it in 1954 but were a New York team then.) Unfortunately for Californians, the shared state of ...
Scariest things on the ballot
While the rest of the nation is about to enjoy a much-needed corrective to President Barack Obama’s big-government fright fest, Californians can expect election results that range from disappointing to depressing. Perhaps it’s fitting that pre-election hysteria peaks right at Halloween. There are scary candidates on the ballot. We’ve got ...
The government is paying people not to work
This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics went to Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen, and Christopher Pissarides for their work on “search theory,” especially as applied to labor markets. The irony is that their award-winning work provides peer-reviewed justification for a commonsense solution to high unemployment. Continuous extensions of unemployment benefits ...
Proposition 23 and California Employment
Proposition 23, on next Tuesday’s ballot, would suspend the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) until the state unemployment rate, now 12.4 percent, declines to 5.5 percent for four quarters. A new study published by the Pacific Research Institute examines the employment implications of ...
Costs and Consequences: Rate-of-Return Biases, Rate Suppression, and Market Incentives for Quality in Property/Casualty Insurance Regulation
The imposition of legal and regulatory constraints on market pricesprice controls, or rate suppression in the case of the property/casualty insurance marketis an important tool with which public officials can effect wealth transfers among groups and economic sectors. Rate suppression can take the form of allowed rates too low to ...
California can’t mess with Texas
A study two years ago found that California substantially lagged behind Texas economically, based on the two states’ taxes, regulatory policies and government spending. That study, performed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, recently was updated. Not only does California continue to lag but, by comparison, it “has become even ...
