Get Ready for High-Cost Electricity
In the recently concluded session of the Oregon legislature, the big environmental “win”…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Fiction: Mansfield Park
“Wretchedly did [Sir Thomas] feel, that with all the cost and care of…
Read Blog DetailDo You Support the Free Market, But…?
I first wrote in 2003 about what I call “The Statement”: “I support…
Read Blog DetailWho Profits from Gambling?
Governor Kate Brown opposes a plan by the Coquille Indian Tribe to build…
Read Blog DetailFlexibility Is Key: The Next Generation of Parental Choice Solutions
Families in five states now have access to a special program called Educational…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Film: Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
“Amateur” is French for “one who loves.” But today, the word is commonly…
Read Blog DetailPolicy Picnic – April 27, 2016
Please join us for our monthly Policy Picnic, led by special guest Adam Novick,…
Read Blog DetailEnjoy the illusion that you’re not really paying taxes, when you cash that expensive refund check
Are you happy getting three extra days to file your income tax returns…
Read Blog DetailEarning Their Keep: Do Elected Officials in the Portland Region Show up for Meetings?
By Nick Pangares and John A. Charles, Jr. Most elected officials who serve on…
Read Blog DetailGovernor Jerry Brown: “Economically, Minimum Wages May Not Make Sense”
As California Governor Jerry Brown signed his state’s $15 minimum wage bill into…
Read Blog DetailTriMet’s Edifice Complex
Recently TriMet announced that after two years of planning for an expensive new…
Read Blog DetailHow Much of the Year Do Your Taxes Cost?
If every penny earned since the beginning of the year went to pay…
Read Blog DetailWhere Did President Obama Stay in Cuba?
This week, Barack Obama became the first U.S. President in nearly 90 years…
Read Blog DetailWhat Would Jefferson Advise Today’s Supreme Court About the Little Sisters of the Poor?
In 1804 an Ursuline nun in New Orleans asked Thomas Jefferson to clarify…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Fiction: The Leopard
While the Irish celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day this week, Italians are celebrating National…
Read Blog DetailIf Socialism Is Like Playing Checkers, Capitalism Is Like Playing Chess
Now that former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has weighed into the American…
Read Blog DetailPortland Chases Another Dream
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that Portland is one of…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Film: “For Greater Glory” (2012)
“You cannot fight for something you don’t believe in,” says the wife of…
Read Blog DetailOregon Legislators Raised the Minimum Wage; Students Lose Their Jobs
Oregon’s three-tiered minimum wage law was just signed by Governor Kate Brown last…
Read Blog DetailBroken Promises: The Real Trends in TriMet’s Transit Performance (2004-2015)
TriMet’s ridership is declining and its level of fixed-route service is lower today…
Read Blog DetailNo Fake Emergencies
I’ve written and spoken about the damage that minimum wage laws do, not…
Read Blog DetailPolicy Picnic – March 30, 2016
Catch the Aloha Spirit! Join us for a “Policy Luau” led by Tim Lussier,…
Read Blog DetailFailed Promises: Why the Legislature Should Reject TriMet’s Request for New Spending Authority
TriMet is currently seeking new spending authority in SB 1510 to help finance…
Read Blog DetailTriMet’s 7-Year-Old WES Line: Still a Project in Search of a Purpose
February marks the seven-year anniversary of the Westside Express Service (WES), the 14.7-mile…
Read Blog DetailWES at 7: Still a Financial Train Wreck
February marks the seven-year anniversary of the Westside Express Service (WES), the 15-mile…
Read Blog DetailOpen Wide Your Hand to the Needy; Don’t Coerce Others to Open Wide Theirs
Oregon is on the way to becoming the highest minimum wage state in…
Read Blog DetailOregon electricity ratepayers about to be ripped off with so-called “clean energy” bill
Oregon’s electricity ratepayers are supposed to be protected from monopolistic electric utilities by…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Fiction: A Man for All Seasons
“If you’re going to be a good and faithful judge,” said Supreme Court…
Read Blog DetailExtending Oregon’s Public School Open Enrollment Law Empowers Parents
This week the Oregon State Senate passed an extension of Oregon’s open enrollment…
Read Blog DetailWhat Can Be Learned from Portland’s Smart Growth Experience?
The annual “New Partners for Smart Growth” conference opens in Portland on Thursday,…
Read Blog DetailIs Oregon Getting More Business Unfriendly?
Oregon is known as a small business state. Few large corporations are headquartered…
Read Blog DetailNot One Dollar More
The State of Oregon will sell 84,000 acres of the Elliott State Forest…
Read Blog DetailOregon’s Minimum Wage Law Perverts Compassion into Coercion
Picture two Oregon workers. One, a highly skilled and educated woman named Kate,…
Read Blog DetailPolicy Picnic – February 25, 2016
Please join us for our monthly Policy Picnic led by Cascade President and CEO John A….
