Housing
California
Where’s the Passion for CEQA Reform?
The roots of California’s environmental regulations can be traced back to 1884. That’s the year a federal judge ordered miners to stop using water cannons to batter the Sierra hillsides to separate gold from the soil and rock, but also left behind a broken and ugly landscape. The process, called ...
California
Making Housing More Affordable
Gov. Jerry Brown is an easy target for the conservative- and libertarian-minded, both from within and without of California. He’s in many ways the quintessential big-government Democrat. But not everything Brown does is wrong. Consider, for instance, his level-headed plan for getting government out of the way of developers who ...
California
Admission By California’s State Attorney May Blow Union’s Case
During this week’s much-anticipated oral arguments in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association U.S. Supreme Court case, which challenges mandatory teacher-union fees, a critical exchange took place between Justice Antonin Scalia, who is viewed as the swing vote in the case, and the attorney representing the State of California. The ...
Business & Economics
Lessons from the San Francisco Airbnb Fight
In 1979, the Pacific Research Institute opened its doors in San Francisco. Jimmy Carter was President; Diane Feinstein was mayor; and Brian Chesky, the founder of home-sharing platform Airbnb, was still two years away from being born. San Francisco voters this month gave Chesky and Airbnb a win, defeating Proposition ...
Commentary
U.S. Has the Worst Health Care? Not By a Long Shot
Few complaints about the U.S. healthcare system are as common as the claim that we spend too much on health care and get too little for all that spending in return especially compared to other industrialized nations. A new Commonwealth Fund report is the latest to indict U.S. health ...
California
Bay Area growth: Why not spread out into rural land instead of building in cities?
The last two centuries have brought unprecedented urbanization around the world. Large cities have become the norm by meeting the aspirations of new residents. Cities are primarily economic organisms and are justified only by improving the lives of their residents, by facilitating higher discretionary incomes and reducing poverty. However, in ...
Business & Economics
New Pacific Research Institute Study Finds that “Plan Bay Area” Will Drive Housing Prices Higher, Intensify Traffic, and Increase Air Pollution
The Pacific Research Institute released a new study on the proposed Plan Bay Area. The study describes the proposals regulatory overreach and its detrimental consequences for Bay Area residents and the metropolitan economy. In addition, the study shows that improved fuel efficiency by 2035 will more than meet the requirements ...
Commentary
Beware of a Forestry Standard Monopoly
Before any policy is changed, the potential economic consequences that they can cause should be considered. The Community Reinvestment Act and other affordable housing regulations, for instance, were supposed to increase loan availability to under-served communities. Unintentionally, these regulations played an important role in creating the housing boom and bust ...
Business & Economics
Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
Business & Economics
FOR STATE BUDGET, NOTHING TO ‘LIKE’ ABOUT FACEBOOK IPO
Facebooks stock price is currently hovering just above its all-time low. Shares have lost nearly half their value since they hit the market in May. The social networks executives, employees and investors arent the only ones disappointed by the stocks underperformance. The state of California was hoping for roughly $2 ...
Where’s the Passion for CEQA Reform?
The roots of California’s environmental regulations can be traced back to 1884. That’s the year a federal judge ordered miners to stop using water cannons to batter the Sierra hillsides to separate gold from the soil and rock, but also left behind a broken and ugly landscape. The process, called ...
Making Housing More Affordable
Gov. Jerry Brown is an easy target for the conservative- and libertarian-minded, both from within and without of California. He’s in many ways the quintessential big-government Democrat. But not everything Brown does is wrong. Consider, for instance, his level-headed plan for getting government out of the way of developers who ...
Admission By California’s State Attorney May Blow Union’s Case
During this week’s much-anticipated oral arguments in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association U.S. Supreme Court case, which challenges mandatory teacher-union fees, a critical exchange took place between Justice Antonin Scalia, who is viewed as the swing vote in the case, and the attorney representing the State of California. The ...
Lessons from the San Francisco Airbnb Fight
In 1979, the Pacific Research Institute opened its doors in San Francisco. Jimmy Carter was President; Diane Feinstein was mayor; and Brian Chesky, the founder of home-sharing platform Airbnb, was still two years away from being born. San Francisco voters this month gave Chesky and Airbnb a win, defeating Proposition ...
U.S. Has the Worst Health Care? Not By a Long Shot
Few complaints about the U.S. healthcare system are as common as the claim that we spend too much on health care and get too little for all that spending in return especially compared to other industrialized nations. A new Commonwealth Fund report is the latest to indict U.S. health ...
Bay Area growth: Why not spread out into rural land instead of building in cities?
The last two centuries have brought unprecedented urbanization around the world. Large cities have become the norm by meeting the aspirations of new residents. Cities are primarily economic organisms and are justified only by improving the lives of their residents, by facilitating higher discretionary incomes and reducing poverty. However, in ...
New Pacific Research Institute Study Finds that “Plan Bay Area” Will Drive Housing Prices Higher, Intensify Traffic, and Increase Air Pollution
The Pacific Research Institute released a new study on the proposed Plan Bay Area. The study describes the proposals regulatory overreach and its detrimental consequences for Bay Area residents and the metropolitan economy. In addition, the study shows that improved fuel efficiency by 2035 will more than meet the requirements ...
Beware of a Forestry Standard Monopoly
Before any policy is changed, the potential economic consequences that they can cause should be considered. The Community Reinvestment Act and other affordable housing regulations, for instance, were supposed to increase loan availability to under-served communities. Unintentionally, these regulations played an important role in creating the housing boom and bust ...
Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
FOR STATE BUDGET, NOTHING TO ‘LIKE’ ABOUT FACEBOOK IPO
Facebooks stock price is currently hovering just above its all-time low. Shares have lost nearly half their value since they hit the market in May. The social networks executives, employees and investors arent the only ones disappointed by the stocks underperformance. The state of California was hoping for roughly $2 ...
