Business & Economics
Business & Economics
No easy solutions for U.S., Japan to revive economies
Effective policy approaches should be similar for both the U.S. and Japan even though their economies differ in important respects, said Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow of the Pacific Research Institute.
Business & Economics
California’s tax tactics undermine prosperity
California’s bond rating is the country’s lowest. The state faces near unprecedented unemployment and underemployment. State government and most counties face deficits for the foreseeable future. The solution to this predicament, some Sacramento politicians believe, is more taxes. The underlying assumption of such an approach is that taxes don’t have ...
Business & Economics
Who could blame us for cussing?
SACRAMENTO California’s union-dominated, Democratic-controlled Legislature is temperamentally incapable of fixing the state’s structural budget deficit, given that such a fix would require reduced government spending and the granting of fewer benefits to the state’s class of government workers. As Rome burned, legislators last week debated a meaningless “no-cussing” measure, which ...
Business & Economics
The Road To Serfdom
Steven Greenhut appeared on Fox Business’ The John Stossel Show to discuss the road to serfdom and public employee pension programs.
Business & Economics
Another Roosevelt? More like Barack Hoover
President Obama has been talking tough on deficit reduction, but many left-leaning pundits and economists warn that such rhetoric will prolong the economic slump. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow warned that Obamas proposed partial spending freeze was Herbert Hoovers strategy, while Budget Director Peter Orszag cautioned that FDRs attempt in 1937 ...
Business & Economics
‘Jobs’ bills: Why they fizzle
California’s unemployment rate is more than 12 percent, prompting state Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s new plan to create some 140,000 jobs. The plan, unfortunately, has a problem. Steinberg’s plan consists of several measures, each expected to create a specific number of jobs. Yet when tallying up the number ...
Business & Economics
Retreat from pension reform fight
SACRAMENTO Anyone who thinks that gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman offers much hope for fixing the state’s structural fiscal mess should now wonder whether the billionaire former eBay chief executive might end up being nothing more than another Arnold Schwarzenegger a governor who sometimes talks a good game but who, ...
Business & Economics
Greetings from California
I simply noted that California has very high tax rates, a bloated and expensive government bureaucracy, and one of the largest public sectors (as measured by government spending as a share of state economic output) in the country. This excellent report from the Pacific Research Institute has plenty of details.
Business & Economics
Sacramento takes aim at free parking
San Francisco Business Times, February 26, 2010 Californians know that a free parking space is hard to find. Such spaces may be even harder to find under SB 518, proposed by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach). Like much of what emerges from Sacramento, the measure is at least instructive.
Business & Economics
Medical malpractice back on the table?
A spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association, Darren McKinney, suggested that those estimates are too low and pointed to other studies that have found more significant potential for savings. Lawrence McQuillan of the Pacific Research Institute, for example, has suggested that defensive medicine costs $191 billion a year, which ...
No easy solutions for U.S., Japan to revive economies
Effective policy approaches should be similar for both the U.S. and Japan even though their economies differ in important respects, said Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow of the Pacific Research Institute.
California’s tax tactics undermine prosperity
California’s bond rating is the country’s lowest. The state faces near unprecedented unemployment and underemployment. State government and most counties face deficits for the foreseeable future. The solution to this predicament, some Sacramento politicians believe, is more taxes. The underlying assumption of such an approach is that taxes don’t have ...
Who could blame us for cussing?
SACRAMENTO California’s union-dominated, Democratic-controlled Legislature is temperamentally incapable of fixing the state’s structural budget deficit, given that such a fix would require reduced government spending and the granting of fewer benefits to the state’s class of government workers. As Rome burned, legislators last week debated a meaningless “no-cussing” measure, which ...
The Road To Serfdom
Steven Greenhut appeared on Fox Business’ The John Stossel Show to discuss the road to serfdom and public employee pension programs.
Another Roosevelt? More like Barack Hoover
President Obama has been talking tough on deficit reduction, but many left-leaning pundits and economists warn that such rhetoric will prolong the economic slump. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow warned that Obamas proposed partial spending freeze was Herbert Hoovers strategy, while Budget Director Peter Orszag cautioned that FDRs attempt in 1937 ...
‘Jobs’ bills: Why they fizzle
California’s unemployment rate is more than 12 percent, prompting state Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s new plan to create some 140,000 jobs. The plan, unfortunately, has a problem. Steinberg’s plan consists of several measures, each expected to create a specific number of jobs. Yet when tallying up the number ...
Retreat from pension reform fight
SACRAMENTO Anyone who thinks that gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman offers much hope for fixing the state’s structural fiscal mess should now wonder whether the billionaire former eBay chief executive might end up being nothing more than another Arnold Schwarzenegger a governor who sometimes talks a good game but who, ...
Greetings from California
I simply noted that California has very high tax rates, a bloated and expensive government bureaucracy, and one of the largest public sectors (as measured by government spending as a share of state economic output) in the country. This excellent report from the Pacific Research Institute has plenty of details.
Sacramento takes aim at free parking
San Francisco Business Times, February 26, 2010 Californians know that a free parking space is hard to find. Such spaces may be even harder to find under SB 518, proposed by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach). Like much of what emerges from Sacramento, the measure is at least instructive.
Medical malpractice back on the table?
A spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association, Darren McKinney, suggested that those estimates are too low and pointed to other studies that have found more significant potential for savings. Lawrence McQuillan of the Pacific Research Institute, for example, has suggested that defensive medicine costs $191 billion a year, which ...
