About the Texas Economy...
It has taken a beating lately from Paul Krugman. First, he says the Texas economy is not so special in terms of handling the recession. He makes this claim based on a comparison of the unemployment rate in Texas with that of New York. Second, he notes its budget problems are well, Texas-sized with a $25 billion budget hole. Thus, he concludes its conservative-based polices are not a model for other states to follow. Are his critiques valid? On the fist point, Ryan Avent points out that Krugman's use of the unemployment rate is misleading because there has been a large migration to Texas where there has been hardly any to New York. Thus, a significant part of the unemployment rate in Texas during the recession comes from there being so many newcomers while that is not the case in New York. Further evidence undermining Krugman's first critique can be seen in the following figure. It shows that the employment growth rate has been far stronger in Texa...