Business & Economics
Business & Economics
CAPITAL IDEAS: Reforming California’s Pension System
California governments owe their current and future retirees maybe as much as $600 billion. But the governments aren’t going to pay. Taxpayers will be handed the bill, and in some cities, each household is on the hook for more than $50,000. In at least one municipality, the household share of ...
Business & Economics
Cigarette Tax Hike Initiative A Bridge Too Far
It seems there is a never-ending war on “sin” and a desire by some to try and tax it away. This includes higher taxes on snacks and cigarettes, among other items. As to the latter item, California voters will weigh in with a November ballot proposal to hike California’s cigarette ...
Business & Economics
Public employee pensions an enormous problem
In January 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown bragged about the state’s new commitment to fiscal responsibility. He talked about “living within our means and not spending what we don’t have.” A year later, in his State of the State address, Brown insisted that “fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our ...
Business & Economics
Proposed Regulatory Expansion Threatens The Education Market
The federal government has taken over the student loan market and currently guarantees (or directly holds) about 90 percent of the 40 million student loans valued in excess of $1.2 trillion. The millions of people at risk of defaulting on this huge student loan portfolio is a large and growing ...
Business & Economics
Improving the Incentive to Innovate
PRI Releases New Brief on the Benefits of Improving Incentives for Health Care Innovations San Francisco, June 22, 2015 – The Pacific Research Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in San Francisco, today announced the release of a new brief: “Improving the Incentive to Innovate: An Important Benefit of ...
Business & Economics
By Killing Off Ride-Sharing, Austin Puts It In Reverse
“Keep Austin Weird” is a slogan dreamed up by the Texas city’s independent business alliance to promote local businesses and to keep national corporations out of the city. By recently regulating ride-sharing companies out of business, Austin became more than just weird — it’s now perfectly unique. The supposed tech ...
Agriculture
Gov. Brown exceeds his authority on greenhouse gas limits
When Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order last year mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, he said he did it for California’s future. But his motives were irrelevant. He broke the law, says the state’s legislative counsel. “We think the determination ...
Business & Economics
Who’s Afraid of Anti-Inversion Rules?
Swift and merciless. That was the apparent effect the U.S. Treasury’s April 4 regulatory package had on what was poised to be the largest inversion in history. But several pending inversions have emerged relatively unscathed, and experts are predicting continued corporate exodus, raising questions about what exactly Treasury has accomplished. ...
Agriculture
CAPITAL IDEAS: Market-Driven Solutions to Relieve Drought
This legislative session, California could take an important step toward creating a true water market to meet the needs of cities, farmers and the environment with the Open and Transparent Water Data Act (Assembly Bill 1755). It’s hard to solve a problem when we don’t have all the facts and ...
Business & Economics
Regulating the Upstream Energy Industry: Getting the Balance Right
Read Full Study New Study: State Regulations Have Outsized Impact on Energy Industry’s Health SAN FRANCISCO (May 31) — Natural resources don’t respect state boundaries. Consequently, states’ energy regulations are among the prime determinants of whether a state benefits from its resource wealth — or lets those benefits accrue to ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Reforming California’s Pension System
California governments owe their current and future retirees maybe as much as $600 billion. But the governments aren’t going to pay. Taxpayers will be handed the bill, and in some cities, each household is on the hook for more than $50,000. In at least one municipality, the household share of ...
Cigarette Tax Hike Initiative A Bridge Too Far
It seems there is a never-ending war on “sin” and a desire by some to try and tax it away. This includes higher taxes on snacks and cigarettes, among other items. As to the latter item, California voters will weigh in with a November ballot proposal to hike California’s cigarette ...
Public employee pensions an enormous problem
In January 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown bragged about the state’s new commitment to fiscal responsibility. He talked about “living within our means and not spending what we don’t have.” A year later, in his State of the State address, Brown insisted that “fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our ...
Proposed Regulatory Expansion Threatens The Education Market
The federal government has taken over the student loan market and currently guarantees (or directly holds) about 90 percent of the 40 million student loans valued in excess of $1.2 trillion. The millions of people at risk of defaulting on this huge student loan portfolio is a large and growing ...
Improving the Incentive to Innovate
PRI Releases New Brief on the Benefits of Improving Incentives for Health Care Innovations San Francisco, June 22, 2015 – The Pacific Research Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in San Francisco, today announced the release of a new brief: “Improving the Incentive to Innovate: An Important Benefit of ...
By Killing Off Ride-Sharing, Austin Puts It In Reverse
“Keep Austin Weird” is a slogan dreamed up by the Texas city’s independent business alliance to promote local businesses and to keep national corporations out of the city. By recently regulating ride-sharing companies out of business, Austin became more than just weird — it’s now perfectly unique. The supposed tech ...
Gov. Brown exceeds his authority on greenhouse gas limits
When Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order last year mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, he said he did it for California’s future. But his motives were irrelevant. He broke the law, says the state’s legislative counsel. “We think the determination ...
Who’s Afraid of Anti-Inversion Rules?
Swift and merciless. That was the apparent effect the U.S. Treasury’s April 4 regulatory package had on what was poised to be the largest inversion in history. But several pending inversions have emerged relatively unscathed, and experts are predicting continued corporate exodus, raising questions about what exactly Treasury has accomplished. ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Market-Driven Solutions to Relieve Drought
This legislative session, California could take an important step toward creating a true water market to meet the needs of cities, farmers and the environment with the Open and Transparent Water Data Act (Assembly Bill 1755). It’s hard to solve a problem when we don’t have all the facts and ...
Regulating the Upstream Energy Industry: Getting the Balance Right
Read Full Study New Study: State Regulations Have Outsized Impact on Energy Industry’s Health SAN FRANCISCO (May 31) — Natural resources don’t respect state boundaries. Consequently, states’ energy regulations are among the prime determinants of whether a state benefits from its resource wealth — or lets those benefits accrue to ...
