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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 ...
Blog

California’s Leftist Agenda Caught On Tape

The Sacramento Bee has come up with one of the more interesting lists we’ve seen lately. It’s a catalog, via video, of “some of the most left-leaning laws that have come out of Sacramento since the Democrats” — who are enjoying “their biggest legislative advantage in decades” — have “been ...
Blog

How Saving $1,000 Annually in Union Dues Can Turn into Real Money

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” said Ben Franklin.  So, imagine what saving $1,000 each year by opting out of paying union dues can do for a government worker’s bottom line. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision affirmed the right of government workers to opt-out of a union and ...
Blog

Latest Evidence of California’s Pension Crowd-Out: Less Classroom Funding

My colleagues and I have written often about California’s pension crowd-out, or how state and local governments budgets are increasingly gobbled up by public pension payments. Last fall, PRI’s Wayne Winegarden released a new study showing that, using a more realistic accounting measure, California’s unfunded public employee pension obligations stood ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – Are The Rich Getting Richer and the Poor Getting Poorer?

Kerry Jackson – Inequality Myths Watch this great video from John Stossel explaining why the standard line of Bernie Sanders and his supporters about “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer” simply isn’t true. In reality, nearly all Americans are getting richer.
Agriculture

Virtue Signaling at the Neighborhood Diner

The old adage goes that you should never talk about religion or politics at the dinner table. Working in a political world, I try to heed that advice whenever I leave work.  The last thing I want to face when going out for dinner with friends or family is politics.  ...
Blog

It’s Raining IPOs, Hallelujah!

Silicon Valley and Wall Street aren’t the only ones celebrating IPOs this year – Sacramento is doing its share of the partying.  That’s because the state is expected to receive a deluge of tax dollars over the next several years thanks to capital gains generated by the current hot IPO ...
Blog

Newsom Tries to Pass the Gas Price “Hot Potato”

Gov. Newsom is playing hot potato. Starting to get heat from angry Californians about gas prices soaring past $4 per gallon, the Associated Press reports that he asked the California Energy Commission for a report on “why prices are higher than in the rest of the country, blaming potential ‘inappropriate ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – How Does the 15 Percent Solution Work?

Tim Anaya – How Does the 15 Percent Solution Work? In his latest study in the “Beyond The New Normal:  How Much Should We Spend?” series, Wayne Winegarden talks about the “15 Percent Solution,” or the ideal level of government spending to maximize economic growth.  Our latest video imagines how ...
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 ...
Blog

California’s Leftist Agenda Caught On Tape

The Sacramento Bee has come up with one of the more interesting lists we’ve seen lately. It’s a catalog, via video, of “some of the most left-leaning laws that have come out of Sacramento since the Democrats” — who are enjoying “their biggest legislative advantage in decades” — have “been ...
Blog

How Saving $1,000 Annually in Union Dues Can Turn into Real Money

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” said Ben Franklin.  So, imagine what saving $1,000 each year by opting out of paying union dues can do for a government worker’s bottom line. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision affirmed the right of government workers to opt-out of a union and ...
Blog

Latest Evidence of California’s Pension Crowd-Out: Less Classroom Funding

My colleagues and I have written often about California’s pension crowd-out, or how state and local governments budgets are increasingly gobbled up by public pension payments. Last fall, PRI’s Wayne Winegarden released a new study showing that, using a more realistic accounting measure, California’s unfunded public employee pension obligations stood ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – Are The Rich Getting Richer and the Poor Getting Poorer?

Kerry Jackson – Inequality Myths Watch this great video from John Stossel explaining why the standard line of Bernie Sanders and his supporters about “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer” simply isn’t true. In reality, nearly all Americans are getting richer.
Agriculture

Virtue Signaling at the Neighborhood Diner

The old adage goes that you should never talk about religion or politics at the dinner table. Working in a political world, I try to heed that advice whenever I leave work.  The last thing I want to face when going out for dinner with friends or family is politics.  ...
Blog

It’s Raining IPOs, Hallelujah!

Silicon Valley and Wall Street aren’t the only ones celebrating IPOs this year – Sacramento is doing its share of the partying.  That’s because the state is expected to receive a deluge of tax dollars over the next several years thanks to capital gains generated by the current hot IPO ...
Blog

Newsom Tries to Pass the Gas Price “Hot Potato”

Gov. Newsom is playing hot potato. Starting to get heat from angry Californians about gas prices soaring past $4 per gallon, the Associated Press reports that he asked the California Energy Commission for a report on “why prices are higher than in the rest of the country, blaming potential ‘inappropriate ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – How Does the 15 Percent Solution Work?

Tim Anaya – How Does the 15 Percent Solution Work? In his latest study in the “Beyond The New Normal:  How Much Should We Spend?” series, Wayne Winegarden talks about the “15 Percent Solution,” or the ideal level of government spending to maximize economic growth.  Our latest video imagines how ...
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