Here's the reality: big business can absorb regulatory time and cost the easiest of all businesses, due to scale. And while the regulations may seem most onerous to small biz, start-ups, it's really the medium-sized businesses who carry the biggest burden--and get the least incentive to grow. Fortune explains.
Read MoreEdward Ring of the California Policy Center explains how hyper-regulation in SV cities and counties favors Big Business, is anti-competitive, and usually ends up hurting low-income residents.
Read More“We’ve crossed an important threshold,” says 2024 Libertarian VP nominee Mike ter Maat in an Opp Now exclusive Q&A. Even before the federal government misses its first interest payment, borrowing will become much costlier: he says cities in Silicon Valley that rely on credit should act now to avoid financial ruin in a crisis that’s as few as five years out.
Read MoreLongtime Opp Now contributor Philip Davenport reports from a hipster bar in Flatbush, NYC regarding the Silicon Valley Left's big win on 11.4. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreTexas’s “kill the protest veto” blueprint offers Silicon Valley a cheat code re: improving affordability: turn empty offices and 8,000-sq-ft lot minimums into housing, since SB 330 (Texas’ "Housing Crisis Act of 2019") failed to tame NIMBYs. Texas Policy explains.
Read MoreThat $2.6 million is not a typo. Financially burdened Santa Clara County--and its non profit extensions--had to burn through millions to get those extra 6% of voters to pass Meas A. That lavish disbursement was multiple orders of magnitude more than that spent spent by the No on A* forces, who still came within shouting distance of defeating the measure. Santa Clara Online explores.
Read MoreIf you thought Silicon Valley was unaffordable, unfriendly to business, and a loser place to start a career--you ain't seen nuthin'.
Read MoreA review of the academic evidence on taxes and economic growth makes it clear that all taxes negatively affect economic growth--but some more than others. A Tax Foundation survey of 26 peer-reviewed studies since 1983 found that 23 indicated a negative relationship between taxes and economic growth, while the the three found no relationship at all. Jonathan Williams, Chief Economist at ALEC, digs into the data.
Read MoreBusinessman and investor Kevin O’Leary recently described cities such as SJ and NYC as “uninvestable” with “insane” policies and taxes that are too high. The result? Revenue and population outflow. He digs into the data for The Herman Center.
Read MoreMahan and Ellenberg take note. Austin, TX, once America's favorite boomtown, hits the skids due to excessive taxation. National Review reports.
Read MoreHighlighting free-market fixes for the local affordability crunch, The Market Urbanist’s Scott Beyer unpacks how induced demand fears (in which supply increases drive up demand) miss the mark. Amid Silicon Valley's sky-high housing costs and San Jose’s love for single family zoning, Beyer suggests upzoning could unleash more supply and lower prices.
Read MoreUnder the county's draft Rural Zoning Amendments, horses could lose their long-standing agricultural status, potentially subjecting stable owners and boarding operations to new and costly land-use restrictions. CA 19 congressional candidate Peter Coe Verbica daylights the issues below, from a campaign press release.
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