Former speaker of the California State Assembly and State Treasurer Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh once said, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.” As the war chest necessary to mount a successful political campaign only continues to grow, Unruh’s words seem perhaps truer today than at any other time in our republic. But many worry...

Arrests have been made in China over a $7.6 billion Ponzi scheme involving a P2P (person-to-person, without the intervention of a bank) lender. My first response was: P2P lending in the Chinese banking system: what could possibly go wrong? My second, more thoughtful, insight is that distinguishing out-and-out Ponzi schemes from the world economy as...

Cal State faculty, students expected to press trustees on pay raises, tuition at Long Beach meeting By Carla Rivera, March 8, 2016, Los Angeles Times Cal State faculty members are expected to press their case for pay raises Tuesday at a Board of Trustees meeting — perhaps their last chance to jump-start stalled negotiations before...

“The creation of the mortgage bond market, a decade earlier, had extended Wall Street into a place it had never before been: the debts of ordinary Americans.” –  Jared Vennett (played by Ryan Gosling), The Big Short (2015) Along with another superbly authentic movie Margin Call (2011), The Big Short provides a vivid look into the rigged, Darwinian, ruthlessly...

Randi Weingarten promotes her union agenda in the guise of “cultural literacy.” Almost 30 years ago, education professor E.D. Hirsch wrote Cultural Literacy, in which he claimed that there are facts and cultural references that every American should know. His list was both celebrated and attacked, and is still controversial. While many approve of a...

The Devil at Our Doorstep and blogs such as Rank and File Union Membership Post Victories, SEIU Watch and Michigan Kickoff are committed to publicizing the stories of employees across the nation that have been impacted by, or are taking steps to fight back against, Big Labor’s control tactics of forced unionism and forced dues. Much of...

Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency released its quarterly home price indices for the fourth quarter of 2015, so we now have a 41-year time series for every state and many metropolitan areas. The numbers show that, even after adjusting for inflation, housing prices in the San Francisco Bay Area have exceeded prices during...

The late songwriter Jim Croce listed a number of imprudent actions in his “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.” Along with staying out of Jim’s way, he included the admonition not to tug on Superman’s cape or spit into the wind. Croce might have added to his list the foolishness of taking on Proposition 13....

Good luck getting a recertification bill passed in a state legislature owned and operated by the California Teachers Association. Republican California State Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, representing the 34th district (mostly Kern County), has come up a couple of interesting bills. (H/T Steve Frank.) AB 2753 would “require California’s public employee unions to post an itemized...

US Supreme Court Deals Devastating Blow In Public Union Pension Case By Connor D. Wolf, March 1, 2016, Daily Caller The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a devastating blow to New Jersey labor unions Monday by declining to hear their case against Gov. Chris Christie for cutting state pensions. The former Republican presidential candidate cut state pensions...