Does the California model really work?

The alleged success of the California model is one of the more intense controversies in the nerdier corners of public policy debate.

For many progressives, California's metastasizing liberalism proves you can have Scandinavian-style social policies and tax rates and still have robust economic growth. For conservatives, California is like a bumblebee. On paper, the damn thing shouldn't be able to fly -- and yet it does. Thus the cottage industry on the right of prophesizing California's inevitable demise.

What's always