Wildfires

Blog

Taxifornia This Week

By Rowena Itchon and Tim Anaya This week, the Assembly and Senate face a key deadline.  All bills originating must pass their “house of origin” by the end of the week (i.e., bills introduced in the Assembly must pass the Assembly).  The Appropriations Committees of both houses weighed in on ...
Blog

Another Way Government Is Playing Car Salesman – Giveaways to Power Companies

The government is not doing a very effective job of playing car salesman. Despite providing federal manufacturing grants and loans worth $40.7 billion and other $2 billion in federal tax credits to subsidize electric car purchases, electric cars, or zero emission vehicles, are just 0.5 percent of the marketplace.  California ...
Business & Economics

Ian Adams – Grading California’s Wildfire Response

Ian Adams of the R Street Institute joins us to talk about the legislative response to California’s recent devastating wildfires and the role the free market can play in helping people to rebuild their lives and avoid experiencing a future catastrophe.
Business & Economics

Reducing the Burden from Occupational Licensing Regulations Will Help Consumers

As President Reagan famously noted, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” The expanding reach of occupational licensing regulations exemplify this maxim. People in a growing number of occupations now require the permission of the government to work in ...
Blog

Higher Prices During Crises – Is It Really Price Gouging?

On New Year’s Day, months after wildfires had started their deadly march through California, the Los Angeles Times published an article headlined “After the flames, allegations of rent-gouging fly in devastated wine country communities.” It did not include a single defense of higher prices, which indicates bias, or economic ignorance ...
California

What California Should Do To Ease Housing Crisis

In September, Sacramento lawmakers passed more than a dozen bills aiming to begin healing the state’s housing sore. It was, to their thinking, “Housing Day” in California. Two weeks later, legislators joined Gov. Jerry Brown in San Francisco as he signed what he called “15 good bills.” “Today, California begins ...
Blog

Housing shortage goes from dire to desperate after wildfires

A few months ago, Tim Anaya and I interviewed for PRI’s podcast Farhad Zabihi, a math professor at the College of Marin, who had been house hunting for nearly a year in Marin County.  Marin is just south of Napa and Sonoma — two of the hardest hit counties in ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

Federal Tax Proposal Could Raise Insurance Costs In Earthquake Country

California is called earthquake country for good reason. There are nearly 2,000 known fault lines crisscrossing the state, and scientists continue to discover new fault lines all the time. Nearly every Californian lives within 30 miles of an active fault line. The U.S. Geological Survey recently released a study identifying ...
Blog

Taxifornia This Week

By Rowena Itchon and Tim Anaya This week, the Assembly and Senate face a key deadline.  All bills originating must pass their “house of origin” by the end of the week (i.e., bills introduced in the Assembly must pass the Assembly).  The Appropriations Committees of both houses weighed in on ...
Blog

Another Way Government Is Playing Car Salesman – Giveaways to Power Companies

The government is not doing a very effective job of playing car salesman. Despite providing federal manufacturing grants and loans worth $40.7 billion and other $2 billion in federal tax credits to subsidize electric car purchases, electric cars, or zero emission vehicles, are just 0.5 percent of the marketplace.  California ...
Business & Economics

Ian Adams – Grading California’s Wildfire Response

Ian Adams of the R Street Institute joins us to talk about the legislative response to California’s recent devastating wildfires and the role the free market can play in helping people to rebuild their lives and avoid experiencing a future catastrophe.
Business & Economics

Reducing the Burden from Occupational Licensing Regulations Will Help Consumers

As President Reagan famously noted, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” The expanding reach of occupational licensing regulations exemplify this maxim. People in a growing number of occupations now require the permission of the government to work in ...
Blog

Higher Prices During Crises – Is It Really Price Gouging?

On New Year’s Day, months after wildfires had started their deadly march through California, the Los Angeles Times published an article headlined “After the flames, allegations of rent-gouging fly in devastated wine country communities.” It did not include a single defense of higher prices, which indicates bias, or economic ignorance ...
California

What California Should Do To Ease Housing Crisis

In September, Sacramento lawmakers passed more than a dozen bills aiming to begin healing the state’s housing sore. It was, to their thinking, “Housing Day” in California. Two weeks later, legislators joined Gov. Jerry Brown in San Francisco as he signed what he called “15 good bills.” “Today, California begins ...
Blog

Housing shortage goes from dire to desperate after wildfires

A few months ago, Tim Anaya and I interviewed for PRI’s podcast Farhad Zabihi, a math professor at the College of Marin, who had been house hunting for nearly a year in Marin County.  Marin is just south of Napa and Sonoma — two of the hardest hit counties in ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

Federal Tax Proposal Could Raise Insurance Costs In Earthquake Country

California is called earthquake country for good reason. There are nearly 2,000 known fault lines crisscrossing the state, and scientists continue to discover new fault lines all the time. Nearly every Californian lives within 30 miles of an active fault line. The U.S. Geological Survey recently released a study identifying ...
Scroll to Top