Blog
Agriculture
Let It Flow: Carlsbad Desalination Plant Expansion Approval A Bright Spot In A Dry State
With more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometimes there’s good news. Such as ...
Blog
On Gov. Newsom’s “Parents Agenda”
In 1987, it was the talk of the South Bay neighborhood where my parents lived: a tax rebate check of $236 from the state government for every household up and down the street. My mother was delighted. At the time, my sister was going to UCLA and living on campus, ...
Blog
The Suspense is Over: Taxpayers Facing Billions in New Spending Following Committee Verdict
Last week, hundreds of bills died a quiet death. The scene of the crime was not the Bates Motel, but rather 2 committee rooms at the State Capitol. And the murder weapon wasn’t a candlestick or other choices from the game of Clue. In fact, the bills were killed without ...
Blog
What We’re Watching – May 17
Rowena Itchon – Is Universal Basic Income the Safety Net of the Future? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EefzHbTArtY Universal basic income is a topic that PRI has covered extensively, especially the proposal by Stockton Mayor Andrew Tubbs. Even some of the free-market side see basic income as a more efficient way to help those ...
Blog
Workers Of California Unite . . . Against Minimum Wage Hikes
They were warned. They wouldn’t listen. But they should have. A university study confirms what so many of us already knew — and what several other studies have corroborated: Minimum wage hikes kill jobs. Scholars at the University of California, Riverside, looked at the labor market and found that job ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Cracking Down on Fracking in California—Is it The Smart Thing to Do?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Jerry Brown left office in January as one of the most popular governors in California history. He also left successor Gavin Newsom with a few headaches. Among the more prominent unresolved issues are the high-speed rail project, the housing and homeless crises, and runaway public-employee pension obligations. ...
Blog
California “Data Dividend” Plan Would Hurt Consumers, Increase Government Power
Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a so-called “data dividend” because, he says, “California’s consumers should also be able to share in the wealth that is created from their data…” The Governor provided almost no details then, and few to none since, but the idea seems to suffer from ...
Blog
Gov. Newsom to May Revise Winners – “You Get a Billion!”
Years ago, in perhaps one of the most well-known episodes of her long-running talk show, Oprah Winfrey gave away shiny-red Pontiacs to all of the unsuspecting members of her studio audience. Uttering a phrase that has gone down in pop culture history, Winfrey told the shrieking audience, “You get a ...
Blog
What We’re Watching – How Entrepreneurship Can Alleviate Poverty in Africa
Ben Smithwick – How Entrepreneurship Can Alleviate Poverty in Africa Magatte Wade is one of the most prominent female African entrepreneurs. In this TED Talk, Wade discusses the challenges of doing business in her native Senegal and shares her vision for how entrepreneurship can help alleviate poverty in Africa. Tim ...
Blog
Helping More Americans Climb the Economic Ladder by Encouraging More Savings
A central theme of my previous columns has been the importance and primacy of the individual. Economic policymakers cling to their blackboard models but forget that even for unambiguously “net-positive” interventions, there are millions of people being actively punished by their supposedly representative government. Government does not legislate prosperity. Achieving ...
Let It Flow: Carlsbad Desalination Plant Expansion Approval A Bright Spot In A Dry State
With more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometimes there’s good news. Such as ...
On Gov. Newsom’s “Parents Agenda”
In 1987, it was the talk of the South Bay neighborhood where my parents lived: a tax rebate check of $236 from the state government for every household up and down the street. My mother was delighted. At the time, my sister was going to UCLA and living on campus, ...
The Suspense is Over: Taxpayers Facing Billions in New Spending Following Committee Verdict
Last week, hundreds of bills died a quiet death. The scene of the crime was not the Bates Motel, but rather 2 committee rooms at the State Capitol. And the murder weapon wasn’t a candlestick or other choices from the game of Clue. In fact, the bills were killed without ...
What We’re Watching – May 17
Rowena Itchon – Is Universal Basic Income the Safety Net of the Future? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EefzHbTArtY Universal basic income is a topic that PRI has covered extensively, especially the proposal by Stockton Mayor Andrew Tubbs. Even some of the free-market side see basic income as a more efficient way to help those ...
Workers Of California Unite . . . Against Minimum Wage Hikes
They were warned. They wouldn’t listen. But they should have. A university study confirms what so many of us already knew — and what several other studies have corroborated: Minimum wage hikes kill jobs. Scholars at the University of California, Riverside, looked at the labor market and found that job ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Cracking Down on Fracking in California—Is it The Smart Thing to Do?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Jerry Brown left office in January as one of the most popular governors in California history. He also left successor Gavin Newsom with a few headaches. Among the more prominent unresolved issues are the high-speed rail project, the housing and homeless crises, and runaway public-employee pension obligations. ...
California “Data Dividend” Plan Would Hurt Consumers, Increase Government Power
Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a so-called “data dividend” because, he says, “California’s consumers should also be able to share in the wealth that is created from their data…” The Governor provided almost no details then, and few to none since, but the idea seems to suffer from ...
Gov. Newsom to May Revise Winners – “You Get a Billion!”
Years ago, in perhaps one of the most well-known episodes of her long-running talk show, Oprah Winfrey gave away shiny-red Pontiacs to all of the unsuspecting members of her studio audience. Uttering a phrase that has gone down in pop culture history, Winfrey told the shrieking audience, “You get a ...
What We’re Watching – How Entrepreneurship Can Alleviate Poverty in Africa
Ben Smithwick – How Entrepreneurship Can Alleviate Poverty in Africa Magatte Wade is one of the most prominent female African entrepreneurs. In this TED Talk, Wade discusses the challenges of doing business in her native Senegal and shares her vision for how entrepreneurship can help alleviate poverty in Africa. Tim ...
Helping More Americans Climb the Economic Ladder by Encouraging More Savings
A central theme of my previous columns has been the importance and primacy of the individual. Economic policymakers cling to their blackboard models but forget that even for unambiguously “net-positive” interventions, there are millions of people being actively punished by their supposedly representative government. Government does not legislate prosperity. Achieving ...
