Business & Economics
Business & Economics
California’s recipe for stagnation
As legislators finished their session and scattered to their home districts this week without a realistic budget plan and two months after the deadline for approving a budget, one cannot help but wonder if our elected leaders truly grasp the depths of economic crisis and despair facing Californians. Unemployment in ...
Business & Economics
State budget mess a comedy, or tragedy?
SACRAMENTO – As entertainment goes, the final regular-season episode of the Budget Show in the Capitol was shoddy. The actors – the Assembly members and senators – are B-rate. The speeches, despite their strained attempts to sound Kennedy-esque, were pretentious. Those of us in the audience sometimes rolled our eyes ...
Business & Economics
Pension escape routes being cut
I’ve frequently argued that, as the state faces an unfunded pension liability that’s as high as $500 billion, legislators are not doing anything about a problem that is depleting public services and imposing additional debt and tax burdens on Californians. In fact, the state’s legislators are doing something: They are ...
Business & Economics
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Business & Economics
Scrutiny for lobbyists
Recent scandals, runaway spending and ongoing fiscal crises have all boosted interest in lobbying. Washington, D.C., draws much of the new interest, but states, including Maryland, also deserve scrutiny. According to “State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers: How Much Do We Really Know?” — our recent report for the Pacific Research Institute ...
Business & Economics
Prop. 22 protects corporate welfare
SACRAMENTO – It’s always entertaining watching various tax consumers fight with one another over a shrinking revenue pie, which makes the Proposition 22 campaign a spectacle. Despite the chatter from supporters about “saving local services” and stopping Sacramento from “raiding” local treasuries, this November initiative simply pits different government groups ...
Business & Economics
20 years later: Self esteem movement was utopian hucksterism
Twenty years ago, a California state document was flying off the shelves. “Toward a State of Esteem” was the final report of the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility. That body shut down in 1990, but Californians have good reason to look back. Then-Assemblyman John ...
Business & Economics
Corruption in America
ANNONCER: Welcome to a special edition of “Money Rocks: Corruption in America, the Bolling Files with Eric Bolling.” Jerry Brown’s investigating the corrupt town of Bell, California, but a law firm connected with that city’s attorney forked over thousands to Brown’s election campaign. This bell is cracked. When are the ...
Business & Economics
Democrats picking on oil companies
SACRAMENTO – Legislators are more than six weeks past the constitutional deadline for passing a state budget, yet the state’s majority Democrats last week weren’t even holding budget hearings. Why bother? The state is $19 billion in the red, but the two sides aren’t even close to coming to terms. ...
California’s recipe for stagnation
As legislators finished their session and scattered to their home districts this week without a realistic budget plan and two months after the deadline for approving a budget, one cannot help but wonder if our elected leaders truly grasp the depths of economic crisis and despair facing Californians. Unemployment in ...
State budget mess a comedy, or tragedy?
SACRAMENTO – As entertainment goes, the final regular-season episode of the Budget Show in the Capitol was shoddy. The actors – the Assembly members and senators – are B-rate. The speeches, despite their strained attempts to sound Kennedy-esque, were pretentious. Those of us in the audience sometimes rolled our eyes ...
Pension escape routes being cut
I’ve frequently argued that, as the state faces an unfunded pension liability that’s as high as $500 billion, legislators are not doing anything about a problem that is depleting public services and imposing additional debt and tax burdens on Californians. In fact, the state’s legislators are doing something: They are ...
Become a Facebook Fan
Pacific Research Institute Promote Your Page Too Pacific Research Institute Promote Your Page Too
Scrutiny for lobbyists
Recent scandals, runaway spending and ongoing fiscal crises have all boosted interest in lobbying. Washington, D.C., draws much of the new interest, but states, including Maryland, also deserve scrutiny. According to “State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers: How Much Do We Really Know?” — our recent report for the Pacific Research Institute ...
Prop. 22 protects corporate welfare
SACRAMENTO – It’s always entertaining watching various tax consumers fight with one another over a shrinking revenue pie, which makes the Proposition 22 campaign a spectacle. Despite the chatter from supporters about “saving local services” and stopping Sacramento from “raiding” local treasuries, this November initiative simply pits different government groups ...
20 years later: Self esteem movement was utopian hucksterism
Twenty years ago, a California state document was flying off the shelves. “Toward a State of Esteem” was the final report of the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility. That body shut down in 1990, but Californians have good reason to look back. Then-Assemblyman John ...
Corruption in America
ANNONCER: Welcome to a special edition of “Money Rocks: Corruption in America, the Bolling Files with Eric Bolling.” Jerry Brown’s investigating the corrupt town of Bell, California, but a law firm connected with that city’s attorney forked over thousands to Brown’s election campaign. This bell is cracked. When are the ...
Democrats picking on oil companies
SACRAMENTO – Legislators are more than six weeks past the constitutional deadline for passing a state budget, yet the state’s majority Democrats last week weren’t even holding budget hearings. Why bother? The state is $19 billion in the red, but the two sides aren’t even close to coming to terms. ...
