Strain admits that this is just a guess, and finding corroborating evidence is hard. He also usefully lists other theories. With thanks and apologies to him, here’s a summary of his summary. (1) There’s more “slack” in labor markets than standard employment statistics indicate. People who had given up looking for work are re-entering the […]
A gauge of U.S. business prices rose broadly in June, driven in part by a rise in transportation costs that underscores the sector’s climbing labor expenses. The producer-price index, a measure of the prices businesses receive for their goods and services, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in June from a month earlier, the Labor Department […]
U.S. consumer prices rose for a third straight month in June, eating away at modest wage gains and sending inflation to its highest rate in more than six years. The consumer-price index, which gauges what Americans pay for everything from veterinarian services to baby clothes, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in June from the prior […]
For critics of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, this case is a poster child for the need for reform. Signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970 and often referred to as “see-kwuh,” the law calls for “preventing environmental damage, while providing a decent home and satisfying living environment for every Californian.” Environmentalists say […]
Does taxing the rich lead to migration of top income earners? In principle, barriers to migration for the wealthy are low, suggesting that even small changes to top tax rates might set off tax flight. Since top earners are also the largest taxpayers, the potential flight of the rich can set off a race to […]
California lost a very small but statistically significant percentage of high-income residents after voters approved Proposition 30 — the 2012 ballot measure that raised the top state income tax rate to 13.3 percent, the highest in the nation — according to a new working paper from three researchers. The state lost an estimated 138 high-income […]
As anticipated here after the hearing on California’s sanctuary state laws were argued in federal court, Judge John A. Mendez offered a split decision upholding the state’s ability to establish sanctuary laws but halting the state’s power to punish businesses for cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The Trump Administration filed suit against three California laws […]
California’s ballot initiative process, created 107 years ago to bypass a corrupt state government in Sacramento, is a form of “direct democracy” by which voters make policy themselves, at the ballot box. In recent years, however, it has also become a playground for enormously wealthy people, who use their personal resources to promote their preferred […]
Workers are choosing to leave their jobs at the fastest rate since the internet boom 17 years ago and getting rewarded for it with bigger paychecks and/or more satisfying work. Labor Department data show that 3.4 million Americans quit their jobs in April, near a 2001 peak and twice the 1.7 million who were laid […]
In fact, despite Brown’s reserves, the state may be less prepared for a future economic downturn than it was when he became governor for the second time in 2011. While higher spending is largely locked in place, the revenue stream is now even more unreliable because it is even more dependent on the rich. Their […]
California lawmakers on Tuesday revived a long-stalled proposal to set a goal of generating 100 percent of the state’s energy from carbon-free sources. With other controversial and high-stakes energy legislation also moving forward, California lawmakers face an array of decisions with vast implications for the Western energy grid, the future of renewable power and consumers’ […]
California lawmakers introduced 39 bills and constitutional amendments in the current legislative session that, if enacted, would increase taxes and fees by more than $272 billion annually — more than doubling the amount of state taxes and fees already paid. 2018 is the second year of a two-year legislative session, and the Legislature is on […]
The individual income tax is one of the main sources of revenue for states, comprising 23.5 percent of total U.S. state and local tax collections in fiscal year 2015, the latest year of data available. The individual income tax ties with the general sales tax as the second largest source of state and local tax […]
A huge housing/multi-use project proposed for Silicon Valley faced strong opposition. Nearby residents hated it and blocked smaller versions of the project that were on the 2016 ballot. The mayor called it out of place and sniped at outsiders who criticized his city’s history in adding housing stock. The building trades unions which sometimes come […]
At a recent panel on poverty, the Congressional Budget Office made a presentation showing how income and benefit programs interact in ways that can heavily discourage work. The CBO looked at a single parent with one child living in Pennsylvania, and what would happen to her net income — from wages and benefits — as […]