California: Not Entirely Hopeless

Gov. Newsom and Pres. Trump on 1/24/25 (Politico)

California is still doing some things right.

SF Chronicle: California is now 4th largest economy in world, surpassing Japan

The International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook data for 2024 found that California had a nominal gross domestic product of $4.1 trillion, behind only the United States, China and Germany when compared with nations worldwide...

[Gov. Gavin] Newsom said, while announcing the lawsuit [against Trump tariffs], that more than 36,000 manufacturing companies in California employ more than 1.1 million people and are “disproportionately going to be hurt by this.”

The recent data also found that California had an economic growth rate of 6%, higher than the 5.3% rate for the United States, 2.6% rate for China or 2.9% rate for Germany.

India, which currently has a gross domestic product of $3.9 trillion, is projected to overtake California’s standing as fourth by 2026, according to preliminary data, Newsom’s office said.

We've posted how large companies like Oracle, Hewlett Packard, Tesla, and most recently Chevron have fled because California's taxes, regulations, and housing costs are inimical to the welfare of businesses and their employees.

For the time being the growth in businesses that have remained. e.g., Apple, Google, Facebook, Nvidia, Netflix, plus the formation of startups, have offset the losses. But once it goes negative--like the downtowns of San Francisco and Los Angeles--the turnaround will be extremely difficult.