Posts Tagged: market

Opinion

Low auction result helps legal case for cap-and-trade

A smog-tinged view in black and white of Century City, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. (Photo: Trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: When the California Air Resources Board released the results of its May auction of carbon allowances, audible gasps from around the state could be heard from the space station. I kid – but only just a little. The auction results did in fact create a great shock: many had expected at least half a billion dollars to be collected at the quarterly auction, but the auction generated only about ten million dollars. But here’s the truth: The super-low May auction result should actually help the State’s legal defense of cap-and-trade.

News

Private firms eye state-run pension savings plans

A retiree checks out the newspaper in his back yard. (Photo: Budimir Jevtic, Shutterstock)

Calpensions: A board working on a proposal to enroll most small business employees in a state-run retirement savings plan, unless they opt out, was told last week that small technology-focused financial firms could do the job. The founders of three firms that offer 401(k)s and other retirement plans to small businesses did not object to competition from the state.

News

Cable merger could have big impact on California

A sports complex with the Time Warner Cable logo. (Photo: Katherine Welles, Shutterstock)

Change may be coming to millions of California cable TV and broadband users. A looming $78.7 billion merger between Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications would have a major impact on California’s cable TV and broadband markets, with the new entity, called New Charter, serving nearly four of every 10 customers in the state.

News

Internet poker stymied in Capitol

Internet gambling, an illustration. (Photo: Pedro Sala)

Legalizing internet poker in California – a fruitless effort that has spanned seven years, a dozen major bills and hundreds of hours of tense talks – was headed for defeat in the Capitol, following opposition from a key Senate committee leader. Casino-owning tribes, card clubs and the horse racing industry were unable to agree on a formula that would allow them to share in the online gaming market, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Opinion

Stock market soars — and so do public pension costs

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, New York. (Photo: Wikipedia)

The way our government accounts for public employee pension promises is nothing short of fraud, yet no public official has gone to jail or paid a price for what surely ranks among the largest muggings of citizens in US history. Let me explain. As the stock market reaches record levels, little is heard anymore from public officials who used to blame market declines for rising pension costs.

News

Online poker bill emerges from committee — a first

Internet gambling, an illustration. (Photo: Pedro Sala)

The Legislature made history of sorts Monday when it recorded its first-ever committee vote on a bill to legalize internet poker in California, but the measure is light on details and remains a focus of intense negotiations. Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, introduced the bill, AB 431, earlier this year.

News

California players gathering, again, for internet poker

An online gambler concentrates on his game in Nevada, which recently authorized internet gaming and may license fantasy sports companies.(Photo: Associated Press)

Rival interests are rolling the dice to legalize California’s internet gaming market, the most lucrative in the nation. At stake in the Capitol negotiations is a prize worth hundreds of millions of dollars — and maybe more. It’s not the first time. Efforts to legalize internet poker in California – where the revenue may top $1 billion annually over a decade — have failed repeatedly in the past.

News

States eye CalPERS pension model

The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)

Calpensions: A California plan to give private-sector workers a state-run retirement savings plan is nearing $1 million in contributions, the goal set to pay for a market analysis to help design the program. Although the California plan is still in the formative stage, last week the Illinois legislature approved a plan based on the California model, even using the same name, “Secure Choice.”

News

New push for online gaming

An illustration of an online poker player. (Photo: photosani)

Three months after attempts to reach an agreement to establish internet poker in California fell apart, a major California gaming tribe says it has joined a coalition to push for new legislation to bring online gambling to the state.

News

Judge: Pension cuts difficult

Calpensions: A federal judge, who earlier ruled CalPERS pension contracts can be overturned in bankruptcy, yesterday outlined the difficulty of cutting pensions while approving Stockton’s plan to exit bankruptcy with pensions intact.

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