California overtakes Japan to become the world's fourth largest economy

California’s GDP is now twice as large as Russia’s.<p>Yet the President of the United States seems to spend a lot of time trying to make Russians happy, and zero time making Californians happy.

It&#x27;s funny that the list includes both California and the US.<p>It would be interesting to compare economies of the same scale, regardless of legal status: If you are considering the US and China, maybe you should include the whole of the EU. And if you are looking at Germany, Japan, ... It makes sense to not only include California, but also to split up other countries. I&#x27;m curious how high up Guandong or Shanghai would be for example.<p>The fact that the US and China show up as single countries (and not &quot;continents&quot;&#x2F;regions) whereas the EU shows up as a bunch of &quot;small&quot; countries is source of a lot of inferiority complex in Europe.

I wish we had the same outsized influence over the US federal policy as well.

The title almost implies that CA had some unnatural acceleration to put it past japan. I think it&#x27;s more that japan has been declining.<p>This won&#x27;t last once the US population starts declining. We&#x27;ve been held afloat by immigration but even that&#x27;s running out.<p>Japan was ahead of the curve in terms of modernity. Looking at them is almost like looking at our own future.

And Japan is still the most peaceful place to live!

Or how JP &quot;plummeted&quot; from 6 trillion economy to 4 trillion because their FX went from 100:1 USD to 160:1 (at peak last year) now 140:1. Still eaking slow growth in yen terms.<p>JP can still be 1&#x2F;3 larger than california US compels them to appreciate. I think 140 is probably a good balance for JP exports (high tech) and imports (energy, commodities&#x2F;inputs).<p>Or Trump makes USD weaker.