Housing
Business & Economics
Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain:( A Teacher’s Guide)
The Constitution was written to protect individual rights from government power. The Founders believed property rights to be one of the most important individual rights. Eminent Domain is the concept of government taking private property for public use. Fifth Amendment to the Constitution grants the power of eminent domain to ...
Business & Economics
Double dip looks doubly certain
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (MarketWatch) — Economists and financial analysts are currently arguing whether the economy will experience a “double dip,” a recession followed by a short recovery, followed by another recession. Some think the worst is behind us, and that output and employment will slowly but steadily increase during the next ...
Business & Economics
State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example
State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director In early June the California State Crime Lab Task Force voted to shut itself down. This unusual action sets a good example for other state entities, and for legislators looking to trim state government. Most ...
Business & Economics
Grab that redevelopment cash
SACRAMENTO Few things are more ironic, and infuriatingly funny, than listening to California’s notoriously ham-fisted redevelopment agencies complain about the state’s “theft” of redevelopment funds. Last week, California cities had to comply with a Sacramento Superior Court judge’s ruling requiring them to make the first of two payments transferring a ...
Business & Economics
Artificially low interest rates bad for economy
Ultra-low interest rates fueled the housing bubble, thanks to former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan’s direction. And Americans should brace for another crash because that practice has continued. The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee recently announced it would maintain a target of zero to 0.25 percent for the federal funds rate ...
Business & Economics
Bankers vs. Everyone
Libertarian Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” movement has gained the support of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). At the same time, anarchists in Greece riot against fiscal austerity measures, while organs of the strongest government on the planet—namely, the U.S. Justice Department and SEC—accuse ...
Health Care
Repeal and Replace, But With What?
Key Points: Republicans in Congress appear to be solidly committed to repealing ObamaCare. Republicans’ last attempt at reforming health insurance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), did not solve the problems of portability and coverage for pre-existing conditions, the stated goals of the Act. The official ...
Business & Economics
Pension crater much deeper
SACRAMENTO – A new report from Stanford University’s well-respected economic policy institute has revealed that those of us who have been warning about California’s severely underfunded public employee retirement systems have, quite frankly, been wrong. We have been understating the scope of the problem. Pension critics, myself included, have been ...
Business & Economics
A bone to pick with Bartlett on federal spending
Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Mike Pence recently called for a constitutional amendment limiting federal spending “to one-fifth of the economy.” Bruce Bartlett, a former official in the George H.W. Bush administration, promptly denounced the idea as “dopey,” one “terrible… on so many levels that it is hard to know where ...
Business & Economics
The $2 Trillion Hole
Promised pensions benefits for public-sector employees represent a massive overhang that threatens the financial future of many cities and states. LIKE A CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE, populist rage burns over bloated executive compensation and unrepentant avarice on Wall Street. Deserving as these targets may or may not be, most Americans have ignored ...
Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain:( A Teacher’s Guide)
The Constitution was written to protect individual rights from government power. The Founders believed property rights to be one of the most important individual rights. Eminent Domain is the concept of government taking private property for public use. Fifth Amendment to the Constitution grants the power of eminent domain to ...
Double dip looks doubly certain
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (MarketWatch) — Economists and financial analysts are currently arguing whether the economy will experience a “double dip,” a recession followed by a short recovery, followed by another recession. Some think the worst is behind us, and that output and employment will slowly but steadily increase during the next ...
State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example
State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director In early June the California State Crime Lab Task Force voted to shut itself down. This unusual action sets a good example for other state entities, and for legislators looking to trim state government. Most ...
Grab that redevelopment cash
SACRAMENTO Few things are more ironic, and infuriatingly funny, than listening to California’s notoriously ham-fisted redevelopment agencies complain about the state’s “theft” of redevelopment funds. Last week, California cities had to comply with a Sacramento Superior Court judge’s ruling requiring them to make the first of two payments transferring a ...
Artificially low interest rates bad for economy
Ultra-low interest rates fueled the housing bubble, thanks to former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan’s direction. And Americans should brace for another crash because that practice has continued. The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee recently announced it would maintain a target of zero to 0.25 percent for the federal funds rate ...
Bankers vs. Everyone
Libertarian Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” movement has gained the support of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). At the same time, anarchists in Greece riot against fiscal austerity measures, while organs of the strongest government on the planet—namely, the U.S. Justice Department and SEC—accuse ...
Repeal and Replace, But With What?
Key Points: Republicans in Congress appear to be solidly committed to repealing ObamaCare. Republicans’ last attempt at reforming health insurance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), did not solve the problems of portability and coverage for pre-existing conditions, the stated goals of the Act. The official ...
Pension crater much deeper
SACRAMENTO – A new report from Stanford University’s well-respected economic policy institute has revealed that those of us who have been warning about California’s severely underfunded public employee retirement systems have, quite frankly, been wrong. We have been understating the scope of the problem. Pension critics, myself included, have been ...
A bone to pick with Bartlett on federal spending
Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Mike Pence recently called for a constitutional amendment limiting federal spending “to one-fifth of the economy.” Bruce Bartlett, a former official in the George H.W. Bush administration, promptly denounced the idea as “dopey,” one “terrible… on so many levels that it is hard to know where ...
The $2 Trillion Hole
Promised pensions benefits for public-sector employees represent a massive overhang that threatens the financial future of many cities and states. LIKE A CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE, populist rage burns over bloated executive compensation and unrepentant avarice on Wall Street. Deserving as these targets may or may not be, most Americans have ignored ...
