A former magazine writer in his late fifties moves to San Diego and lives on very little money indeed. In the October 1977 issue of The Atlantic, he describes the stratagems behind his thriftiness. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Oct 7, 2010 - 23 comments

Is California finished?
posted by shakespeherian on Oct 28, 2009 - 110 comments

California = France? Norwegian bløgger Carl Størmer (via THE BIG PICTURE) made a U.S. map substituting the state names for other countries of equivalent GDP. Some of the substitutions are funny: Illinois = Mexico? Texas = Canada? New Jersey = Russia? Hawaii = Nigeria? Oregon = Israel? But your economic mileage will vary: apparently California no longer has the "sixth-largest economy in the world", no matter what The Governator says. Wikipedia chimes in, while some Californians don't want to be bothered with facts.
posted by wendell on Jan 16, 2007 - 39 comments

Enron cheated California - The Los Angeles Times is reporting the discovery of a memo detailing how Enron manipulated prices by fraud during the power crisis while blaming the problem on powerplants.

One of their strategies was actually called 'Death Star'. Look like the Enron Empire has suffered the same fate as the Palpatine's Empire.

LA Times login: cpunks password: cpunks
posted by Argyle on May 7, 2002 - 18 comments

Vive la California! France passed by California in rankings of world economies.
posted by msacheson on Jun 15, 2001 - 21 comments

California's Energy Crisis, minute by minute. Interesting to watch, even when you feel that we're all over-reacting a bit.
posted by gazould on Mar 26, 2001 - 18 comments

California Blackouts Inevitable says the U.S. Govt Energy Secretary. He is against price caps. It seems there is a lack of understanding on his part to grasp a *public good* that benefits all. Having a few producers control a market with a high cost for competitors to enter the market to form true competition screams for some control. Particularly for a commodity that business and people a like use to drive the overall economy. Since the economy is in such great shape maybe we don't need these controls [sic].
posted by vanderwal on Mar 16, 2001 - 9 comments