Blog
Blog
Getting Out Our 2018 Crystal Ball
With the holiday season upon us, now is the time when pundits in Washington and Sacramento get out their crystal balls and offer their unsolicited predictions on what will happen in politics, policy, and government in 2018. Now that we have the “Right by the Bay” blog at PRI, we’re ...
Blog
More Red, White … or Blue
In 2017, PRI launched its first podcast, and because we are headquartered near Wine Country, and because no other think tank does wine better than PRI (okay, I may be biased), we made it our tradition to ask each guest for a wine or cocktail recommendation at the end of ...
Blog
Falling Obamacare Enrollment Should Surprise No One
Obamacare’s fifth open enrollment season just ended for the 39 states served by Healthcare.gov — and it was a major failure in terms of enrollees. Fewer than 10 million people signed up for 2018 health plans through the state and federal exchanges, according to one recent projection. That’s down from 12.2 million ...
Blog
Another #1 Ranking California Should Not Celebrate
It’s one thing to be considered a Judicial Hellhole. It’s another thing altogether to hold that distinction year after year . . . after year. But, just as it is with so many state rankings, California isn’t a newcomer at the wrong end of a list. It’s a perennial resident ...
Blog
The Ghost of Christmas Parking
Hunting for a parking spot during the Christmas rush is enough to drive anyone crazy, but for disabled people, it’s especially maddening. In many California cities, an open disabled parking spot is about as rare as rain. Take San Francisco, where parking anywhere is hard to find, there are 700 ...
Blog
Should We Fear the Government Knowing How Much We Drive?
Earlier this year, when discussing a laughable proposal to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California, my colleague Kerry Jackson asked a critical question – “What happens to the $52 billion in revenue the state is expecting from tax hikes on gasoline and diesel sales for road repair over ...
Blog
Why Did the Government Swallow the 340B Fly?
Much like the old lady who swallowed a fly, the federal government has swallowed a fly over a well-meaning program designed to help the poor afford prescription drugs called 340B. Instead of ensuring the poor have low-cost drugs, 340B has created an incentive for hospitals to profit. Click here to ...
Blog
Political Investment Decisions Hurt Taxpayers, State Retirees
The most recent estimate says that California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public employee pension fund in the nation with about 1.8 million beneficiaries, has an unfunded liability of roughly $138 billion with total obligations of around $435 billion. While part of that gap is due to the government ...
Blog
What If We Created a “Free-Market Hall of Fame”?
Last week, I had the great pleasure of attending the annual California Hall of Fame ceremony. Every year, the Governor presents our state’s highest honor to a group of Californians past and present who have made a lasting contribution to the fabric of the Golden State in business, arts and ...
Blog
Robots, Work, and Retirement
If you’re thinking about giving a robot to someone this Christmas, on Amazon.com you’ll find 290,991 choices. I bought my brother a robot for Christmas last year when he announced that he will be retiring from his job as a computer engineer after 35 years. Overnight, he went from being ...
Getting Out Our 2018 Crystal Ball
With the holiday season upon us, now is the time when pundits in Washington and Sacramento get out their crystal balls and offer their unsolicited predictions on what will happen in politics, policy, and government in 2018. Now that we have the “Right by the Bay” blog at PRI, we’re ...
More Red, White … or Blue
In 2017, PRI launched its first podcast, and because we are headquartered near Wine Country, and because no other think tank does wine better than PRI (okay, I may be biased), we made it our tradition to ask each guest for a wine or cocktail recommendation at the end of ...
Falling Obamacare Enrollment Should Surprise No One
Obamacare’s fifth open enrollment season just ended for the 39 states served by Healthcare.gov — and it was a major failure in terms of enrollees. Fewer than 10 million people signed up for 2018 health plans through the state and federal exchanges, according to one recent projection. That’s down from 12.2 million ...
Another #1 Ranking California Should Not Celebrate
It’s one thing to be considered a Judicial Hellhole. It’s another thing altogether to hold that distinction year after year . . . after year. But, just as it is with so many state rankings, California isn’t a newcomer at the wrong end of a list. It’s a perennial resident ...
The Ghost of Christmas Parking
Hunting for a parking spot during the Christmas rush is enough to drive anyone crazy, but for disabled people, it’s especially maddening. In many California cities, an open disabled parking spot is about as rare as rain. Take San Francisco, where parking anywhere is hard to find, there are 700 ...
Should We Fear the Government Knowing How Much We Drive?
Earlier this year, when discussing a laughable proposal to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California, my colleague Kerry Jackson asked a critical question – “What happens to the $52 billion in revenue the state is expecting from tax hikes on gasoline and diesel sales for road repair over ...
Why Did the Government Swallow the 340B Fly?
Much like the old lady who swallowed a fly, the federal government has swallowed a fly over a well-meaning program designed to help the poor afford prescription drugs called 340B. Instead of ensuring the poor have low-cost drugs, 340B has created an incentive for hospitals to profit. Click here to ...
Political Investment Decisions Hurt Taxpayers, State Retirees
The most recent estimate says that California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public employee pension fund in the nation with about 1.8 million beneficiaries, has an unfunded liability of roughly $138 billion with total obligations of around $435 billion. While part of that gap is due to the government ...
What If We Created a “Free-Market Hall of Fame”?
Last week, I had the great pleasure of attending the annual California Hall of Fame ceremony. Every year, the Governor presents our state’s highest honor to a group of Californians past and present who have made a lasting contribution to the fabric of the Golden State in business, arts and ...
Robots, Work, and Retirement
If you’re thinking about giving a robot to someone this Christmas, on Amazon.com you’ll find 290,991 choices. I bought my brother a robot for Christmas last year when he announced that he will be retiring from his job as a computer engineer after 35 years. Overnight, he went from being ...
