Undoubtedly, the steep drop in emissions during the three years or so starting in 2008 was largely driven by a jarring economic recession, which stifled economic activity in general, pulling emissions down with it.
California’s Class of 2016 scored lower than the national average on SAT reading and math tests, although state students outperformed their national peers in writing, just-released scores show. . . Latinos scored nearly 100 points lower than whites in both reading and math. When gender is factored in, Asian boys scored the highest in math — 590 — and white boys scored highest in reading — 548. The highest scores in writing were posted by girls in the “other” ethnic category — representing those not clearly in major ethnic groups — followed by white girls and Asian girls, who were 1 and 2 points lower, respectively.
Though California, with 12 percent of the American population, has more than 35 percent of the nation’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare caseload—with Latinos constituting nearly half the adult rolls in the state—Texas, with under 9 percent of the country’s population, has less than 1 percent of the national welfare caseload. Further, according to the 2014 American Community Survey, Texas Hispanics had a significantly lower rate of out-of-wedlock births and a higher marriage rate than California Hispanics.
Gov. Jerry Brown proposed steps similar to those contained in the White House toolkit – fast-tracking for certain kinds of housing to fill the most critical needs. But his “by right” plan went nowhere in the Legislature because environmental groups, labor unions and local governments joined forces to kill it.
Much has been written about the aging of the U.S. population, but the importance of this trend for the economy and its evolution can easily be overlooked. This week, we focus on the aging of the labor force and explore its implications for the behavior of real wage growth. In this first post, we examine estimated real wage profiles of workers and document how their levels and growth rates differ across demographic characteristics such as sex, race/ethnicity, education level, and age. Moreover, we argue that the demographic trends predict a slower pace of real wage growth for an increasing fraction of the workforce. Our second post combines the implied real wage growth rates and changing demographics of the U.S. labor force to derive a “cyclically neutral” aggregate real wage growth series. We show that this series has been steadily declining since the mid-1980s.
The Obama administration Monday is calling on cities and counties to rethink their zoning laws, saying that antiquated rules on construction, housing and land use are contributing to high rents and income inequality, and dragging down the U.S. economy as a whole.
The survey, commissioned by POLITICO and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that 51 percent of Americans expect the pace of growth to remain at about the current rate over the next 10 years. That’s a grim outlook at a time when year-over-year increases in gross domestic product have come in well below 2 percent in recent quarters.
Insolvency: America’s states, counties, cities and municipalities are in deep trouble, owing literally trillions in public employee pensions that they can’t pay off. Nowhere is that more apparent than in California, the nation’s poster boy for fiscal irresponsibility.
It’s a myth that public employees trade lower pay for pensions. Exploding salaries are driving pension costs upward. My book, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States,” compared salaries for state jobs. In 2014, Texas prison guards earned an average of $38,775; in California, $83,877. For police, Texas averaged $60,573; California $96,131. Texas judges averaged $158,500, while California judges averaged $212,040. California employees came off as a Gilded Age aristocracy compared with their public service peers.
Sometime in early 2018, the EV community in the U.S. will buzz about the specific clauses in the Internal Revenue Service section code IRC 30D, better known as the “Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Credit.” That’s the code that allows for up to $7,500 off on federal taxes for the purchase of a new electric vehicle. It’s one that has a “sunset” clause that is specific to each vehicle manufacturer’s success. Once each manufacturer (OEM) reaches 200,000 cumulative U.S. sales of all of its EVs (from 2010 onward) the phaseout process begins. So, the more EVs an OEM sells, the quicker the credit will sunset. That mean the OEM that wins, is first to lose, but has actually won (because of their success).
Another factor keeping emissions down was the economic recession that began in 2008, after California set its emissions target but before it began most of its policies under A.B. 32. Economists haven’t calculated the actual emissions drop linked to the recession, which officially ended in June 2009, but they say it is significant.
Operations at the Phillips 66 refinery’s marine terminal in Rodeo have been shut down since Wednesday.
New research supports the conclusion that anti-sprawl policy (urban containment policy) is incompatible with housing affordability. Build-zoom.com economist Issi Romem finds that: “Cities that have curbed their expansion have – with limited exception – failed to compensate with densification. As a result they have produced far less housing than they would otherwise, with severe national implications for housing affordability, geographic mobility and access to opportunity, all of which are keenly felt today as we approach the top of housing cycle.”
Since 2009, the hallmark of California water policy has been a commitment to the coequal goals of improving both water supply reliability and ecosystem health. While this commitment remains as vital today as it was in 2009, recent actions suggest we’re due for a refresher course on what it really means. . . Draft flow objectives for the San Joaquin released this month by the State Water Resources Control Board staff raise serious questions about their commitment to a state policy founded on the coequal goals. Requiring up to 50% of unimpaired flow to remain in the river for the purported benefit of fish species, as proposed by State Water Board staff, does not reflect a balanced approach. . . The State Water Board staff’s draft plan would deal a severe blow to many communities already struggling with drinking water quality and quantity challenges. It also would make it extremely difficult for local agencies to achieve state-mandated goals under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, both by compelling growers to pump more groundwater and by reducing the amount of surface water available to recharge groundwater basins.
But unlike California, whose cities have refocused on elite priorities at the expense of middle-class occupations, Texas offers a complete spectrum of economic activities in its metros. Another key difference is that Texas cities have mostly embraced pro-development policies that have kept them affordable by allowing housing supply to expand with population, while California’s housing prices blasted into the stratosphere due to severe development restrictions. Texas cities also benefit from favorable state policies, such as the absence of a state income tax and a reasonable regulatory and litigation environment. These factors make Texas cities today what California’s used to be: places to go in search of the American dream.