California has No. 10 state economy over 25 years

It’s hard to fathom that 25 years have passed since the world worried if computers would work after a year with two zeros began.

If you forgot, California’s tech-centric economy was booming in late 1999 even as “Y2K” fears swirled about what might happen to software that never considered the year 2000.

That tech glitch was solved, but it was quickly followed by another technology headache – the dot-com stock crash. This market debacle slashed the values of fledgling internet companies...