Blog
Tough Times Ahead for California in 2026
But he won’t be alone. Difficult times are ahead for all Californians. According to Indian government data, that country’s GDP has reached $4.18 trillion in U.S. dollars. By 2030, India’s GDP is projected to be $7.3 trillion. The most recent numbers from the International Monetary Fund, posted in April 2025, has California at $4.1 trillion. The UCLA Anderson School ...
Blog
Energy Markets Still Punish Policy Weakness
Venezuela illustrates how quickly political dysfunction can translate into market risk. Once one of the world’s largest oil producers, the country has spent years constrained by mismanagement, corruption, and chronic instability. The consequence is not just lower output. It is persistent uncertainty that markets price in long before any formal ...
Agriculture
New paper on predator management looks at wolves in the western U.S.
The answer is nuanced and differs based on what each state hopes to achieve by having wolves living within the state’s borders. Each state in the western United States has either developed its own map for success or seems to be grappling with how to address a way forward now. ...
Blog
Treating Drug Trafficking Like a Security Threat Matters at Home
For decades, the United States has responded to drug trafficking primarily through domestic law enforcement and public health frameworks. Those approaches matter, but they hit a wall when drug supply chains are protected by political power abroad. At that point, local enforcement is reacting to the problem, not shaping it. ...
Blog
Deficits may save cities from democratic socialist pipedreams
Deficits may save cities from democratic socialist pipedreams By Sarah Downey | January 23, 2026 In New York City, the newly elected mayor, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, has pledged to make free or subsidize everything from rent to groceries, straining the city’s deficit to a projected $12 billion in 2027. ...
Blog
Trump and Newsom are odd bedfellows on housing policy
Now that many populist Republicans have largely abandoned free-market conservatism, it’s getting hard to distinguish dopey Democratic policy ideas from dopey Republican ones. Apparently, the Horseshoe Theory — where each end of the political spectrum is separated by the distance between the ends of a horseshoe rather than at the ends ...
Blog
Newsom’s ‘Sunny California Tale’ Masks Nightmare of Thousands Leaving the State
That splashy headline was based on the U-Haul company’s growth index, which each year “ranks states by their net gain (or loss) of customers who rented a one-way truck, trailer or U-Box® moving containers in one state and dropped off their equipment in another state.” Despite its world-renowned natural beauty, its reputation as ...
Blog
Sexual Assault at California’s Colleges and Universities: A Policy and Public Safety Issue
California Campus Data Clery data from California’s largest universities illustrate the scale of the issue: UC Berkeley and UCLA each reported 61 rapes in 2023. When adjusted for student population, this equates to rates of 184.5 per 100,000 students at UC Berkeley and 164 per 100,000 at UCLA—approximately four to six times the statewide ...
Blog
Newsom’s Proposed Ed Budget: Big Spending, Little Results
Under Newsom’s proposed budget, state and local education funding under Proposition 98 would come to $121.4 billion. If one combines funding from all sources, including federal dollars, then the budget would include $149.1 billion in total funding for all TK (transitional kindergarten)-12 education programs. These huge budget amounts translate into ...
Blog
Privatized cities are experiments in freedom, not feudalism
Privatized cities are experiments in freedom, not feudalism by Sal Rodriguez | January 16, 2026 As long as there have been people and organized societies, there have been people who want to break out of existing jurisdictions to form new ones governed by different ideas and different rules. A recent ...
Tough Times Ahead for California in 2026
But he won’t be alone. Difficult times are ahead for all Californians. According to Indian government data, that country’s GDP has reached $4.18 trillion in U.S. dollars. By 2030, India’s GDP is projected to be $7.3 trillion. The most recent numbers from the International Monetary Fund, posted in April 2025, has California at $4.1 trillion. The UCLA Anderson School ...
Energy Markets Still Punish Policy Weakness
Venezuela illustrates how quickly political dysfunction can translate into market risk. Once one of the world’s largest oil producers, the country has spent years constrained by mismanagement, corruption, and chronic instability. The consequence is not just lower output. It is persistent uncertainty that markets price in long before any formal ...
New paper on predator management looks at wolves in the western U.S.
The answer is nuanced and differs based on what each state hopes to achieve by having wolves living within the state’s borders. Each state in the western United States has either developed its own map for success or seems to be grappling with how to address a way forward now. ...
Treating Drug Trafficking Like a Security Threat Matters at Home
For decades, the United States has responded to drug trafficking primarily through domestic law enforcement and public health frameworks. Those approaches matter, but they hit a wall when drug supply chains are protected by political power abroad. At that point, local enforcement is reacting to the problem, not shaping it. ...
Deficits may save cities from democratic socialist pipedreams
Deficits may save cities from democratic socialist pipedreams By Sarah Downey | January 23, 2026 In New York City, the newly elected mayor, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, has pledged to make free or subsidize everything from rent to groceries, straining the city’s deficit to a projected $12 billion in 2027. ...
Trump and Newsom are odd bedfellows on housing policy
Now that many populist Republicans have largely abandoned free-market conservatism, it’s getting hard to distinguish dopey Democratic policy ideas from dopey Republican ones. Apparently, the Horseshoe Theory — where each end of the political spectrum is separated by the distance between the ends of a horseshoe rather than at the ends ...
Newsom’s ‘Sunny California Tale’ Masks Nightmare of Thousands Leaving the State
That splashy headline was based on the U-Haul company’s growth index, which each year “ranks states by their net gain (or loss) of customers who rented a one-way truck, trailer or U-Box® moving containers in one state and dropped off their equipment in another state.” Despite its world-renowned natural beauty, its reputation as ...
Sexual Assault at California’s Colleges and Universities: A Policy and Public Safety Issue
California Campus Data Clery data from California’s largest universities illustrate the scale of the issue: UC Berkeley and UCLA each reported 61 rapes in 2023. When adjusted for student population, this equates to rates of 184.5 per 100,000 students at UC Berkeley and 164 per 100,000 at UCLA—approximately four to six times the statewide ...
Newsom’s Proposed Ed Budget: Big Spending, Little Results
Under Newsom’s proposed budget, state and local education funding under Proposition 98 would come to $121.4 billion. If one combines funding from all sources, including federal dollars, then the budget would include $149.1 billion in total funding for all TK (transitional kindergarten)-12 education programs. These huge budget amounts translate into ...
Privatized cities are experiments in freedom, not feudalism
Privatized cities are experiments in freedom, not feudalism by Sal Rodriguez | January 16, 2026 As long as there have been people and organized societies, there have been people who want to break out of existing jurisdictions to form new ones governed by different ideas and different rules. A recent ...
