The California Experience

On December 19, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered California state workers to take 1 day per month as an unpaid furlough, beginning in February 2009. That has grown to 3 days per month at December 19, 2010, roughly a 15% decrease in pay and working hours. The California Supreme Court ruled on October 4, 2010 that the governor may not order furloughs and pay cuts for state employees, but these decisions require the legislature to act. A few days later, the California legislature passed the budget with an $896 million cut in pay for state workers and with furloughs.

Some workers covered by collective bargaining contracts have their pay reduced under different terms. Different agencies and departments use different approaches. Some agencies simply shut down three days per month. Others schedule individual workers' furloughs for different days. Sonoma State University told instructors to

The French Experience

Chart by G. Trumbull (2001)

The govt of France wanted to reduce unemployment. They reduced the standard legal workweek from 39 hours to 35 hours. The change occurred on January 1, 2000. The new law provided significant disincentives for overtime work. Working under the old 39-hour standard, 8 workers would account for 312 hours of work per week. Under the new 35-hour standard, the same amount of work would require about 9 workers. Was the 35-hour week successful?

Election Results

Jerry Brown

In my last article, I recommended ballot choices
for voters in Petaluma, Sonoma County, California, USA in the election on November 2, 2010. Here is a review of those recommendations, and how the election worked out.

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How to Vote in Petaluma, California, USA on November 2, 2010

Candidates for office

Governor:  Brown

Brown has extensive experience in government, including a very successful prior term as governor, and pledges no tax increases without approval of the voters. Opponent Whitman, a very wealthy person completely inexperienced in politics, intends to prevent increased taxes on the incomes of very wealthy people.

Questionnaire Results

Thank you for your responses to the questionnaire posted last month. Your thoughts and opinions provide useful guidance. Here I will summarize the results.

Most of you are female, and you are well educated, with a Master’s degree or equivalent, and you live in North America. Almost all of you have a Facebook profile, and most of you have a Twitter profile.

Important 3-minute questionnaire

Tell me what is important to you.

Please answer some questions. This will take less than 3 minutes. Completely confidential.  Click here to take the questionnaire.

Check back here in a few weeks for the summary of results.

Thank you!

Image: Emperor Shah Jahan, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Electricity Isn't a Commodity

PG&E can meet the competitive challenge presented by CCAs. Electricity is no longer a commodity. PG&E can offer a line of electricity products differentiated by source.

PG&E, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (NYSE: PCG) was the thinly veiled backer of Proposition 16. California voters rejected the Prop. 16 ballot initiative in the election of June 8, 2010.


In May 2010, the MCE Marin Clean Energy program began operation. MCE is an electric service consortium of local governments in Marin County. Prop. 16 would have required two-thirds voter approval for local governments to start an electric service or to expand an existing electric service.