Blog
Blog
Legislature Still Has Chance to Eliminate Unnecessary Barriers to Work
Cutting, styling, shampooing, and curling hair properly takes some practice. But how much before a person is skilled enough to obtain a license to perform those tasks in California? The state says at least 1,500 hours of training are needed. Common-sense says far fewer. In California, a cosmetologist is required ...
Kerry Jackson
May 17, 2018
Blog
Is Buying Stock in Companies That Spend a Lot on Lobbying a Good Investment Strategy?
We’re all hearing it: the bull market is “long on the tooth,” and the market volatility we’ve seen so far this year is a sign that a big correction, or even a bear market, may be around the corner. Interest rate fears, trade wars, and the ballooning debt are all ...
Rowena Itchon
May 16, 2018
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Should California Workers & Policymakers Fear Flippy the Hamburger-Making Robot?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Flippy, California’s and the world’s first automated fast-food grill master, has been fired. But after a few tweaks, he will be rehired. The same can’t be said about the humans who will lose their jobs to robots due to the state’s minimum wage. Flippy worked one day ...
Kerry Jackson
May 14, 2018
Blog
Governor’s Final May Revise Par for the Course for Brown 2.0
On Friday, Governor Brown released his final “May Revise” budget proposal. For those who aren’t fluent in government-ese, the May Revise is the Governor’s revised budget proposal, taking into account updated tax receipts, economic trends, and budget needs. It’s from this proposal that the Brown Administration will negotiate a final ...
Tim Anaya
May 14, 2018
Blog
What We’re Watching – Will A Carbon Tax Increase the Cost of a Sandwich?
Tim Anaya – Will A Carbon Tax Increase the Cost of a Sandwich? One idea for a new tax that is floated around from time to time in California and Washington is a carbon tax. Recently, our friends at the Texas Public Policy Foundation put out a video showing the real ...
Pacific Research Institute
May 11, 2018
Blog
Not Much to Celebrate as California’s Economy Grows on Paper
California’s economy has now surpassed that of United Kingdom, making it the fifth-largest in the world if it were its own country. Despite this growth, and in contrast to the perception that all is well in California because the economy looks so robust, the Golden State’s economy is not quite ...
Kerry Jackson
May 9, 2018
Blog
Is It A Bad Thing for State Workers to Save Taxpayers on Work Travel?
As the sharing economy has grown in California, we’re changing how we approach many common life transactions. When we’re looking for a repair person to fix a broken toilet, now we might look to Thumbtack to bid out of the job when before we would have called a traditional plumber ...
Tim Anaya
May 8, 2018
Agriculture
Victor Davis Hanson on the Wisdom of the Ancients
Spending time in April in New York, my PRI colleagues and I attended The New Criterion’s annual gala dinner which honored Victor Davis Hanson with the literary journal’s Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society. In his introductory remarks, Roger Kimball, the editor and publisher of The New ...
Rowena Itchon
May 7, 2018
Blog
It’s 2018 and We’re Already Fighting About the Next Census
The battle over the 2020 census has already begun. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. The calendar on the wall does say May 2018. The census is a multi-year process that involves lots of planning and organizing to design the survey and get all Americans to complete it. In ...
Tim Anaya
May 3, 2018
Blog
Education and Free Markets: How Education Changes People’s Lives, Through Increased Upward Mobility
If you want to handicap a man for the rest of his life, deny him an education. This is manifestly true in America, as the disadvantages associated with a poor education tend to multiply in a free society and a free economy. It is our dedication to free markets that ...
Damon Dunn
May 2, 2018
Legislature Still Has Chance to Eliminate Unnecessary Barriers to Work
Cutting, styling, shampooing, and curling hair properly takes some practice. But how much before a person is skilled enough to obtain a license to perform those tasks in California? The state says at least 1,500 hours of training are needed. Common-sense says far fewer. In California, a cosmetologist is required ...
Is Buying Stock in Companies That Spend a Lot on Lobbying a Good Investment Strategy?
We’re all hearing it: the bull market is “long on the tooth,” and the market volatility we’ve seen so far this year is a sign that a big correction, or even a bear market, may be around the corner. Interest rate fears, trade wars, and the ballooning debt are all ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Should California Workers & Policymakers Fear Flippy the Hamburger-Making Robot?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Flippy, California’s and the world’s first automated fast-food grill master, has been fired. But after a few tweaks, he will be rehired. The same can’t be said about the humans who will lose their jobs to robots due to the state’s minimum wage. Flippy worked one day ...
Governor’s Final May Revise Par for the Course for Brown 2.0
On Friday, Governor Brown released his final “May Revise” budget proposal. For those who aren’t fluent in government-ese, the May Revise is the Governor’s revised budget proposal, taking into account updated tax receipts, economic trends, and budget needs. It’s from this proposal that the Brown Administration will negotiate a final ...
What We’re Watching – Will A Carbon Tax Increase the Cost of a Sandwich?
Tim Anaya – Will A Carbon Tax Increase the Cost of a Sandwich? One idea for a new tax that is floated around from time to time in California and Washington is a carbon tax. Recently, our friends at the Texas Public Policy Foundation put out a video showing the real ...
Not Much to Celebrate as California’s Economy Grows on Paper
California’s economy has now surpassed that of United Kingdom, making it the fifth-largest in the world if it were its own country. Despite this growth, and in contrast to the perception that all is well in California because the economy looks so robust, the Golden State’s economy is not quite ...
Is It A Bad Thing for State Workers to Save Taxpayers on Work Travel?
As the sharing economy has grown in California, we’re changing how we approach many common life transactions. When we’re looking for a repair person to fix a broken toilet, now we might look to Thumbtack to bid out of the job when before we would have called a traditional plumber ...
Victor Davis Hanson on the Wisdom of the Ancients
Spending time in April in New York, my PRI colleagues and I attended The New Criterion’s annual gala dinner which honored Victor Davis Hanson with the literary journal’s Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society. In his introductory remarks, Roger Kimball, the editor and publisher of The New ...
It’s 2018 and We’re Already Fighting About the Next Census
The battle over the 2020 census has already begun. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. The calendar on the wall does say May 2018. The census is a multi-year process that involves lots of planning and organizing to design the survey and get all Americans to complete it. In ...
Education and Free Markets: How Education Changes People’s Lives, Through Increased Upward Mobility
If you want to handicap a man for the rest of his life, deny him an education. This is manifestly true in America, as the disadvantages associated with a poor education tend to multiply in a free society and a free economy. It is our dedication to free markets that ...