“It’s [private equity investments] generating real returns for our members, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do,” said Joe DeAnda, a CalPERS spokesman. “It’s real value that we don’t feel there’s another way to achieve.” – “Are private equity investments worth the risk?,” Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2015

The alliance between government unions and America’s overbuilt financial sector is one of the most unreported stories of our time. It is a story saturated in greed, drowning in delusion, smothered and marginalized by an avalanche of taxpayer funded propaganda. If this story were known and appreciated by the people most victimized by its effects, it would fundamentally shift the political landscape of the nation. The most obvious example of this alliance are the government worker pension systems, Wall Street’s biggest players, controlled by union operatives.

The problem with public sector defined benefit pensions can be boiled down to two cold facts:… Read More

Twenty-Five years ago on June 26, 1990 in the previous century another Republican President George H.W. Bush signed landmark ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, which paved the way by opening doors of opportunities for 40 million disabled Americans access to employment, transportation and other services. It was a glorious sunny day on the White House lawn the 41st President of the United States signed national landmark legislation with those looking over were wheelchair bounded, deaf, blind and other disabled leaders of our Republic.

We, as Americans, pride… Read More

The MSM enthusiastically distributes the annual AFL-CIO study comparing big company CEO pay with all workers — informally the “400 to 1” comparison. But the dishonesty of the labor union report is obvious, breathtaking — and completely ignored. Below is a detailed debunking of this “study.”

Perhaps the biggest “error” (it’s no error!) is the inclusion of part-time workers in the worker average pay. Another factor is that the CEO’s “pay” includes all their benefits, but the compared workers’ pay is only their paycheck — the substantial benefits are ignored. While the union is intentionally vague about what they count as worker pay, it appears that they don’t count overtime wages — even though every CEO in America works way more than 40 hours a week. The report doesn’t compare CEO pay with workers in thesamecompany — such a comparison reduces the disparity significantly. And finally, this is a cherrypicked CEO group — the TOP CEO’s are used to representallthe CEO’s.… Read More

The former head of the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has estimated that the national debt is a staggering three times as much as usually publicized. Rather than $18 trillion, the actual number is around $66 trillion.

News reports about government debt at all levels are now more frequent and increasingly alarming. There is little doubt that this is due to the fact that the debt crisis is actually getting worse. But it might also be a reflection of a greater awareness on the part of citizens and the news media that debt is a real danger. For those of us who have been warning about government debt for decades, this greater awareness is long overdue.

Understanding all the ramifications of public debt isn’t easy. As to the magnitude of debt, former California legislator and now congressman Tom McClintock used to refer to “MEGO” numbers (My Eyes Glaze Over) meaning that citizens really can’t be expected to comprehend the vastness of numbers – like $66 trillion – with so many zeros behind them.

To read the entire column click here… Read More

FLASH!!Here’s a super-secret memo (admittedly it’s so secret that I made it up) I imagine I just received from a whistleblower — an internal communique circulating at Amazon:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!We at Amazon have much to be thankful for this Turkey Day.

Speaking of blessings (and turkeys), with the latest California bill proposing to mandate double time wages for anyone “forced” to work on Thanksgiving Day, our useful idiots in the California legislature are laboring hard to further hobble our “brick and mortar” competitors in the Golden State. Driving up their labor costs will result in fewer retail stores open on Thanksgiving and/or higher prices — causing more folks to stay home and turn to the Internet to make purchases for the Holiday Season (don’t say “Christmas”!). Even better, we don’t have to pay our legislator allies a dime in political contributions to get them to stifle our competitors — they are just doing what comes naturally. Yeah, we’ll… Read More

Former Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff and I have filed a ballot initiative with the Attorney General that would redirect unspent High Speed Rail and water bond funds towards creating more water storage capacity. The initiative begins the process of fixing our long-term water problems by increasing storage capacity for all water uses — families, farms and the environment — and it does so without raising taxes.

Please read our joint column in the Sacramento Bee and share it with your friends.… Read More

Back in 2008, voters in California approved Prop. 1, a statewide initiative to spend, “$9 billion for building a new high-speed railroad between San Francisco and Los Angeles.”

Total cost, $9.5 billion. Remember that?

Quoting further from the original initiative’s ballot language:

“Bond Costs. The costs of these bonds would dependon interest rates in effect at the time they are sold andthe time period over which they are repaid. The statewould make principal and interest payments from thestate’s General Fund over a period of about 30 years.If the bonds are sold at an average interest rate of 5percent, the cost would be about $19.4 billion to payoff both principal ($9.95 billion) and interest ($9.5billion). The average repayment for principal andinterest would be about $647 million per year.Operating Costs. When constructed, the high-speedrail system will incur unknown ongoing maintenanceand operation costs, probably in excess of $1 billion ayear. Depending on the level of ridership, these costswould be at least partially offset by revenue from farespaid by passengers.” (ref.UC Hastings Scholarship… Read More

California’s Political Climate Needs to Be Cleaned of Polluted Politicians

Tuesday’s Sacramento Bee has an op ed from Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Democrat from Los Angeles, on full attack of the Bee’s own Dan Walters for daring to point out that California is not booming economically, despite what de Leon and Gov. Jerry Brown tell us.

Fuzzy Math

De Leon claims in his op ed (‘Climate Change Policies Will Help Poorest Californians’), “California’s job growth outpaced all other states in 2014 and unemployment is 5.8 percent, the lowest since October 2007.”

This is only true if like de Leon, Gov. Brown, and the Obama administration, an employed Californian is defined as a worker who performs at a job one hour a week, and therefore can be counted as “employed.”

A full time “job” used to be defined by the government and Bureau of Labor Statistics as 30 or more hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Labor Law attorneys still consider 30+ hours of work… Read More