News

In the postwar era, developed economies have experienced two substantial trends in the net capital share of aggregate income: a rise during the last several decades, which is well-known, and a fall of comparable magnitude that continued until the 1970s, which is less well-known. Overall, the net capital share has increased since 1948, but when disaggregated this increase comes entirely from the housing sector: the contribution to net capital income from all other sectors has been zero or slightly negative, as the fall and rise have offset each other.

A report released today from the National University System Institute for Policy Research (NUSIPR) found that California’s lack of strategic coordination on energy policies is increasing energy costs in San Diego, hurting key industries, and burdening residents who are struggling to balance household budgets. The report entitled San Diego: Energy, the Economy and the Call for Pause encouraged policymakers to understand how energy policies impact costs, and consider whether the new mandates are fostering a more sustainable, cost-effective energy system.

The state that had earlier earned its own “California Dream” label now limits the dream of homeownership principally to people either fortunate enough to have purchased their homes years ago and to the more affluent. Many middle income residents may have to face the choice of renting permanently or moving away.

Total jobs created in the 12 months ending Jan. 31 show California leading other states. California gained 498,000 new jobs, almost 30% more than the Lone Star State’s total of 392,900 for the same period.

Snowpack at 12 percent of average in the Sierra Nevada means there is less runoff to feed rivers and streams that run through dams to generate cleanly produced hydroelectric power. Despite the state’s ambitious clean-air goals, officials are turning to dirtier, more costly fossil-fuel plants to fill some of the power gap. They also will seek more hydroelectricity imports in a region expected to have markedly less to offer this summer.

The prospect of semi-permanent drought would require courageous political leadership. We should put at least as much effort into protecting our vital water supply as we are wasting on a bullet train that we neither want nor need.

California’s unemployment rate fell to 6.7% from 7% a month earlier and 8% in February 2014, according to the state Employment Development Department. The rate is at its lowest level since May of 2008.

“Much of California is still struggling: The strong dollar is depressing Central Valley agricultural exports, the lowest oil prices in years are squeezing the Kern County oil fields and extreme housing prices along the coastline are giving potential home buyers pause. But in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, those factors are fueling a growth spurt that’s already among the fastest in the state, according to a report released at an economic conference in Ontario on Thursday.”

The cost of housing — and concerns about commutes — are causing anxiety among Jindal’s clients. He recently had to revise a deal that involved recruiting a crack team of hackers for projects in Silicon Valley. Instead, partially based on the projected cost to lure them, he was forced to export the projects — and the cash infusion it would have meant locally — to a coding team in Dallas and Charlotte. . . “It’s very difficult. I just lost three servers to Texas, and one cook and a busboy to Oregon,” Rocca said. “They can’t make enough money to get ahead, so they spend every dime they make. So they left. They just didn’t like that.”

California’s cap-and-trade program will reap far more revenue for clean air projects than the state had previously projected. But most of those dollars will flow disproportionately to the Bay Area and San Joaquin Valley, according to a report released Tuesday. It’s already stirred controversy.

The drought package Brown and lawmakers proposed Thursday includes $272.7 million in water recycling and drinking water quality programs funded by Proposition 1, the water bond voters approved last year.

As Los Angeles officials await a study on the economic impact of a pair of proposals to raise the minimum wage, both business and labor groups have weighed in with their own studies.

As of 2012, 18 of the 20 most heavily Asian communities were suburban, all but one of them are in California. Not surprisingly quite a few are the smaller cities of Silicon Valley, where Asians constitute roughly half of all tech employees. Cupertino, a city of 59,700 that is home to Apple’s headquarters, takes the title of the most Asian city in the U.S., with a population that was 65% Asian as of 2012, up from 45.9% in 2000. Other suburban cities around the Bay that are majority Asian include No. 2 Milpitas (64.5% Asian), Daley City, Sunnyvale, Fremont , Santa Clara and Union City. Of them, only Daley City and Milpitas were majority Asian in 2000.

One new paper, being presented this week as part of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, suggests the rising share of capital income can be explained entirely by housing. The second paper, presented at the same event, shows that political support for redistribution is not increasing in the U.S., even as inequality rises.

During the third quarter that ended in September, average weekly wages in Santa Clara County hit $2,012 — more than double the national average of $949 a week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in a newly released study.