IS CALIFORNIA BACK?
(Sunday) Or is our state the next Argentina? The Economist mulls over this question in a series of articles that seeks to pinpoint the problems that keep California shaking. (Make sure you click the "next article" link at the bottom of each page).

If they had asked me I would have told them that the main cause of our downward spiral (other than the general moral climate which all the states to one degree or another share) is the initiative system and in particular the first grand initiative -- Prop. 13. The Economist seems to agree. In spite of the prosperity, the creative attempts at financing, committed people in leadership, and an incredibly vibrant economy we can't get beyond the funding chaos created in 1978.

The Arizona Republic began a series of articles today outlining the reasons that the Rocky Mountain region has suddenly become the economic front-runner of the U.S. What they failed to mention is the California exodus. But perhaps everyone just assumes that at this point.