From our offices on the East Coast, it’s easy to absorb the media hype about California’s budget and unemployment problems as a sign that the Golden State’s best days are behind it. The reality—as we saw on a recent visit to the new Crothall plant in Manteca, CA—is far more complex, if not an outright repudiation of that negative stereotype.
 
For example, while the statewide unemployment rate of 7.3% is roughly a point higher than national averages, areas of the state such as “Silicon Valley,” and the nearby San Francisco Bay region continue to prosper thanks to ...