November 27, 2017

Labor

Labor 411: Here is how much teacher salaries have dropped since Wisconsin passed its anti-union law

In the five years since Act 10 was passed, median salaries for teachers in the state have fallen by 2.6% and median benefits declined 18.6%.

 

LA Times: Proponents say corporate tax cuts will boost workers' wages, but CEOs might have other plans

The preponderance of economic research, which suggests most of the benefits of corporate tax cuts end up flowing to shareholders through stock buybacks or increased dividends and not to increasing the pay of ordinary workers.

 

LA Times: The driverless revolution may exact a political price

A robotic truck coasted driverless 120 miles down Interstate 25 in Colorado on its way to deliver 51,744 cans of Budweiser. Not everyone was impressed by the milestone, particularly the secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters, whose nearly 600,000 unionized drivers played no small role in electing the President.

 

Orange County

OC Register: Orange County office buildings sell at record fast pace at record high prices

According to the JLL commercial real estate brokerage, $1.92 billion worth of local office space was bought in 34 deals in 2017’s first nine months. That’s a jump of 88 percent in dollars spent in a year.

 

OC Register: Here’s what $1,500 rent gets you in LA compared to major cities around the world

Los Angeles ranks No. 20 on the list of space that sum buys in 30 cities. So how to make it work? Tiny homes are a thing now. So is valet public storage.

 

LA Times: A new California gold rush for homeowners, the poorhouse for renters

The pace of construction has not kept up with population grown and demand, so those of us with houses own a staggering amount of equity wealth that grows even as those without homes pay a higher price for survival.

 

Nation

Ther Verge: FCC will block states from passing their own net neutrality laws

After the FCC began its assault on net neutrality earlier this year, several cities and states began looking into ways to protect consumers on their own. Unfortunately, the FCC has decided that it won’t allow that to happen.

 

Publication Date: November 27, 2017