Entries by Edward Ring

California’s Budget “Surplus” Ignores Crushing Debt Burden

January 9, 2019 in , , , /by

California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, delivered an inaugural address earlier this week that accurately reflected the mentality of his supporters. Triumphalist, defiant, and filled with grand plans. But are these plans grand, or grandiose? Will Governor Newsom try to deliver everything he promised during his campaign, and if so, can California’s state government really deliver […]

Pension Funds, Meet the “Super Bubble”

December 27, 2018 in , /by

Earlier this month, outgoing California Governor Jerry Brown predicted “fiscal oblivion” if California’s state and local agencies are not granted more flexibility to modify pension benefits. As if to help Governor Brown make his point, U.S. stock indexes took an obliging plunge. The Dow Jones average cratered in December, dropping nearly 16 percent in three […]

The Financial Context of the Imminent California Supreme Court Decision on the “California Rule”

December 19, 2018 in , , /by

Any day now, the California Supreme Court will rule on what may be one of the most significant cases affecting pension reform in California history. The case, CalFire Local 2881 vs. CalPERS, challenges one of the provisions of PEPRA (Public Employee Pension Reform Act) Governor Brown’s 2013 pension reform legislation. The plaintiffs argue that PEPRA’s abolition […]

Jamming Janus – The Public Union Empire Strikes Back

December 12, 2018 in , /by

In June 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Janus vs AFSCME case. The result of the decision is that public employees not only have the right to refuse membership in a union, but also the right to refuse to pay so-called “agency fees” to the union. Unions had been preparing for years for […]

California Burning – How the Greens Turned the Golden State Brown

November 27, 2018 in , , /by

In October 2016, in a coordinated act of terrorism that received fleeting attention from the press, environmentalist activists broke into remote flow stations and turned off the valves on pipelines carrying crude oil from Canada into the United States. Working simultaneously in Washington, Montana, Minnesota, and North Dakota, the eco-terrorists disrupted pipelines that together transport 2.8 million […]

Can Public Sector Union Power Ever Be Stopped?

November 20, 2018 in , /by

Imagine you’re hoping to support a candidate for local office who will enact reforms that will improve your city, maybe even save it. Someone who will fight tirelessly to eliminate work rules that force agencies to hire more people than are actually necessary. Someone who will insist that incompetent public employees are fired. Someone who […]

California’s Socialist Oligarchy, Part Two: Who They Are and How to Defeat Them

October 9, 2018 in , /by

California’s policymakers have condemned Californians to endure contrived scarcity, unaffordability, and inconvenience in all of the basic necessities of life. This is a crime, but it’s not a conspiracy. Rather, it is caused by a collection of powerful special interests whose political agendas align. Left-wing Oligarchs At the top of the pyramid are left-wing oligarchs, crony […]

California’s Socialist Oligarchy, Part One: Making the State Unaffordable

October 8, 2018 in , /by

Touted as the “fifth-largest economy on Earth,” and recently heralded as delivering the “greatest increase in average income,” these statistics obscure an alarming reality. California has become a feudal state, where the benefits of prosperity are unequally distributed, rewarding corrupt plutocrats and punishing ordinary working families. Joel Kotkin, a fellow in urban studies at Chapman University […]

Public Servant Who Made $327,491 in 2017 Asks Us to Support Higher Taxes

October 2, 2018 in , , , , /by

Every two years, around this time, political mailers inundate the mailboxes of California’s registered voters. This week, many Sacramento residents received “Vote No on Prop 6″ mailer. Prop 6 is that pesky, subversive citizens ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, will roll back the gas tax. But Prop. 6 isn’t the topic here. Rather, […]

Just How Much Money Might CalPERS Have to Collect in an Economic Downturn?

September 26, 2018 in , , , /by

When evaluating the financial challenges facing California’s state and local public employee pension funds, a compelling question to consider is when, exactly when, will these funds financially collapse? That is, of course, an impossible question to answer. CalPERS, for example, manages hundreds of billions in assets, which means that long before it literally runs out […]