Commentary
California
For Parents, School Choice Is Easier Than Ballot Initiatives
Theres a grassroots parent revolt surging in California. Parents statewide and at the local level are pushing ballot measures to overturn unpopular government education policies. While the initiative process may be Democracy 101 in action, it would be easier for parents if they were simply given vouchers to choose the ...
Business & Economics
Hypocritical pension funds lecture others
The nation’s two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have been plagued by myriad fiscal problems, and even a corruption scandal in the case of CalPERS, and yet these systems continue to lecture the private sector on ethical corporate governance. ...
Business & Economics
Comparative effectiveness reviews mean fewer cures
Elected officials have powerful incentives to spend, and the administrators of government agencies — always seeking to increase their budgets — are happy to oblige. But the federal budget is finite. There are equally-powerful incentives to create more programs, as politicians are driven to make more citizens dependent upon government. ...
Agriculture
Delta Water rules smelt of extremism
If you want to understand the fundamental things wrong with our nation and California, in particular, you ought to peruse the 140-page opinion recently issued by Judge Oliver Wanger in the “Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases.” It describes many of the most frustrating elements in our society – abuses of federal ...
California
California workers could suffer under Obamacare
A coalition of 26 states filed a petition recently asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. California should have been the 27th. That’s because no state stands to take a bigger economic hit when and if Obamacare ...
California
Heed Your Libertarian Impulse, Gov. Brown
It’s time for Gov. Jerry Brown to release his inner libertarian. I know. This sounds nuts, or born of wishful thinking. The governor has spent his first months in office advocating more government spending and protecting the ravenous public-sector unions that helped elect him to office. But deep down – ...
Commentary
Two New Ventures Simplify Consumer-Driven Health Care
A friend of mine who made a lot of money use to tease me when I (constantly) expressed shock at how simple so many successful business ideas are. All great businesses are simple, he said. Here are two in the healthcare space: Bloom Health and ZocDoc. Although disrupting different parts ...
Business & Economics
Solyndra crash shows shakiness of market subsidies
Solyndra, the Fremont solar-panel manufacturer that went belly up last week, was the subject of a hearing Wednesday all the way in the nation’s capital. Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Committee on Oversight and Investigations wanted to get to the bottom of how the much-hyped “green” company ...
California
City leaders playing unfair pension politics
San Francisco officials ought to be looking out for the best interests of The City’s taxpayers and assuring that hard-pressed public services remain well-funded, but instead, they are protecting city unions, particularly the police and fire, by engaging in some questionable political gamesmanship. At issue are competing pension-reform initiatives sponsored ...
California
Pension Wars Will Be Fought At City Hall
Breathe a deep sigh of relief now that state legislators have headed home. As Judge Gideon Tucker (and also attributed to Mark Twain) exclaimed, “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” You are safer now than you were a little over a week ...
For Parents, School Choice Is Easier Than Ballot Initiatives
Theres a grassroots parent revolt surging in California. Parents statewide and at the local level are pushing ballot measures to overturn unpopular government education policies. While the initiative process may be Democracy 101 in action, it would be easier for parents if they were simply given vouchers to choose the ...
Hypocritical pension funds lecture others
The nation’s two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have been plagued by myriad fiscal problems, and even a corruption scandal in the case of CalPERS, and yet these systems continue to lecture the private sector on ethical corporate governance. ...
Comparative effectiveness reviews mean fewer cures
Elected officials have powerful incentives to spend, and the administrators of government agencies — always seeking to increase their budgets — are happy to oblige. But the federal budget is finite. There are equally-powerful incentives to create more programs, as politicians are driven to make more citizens dependent upon government. ...
Delta Water rules smelt of extremism
If you want to understand the fundamental things wrong with our nation and California, in particular, you ought to peruse the 140-page opinion recently issued by Judge Oliver Wanger in the “Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases.” It describes many of the most frustrating elements in our society – abuses of federal ...
California workers could suffer under Obamacare
A coalition of 26 states filed a petition recently asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. California should have been the 27th. That’s because no state stands to take a bigger economic hit when and if Obamacare ...
Heed Your Libertarian Impulse, Gov. Brown
It’s time for Gov. Jerry Brown to release his inner libertarian. I know. This sounds nuts, or born of wishful thinking. The governor has spent his first months in office advocating more government spending and protecting the ravenous public-sector unions that helped elect him to office. But deep down – ...
Two New Ventures Simplify Consumer-Driven Health Care
A friend of mine who made a lot of money use to tease me when I (constantly) expressed shock at how simple so many successful business ideas are. All great businesses are simple, he said. Here are two in the healthcare space: Bloom Health and ZocDoc. Although disrupting different parts ...
Solyndra crash shows shakiness of market subsidies
Solyndra, the Fremont solar-panel manufacturer that went belly up last week, was the subject of a hearing Wednesday all the way in the nation’s capital. Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Committee on Oversight and Investigations wanted to get to the bottom of how the much-hyped “green” company ...
City leaders playing unfair pension politics
San Francisco officials ought to be looking out for the best interests of The City’s taxpayers and assuring that hard-pressed public services remain well-funded, but instead, they are protecting city unions, particularly the police and fire, by engaging in some questionable political gamesmanship. At issue are competing pension-reform initiatives sponsored ...
Pension Wars Will Be Fought At City Hall
Breathe a deep sigh of relief now that state legislators have headed home. As Judge Gideon Tucker (and also attributed to Mark Twain) exclaimed, “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” You are safer now than you were a little over a week ...
