Commentary
Business & Economics
Brown’s Tax-the-Rich Mantra Won’t Work
The “w” word used by a Jerry Brown strategist to describe Meg Whitman’s alleged sellout on her pension reform proposals to public safety unions that are endorsing her dominated much of the coverage of the Oct. 12 debate. But far more important to California’s future was Brown’s own sellout to ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 19, 2010
Business & Economics
Places where judges don’t allow justice to prevail
Part two of a three-part series. In 2009, the top 10 jury awards in the United States alone totaled $1.5 billion. Eight were doled out in states with the worst tort climates as measured by the U.S. Tort Liability Index. When judges and juries in the worst jurisdictions, referred to ...
Lawrence J. McQuillan
October 19, 2010
Commentary
New Study Shows Arizona Tax Credits Serve Low- and Moderate-Income Families
Arlington, Va.—On November 3, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the next big school choice case. A new study released today, which examines the Arizona choice program at the center of the legal fight, finds that the primary beneficiaries of the choice program are overwhelmingly students from low- and moderate-income ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 18, 2010
Business & Economics
Broken California
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently warned that if voters approve a November initiative legalizing marijuana, the state will become a national “laughingstock.” The only thing more prevalent than non-Californians poking fun at the state’s enduring political and budget mess these days is Californians who offer counsel on how to save ...
Steven Greenhut
October 18, 2010
Business & Economics
Lawyers gone wild are killing our economy
Part one of a three-part series. Jackpot Justice – Lawyers Gone Wild from Nicholas Tucker on Vimeo. It’s a dangerous world. At least, that’s what the warning labels on common consumer products would lead us to believe. The kitchen knife package cautions against juggling knives. The superhero costume warns that ...
Lawrence J. McQuillan
October 18, 2010
Commentary
California’s Cap-and-Trade War
What happens when environmental fashion collides with a state’s desperate need for jobs and economic growth? That question will be put to the test when Californians vote November 2 on a ballot measure that would suspend the Golden State’s cap-and-trade law until its unemployment rate falls below 5.5%. Today the ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 18, 2010
Business & Economics
State overspends, and gets less for more
Last week the Democratic leader of the state Senate said the state should provide child care for people no longer on welfare, among $470 million worth of other social services. Consequently, Sen. Darrell Steinberg said, in January he will attempt to reverse Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line-item budget vetoes eliminating those ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 15, 2010
Business & Economics
Is California now an idiocracy?
SACRAMENTO – While trying to get the assembled, clueless staff at a phone store to tell me how to turn off an annoying e-mail alarm on my new smart phone, I was finally greeted by a manager, who declared that the phone is supposed to work that way. “So when ...
Steven Greenhut
October 15, 2010
Agriculture
A glimpse of a future with Obamacare
The one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act this week brings new reason to consider a major health-care announcement by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Almost five years into his states Romneycare plan, it turns out that spending is out of control, threatening public-sector budgets and private-sector wealth generation. The solution ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 15, 2010
Commentary
To spur job growth in California, we can start by passing Prop. 23
Proposition 23 would suspend the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) until the state unemployment rate, now 12.4 percent, declines to 5.5 percent for four straight quarters. A new study by the Pacific Research Institute examines the employment implications of that initiative, finding that ...
Benjamin Zycher
October 14, 2010
Brown’s Tax-the-Rich Mantra Won’t Work
The “w” word used by a Jerry Brown strategist to describe Meg Whitman’s alleged sellout on her pension reform proposals to public safety unions that are endorsing her dominated much of the coverage of the Oct. 12 debate. But far more important to California’s future was Brown’s own sellout to ...
Places where judges don’t allow justice to prevail
Part two of a three-part series. In 2009, the top 10 jury awards in the United States alone totaled $1.5 billion. Eight were doled out in states with the worst tort climates as measured by the U.S. Tort Liability Index. When judges and juries in the worst jurisdictions, referred to ...
New Study Shows Arizona Tax Credits Serve Low- and Moderate-Income Families
Arlington, Va.—On November 3, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the next big school choice case. A new study released today, which examines the Arizona choice program at the center of the legal fight, finds that the primary beneficiaries of the choice program are overwhelmingly students from low- and moderate-income ...
Broken California
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently warned that if voters approve a November initiative legalizing marijuana, the state will become a national “laughingstock.” The only thing more prevalent than non-Californians poking fun at the state’s enduring political and budget mess these days is Californians who offer counsel on how to save ...
Lawyers gone wild are killing our economy
Part one of a three-part series. Jackpot Justice – Lawyers Gone Wild from Nicholas Tucker on Vimeo. It’s a dangerous world. At least, that’s what the warning labels on common consumer products would lead us to believe. The kitchen knife package cautions against juggling knives. The superhero costume warns that ...
California’s Cap-and-Trade War
What happens when environmental fashion collides with a state’s desperate need for jobs and economic growth? That question will be put to the test when Californians vote November 2 on a ballot measure that would suspend the Golden State’s cap-and-trade law until its unemployment rate falls below 5.5%. Today the ...
State overspends, and gets less for more
Last week the Democratic leader of the state Senate said the state should provide child care for people no longer on welfare, among $470 million worth of other social services. Consequently, Sen. Darrell Steinberg said, in January he will attempt to reverse Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line-item budget vetoes eliminating those ...
Is California now an idiocracy?
SACRAMENTO – While trying to get the assembled, clueless staff at a phone store to tell me how to turn off an annoying e-mail alarm on my new smart phone, I was finally greeted by a manager, who declared that the phone is supposed to work that way. “So when ...
A glimpse of a future with Obamacare
The one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act this week brings new reason to consider a major health-care announcement by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Almost five years into his states Romneycare plan, it turns out that spending is out of control, threatening public-sector budgets and private-sector wealth generation. The solution ...
To spur job growth in California, we can start by passing Prop. 23
Proposition 23 would suspend the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) until the state unemployment rate, now 12.4 percent, declines to 5.5 percent for four straight quarters. A new study by the Pacific Research Institute examines the employment implications of that initiative, finding that ...