Polling, the Astrology of Politics
The most recent polls on the California gubernatorial race are out and anyone who thinks he or she can predict what is going to happen on June 5th is probably smoking too much of the state’s newly legalized cannabis. With the state in pretty good economic and fiscal shape, voters simply aren’t engaged in a race […]
The Unintended Consequences of Senate Bill 825
If only the issues held more interest for the public, they might stir more outrage. What Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and pre-apprenticeship training programs lack in eye-grabbing and ear-riveting attention, they more than make up for in unintended consequences for thousands of working Californians. If Senate Bill 825 becomes law, there will be serious consequences […]
Kafka Can’t Believe California Housing
BY FRANZ KAFKA (AS TOLD TO JOE MATHEWS) I keep hearing you Californians calling your state’s housing crisis Kafkaesque. You are far too kind: I never imagined a bureaucratic nightmare this cruel, absurd, and surreal. I don’t know exactly how I got to California, or even how I came back to life. But I appeared […]
Where U.S. Manufacturing Is Thriving In 2018
The ‘80s futurist John Naisbitt once called manufacturing a “a declining sport,” and to be sure the share of Americans working in factories has fallen far from the 1950 peak of 30% to roughly 8.5% last year. Yet, manufacturing’s contributions to the economy are far out of proportion to its shrinking share of employment. In 2013, […]