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blue bits. red rocks.
Friday 31 July 2009

Dallas and Houston were major corporate centers for decades. Unlike most American cities, they haven’t lost many of their Fortune 500s and have even added to them. This is less about “low taxes and light regulation” than the long tradition of big business getting everything it wants in Austin, along with a sophisticated economic-development strategy. Keeping its headquarters assets has allowed the major Texas cities to build on them — and spotlights the difficulty of rebuilding once they are lost. Yet another economic boon for Texas has been trade with Mexico; it was the biggest winner from NAFTA, and public and private money built the infrastructure to exploit the border — rather than shutting it down. Finally, air-conditioning — with lots of help from federal electrification projects — made Texas attractive for the vast Sun Belt migration of the past half century. In other words, Texas’ economic success has had little to do with the comic-book right-wing economics and libertarian nihilism that mark the rhetoric of today’s Republican Party, most especially its practitioners who come from Texas. Rogue Columnist

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