Blog
Blog
Millionaire Migration: Exhibit A – California
Some years ago — not long after the debt crisis in Greece – I took a cruise around the Greek Isles. As we drove past rows of villas and yachts outside of Athens, our tour guide made this snarky comment: according to the country’s tax rolls, there was only one ...
Rowena Itchon
November 23, 2021
Blog
First Data Shows Real Record of Controversial New DA Putting Public Safety at Risk
The San Francisco Chronicle recently asked if residents should “tolerate a high level of burglaries as a downside of city living, and focus on barricading their homes?” Or, if that’s not satisfactory, “should people who are repeatedly accused of stealing be targeted with rehabilitation services, or incarcerated so they can’t ...
Kerry Jackson
November 22, 2021
Blog
Los Angeles Is Gearing Up to Ban Wood-Frame Construction. Renters Will Soon Pay the Price.
Over the summer, the Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee approved a proposal to expand Fire District 1, an anachronistic planning overlay that would effectively ban wood-frame construction in much of the city. Superficially premised as a measure to improve fire safety, the motion has been heavily promoted by ...
M. Nolan Gray
November 19, 2021
Blog
Could Mark Cuban’s new pharmaceutical venture be a slam dunk?
By Wayne Winegarden and Celine Bookin Billionaire investor Mark Cuban’s pharmaceutical company, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, is hoping to disrupt the pharmaceutical benefit management (PBM) industry with a new venture that seeks to address some of the most criticized practices of the industry. These include PBMs pocketing rather ...
Pacific Research Institute
November 18, 2021
Agriculture
What Can We Expect in a Frackless California? Economic Devastation, More Energy Imports.
Care to guess the last time the governor’s office issued a new fracking permit? It was February. Now that’s a meaningless fact without context, so let’s put it perspective: Even though “Newsom endorsed an end to fracking” while running for governor in 2018, says California political legend Dan Walters, his ...
Kerry Jackson
November 17, 2021
Agriculture
What the California Legislature Told Us About Supply Chain Backlog
The California State Legislature’s Assembly Select Committee on Ports and Goods Movement hearing recently gave us a 240-minute summary of where things stand with the supply chain backlog in California. It provided insight from executives at the port authority, agriculture, retail, and economy and highlighted the tremendous backlog to California ...
Evan Harris
November 16, 2021
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: California Gets Kicked by Drought 66
DOWNLOAD THE PDF The recent record-breaking bomb cyclone that replenished depleted reservoirs and swelled shriveling rivers was not enough to break the drought. So parched is the state that Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency, a condition Californians, bedeviled by wildfires, unaffordable housing, growing homelessness, a punitive ...
Kerry Jackson
November 16, 2021
Blog
On EV Tax Credits, Who Will Democrats Side With? Unions or Environmentalists?
By Wayne Winegarden and Tim Anaya The last time we checked in on the debate over expanding federal electric car subsidies this summer, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) – citing PRI’s research showing they overwhelmingly benefit the rich – led the U.S. Senate in a bipartisan vote to ensure future credits ...
Pacific Research Institute
November 15, 2021
Blog
Inflation, Drug Price Controls, and President Biden’s Build Back Better Program
Inflation is worrying Americans, and for good reason. The latest inflation report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released on November 10th, showed that prices were 6.2 percent higher in October 2021 compared to October 2020. More troubling, this was the fifth month in a row where the annual growth in ...
Wayne Winegarden
November 12, 2021
Blog
A Veterans Day Story of Transformation
Recently, I spoke at a local military appreciation ceremony. My fellow speakers included leaders from each branch of the armed services, and we all touched on the ability of the military to transform people. In my speech I used the example of my wife’s nephew, Jordan Geary. Jordan grew up ...
Lance Izumi
November 11, 2021
Millionaire Migration: Exhibit A – California
Some years ago — not long after the debt crisis in Greece – I took a cruise around the Greek Isles. As we drove past rows of villas and yachts outside of Athens, our tour guide made this snarky comment: according to the country’s tax rolls, there was only one ...
First Data Shows Real Record of Controversial New DA Putting Public Safety at Risk
The San Francisco Chronicle recently asked if residents should “tolerate a high level of burglaries as a downside of city living, and focus on barricading their homes?” Or, if that’s not satisfactory, “should people who are repeatedly accused of stealing be targeted with rehabilitation services, or incarcerated so they can’t ...
Los Angeles Is Gearing Up to Ban Wood-Frame Construction. Renters Will Soon Pay the Price.
Over the summer, the Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee approved a proposal to expand Fire District 1, an anachronistic planning overlay that would effectively ban wood-frame construction in much of the city. Superficially premised as a measure to improve fire safety, the motion has been heavily promoted by ...
Could Mark Cuban’s new pharmaceutical venture be a slam dunk?
By Wayne Winegarden and Celine Bookin Billionaire investor Mark Cuban’s pharmaceutical company, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, is hoping to disrupt the pharmaceutical benefit management (PBM) industry with a new venture that seeks to address some of the most criticized practices of the industry. These include PBMs pocketing rather ...
What Can We Expect in a Frackless California? Economic Devastation, More Energy Imports.
Care to guess the last time the governor’s office issued a new fracking permit? It was February. Now that’s a meaningless fact without context, so let’s put it perspective: Even though “Newsom endorsed an end to fracking” while running for governor in 2018, says California political legend Dan Walters, his ...
What the California Legislature Told Us About Supply Chain Backlog
The California State Legislature’s Assembly Select Committee on Ports and Goods Movement hearing recently gave us a 240-minute summary of where things stand with the supply chain backlog in California. It provided insight from executives at the port authority, agriculture, retail, and economy and highlighted the tremendous backlog to California ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California Gets Kicked by Drought 66
DOWNLOAD THE PDF The recent record-breaking bomb cyclone that replenished depleted reservoirs and swelled shriveling rivers was not enough to break the drought. So parched is the state that Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency, a condition Californians, bedeviled by wildfires, unaffordable housing, growing homelessness, a punitive ...
On EV Tax Credits, Who Will Democrats Side With? Unions or Environmentalists?
By Wayne Winegarden and Tim Anaya The last time we checked in on the debate over expanding federal electric car subsidies this summer, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) – citing PRI’s research showing they overwhelmingly benefit the rich – led the U.S. Senate in a bipartisan vote to ensure future credits ...
Inflation, Drug Price Controls, and President Biden’s Build Back Better Program
Inflation is worrying Americans, and for good reason. The latest inflation report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released on November 10th, showed that prices were 6.2 percent higher in October 2021 compared to October 2020. More troubling, this was the fifth month in a row where the annual growth in ...
A Veterans Day Story of Transformation
Recently, I spoke at a local military appreciation ceremony. My fellow speakers included leaders from each branch of the armed services, and we all touched on the ability of the military to transform people. In my speech I used the example of my wife’s nephew, Jordan Geary. Jordan grew up ...