Follow the Obama Example: Review Business Regs in CA
Bravo, President Barack Obama, for issuing an executive order to review and remove burdensome regulations on business.
We should follow the president’s example in California.
In a Wall Street Journal editorial this week, the president stated that he signed an executive order for regulation review because outdated regulations stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive. The president wrote, “we are also making it our mission to root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb.”
The order requires government agencies to consider benefits and costs of regulations and to seek expert advice about regulations, including input from the business community.
The president’s order comes on the back of California congressman Darrell Issa’s letter sent to business leaders asking for a list of onerous regulations on their businesses. Issa is acting in his new role as Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Like the president, Issa is concerned with regulations hampering job creation.
A Governor Without Leverage?
Here’s a question, a real question, not a rhetorical question: does Jerry Brown have a hammer?
If he does, I don’t see it. As the governor pushes for his budget of cuts and tax increases and a June special election, what leverage does he have over the legislature to get what he wants?
More specifically, what can he really do to legislative Republicans who – to listen to them – are so devoted to the freedom of Californians that they dare not let Californians vote on tax increases?
The Next Urban Challenge — And Opportunity
Cross-posted at NewGeography.
In the next two years, America’s large cities will face the greatest existential crisis in a generation. Municipal bonds are in the tank, having just suffered the worst quarterly performance in more than 16 years, a sign of flagging interest in urban debt.
Things may get worse. The website Business Insider calculates that as many as 16 major cities — including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco — could face bankruptcy in the next year without major revenue increases or drastic budget cuts. JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon notes that there have already been six municipal bankruptcies and predicts that we “will see more.”
Big cities face particularly steep challenges. Many, notes the Manhattan Institute’s Steve Malanga, have extraordinarily generous compensation systems for their public employees. New York City, for example, owes nearly $65 billion in municipal debt, as well as a remarkable $122 billion for unfunded pension obligations. President Barack Obama’s hometown of Chicago has it even worse: Its total public pension liability adds up to roughly $42,000 per household.
A Better Place to Live
Michael Connelly’s 21st novel, The Reversal, was released by Little
Brown a few months ago. Publisher’s
Weekly, the industry’s trade publication, gave it a starred review which
concludes, "Reading this book is like watching a master
craftsman, slowly and carefully, brick by brick, build something that holds
together exquisitely, form and function in perfect alignment."
The Reversal brings together Connelly’s
best-known detective hero, Harry Bosch, and his newer hero, defense attorney
Mickey Haller, who is not only starring in his third Connelly novel but will be
played Matthew McConaughey in the soon-to-be
released movie The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the novel of the
same name in which Haller was introduced.
The Reversal is also set in Los Angeles,
the primary setting for all of Connelly’s work.