You might think you already know which state ranks last in freedom.

California, right?

Not quite.

According to research from the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), California doesn’t rank dead last.

It ranks 49th.

“California’s economic performance has fallen sharply behind the rest of the nation,” write PRI researchers Wayne Winegarden and Kerry Jackson.

“[Had] the state simply maintained its 2021 peak share, California’s economy would be 4.6% larger today — the equivalent of roughly $14,000 per household.”

Fourteen thousand dollars. Lost to bad policy.

And residents? They’re leaving, too.

From 2010 through 2024, California lost nearly 3 million residents.

Among those who remain, the pressure is building. A 2026 survey finds roughly 34% of Californians have seriously considered leaving due to housing costs, while another 21% cite a lack of well-paying jobs.

“Outside of healthcare jobs, California’s private sector employment market is not just stagnating — it is shrinking,” Winegarden and Jackson report.

Which brings us to the next problem, one that didn’t start in Sacramento, but one its policies helped create.

Your Rundown for Friday, April 24, 2026...

Sacramento Handed Iran the Kill Switch

“The U.S. West Coast will become the poster child for the consequences of the attacks on Iran,” says energy economist Philip Verleger.

His warning: California drivers could face $10 gasoline.

That may sound extreme — until you look at where prices already are.

Drivers in Fresno, Modesto and Bakersfield were paying about $5.42 per gallon in mid-March, nearly $2 above the national average.

California’s mandated gasoline blend and limited pipeline access have effectively isolated it from the rest of the U.S. market, leaving it heavily reliant on energy imports from Asia.

“Continued erosion of California's refining capacity risks increased reliance on imported fuels that are slower to arrive, more exposed to global supply disruptions, and less reliable during emergencies,” wrote Chevron executive Andy Walz in a letter to state leaders.

Today, the state imports 63% of its oil from foreign sources — flows now being squeezed by disruptions tied to the Strait of Hormuz — despite sitting on at least 1.7 billion barrels of proven petroleum reserves that remain largely untapped.

But those vulnerabilities didn’t appear overnight.

Regulators constrained domestic production long before the strait’s closure, nudging drivers toward electric vehicles — whether or not they could realistically afford a $50,000 price tag.

At the same time, California’s Democratic leadership pushed out companies like Chevron and Tesla, watched roughly $1 trillion in wealth leave ahead of a proposed “billionaire tax” and built an energy system with no margin for error.

Now a Middle East energy shock hits — and finishes the job misguided policy set in motion.

“The exodus of businesses, jobs, and residents is communicating to policy leaders that the state needs to embrace a pro-growth deregulatory and tax-reform agenda,” the PRI report concludes.

But as usual, the effects won’t fall evenly.

In a K-shaped economy, the people making the rules are the least likely to feel the consequences.

Market Rundown for Friday, April 24, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.30% to 7,165.

Oil’s down 0.15% to $95.70 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold’s slightly in the red at $4,720.20 per ounce.

Bitcoin’s up 0.45% to $78,130.