Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Golden State Economy v. Lone Star State Economy

A blurb from Reason’s blog:

One cannot say the same thing about California, in many ways Texas' polar opposite. You couldn't have two states moving in more opposite directions. One is unabashedly pro-growth and aggressive in courting industry, while the other seems content to spin an ever denser spider web of laws, regulations and red tape that is driving business out of the state. One state accounts for a whopping 70 percent of all jobs created in the United States last year, while the other seems bent on increasing taxes on business and individuals to pay for an unsustainable, out of control government that wants to be everything to everyone despite the fact that it simply cannot.

This doesn't mean that Texas doesn't face very real problems in the current recession: they do, as Brendan Case at the Dallas Morning News blogs here. But even so, the silver lining for Texas is that the recession will nick the Lone Star State while it gouges the Golden State. California's addiction to funding ongoing programs through debt financing, its permanent structural deficits on the horizon, its fondness for taxation, and other governance weak suits will really hamper the economic recovery in the state, ensuring it will occur long after Texas is off to the races.

4 comments:

Stephanie said...

This isn't exactly germane to your post, but it made me curious to know whether California ever got any recompense after it got screwed by Enron.

Scooter said...

I'm sure it didn't. I don't think there was any there there to provide any.

Madoff is the new Enron.

CA gambled by locking in for a long term with Enron playing the futures game...not so successfully. Southwest Air did comparatively well last summer by doing the exact same thing on jet fuel.

Stephanie said...

It's all fuzzy to me now, but I thought that California didn't merely lose a bet, but was the victim of a rigged game.

Scooter said...

Oh, they certainly gambled with a crook, too. But even if Enron hadn't been crooked, CA made a bad deal.