Blog
Blog
A Prescription for Homelessness That Would Actually Clean Up our Streets
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered his annual State of the State address at the State Capitol. And in an unusual twist, he devoted the entire address to one topic – homelessness. Typically, the State of the State outlines a governor’s policy wish list in a variety of areas. Newsom ...
Tim Anaya
February 25, 2020
Blog
CCPA, California Get It Wrong on Data Privacy
Data privacy is one of the defining public policy debates of the new decade. As other countries push data privacy regulation heralded as global standards, California is headed in the other direction with the rollout of the state’s Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA. Unfortunately, the CCPA was not a ...
Evan Harris
February 24, 2020
Blog
What We’re Watching – February 21, 2020
Tim Anaya – How Would Single Payer Health Care Change California ICYMI – Check out this recent interview with PRI’s Sally Pipes on the “California Insider” program from the Epoch Times, where she discusses California’s single-payer commission, and makes her case for why Medicare-for-All would be a disaster in the ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 21, 2020
Blog
Could Sweeping, Last Minute Change Inspire Mischief in 2020 Elections?
Regular Right by the Bay readers know that I have written often about the Legislature’s efforts in recent years to change California’s elections rules for political advantage. The latest of these is a bill enacted in the final weeks of the most important California presidential primary in decades that could ...
Tim Anaya
February 20, 2020
Blog
The California High-Cost Rail
The projected cost of the California bullet train has whipsawed up and down like share prices in a volatile market. The latest forecast adds $1.3 billion to the estimated price tag. Now at $80.3 billion, it’s a long way from its humble beginnings of $33 billion, the amount voters approved ...
Kerry Jackson
February 19, 2020
Blog
Would Newsom’s Climate Catalyst Action Fund Fuel Second Coming of Solyndra?
Last week, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office was on a roll – releasing several, often-critical analyses of some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high profile budget proposals. Particularly pointed was its analysis of Newsom’s proposal to create a so-called “Climate Catalyst Action Fund.” According to the administration’s budget documents, it “would ...
Tim Anaya
February 18, 2020
Agriculture
What We’re Watching – Lots of Free Market Ideas to Love on Valentine’s Day
Tim Anaya – Watch Sally Pipes on “After Words” on Saturday Night As part of the promotion of her latest book, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes will appear on “After Words” on C-Span 2’s “Book TV” this Saturday night at ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 14, 2020
Blog
Beyond the New Normal? Not.
Back in 2017, concerned over the sclerotic growth of the U.S. economy, PRI published a series of studies titled Beyond the New Normal by economist and PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden. Up until that point, annual real GDP growth averaged just 1.9 percent since 2001. Many economists, resigned to our ...
Rowena Itchon
February 13, 2020
Blog
Bankruptcy Deadline May Not Save PG&E from State Takeover
Reeling from multiple massive state wildfires that its actions likely triggered, Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this time last year. The investor-owned utility faces a June 30, 2020 deadline to come up with a plan to come out of bankruptcy, address the estimated $25 ...
Evan Harris
February 12, 2020
Blog
Assembly Bill 5: Is The Worst Yet To Come?
At what point did the lawmakers who voted for, and the governor who signed, California Assembly Bill 5 realize it’s lousy policy? It should have been the moment the idea was first conceived. But that didn’t happen, the legislation became law, and now it’s being implicitly admitted that it’s a ...
Kerry Jackson
February 11, 2020
A Prescription for Homelessness That Would Actually Clean Up our Streets
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered his annual State of the State address at the State Capitol. And in an unusual twist, he devoted the entire address to one topic – homelessness. Typically, the State of the State outlines a governor’s policy wish list in a variety of areas. Newsom ...
CCPA, California Get It Wrong on Data Privacy
Data privacy is one of the defining public policy debates of the new decade. As other countries push data privacy regulation heralded as global standards, California is headed in the other direction with the rollout of the state’s Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA. Unfortunately, the CCPA was not a ...
What We’re Watching – February 21, 2020
Tim Anaya – How Would Single Payer Health Care Change California ICYMI – Check out this recent interview with PRI’s Sally Pipes on the “California Insider” program from the Epoch Times, where she discusses California’s single-payer commission, and makes her case for why Medicare-for-All would be a disaster in the ...
Could Sweeping, Last Minute Change Inspire Mischief in 2020 Elections?
Regular Right by the Bay readers know that I have written often about the Legislature’s efforts in recent years to change California’s elections rules for political advantage. The latest of these is a bill enacted in the final weeks of the most important California presidential primary in decades that could ...
The California High-Cost Rail
The projected cost of the California bullet train has whipsawed up and down like share prices in a volatile market. The latest forecast adds $1.3 billion to the estimated price tag. Now at $80.3 billion, it’s a long way from its humble beginnings of $33 billion, the amount voters approved ...
Would Newsom’s Climate Catalyst Action Fund Fuel Second Coming of Solyndra?
Last week, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office was on a roll – releasing several, often-critical analyses of some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high profile budget proposals. Particularly pointed was its analysis of Newsom’s proposal to create a so-called “Climate Catalyst Action Fund.” According to the administration’s budget documents, it “would ...
What We’re Watching – Lots of Free Market Ideas to Love on Valentine’s Day
Tim Anaya – Watch Sally Pipes on “After Words” on Saturday Night As part of the promotion of her latest book, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes will appear on “After Words” on C-Span 2’s “Book TV” this Saturday night at ...
Beyond the New Normal? Not.
Back in 2017, concerned over the sclerotic growth of the U.S. economy, PRI published a series of studies titled Beyond the New Normal by economist and PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden. Up until that point, annual real GDP growth averaged just 1.9 percent since 2001. Many economists, resigned to our ...
Bankruptcy Deadline May Not Save PG&E from State Takeover
Reeling from multiple massive state wildfires that its actions likely triggered, Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this time last year. The investor-owned utility faces a June 30, 2020 deadline to come up with a plan to come out of bankruptcy, address the estimated $25 ...
Assembly Bill 5: Is The Worst Yet To Come?
At what point did the lawmakers who voted for, and the governor who signed, California Assembly Bill 5 realize it’s lousy policy? It should have been the moment the idea was first conceived. But that didn’t happen, the legislation became law, and now it’s being implicitly admitted that it’s a ...