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What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel

What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel While America was obsessed this week with whether we heard Yanny or Laurel (and I hear Yanny for the record), I was busy watching other things online.  If you’re interested – or don’t know what the heck I’m talking about – watch ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel

What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel While America was obsessed this week with whether we heard Yanny or Laurel (and I hear Yanny for the record), I was busy watching other things online.  If you’re interested – or don’t know what the heck I’m talking about – watch ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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