By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – August 2, 2021 When ever politicians are up for election, it never fails that the stream of promises is unending, whether they make good on those promises is very often an entirely different story. Since our illustrious governor, Gavin Newsom, has made it to the rarified stage of his short career as governor, a date with his political fate, a California recall election, time to take a look back on just how his promises have fared. In the following multi part series, a look at the many parts of California's story under the leadership of Governor Newsom. A good place to start is at the top of the list, the economy and how business has fared under Newsom and his administration. California is ranked world wide as a state having the fifth largest economy in the world. Of course it has been such for a long time well before Newsom came to California's helm. Leaping over the economies of Great Britain, Brazil, and Germany one would think that Newsom's promise to make California "golden" again has come true. But is that truly the case, or is it that Great Britain, Germany, and Brazil have seen sharp declines in their economy over the past several years? As we all should know, Gavin Newsom is heavily indebted to the Unions in the state, who have long supported his rise to his current office. Business and Unions are very seldom in agreement. So how is business faring under the Newsom administration? In the past ten years the business community has seen California's business favorability rating drop from Number sixteen to its current rank of thirty one, still not bad. The problem for Newsom, is much of that decline has occurred over the last four years. In the most important categories, taxes, regulation, and affordability California ranks 50th, 50th, and 49th, not very reassuring if you plan on a start up in California. The billionaires in Silicon Valley will likely be largely unaffected, but others small and large have taken notice. During the course of Newsom's reign a steady flow of businesses have relocated to other states where taxes are lower, regulation is more reasonable, and one bedroom apartments are not $3750 per month. Under Newsom's administration both the economy and business have become a shell hollowed out from within. His policies have done little to fill the void, in fact regulation and taxes have made matters worse, and do not seem to be getting any better. As California's population has begun to age, and the youth look for better opportunities, what Governor Newsom has continued from previous administrations the situation can only go one direction, continued decline. California has the opportunity to change that direction by recalling Governor Newsom in September and making some serious changes in both the Assembly and the State Senate in 2022. Only then will California have the opportunity to become "golden" again. Stay tuned for part Two, Newsom and the Pandemic.