Volcker Report Praises California Budget Moves But Raises Warnings
California has taken positive steps to deal with its budget problems and processes in the last few years, according to a new report from The Volcker Alliance, but there could be problems ahead if the state reverts to its old ways of budgeting during good times. With news coming out of Sacramento that the budget prepared […]
Is Jerry Building Another Obscene Surplus?
It’s an article of faith among the state’s media and political elites that Jerry Brown is very different this time. The budget argues otherwise. In his fourth term as governor, Brown’s supporters and critics can agree on one thing. He is very good at not spending money. And by not spending money, he is good […]
California Democrats Want the State’s Overdrawn Pension Systems to Dump Their Fossil-Fuel Stocks
California’s two mammoth public-pension funds—the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)—are short a shocking $225 billion that they’re going to need to pay for the retirements of government workers. But what is it about the two pension funds that worries the state’s Democratic Party? Their fossil-fuel investments. […]
Debunking the “Crowding Out” Myth About Pensions
When they announced their ballot measure last week, critics of public employee retirement benefits engaged in hyperbole and pointing to potholes as evidence that millions of elderly Californians should be stripped of their retirement savings. Cities, they claim, are spending so much on retired police officers, firefighters and other employees that services – such as […]
Fed’s Monetary Policies Stoke Income Inequality
Income inequality has been in the public consciousness recently, causing policymakers to redouble our efforts to remediate poverty and preserve what is left of the middle class. But aside from a small group of contrarian economists, few people, and most certainly few policymakers, have been willing to discuss the primary cause of income inequality in […]