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Regional investment bank aims for a reprise
May 17, 2011
Jim Freedman and his partners have been here before.
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Public pension reform, not public-worker bashing
May 15, 2011
Here's what we know for certain about the public pension crisis facing California: The obligations owed or promised to public workers are growing, and unsustainable.
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Pharmaceutical industry defends 'pay-for-delay' deals
May 10, 2011
Brand-name drug companies and their generic rivals spend so much time and money attacking each other — in court, in Congress, and everywhere else lawyers and lobbyists do battle — that when they land on the same side of an issue it's a good guess that the consumer is getting whacked.
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Trying to fill a hole in medical clinic regulation
May 7, 2011
In 2007, a state appeals judge handed a Southern California orthopedist named Daniel Capen a victory in his quest to build his own outpatient medical clinic without obtaining a license from state health regulators.
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Curing the state's medical regulation system
May 4, 2011
Are you an unfit or incompetent doctor in the state of California? You can rest easy, because the Medical Board of California is on your case.
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Federal crackdown on Internet poker looks like a relic from the past
April 29, 2011
By its nature, gambling is an uncertain proposition for the player. But here's a bet you can't lose: If a U.S. gambling regulation is on the table, put your money on the side that says it will be confused, hypocritical and costly.
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In California, a more rational approach to budget gap emerges
April 27, 2011
Nobody said that closing California's budget gap of $25 billion-plus was going to be easy, even for a new governor elected with a resounding majority.
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S&P should avoid political predictions
April 22, 2011
The credit ratings firm Standard & Poor's doesn't exactly have a stellar record in predicting the future. It missed the flaws in Orange County's investment portfolio that led to the county's 1994 bankruptcy. It missed the cancer eating away at Enron. It missed the mortgage meltdown.
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FDA needs teeth to avert drug shortages
April 19, 2011
It didn't used to be in Sandy Binder's job description to be a drug sleuth.
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Neediest and sickest would pay the price under GOP budget plan
April 17, 2011
If consensus-building is a hallmark of effective governing, a rule you can probably find in a civics textbook or two, then I suppose it's an achievement that everyone agrees that unending federal deficits will lead us to perdition.
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How Big Pharma distorts the costs of developing new drugs
April 3, 2011
Every time I come across a big-number statistic about the size or significance of some industrial activity, my nose wrinkles.
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Will Farmers Insurance settlement turn into a good deal for customers?
March 29, 2011
Here's how to make a $455-million consumer class-action settlement disappear.
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Creating a digital public library without Google's money
March 25, 2011
Say what you want about Google — whether you believe it invariably adheres to its motto "Don't be evil" or you suspect that its true goal is world domination — the firm's behavior certainly has a way of shining the spotlight on the most important technological issues in our lives.
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A nuclear renaissance in U.S. was unlikely even before Japan disaster
March 23, 2011
To all those who may be concerned that the catastrophic events at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will derail the heralded renaissance of nuclear power in the U.S., you can relax.
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Flipping through e-readers, a skeptic becomes a believer
November 28, 2010
The last time I was stuck somewhere without a book to read was 1988. The place was Homa Bay, a village on the Kenyan shore of Lake Victoria that I wouldn't be leaving for five days at the minimum, with lots of downtime in store.
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Book review: 'Common as Air' by Lewis Hyde
October 31, 2010
Common as Air
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Is UC regent's vision for higher education clouded by his investments?
July 14, 2010
Conflicts of interest almost always involve money, but sometimes they raise more questions about the subjects' perspective than about their wallets.
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Corporate welfare and California's budget deficit
June 18, 2010
I believe we can all agree on the root cause of the state's $20-billion budget gap.
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Corporate power grabs on the California ballot: What do we learn?
June 12, 2010
We may finally have discovered a remedy for corporate executives with more greed than brains: Let them invest corporate funds by the millions in California ballot initiatives, then vote the things down.
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Coffeepot maker vents about doing business in California
July 30, 2009
Wilbur D.Curtis invented the globular glass coffeepot, that staple of coffee counters everywhere, in 1940. Since then his son and grandsons have turned Wilbur Curtis Co. into a manufacturing concern that earns revenue approaching $100 million by turning out commercial coffee brewing equipment from a sprawling factory in Montebello.
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CalPERS appears to be a willing victim
July 27, 2009
Students of the fine art of pointing fingers know that the key thing is to not make yourself look like an idiot in the process.
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File California tax system revision effort under flawed
July 20, 2009
In these budget-crisis days, when California citizens showing true public spirit are thin on the ground, I propose a tip of the hat to Gerald L. Parsky.
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It's time to close a big tax loophole for businesses
July 13, 2009
Of all the ways in which California residents have slit their fiscal throats over the last 30 years, surely the most inexplicable is the bestowal of a gaping tax loophole on commercial and industrial property owners.
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Mercury General using guise of benevolence to assault Prop. 103
July 2, 2009
The art of setting automobile insurance rates is incomprehensible to most of us civilians. Liability coverage, comprehensive insurance, assigned risk pools, discounts, surcharges . . . the list goes on. Just try to figure out how your carrier arrived at the figure at the bottom of your itemized bill -- I know nuclear physicists who can't do that math.
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A California tax on oil drilling? Why not?
June 15, 2009
The most persistent misconception about Californians is that we hate to raise taxes. The truth is that we adore raising taxes -- as long as someone else is paying, that is.
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In-N-Out: Can perfection survive?
May 7, 2009
My life as a fast-food consumer pretty much ended the moment my kids became old enough to drive themselves to the nearest hamburger stand.
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Apple's condition linked to Steve Jobs' health
January 5, 2009
Some important questions can't be asked without sounding crass and insensitive. But there's no way around asking this one that's on everybody's mind, so here goes:
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