California’s civil infrastructure was once the envy of the nation. During the 1950’s and 1960’s the state wisely invested in transportation, water and power infrastructure, delivering capacity well in excess of the needs of the state’s population at the time. Even today, the scale of California’s network of aqueducts and pumping stations to transfer water from north to south, east to west, is one of the largest in the world, and California’s vast network of interstate freeways has few rivals.

Moreover, Californians in that era had planned to continue to expand these infrastructure assets to accommodate a growing population, but that all came to a halt in the 1970’s. During the 1970’s not only were the plans for additional water storage and distribution assets abandoned, but state-owned right-of-ways and land acquisitions both for water and transportation were sold to private interests. California now has a population of 40 million people living in a state with civil infrastructure designed to accommodate 20 million people.

The new political alternative to infrastructure development is conservation. By zoning ultra-high density infill in urban… Read More

It’s a story too common to even make the news in California anymore: Pegasus Foods, a Los Angeles firm, announced it is building a new food plant in Texas, employing 325 people. It’s unclear if the company’s CA HQ will also move — but it seems likely, based on the CEO’s positive comments:

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally be here in Texas,” said Jim Zaferis, principal of the Los Angeles-based company that supplies food for restaurants such as Chili’s, Panda Express and Cinnabon.

Zaferis said he was inviting many of his California-based employees to relocate with the company, saying the quality of life here is much better.

“It’s the kind of place where you really want to raise a family,” he said.

For a company like Pegasus, though, the main attraction isTexas’ business-friendly climate, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said. Texas has low taxes, is a right-to-work stateand protects companies from large settlements from litigation, he said.

“It all makes Texas a… Read More

In 2012, those of us who opposed Proposition 30 were told that the measure, which was the largest state tax hike in American history, was just a “temporary” fix to address the emergency of a severe budget shortfall. But just as Milton Friedman noted that “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government measure,” here in California it appears that nothing is so permanent as a temporary tax increase.

However, in their journey to extend the Prop 30 tax hikes, the tax raisers started tripping over their own greed. Even the public sector union bosses weren’t reading off the same page and different proposals began to emerge, each targeting billions of dollars of tax revenue to their respective constituencies. And compounding the problem was the fact that the “emergency,” which was the entire justification for Prop 30 in the… Read More

UPDATE WITH 2014 FIGURES:It’s common for the remaining California boosters (almost ALL far to the left of center) to smugly assert that “California is the 7thlargest ‘country’ in the world.” Using GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as a benchmark, it is a true assertion. It’s also an incomplete assertion. And certainly a misleading assertion. Indeed, a more detailed analysis cuts the legs out from under the booster bunch.

To begin with, that 7th(or 8th— it’s very close) place rank is DOWN from 1999, when CA was ranked 5th. We are in a stately decline.

Moreover, our three immediate “competitors” are India, Italy and Brazil — three economic basket cases. This fact should alert one that using simple GDP as a measure of a country’s prosperity can be remarkably misleading.

Touting CA (vs. other states) as the best state simply because… Read More

By Megan Barth and Katy Grimes

“A lot of the other candidates have gone out of their way to smack him (Trump) with a two-by-four and said some really nasty, vicious things. I’ve sung his praises. He’s bold, he’s brash, and I think the support he’s gaining right now in the polls is because people are looking for someone willing to stand up to Washington.”

~Senator Ted Cruz

Several recent news articlesreported a number of Washington D.C. Republicans have told Bret Baier at FOX News that they may vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

Self-described “lifelong Reagan Republicans” are appalled and repulsed by him, dismayed that the Republican Party let his potential candidacy happen. They are simply projecting their own failures and fears… Read More

“The creation of the mortgage bond market, a decade earlier, had extended Wall Street into a place it had never before been: the debts of ordinary Americans.” – Jared Vennett (played by Ryan Gosling), The Big Short (2015)

Along with anothersuperblyauthentic movie Margin Call(2011), The Big Shortprovides a vivid look into the rigged, Darwinian, ruthlessly exploitative circus popularly known as “Wall Street.” For decades, ever since the greatdepression, this industry slumbered along, sedatelyproviding financial services to Americans. As always, it alsowas a venue for legalized gambling, but the number of players were limited, the winnings were relatively meager, and the opportunities for corrupt manipulations had not yet been multiplied by new trading technologies. Back then, the seedier aspects of Wall Street were overshadowed by the many vitalservices the industry provided. All of that changed starting around 1980.

In 1985, the financial sector earned less than 16% of… Read More

Carl’s Jr. World Headquarters is leaving the Golden State for the Volunteer State. But the move has nothing to do with volunteerism, and everything to do with hospitality.

CKE Restaurants, Inc., the parent company of Carl’s Jr. was founded in Anaheim 60 years ago. After several years of researching options, CKE Restaurants, Inc. is finally moving its California headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, a state with no income tax, and a friendly business environment.

In March 2011, I met Andy Puzder, CEO ofCKE Restaurants, Inc., the parent company of Carl’s Jr., Green Burrito and Hardees… Read More

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I thought I would never see the day that Democrats elected to office in California suggest a tax cut of any kind. They seem to hold classes teaching elected officials about creating new rationale for any way they can transfer more funds from hardworking residents to the coffers of the government to pay for the inflated salaries and benefits of the unionized government workers. Finally, the day has come that something has caught their interest to cut taxes and we should all say Hallelujah.

Assemblywomen Cristina Garcia (D) has authored AB1561, a bill that would eliminate sales taxes on tampons and sanitary napkins. Sales tax in California is collected not only for the state, but for the counties and cities. This bill would not reimburse the cities and counties for the lost revenues from these sales even though a section of the state revenue code allows for that.

This has created quite an interesting discussion. Although the Republicans in the legislature are clear minorities, it would be hard to find a Republican who would vote against any tax decrease of any kind since it is such a unique situation. In fact, it may be the only time they have a chance to vote for… Read More