The Economist takes a gander at Texas -- "America's most robust big state" -- and concludes (spoiler alert!) that "many now fear that Texas's low-tax, low-spend model will need revision." Why come?
In December 2008 and January 2009 the state lost tens of thousands of jobs. Unemployment reached 6.4% in January. (That was more than a point below the national level, 7.6% in January.) And the worst is to come. Susan Combs, the state comptroller, has estimated that Texas will lose 111,000 jobs in 2009. Keith Phillips, a Fed economist based in San Antonio, has a gloomier perspective: he recently predicted that almost 300,000 jobs will go.
