Report from California

Stanford University economist Michael Boskin reports from California: "The unemployment rate, at 12.4%, is higher than in every other state except Nevada....With 12% of America's population, California accounts for more than 31% of its public-assistance recipients....California's government collects about one-half of its income-tax revenue from the top 1% of the state's taxpayers. But the system's extreme progressivity makes proceeds so volatile that the state continually experiences boom-bust cycles of rapidly rising revenue, inevitably followed by collapse....It's a complex picture, but at its core is a high-tax welfare state run amok."