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The impacts will first be felt in the state budget, which already makes annual payments of $5.4 billion a year into the CalPERS fund. While local governments and schools won’t have to boost their pension contributions until 2018, the state budget will begin to feel the effects of the CalPERS decision in almost six months. . . Brown, who will unveil his new state budget in less than three weeks, believes the ratcheting down of CalPERS’ investment profits will force the state to pay an additional $2 billion above current pension mandates by the summer of 2024.

There’s nothing “secular” about our low rate of growth, goes the argument: It’s just the result of the never-ending accretion of ever more costly and time-consuming regulations, all of which could, in theory, be overturned at a stroke. These regulations go largely unnoticed by coastal elites because we’re mostly in the business of producing and manipulating words—as politicians, lawyers, bureaucrats, academics, consultants, pundits and so on. But regulations (and those who profit from them) are the bane of anyone who produces or delivers things: jet engines, burgers, pool supplies, you name it.

The earnings forecast would drop from 7.5 percent to 7 percent, giving the nation’s largest public pension fund one of the most conservative forecasts, possibly setting a nationwide trend in the view of some. . . When fully phased in the lower discount rate will cost the state an additional $2 billion, Eric Stern of Brown’s Finance department told the committee, half from the general fund that contributes $5.4 billion to CalPERS this year and the other half from special funds.

The California State Department of Justice has joined the chorus of regulators calling for Uber to halt its self-driving car program in San Francisco, with an order from the Attorney General’s office saying it will seek an injunction to force a halt.

With the passage of last week’s deadline for certifying election results from the November 8 general election, the impact of voters’ decisions on local tax and bond measures finally can be determined. With all votes counted, 353 out of 427 tax or bond measures ended up passing – a passage rate of 82.67 percent. . . The 167 tax measures that passed will increase the local tax burden by more than $2 billion annually. The most significant chunk of that financial burden will come from increased sales taxes, which account for more than $1.5 billion in increased local taxes.

California employers added 13,600 jobs in November, nudging the state unemployment rate down to 5.3%, according to data released Friday morning.

To gain the backing of business groups, moderate Democrats and Republicans, Lapsley said any deal must include measures that speed up approvals for transportation projects and the delivery of money to them.

Germany is at risk of missing its 2020 target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990, an environment ministry report showed on Wednesday. . . The action plan was expected to save between 62 million and 78 million tonnes of carbon dioxide but now the government expects savings of just 58 million tonnes, the report said.

Vermont is in the early stages. The Vermont Public Interest Research Group is hawking a $500 million a year carbon tax on producers that would dramatically increase retail prices for gasoline and home-heating oil, which would be at least partially offset by a tax credit and a sales tax reduction. The proposal could be considered by the state legislature next year.

Panasonic Corp. is introducing convenience-store checkout machines that can scan and bag items on their own, joining Amazon.com Inc. in the push for more retail automation.

A recent analysis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that union membership as a percentage of the entire labor force declined in 24 states in 2015 compared to the year before, while some 34 states and the District of Columbia were down from where they were a decade earlier. . . Union membership in California fell by .6 percent over the last 10 years, falling to 15.9 percent in 2015 from 16.5 percent in 2005.

Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., spent much of the last year stumping for advances in energy production. He maintains that things like solar plants, nuclear power and electric cars will do little to solve global warming in the relatively near-term. The only way to halt global warming is to find an energy source that produces no greenhouse gases, Gates has said.

Californians are likely to pay more for gasoline, electricity, food and new homes — and to feel their lives jolted in myriad other ways — because their state broadly expanded its war on climate change this summer.

Barely half of 30-year-olds earn more than their parents did at a similar age, a research team found, an enormous decline from the early 1970s when the incomes of nearly all offspring outpaced their parents. Even rapid economic growth won’t do much to reverse the trend.

Amazon is building stores without cashiers and checkout lines. . . In Seattle, where Amazon is building its first cashier-less store, raising the minimum wage just $1.53 to $11 has already decreased the share of workers with jobs by 1.2 percent. By the time Seattle hits $15 in 2021, many more job positions will have been priced out. Raising minimum wages accelerates the elimination of low-wage work through automation and raises the barrier to entry for new companies that don’t have advanced capabilities.