Business & Economics
Business & Economics
If We Can’t Get Price Transparency, Let’s Try Calorie Transparency
Who knows why Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB-1420, a silly law that requires chain restaurants (a.k.a. fast-food joints) to post calorie-counts of their burgers, fries, and shakes on the menu-boards. Maybe sign-makers lobbied for it? I doubt it: Governor Schwarzenegger is a huge supporter of the nanny-state when it comes to ...
Business & Economics
Blatant Contradictions From Larry Kudlow
I have always liked Larry Kudlow. When I was growing up as a budding free marketeer, there was a natural disaster (I don’t remember which one) and everyone was calling for the president (must have been Reagan) to disburse disaster assistance for rebuilding. I didn’t like that answer, but I ...
Business & Economics
Sacramento sellout
Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
Business & Economics
Northeast policies oppress enterprise
THE RESULTS ARE IN, and for residents of America’s Northeast, the news is not good. With the notable exception of New Hampshire, the nine states of the Northeast continue to be the worst places for economic freedom. According to the 2008 U.S. Economic Freedom Index from the Pacific Research Institute, ...
Business & Economics
Sacramento Sell-Out: Even the Laws Have a Price
Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
Business & Economics
Riding the Revenue Rollercoaster
After a record impasse, the sages of Sacramento have finally agreed on a budget for California, a $144-billion bonanza with unprecedented general fund spending but without structural reform in the state’s finances. The boom-bust revenue rollercoaster is still in place, and Californians can expect a bigger budget crisis in a ...
Business & Economics
Federal Reserve Employs Tools to Ease Credit Fears
JIM LEHRER: This day in the financial crisis began with the Federal Reserve. It took the unprecedented move to buy short-term debt to thaw out frozen credit markets. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out just how bad those conditions are during a speech today. BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve Chairman: Even ...
Business & Economics
Whether McCain or Obama, Tech Policy Is Bound to Change
Technology policy is not center stage in this year’s presidential campaign, much as the competitive community might wish otherwise. Each candidate – Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. — is consumed with weightier subjects, namely the economy and Iraq, analysts and industry insiders say. That’s not to say ...
Business & Economics
A Strike Against Labor
If one were looking to make a statement about fiscal prudence in the $3.3 billion budget for the University of California system, wiping out a single $5.4 million research program probably wouldn’t be how you’d do it. Which suggests that, despite his remarks to the contrary, there was probably another ...
Business & Economics
A Lesson both Modern and Ancient for the Tax Commission
Now that the legislative session is over and Speaker Karen Bass is contemplating her commission on taxation, I want to recommend a piece in the September 25th Sacramento Bee by Jason Clemens of the Pacific Research Institute. Clemens, a Canadian, tells the tale of how Canada’s left leaning political party ...
If We Can’t Get Price Transparency, Let’s Try Calorie Transparency
Who knows why Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB-1420, a silly law that requires chain restaurants (a.k.a. fast-food joints) to post calorie-counts of their burgers, fries, and shakes on the menu-boards. Maybe sign-makers lobbied for it? I doubt it: Governor Schwarzenegger is a huge supporter of the nanny-state when it comes to ...
Blatant Contradictions From Larry Kudlow
I have always liked Larry Kudlow. When I was growing up as a budding free marketeer, there was a natural disaster (I don’t remember which one) and everyone was calling for the president (must have been Reagan) to disburse disaster assistance for rebuilding. I didn’t like that answer, but I ...
Sacramento sellout
Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
Northeast policies oppress enterprise
THE RESULTS ARE IN, and for residents of America’s Northeast, the news is not good. With the notable exception of New Hampshire, the nine states of the Northeast continue to be the worst places for economic freedom. According to the 2008 U.S. Economic Freedom Index from the Pacific Research Institute, ...
Sacramento Sell-Out: Even the Laws Have a Price
Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
Riding the Revenue Rollercoaster
After a record impasse, the sages of Sacramento have finally agreed on a budget for California, a $144-billion bonanza with unprecedented general fund spending but without structural reform in the state’s finances. The boom-bust revenue rollercoaster is still in place, and Californians can expect a bigger budget crisis in a ...
Federal Reserve Employs Tools to Ease Credit Fears
JIM LEHRER: This day in the financial crisis began with the Federal Reserve. It took the unprecedented move to buy short-term debt to thaw out frozen credit markets. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out just how bad those conditions are during a speech today. BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve Chairman: Even ...
Whether McCain or Obama, Tech Policy Is Bound to Change
Technology policy is not center stage in this year’s presidential campaign, much as the competitive community might wish otherwise. Each candidate – Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. — is consumed with weightier subjects, namely the economy and Iraq, analysts and industry insiders say. That’s not to say ...
A Strike Against Labor
If one were looking to make a statement about fiscal prudence in the $3.3 billion budget for the University of California system, wiping out a single $5.4 million research program probably wouldn’t be how you’d do it. Which suggests that, despite his remarks to the contrary, there was probably another ...
A Lesson both Modern and Ancient for the Tax Commission
Now that the legislative session is over and Speaker Karen Bass is contemplating her commission on taxation, I want to recommend a piece in the September 25th Sacramento Bee by Jason Clemens of the Pacific Research Institute. Clemens, a Canadian, tells the tale of how Canada’s left leaning political party ...
