Unemployment
Blog
Amidst Coronavirus-Fueled Economic Downturn, State Leaders Must Suspend Government Barriers to Opportunity
In his “Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity” series, PRI’s Dr. Wayne Winegarden has argued that one of the most important ways that elected officials can help to lift people up the economy ladder is by embracing policies that encourage entrepreneurship. As many Californians struggle to stay afloat financially during the ...
Blog
How State Budget Will Be Impacted by Coronavirus Coming More into Focus
A clearer picture formed this week about how the coronavirus will affect the state budget, with action in Sacramento and Washington. Director of Finance Keely Bosler sent a letter to lawmakers that the department will “reevaluate all budget changes within the context of a workload budget.” “While our first priority ...
Blog
The Coronavirus Aftermath: Debt and Deficits as Far as the Eye Can See
All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas Layin’ in the sun, Talkin’ ’bout the things They woulda coulda shoulda done… –Shel Silverstein As of this writing, the Trump Administration has pledged to spend more than a trillion dollars to save the lives and livelihoods of Americans as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. We’re ...
Blog
What Governments Are Doing to Try and Salvage the Economy
Until recently, terms like social distancing and even the coronavirus were nonexistent. Now these terms could come to define the beginning of a pending global recession the likes of which have yet to test modern economic markets. As parts of California shelter in place and millions engage in the largest ...
Blog
Beyond the New Normal? Not.
Back in 2017, concerned over the sclerotic growth of the U.S. economy, PRI published a series of studies titled Beyond the New Normal by economist and PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden. Up until that point, annual real GDP growth averaged just 1.9 percent since 2001. Many economists, resigned to our ...
Agriculture
Enacting UBI Would Bust Federal Budget, Rob Americans of More Prosperous Future
I have written before on the benefits and drawbacks of the various universal basic income (UBI) proposals bubbling up the last few years in the American political scene, specifically the economic, political, and moral dimensions of these policies. All share the same essential structure: cash payments sent to all American ...
Business & Economics
Eliminating barriers to entrepreneurship will help immigrants, poor
The United States is in the midst of the longest economic expansion on record. The U.S. economy has been growing for more than 10 years. The unemployment rate is near its lowest point ever. And yet, poverty continues to be persistent nationwide. Tens of thousands of people are homeless in ...
California
Gig Economy Firms Fight California Overreach with $110 Million Initiative
In a rational response to Assembly Bill 5, which in effect outlaws the gig economy, ride-share and delivery companies have proposed a November 2020 ballot measure aimed at protecting their businesses. But it wouldn’t repeal the law. Shouldn’t that have been the goal? AB 5 doesn’t leave businesses much time to adapt. It becomes law ...
Business & Economics
Wayne Winegarden Quoted in Small-Business Saturday Piece
Jessica Locke, a paramedic living in Linn Creek, did some traditional mall-type shopping over Thanksgiving weekend, she said Friday night at a neighborhood social gathering in Republic. Locke, who’s lived in the United States since 2010 after moving from her native Germany, said she and friend Steven Belcher drove from Springfield to ...
Blog
California’s Assembly Bill 5 Is A Virus Moving Across the Country
The flood of lousy legislation that has poured out of Sacramento for the last two decades or so truly astonishes in its volume. As fourth-rate as the lawmaking has been, though, nothing has been worse than Assembly Bill 5, an existential threat to both jobs and businesses because it requires ...
Amidst Coronavirus-Fueled Economic Downturn, State Leaders Must Suspend Government Barriers to Opportunity
In his “Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity” series, PRI’s Dr. Wayne Winegarden has argued that one of the most important ways that elected officials can help to lift people up the economy ladder is by embracing policies that encourage entrepreneurship. As many Californians struggle to stay afloat financially during the ...
How State Budget Will Be Impacted by Coronavirus Coming More into Focus
A clearer picture formed this week about how the coronavirus will affect the state budget, with action in Sacramento and Washington. Director of Finance Keely Bosler sent a letter to lawmakers that the department will “reevaluate all budget changes within the context of a workload budget.” “While our first priority ...
The Coronavirus Aftermath: Debt and Deficits as Far as the Eye Can See
All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas Layin’ in the sun, Talkin’ ’bout the things They woulda coulda shoulda done… –Shel Silverstein As of this writing, the Trump Administration has pledged to spend more than a trillion dollars to save the lives and livelihoods of Americans as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. We’re ...
What Governments Are Doing to Try and Salvage the Economy
Until recently, terms like social distancing and even the coronavirus were nonexistent. Now these terms could come to define the beginning of a pending global recession the likes of which have yet to test modern economic markets. As parts of California shelter in place and millions engage in the largest ...
Beyond the New Normal? Not.
Back in 2017, concerned over the sclerotic growth of the U.S. economy, PRI published a series of studies titled Beyond the New Normal by economist and PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden. Up until that point, annual real GDP growth averaged just 1.9 percent since 2001. Many economists, resigned to our ...
Enacting UBI Would Bust Federal Budget, Rob Americans of More Prosperous Future
I have written before on the benefits and drawbacks of the various universal basic income (UBI) proposals bubbling up the last few years in the American political scene, specifically the economic, political, and moral dimensions of these policies. All share the same essential structure: cash payments sent to all American ...
Eliminating barriers to entrepreneurship will help immigrants, poor
The United States is in the midst of the longest economic expansion on record. The U.S. economy has been growing for more than 10 years. The unemployment rate is near its lowest point ever. And yet, poverty continues to be persistent nationwide. Tens of thousands of people are homeless in ...
Gig Economy Firms Fight California Overreach with $110 Million Initiative
In a rational response to Assembly Bill 5, which in effect outlaws the gig economy, ride-share and delivery companies have proposed a November 2020 ballot measure aimed at protecting their businesses. But it wouldn’t repeal the law. Shouldn’t that have been the goal? AB 5 doesn’t leave businesses much time to adapt. It becomes law ...
Wayne Winegarden Quoted in Small-Business Saturday Piece
Jessica Locke, a paramedic living in Linn Creek, did some traditional mall-type shopping over Thanksgiving weekend, she said Friday night at a neighborhood social gathering in Republic. Locke, who’s lived in the United States since 2010 after moving from her native Germany, said she and friend Steven Belcher drove from Springfield to ...
California’s Assembly Bill 5 Is A Virus Moving Across the Country
The flood of lousy legislation that has poured out of Sacramento for the last two decades or so truly astonishes in its volume. As fourth-rate as the lawmaking has been, though, nothing has been worse than Assembly Bill 5, an existential threat to both jobs and businesses because it requires ...
