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California reacts to Texas governor’s radio attack on business climate
Governors Rick Perry and Jerry Brown traded their takes on California's business climate. (Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore & Freedom to Marry / Flickr) California officials went on the offensive after Texas fired another salvo at California's business climate with Gov. Rick Perry launching a new radio ad campaignyesterday. The ads target California businesses and start running this week in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Inland Empire and San Diego. Perry says in the ad copy that he's heard building a business in California "is next to impossible." The ad invites companies to visit a business relocation website run by the state's economic development corporation. "I can understand why Rick Perry is interested in California," said Kish Rajan, Director of Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development here in California. "We were the national jobs leader for most of the last year with 257,000 new private sector jobs." Gov. Perry's ad continues with: "There are plenty of reasons Texas has been named the best state for doing business for eight years running." The governor sums up those reasons, saying Texas' "low taxes, sensible regulations and fair legal system are just the thing to get your business moving to Texas." Well, technically those are three things. But who's counting things in threes?
Video: Doing something about California’s business climate
I interviewed the director of the California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) and asked about California's infamous business climate and what the state needs to do to educate the next-generation workforce.
Crowdfunding reaches into local community & economy with solar projects
Crowdfunding to pay for the Next Big Thing is a hot topic in small business. Just look at Kickstarter. But, instead of helping to get off the ground someone's idea for a "top secret burger sauce" or an online TV series about "Awesome Asian Bad Guys"--both noble causes--more and more opportunities are popping up to fund…
Photojournalism FTW!
Photos from CSUN protest[widgetkit id=470] All rights reserved, John Guenther
Video: California’s economic development director on fiscal cliff
This is it. The clock is ticking for a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff, with its bitter combination of automatic tax hikes and budget cuts that seemingly no one wants. There's no doubt the California economy will be affected and already has been affected by the unpredictability of the situation, something business doesn't exactly…
California economy unwraps gifts of good & bad job news
Consumer spending of some goods was up only 0.7 Oct-Dec this year. (Photo Credit: Clotee Pridgen Allochuku/Flickr) The end of the year is approaching and the economic stories over the past few days have been like those gifts you unwrapped recently--some you love and some you wish you could give back. Let's give the rundown on what the California economy received: The Furby (or Whatever the Popular Toy of the Year Is): California marked a big milestone when its unemployment rate dropped below 10 percent, hitting 9.8, with retail and self-employment jobs making big gains. Lump of Coal: That was followed by news Chevron would move 800 jobs from their San Ramon HQ to Texas, mostly information and energy tech positions.
From Twinkies to Cuties: California economy increasingly divided
The biggest post-election news story is turning out to be the Hostess bankruptcy drama. Before an agreement on mediation Monday prevented the shutdown of operations, most news stories lead with the death of the Twinkies, or the "Twinkie Apocalypse," even though the brand will most likely survive. The real story is, of course, jobs and manufacturing. While pundits…
Looking at California’s jobs numbers from a step back
Unemployed vs. MTV's "Underemployed." California's September jobs report and MTV's new comedy made their debut last week. (Photo credits: Creative Commons and MTV). Last week, an important event involving people trying to land jobs found its way into the news cycle, earning mixed reviews. I'm not talking about the debut of MTV's "Underemployed", a comedy about…