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State, local taxes at record highs
Governments everywhere, especially in California, say they need more money. Budgets have been cut. But here’s the truth: Revenues from state and local individual income taxes, general sales and gross receipt taxes, motor fuel taxes, motor vehicle taxes and taxes
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CA's richest company sees smartphone future more clearly than critics
I am not an Apple cultist. I like the Silicon Valley icon, California's richest company, a great deal and agree that Steve Jobs is a transcendent historical figure. But I gave up on my iPhone 4 when I saw that Google's
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Incomes down for 5th consecutive year
A new report confirms a theme we've advanced here at CalWatchDog.com: There has been no economic “recovery.” From the Financial Times: “The typical American family now earns less in real terms than in 1989 after household incomes fell for the
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CA computer problem does not compute
You'd think that the world's center of computer technology could get its own government computers right. The state government, and many local governments, remain plagued with glitches that would bankrupt any private-sector firm. The latest: college essay review services cheap
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CA unemployment jumps to 8.9%
So much for California being “back,” as Gov. Jerry Brown keeps badgering us. State unemployment jumped to 8.9 percent in August, from 8.7 percent in July. That's well above the U.S. rate of 7.3 percent. %%anc%% And the 8.9 percent
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Subsidized CA green firm goes belly-up; no one thinks it’s news
When Solyndra collapsed in 2011, the failure of the Bay Area-company got lots of media coverage. Losing more than $500 million of taxpayer funds on a project that was never really vetted by federal stimulus overseers was considered news. Duh.
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Snake oil sales up along with CA's rosy economy
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. You know… the guy who keeps repeating how rosy California's economic recovery is. The numerous reports announcing California's economic recovery appear designed to make consumers feel enough confidence to go out
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BART strife: Bay Area liberals mugged by union reality
The old joke about many conservatives being liberals who were mugged by reality has a lot of heft to it. The older one gets, the more taxes one pays and the more one figures out that liberalism in California is
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CA minimum-wage hike: Expect 'very large' effect on low-wage jobs
Gov. Jerry Brown's signalling that he'll approve a bill to raise in two steps the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10 an hour has prompted the usual dumb coverage of minimum wage increases, which notes that business groups/Republicans
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Why Arnold owes U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars (non-bullet train edition)
Two interesting pieces published recently make a strong case that government can be made far more efficient if we actually tried empirically to evaluate what worked and what didn't. On the Zocalo Public Square website, Pepperdine academic Pete Peterson takes
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