CERF Blog

I just finished California Crack Up by Joe Matthews and Mark Paul.  For me, the book was not quite fulfilling, and it took determination to read the final 30 pages or so.  There was some inconsistency.  The authors argue that Proposition 13 led to a concentration of power in Sacramento, but only a few pages… Read more

The July California jobs report shows continued weakness for the Golden State’s labor markets. Annualized month-on-month job growth declined 0.8 percent. Year-on-year job growth also declined 0.8 percent, and the unemployment rate held at 12.3 percent. The unemployment rate remains almost 300 basis points higher than the United States unemployment rate. To some extent, as… Read more

Well, this is interesting.  It seems that the Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against New Jersey for securities fraud in marketing its debt.  Their problem was that they neglected to report some pension liabilities. I doubt that California has made that mistake, but State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer, has been very aggressive in attempting… Read more

The California Builders Association announced today that California’s new home sales fell 46 percent in May over the previous year.  This is a big decline from an already weak market.  The question, of course, is what caused the decline. The easy answer is the expiration of federal incentives on April 30th, but that is not… Read more

Raghu Rajan has a piece on income equality and its impact on the recent financial crisis.  It’s the same theme he addressed in depth in his excellent recent book, Fault Lines.  As income inequality increases, politicians come under pressure.  They have three possible ways to address the problem: fix the underlying problem, wealth transfers, or… Read more

Our governor is trying to cut public employees wages to the minimum wage, and that is wrong.  What he’s doing is essentially holding the public employees hostage to try to leverage the legislature to act.  It’s not very different from holding a bank teller hostage to get the manager to hand over cash. I have… Read more

The quality of political debate is really amazing. I’m being called a right-wing extremist because a study we did for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association does not fit the “environmentalist” view. It was just a few months ago that I was being called an ivory-tower liberal for discussing the economic benefits of immigrants and… Read more

California Trade data continue to reveal a strengthening that initially occurred late last year.  First quarter container loadings, inbound plus outbound at Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports, were up 14.6 percent from the prior year. California’s 2010 first-quarter exports were up 44 percent from the prior year, following a 29 percent year-on-year increase in… Read more

California’s April unemployment rate was unchanged from March at 12.6 percent. This was the result of roughly equivalent increases in civilian labor force and employment from March to April. California’s April jobs grew at 1.6 percent, annualized, from March. However, if we remove Agriculture and Government, this growth rate falls to zero percent. California’s April… Read more

I was in Peoria yesterday to give a talk to the City Council. Peoria is a suburb of Phoenix, but it is intent on having its own identity and economy. The City has a population pushing 150,000 spread over an amazing 180 square miles. They like their open space in Peoria. It’s a great looking… Read more