Read Blog Detail2016’s Record-Breaking Celebration of School Choice
This week is National School Choice Week. Every January, National School Choice Week…
Read Blog DetailOregon Legislature Should Continue Open Enrollment in Public Schools
By Bobbie Jager This week marks National School Choice Week, and states across…
Read Blog DetailPress Release: Largest Celebration of Education Reform in U.S. History Begins January 24
January 22, 2016 For Immediate Release Media Contact: Steve Buckstein 503-242-0900 or steven@cascadepolicy.org…
Read Blog DetailWill Oregon Price the Least-Skilled out of the Workforce…Too Slowly?
As Oregon’s February legislative session approaches, Governor Kate Brown wants to head off…
Read Blog DetailElectric Utilities Should Call the Bluff of Green Radicals
Two committees of the Oregon Legislature will hear presentations this week on a…
Read Blog DetailTaxpayers Bear the Risk of a Very Rich Oregon Public Employees Retirement System
By Randall Pozdena The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) fund is, once…
Read Blog DetailU.S. Supreme Court Today Hears Teachers’ Case to Be Free from All Union Dues
The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments this morning in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case aimed at protecting the First Amendment rights of free speech and free association for public employees nationwide, including Oregon.
Read Blog Detail“They Left out Radio!” ― Human creativity is the key to economic growth
Bull market? Bear market? Recession? Recovery? What does 2016 have in store for…
Read Blog DetailPolicy Picnic – January 28, 2016
Please join us for our monthly Policy Picnic led by Cascade Founder and Senior Policy Analyst…
Read Blog DetailLiving an “Examined” 2016
Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” 2016 begins with national…
Read Blog DetailThe Time is Right for School Choice
By John A. Charles, Jr. In early December, President Obama signed a bill…
Read Blog DetailThe Truth About Santa Claus
Do you believe in Santa Claus? Many think they are too old to…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Film: Nicky’s Family (2011)
As the world approaches 2016, we reflect on what transpired in 2015 and…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Film: Becket (1964)
Film and stage legend Peter O’Toole died December 14, 2013, at age 81….
Read Blog DetailGive Every Oregon Employer a Personalized Minimum Wage
Union-backed and activist groups are trying to put measures on the November 2016…
Read Blog DetailUber and Portland: “The Future and Its Enemies” Clash in the Rose City
The Portland City Council has voted 3-2 to let ridesharing companies Uber and…
Read Blog DetailNew Transportation Funding Bill: Going Nowhere FAST
Last week Congress passed H.R. 22, a five-year transportation funding bill known as…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Fiction: The Groves of Academe
By Gilion Dumas Student sit-ins, “safe spaces” (otherwise known as idea-free zones), demands…
Read Blog DetailThe Futility of Public Hearings
Over the past four years, TriMet and Metro have been planning something called…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Film: Mockingjay, Part 1 (2014)
When the first film of the Hunger Games series premiered, Cascade’s Sarah Wolf…
Read Blog DetailThis Thanksgiving, Are You Part of the One Percent?
You may not have learned this in school, but prior to the 1623…
Read Blog DetailFreedom in Film and Fiction: A Cascade Series
Since 2013, “Freedom in Film and Fiction” has been an occasional series of…
Read Blog DetailEducational Savings Accounts: The “Smartphones” of Parental Choice
Yesterday the Senate Interim Education Committee of the Oregon Legislature held an informational…
Read Blog DetailThat “old technocratic central planning impulse” is alive and well in Oregon
One of the most memorable and talked about lines from the November 10th…
Read Blog DetailCascade’s Fall Newsletter Is Here!
What’s new at Cascade Policy Institute? Our biannual newsletter is here!
Read Blog DetailOregon Scraping Bottom in State Integrity Rankings
This week the Center for Public Integrity released a report grading the 50…
Read Blog DetailPolicy Picnic – November 18, 2015
Please join us for our monthly Policy Picnic led by Cascade Founder and Senior Policy Analyst…
Read Blog DetailGet Oregon out of the Liquor Business
There are still eighteen so-called “control states” in America that exert substantial control…
Read Blog DetailAssaulting “Corporate Profits” Will Hit Average Oregonians
A union-backed group is planning to put an initiative on Oregon’s 2016 General…
Read Blog DetailPortland Worries About Homelessness, While Metro Makes Housing Less Affordable
The Portland City Council has decided to allocate $20 million to solve a…
Read Blog DetailThe Jayne Carroll Show Interviews Jared Meyer on Washington’s Betrayal of America’s Young People
Guest host Aaron Stevens interviewed the Manhattan Institute’s Jared Meyer on The Jayne…
Read Blog DetailHow Washington Is Disinheriting American Kids
By Jared Meyer and Kathryn Hickok Is Washington, D.C. disinheriting America’s kids? You…
Read Blog DetailWashington’s War on Millennials
By Jared Meyer Tens of millions of Americans are between the ages of…
Read Blog DetailHow Would You Spend $100 Million?
