Michael Hiltzik: Conservative group's ranking of states' economies has been wrong about California for 12 straight years

If you happened to check out the latest ranking of states for their "economic outlook" published last week by the right-wing political group ALEC, you would be excused for concluding that California is deep in an economic hole and digging itself deeper.

ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, has updated these rankings every year or so since 2008. They're prepared by economist Arthur Laffer, Heritage Foundation fellow Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams, ALEC's chief economist, under the title "Rich States, Poor States."

We've examined "Rich States, Poor States" in the past and found its ability to actually predict states' economic growth prospects to be essentially nil. But this year's edition is especially notable because of Moore's role, since he's been nominated by President Trump for a seat on