CEOs are threatening to take their jobs and their billions elsewhere. That leverage has limits

When a company brings thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity to a city or state, its CEO gains a powerful bargaining chip with the government. Knowing when to use that power requires the kind of judgment that increasingly defines the corner office, weighing political influence against the interests of employees, the needs of the business, and the company’s ties to the place it calls home.

CEOs are increasingly making the economic stakes explicit, tying decisions about jobs and future investment to clashes over taxes, regulation, social policy, and corporate deals.

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison raised the prospect of leaving California amid the legal fight over the company’s Warner Bros. Discovery deal. Citadel founder Ken Griffin warned that future growth could favor Miami amid a clash with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Elon Musk moved the headquarters of SpaceX and X to Texas after criticizing a California law concerning transgender students.

Corporate America has wielded this kind of influence for decades. In 1964, Coca-Cola used its economic clout in........

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