September 30th Event: ScholarShare
12:00pm - 1:30pm
In observance of College Savings Month in California, Zeny Agullana, executive director of the ScholarShare Investment Board, will give an overview of California's tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan. More
CA Event: The Next World
How Should the United States Respond to Rising Powers?
The United States' dominance of the world stage has been unrivaled since WWII, but this dynamic is rapidly changing. As China, India, Russia, the European Union, Japan, and others are gaining strength and influence economically, diplomatically, culturally, and militarily how should the U.S. respond? The Next World conference will explore this question and others, with an eye toward how foreign policy could best be prioritized under a new administration. How should the U.S. navigate this new world landscape? Does the rise of these powers represent an ideological challenge or an economic boon? Will global warming convince us we are all in the same boat? More.
2,126 'Buts,' and 55 'Reagans'
Exploring the Charms of 'Speech Wars'
The New Republic | September 10, 2008
With the arrival on the scene of a strange Alaskan who seems willing to say anything, I find myself looking in strange places for solace. News sites don't help, nor do blogs. They offer the reverse of being haunted by a relationship you once had: being haunted by a future relationship you don't want to have. I'm being forced to get to know someone whom I less and less enjoy knowing. My latest attempt to escape the northern chill was spent surfing a site called Speech Wars, created by Ben Reis in Jerusalem. The idea is that users can type in a word and get a count of how many times Barack Obama or John McCain has said it in speeches delivered between April of 2004 and early August of 2008. More
Put a Cap on CEO Pay
By Rick Wartzman, New America Foundation
BusinessWeek | September 12, 2008
For a guy whose astute counsel helped to make so many CEOs rich, Peter Drucker had an intense loathing of exorbitant executive salaries.
He hated high CEO pay on every level: what it said about the individual as a leader, how it undermined the smooth functioning of the organization, and the way it tore at the fabric of society as a whole.
Drucker's strong feelings on the subject—he once termed sky-high CEO compensation "a serious disaster"—are well worth revisiting in light of the news that the men who sat atop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (BusinessWeek, 9/10/08) could be eligible for as much as $24 million in severance and other benefits after being ousted from their positions. Last week the federal government was forced to step in and rescue the faltering mortgage giants in a move that could cost taxpayers billions. More.
About Us
California has long been the nation’s leading laboratory of democracy, setting trends for the country as a whole and providing a testing ground for new policy ideas. New America has established a substantial presence in California, with the dual purpose of introducing cutting-edge solutions to the state’s foremost challenges and of enriching the quality of California’s public debate.
California today is undergoing unprecedented change, driven by rapid population growth, increasing ethnic diversity and new patterns of economic activity. These changes place enormous pressure on the state’s budget, schools, housing and infrastructure, as well as on California’s system of governance, which is in urgent need of reform.
Thanks to support from the James Irvine Foundation, New America has launched a multifaceted program to address these daunting problems. New America’s California Program appoints seven California-based Fellows per year, and houses New America’s Political Reform Program. In addition, it pursues state-specific initiatives in conjunction with New America’s national Asset Building, Education and Health Policy Programs, in each case crafting innovative solutions that can overcome California’s polarized, political debate.
New America’s staff and Fellows are regularly invited to brief California’s Governor, key legislators and their staff. This has led to the introduction of several pieces of important, bipartisan legislation. Meanwhile, our California-based staff and Fellows have published hundreds of articles in all of the state’s leading publications, contributing fresh ideas for meeting California’s most pressing public needs.
A more-detailed program description is available here.
Articles
| Article | Date |
|---|---|
| Asking the Right God Question | October 6, 2008 |
| Let the Citizens Gather to Decide on State Reforms | September 28, 2008 |
| Prisoner of the Heart | September 27, 2008 |
| The Financial Crisis: What Drucker Would Have Said | September 26, 2008 |
| California's Political Environment May Prove Too Toxic for Green Energy Propositions | September 24, 2008 |
| China's Robber-Baron Ways | September 23, 2008 |
| Will There Be Powdered Wigs? | September 19, 2008 |
| The Joneses and the Joads | September 16, 2008 |
| Put a Cap on CEO Pay | September 12, 2008 |
| 2,126 'Buts,' and 55 'Reagans' | September 10, 2008 |
Policy Papers
| Title | Date |
|---|---|
| The Energy Security for American Families Initiative | September 2008 |
| Asset Building Program in California | July 2008 |
| Lessons From California's Health Reform Efforts For the National Debate | March 2008 |
| The California Assets and Transaction Account | February 2008 |
| Coverage Without Gaps | September 2007 |
| What Your Car Can Teach You About Health Reform | July 2007 |
| Growing Support for Shared and Personal Responsibility in Health Care | June 2007 |
| Estimating the 'Hidden Tax' on Insured Californians Due to the Care Needed and Received by the Uninsured | May 2007 |
| Instant Runoff Voting | February 2007 |
| An Energy Efficiency Trading System | February 2007 |
Events
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| CA EVENT: Strengthening California’s Workforce through Education, Training, and Savings | October 20, 2008 |
| CA EVENT: Blockbuster Democracy | October 14, 2008 |
| CA EVENT: Censorship and Politics | October 10, 2008 |
| CA Event: ScholarShare: Expanding Savings for Higher Education and Skills Training | September 30, 2008 |
| CA Event: The Next World - How Should the United States Respond to Rising Powers? | September 5, 2008 |
| CA Event: Revenue and Taxation Policy in California | August 7, 2008 |
| CA Event: From Pluribus to Unum | July 25, 2008 |
| CA Event: Microenterprise Development | July 21, 2008 |
| CA Event: Climate Change Solutions | July 17, 2008 |
| CA Event: The Subprime/Foreclosure Crisis | June 11, 2008 |
Press
Staff and Fellows
California Program
Political Reform Program
Asset Building Program
|
Fellows
|
Click on any name above for more information.
Why the State Budget Never Adds Up
By Mark Paul, New America Foundation
Los Angeles Times | June 29, 2008
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he wants more than a balanced budget this year. He wants budget reform too. For a state that has already laced itself into straitjackets of spending mandates and formulas, Schwarzenegger proposes new constitutional chains: a combined rainy-day fund and spending limit, to be added on top of the rainy-day fund and spending limit that voters have already approved separately. His implicit message: The Legislature and I have chosen badly, so please restrict our ability to choose again. More
A Tax Commission for California? How It Can Be Made to Work
By Annette Nellen, New America Foundation
California Progress Report | July 28, 2008
Both Governor
Schwarzenegger and Assembly
Speaker Bass have stated that they would like to form a bipartisan
commission to find ways to improve California’s
tax system. They seek to modernize our tax system, make the state more
economically competitive, and have a system that produces stable revenues. These are great goals. California’s
tax system was designed decades ago in a manufacturing era when borders were
important and tangible goods ruled. Our tax system was not designed for the
current information age with its mobile capital, worldwide-based workforce, and
goods and services transferable over the Internet. Serious work is needed to
bring our tax system into the 21st century. More.
Retirement Saving for All
By Mark Paul, New America FoundationSan Francisco Chronicle | June 19, 2008
Once a land of savers, America is now the home of the thriftless. Americans' personal saving rate, in steady decline over the last quarter of century, finally plunged into negative territory this year. No surprise there. In modern America the struggle between debt and saving is a rigged contest. It's never been easier to borrow -- credit cards, subprime home mortgages, home equity loans, payday loans. But when it comes to saving, about half of American workers, including more than 8 million Californians, are denied the opportunity to save the way people save best: on the job, through payroll deduction to a retirement plan. That is a critical problem. More.
