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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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.
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. ...
