Lacking the Will to Act
The next few years portend what I am characterizing as “the mother of all recessions.” The first step in the traditional 12-step process is to get over the denial and admit this will be an unpleasant situation that is out of everyone’s control and must be addressed immediately. This is no time to be a […]
The Peter Navarro Principle
The 20th century gave us the Peter Principle: in a hierarchy, you’ll get promoted until you reach your level of incompetence. The 21st century gives us the Peter Navarro Principle: if you’re relentlessly angry and accusatory, your incompetence will be no obstacle to your rise. Peter Navarro is a failed California politician who now, frighteningly, […]
For Whom the Budget Bell Tolls
The California Department of Finance is in the process of preparing the May Revised Budget. A difficult process every year because of the state’s dependence on unpredictable capital gains taxes, this year DOF must also contend with a COVID-related revenue reduction. Absent reform, that bodes ill for discretionary programs that, even in good times, fare relatively poorly. See below […]
Who Should Pay for Pandemic’s Impact?
The COVID-19 pandemic and the severe economic recession it induced are disasters unparalleled in recent generations and it will take years to fully recover from their human and financial tolls. Already, however, they are spawning legal and political conflicts, over whom, if anyone, should be accountable for their impacts. There is, for instance, a flurry […]