Blog
Blog
Rent Control for Small Businesses Another Bad Idea
It’s “Basic Economics” that residential rent control is harmful housing policy. So it makes perfect sense that we’re beginning to hear about commercial rent control in California. Why not heap more destructive laws on the pile? San Jose Inside reported earlier this month that “a local community leader” wants the ...
Blog
Equifax Data Breach Gives Californians Much to Think About
Americans are rightfully outraged over the massive data breach at Equifax. We’re also upset about how the company handled the announcement of the breach and its proposed remedy. What made the Equifax breach so jarring was how many of us are victims. Roughly 1 in 2 people – 143 million ...
Blog
A Neutral Network is Best for California
Northern California is a hotbed of modern, global technological innovation, particularly internet innovation. Yet, increasingly Washington, D.C. dictates the direction and velocity of innovation, often abetted by the very companies that gained from the permissionless innovation approach of government that so benefitted the industry in the past. For example, in ...
Blog
American Dream Denied by Berkeley Government Bureaucrats
I recently read about a case in Berkeley where a hot dog vendor just trying to earn a few dollars was manhandled by city government. Rigoberto “Beto” Matias was selling bacon-wrapped hotdogs outside a Cal football game. A police officer approached Beto and started questioning him. A customer quickly pulled ...
Blog
The Political Aftermath of California’s Wildfires
The amount of time it takes a celebrity of the political left to blame a natural disaster on global warming can usually be measured in seconds. Gov. Jerry Brown quickly answered the challenge last week by coldly politicizing the deadly Northern California wildfires. Following the master blueprint Chicago Mayor Rahm ...
Blog
On Wildfires and Wine
Small business owners and entrepreneurs have always been the backbone of California’s economy. No one can deny the courage of those individuals who risk all for an idea and a dream. For the vintners, growers, restauranteurs, and small business owners who live and work in California’s wine country, that courage ...
Blog
Let’s Cut California’s Tax Burden to Help the Giants Win the Pennant in 2018
To say that I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants is an understatement. 24 Willie Mays Plaza is perhaps my favorite place on Earth. I make the trek down to AT&T Park at least half a dozen times each year. Visit my den at home and you’ll see ...
Blog
The Price Control Hammer Will Break the Health Care System
From California to Washington D.C. legislators continue to confirm Abraham Kaplan’s famous insight that if you, “give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” In the case of our legislators, that hammer is price controls; and, what needs pounding is the price of ...
Blog
Prop. 54 Tames Wild Late Nights at the State Capitol
For political nerds like me, there’s no rush quite like the last night of the legislative session. Every year, legislators and staff literally work around-the-clock to pass final bills before the clock runs out. To keep going, they drink too much coffee and eat lukewarm pizza and take-out Chinese food. ...
Blog
What Connecticut – and California – Can Learn from Tennessee on Fiscal Reform
We’ve all heard the negative economic and budget stories coming out of Sacramento in recent years. But as a Connecticut native, the headlines coming out of my home state are equally concerning, and offer a lesson for Golden State policymakers. Connecticut is the richest state in the country (by per-capita ...
Rent Control for Small Businesses Another Bad Idea
It’s “Basic Economics” that residential rent control is harmful housing policy. So it makes perfect sense that we’re beginning to hear about commercial rent control in California. Why not heap more destructive laws on the pile? San Jose Inside reported earlier this month that “a local community leader” wants the ...
Equifax Data Breach Gives Californians Much to Think About
Americans are rightfully outraged over the massive data breach at Equifax. We’re also upset about how the company handled the announcement of the breach and its proposed remedy. What made the Equifax breach so jarring was how many of us are victims. Roughly 1 in 2 people – 143 million ...
A Neutral Network is Best for California
Northern California is a hotbed of modern, global technological innovation, particularly internet innovation. Yet, increasingly Washington, D.C. dictates the direction and velocity of innovation, often abetted by the very companies that gained from the permissionless innovation approach of government that so benefitted the industry in the past. For example, in ...
American Dream Denied by Berkeley Government Bureaucrats
I recently read about a case in Berkeley where a hot dog vendor just trying to earn a few dollars was manhandled by city government. Rigoberto “Beto” Matias was selling bacon-wrapped hotdogs outside a Cal football game. A police officer approached Beto and started questioning him. A customer quickly pulled ...
The Political Aftermath of California’s Wildfires
The amount of time it takes a celebrity of the political left to blame a natural disaster on global warming can usually be measured in seconds. Gov. Jerry Brown quickly answered the challenge last week by coldly politicizing the deadly Northern California wildfires. Following the master blueprint Chicago Mayor Rahm ...
On Wildfires and Wine
Small business owners and entrepreneurs have always been the backbone of California’s economy. No one can deny the courage of those individuals who risk all for an idea and a dream. For the vintners, growers, restauranteurs, and small business owners who live and work in California’s wine country, that courage ...
Let’s Cut California’s Tax Burden to Help the Giants Win the Pennant in 2018
To say that I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants is an understatement. 24 Willie Mays Plaza is perhaps my favorite place on Earth. I make the trek down to AT&T Park at least half a dozen times each year. Visit my den at home and you’ll see ...
The Price Control Hammer Will Break the Health Care System
From California to Washington D.C. legislators continue to confirm Abraham Kaplan’s famous insight that if you, “give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” In the case of our legislators, that hammer is price controls; and, what needs pounding is the price of ...
Prop. 54 Tames Wild Late Nights at the State Capitol
For political nerds like me, there’s no rush quite like the last night of the legislative session. Every year, legislators and staff literally work around-the-clock to pass final bills before the clock runs out. To keep going, they drink too much coffee and eat lukewarm pizza and take-out Chinese food. ...
What Connecticut – and California – Can Learn from Tennessee on Fiscal Reform
We’ve all heard the negative economic and budget stories coming out of Sacramento in recent years. But as a Connecticut native, the headlines coming out of my home state are equally concerning, and offer a lesson for Golden State policymakers. Connecticut is the richest state in the country (by per-capita ...
