In-N-Out Burger CEO Lynsi Snyder dropped what felt like a bombshell last summer.

She announced she was moving her family out of California. And her company was building a new Eastern Territory office in Franklin, Tennessee.

“There's a lot of great things about California,” Snyder said at the time, “but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here.”

Speculation ran wild. Was In-N-Out — a California institution since 1948 — actually leaving?

California loyalists felt like they’d been gut-punched. Former superfans called Snyder a sellout. Some threatened to boycott the burger chain.

“We are not moving In-N-Out Burger’s corporate headquarters,” Snyder was quick to clarify. “We're not leaving California, or leaving our roots behind.”

What’s new is a second office to support eastern expansion — including the chain’s first Tennessee locations, which opened in December 2025.

So yes, the In-N-Out story was overblown. What’s not overblown? The reasons Ms. Snyder wanted to leave in the first place.

Your Rundown for Wednesday, April 8, 2026...

“In Pursuit of Affordability”

The IRS just released its 2022–2023 state migration data, and it reads like a verdict — against a state that has spent decades making itself nearly impossible to live in.

Namely, California suffered a net loss of $11.9 billion in adjusted gross income from residents who simply… left.

That’s the largest income drain of any state in the country over that time period.

Source: IRS data, Realtor.com
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New York was close behind at $9.9 billion. Illinois shed $6 billion. Massachusetts, $4 billion. New Jersey, $2.6 billion.

Notice a pattern? These are states that keep hiking taxes, piling on regulations and then are baffled when their most productive residents head for the exits.

Meanwhile, Florida netted $20.65 billion in incoming adjusted gross income.

Texas picked up $5.5 billion. South Carolina, $4.1 billion. North Carolina, $3.9 billion. And Tennessee? A cool $2.8 billion in net income — from new arrivals including Lynsi Snyder.

According to a Realtor.com analysis of the IRS data, economist Joel Berner states the obvious: “People are moving in pursuit of affordability.”

Back in California, this movement isn’t some minor blip. Over the five-year stretch from 2019 to 2023, the state bled $91.4 billion in net income due to domestic migration.

In 2023 alone, California lost nearly 38,000 of its highest-earning taxpayers — the very people who fund everything from schools and roads to wildfire response, public safety and the state’s social services.

The kicker? There’s a running joke in places like Franklin, Tennessee. Some California transplants move in, vote for the same policies they fled and then wonder why prices start climbing.

But that irony misses the larger point: what their exit means for California.

When a state’s highest earners exit en masse, the tax base narrows. Policymakers then face pressure to raise rates on whoever’s left — which pushes more people out.

It’s a slow death spiral that shows up first in IRS data, then in credit downgrades, then in crumbling state services.

Although billionaire CEO Lynsi Snyder didn’t necessarily make a political statement with her move to Tennessee, she certainly made a business decision — and a personal one.

For now, In-N-Out HQ stays put in Baldwin Park, California. But the future is being built in places like Franklin.

When even the heiress of a California institution starts heading East — and South — it’s worth asking the question:

What, if anything, is California doing to make residents want to stay?

“In theory, outmigration would encourage states to adopt policies aimed at retaining residents and attracting new ones,” says Paradigm’s macro expert Jim Rickards.

“In practice,” he concludes, “the opposite is often true.”

Market Rundown for Wednesday, April 8, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 2.60% to 6,830.

Oil’s down a steep 17% to $93.83 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is up 2.70% to $4,811.30 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up almost 5% to $71,900.