How would you spend $100 million? If you’re Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the…
Read Blog DetailIs TriMet Better Off Than Greece?
Syndicated financial writer Malcolm Berko recently advised a small investor to stay away…
Read Blog DetailScaling Down: The Power of One
Is it truly possibly for one person to make a positive difference in…
Read Blog DetailTransit Policy: Kryptonite for Business Leaders
By John A. Charles, Jr. During September, the Portland regional transit monopoly, TriMet,…
Read Blog DetailTeachersPayTeachers Creates Learning Entrepreneurs
The debate over the sharing economy often revolves around the well-known players such…
Read Blog DetailMysteries of Tilikum Crossing
Portland’s newest bridge over the Willamette River, Tilikum Crossing, has a few puzzling…
Read Blog DetailThe Minimum Wage Conversation Never Ends
Oregon and some other states mandate that their minimum wage increase every year…
Read Blog DetailPolicy Picnic – October 28, 2015
Please join us for our monthly Policy Picnic led by Cascade President and CEO John A….
Read Blog DetailFreedom: Will Its Defenders Triumph?
It’s time for Freedom Seminar 2015! Freedom: Will Its Defenders Triumph? Join lovers…
Read Blog DetailTilikum Crossing: More Punishment for Motorists
The new bridge over the Willamette River, TriMet’s Tilikum Crossing, opened for business…
Read Blog DetailEvent Video – Ending the Public Employee Union Stranglehold on State Politics
The Executive Club and Cascade Policy Institute were pleased to welcome David Nott,…
Read Blog DetailA Visitor’s Guide to an Alien Planet: Washington, D.C.
The Executive Club and Cascade Policy Institute are pleased to welcome political journalist…
Read Blog DetailDisinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America’s Young
Cascade Policy Institute presents Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America’s Young Jared Meyer…
Read Blog DetailPolicy Picnic – September 16, 2015
Please join us for our monthly Policy Picnic led by Cascade guest speaker Herb Grey…
Read Blog DetailWhat Gets Kids “Ready for College and Life?”
Students across Oregon are back in school. Have you ever thought about how…
Read Blog DetailOregon Leads the Nation in Passenger Rail Subsidies
By John A. Charles, Jr. In the waning days of the 2015 legislative…
Read Blog DetailNew Orleans’ Miracle School District
Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated the southeastern United States, displacing more than…
Read Blog DetailEvent Video – Mark Skousen’s View of What Leads to Economic Growth May Surprise You
Cascade Policy Institute presents Professor Mark Skousen, named “one of the top 20…
Read Blog DetailMost Teachers Oppose Mandatory Union Fees
A national education journal, EducationNext, has just released results of its annual poll…
Read Blog DetailEmployee Freedom Respects Workers’ Choice
Why might workers like the opportunity to opt out of union membership? Some…
Read Blog DetailPut Individual Rights Above Those of Powerful Unions
By the time the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Friedrichs v. California…
Read Blog DetailTaxpayers Ultimately Get the Bill for Oregon’s Medicaid Expansion
By Thomas Tullis Thirty states have already undertaken the Medicaid expansion encouraged by…
Read Blog DetailEnding the Public Employee Union Stranglehold on State Politics
The Executive Club and Cascade Policy Institute are pleased to welcome David Nott,…
Read Blog DetailWhen Will the State Land Board Restore the “Trust” in Oregon’s State Trust Lands?
By Anna Mae Kersey When Oregon joined the Union in 1859, it…
Read Blog DetailThe Extinction of Public Transit
By Emma Newman Uber and Lyft have recently gained over 50 percent of…
Read Blog DetailWhat They Say vs. What They Do: How PCC Students Really Get to School
By Anna Mae Kersey, Emma Newman, and Thomas Tullis TriMet is considering the…
Read Blog DetailRestore the Trust in State Trust Lands
By Anna Mae Kersey When Oregon joined the Union, the U.S. Congress granted…
Read Blog Detail“Oregon Promise” Is Bad Policy
By Thomas Tullis On July 17, Governor Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 81,…
Read Blog DetailPress Release: Cascade Policy Institute Urges TriMet to Cancel Proposed Tax Increase
July 23, 2015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: John A. Charles, Jr. 503-242-0900…
Read Blog DetailEconomist Mark Skousen Reveals the "Hidden Forces" Leading to Economic Growth and a Higher Standard of Living
Cascade Policy Institute presents Professor Mark Skousen named “one of the top 20…
Read Blog DetailWill “Free” Tuition Make College Cost More?
By Thomas Tullis On July 17, Governor Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 81,…
Read Blog DetailPortland Rideshare Drivers Praise “The Land of Opportunity”
Call it the smartphone/mobile app economy. Call it the Free World of Ridesharing….
Read Blog Detail