Red States are Actually in the Black

Missing from the article is the mention of the lack of unions and low taxes. The lack of unions helped maintain a competitve cost of labor and allows companies to fire people when needed. Companies that can't fire people, are hesitant about hiring them.

Also not mentioned is lack of land use restriction laws. California has land, you just can't build on it because you might disturb the natural habitat of the spotted earthworm. Thus housing supply is artifically constrained.

While less strict zoning was mentioned as a driver of Texas missing the housing bubble, it is liberals that always push for zoning. Texas companies could turn an old commercial property into residential housing units without having to bribe government officials or deal with massive bureaucracy.

Credit was given to Texas's natural resources, but other states have their own natural resources. The residents just can't use it. How many jobs are lost in California because they can't drill off the coast?

Why is it that the blue states are the ones doing poorly economically? Why would we want to export those failed policies onto a national scale?

Lone Star - Why Texas is doing so much better economically than the
rest of the nation. (Daniel Gross - Slate)

On several measures of economic stress, Texas is doing quite well. The state unemployment rate is 8.2 percent—high, but still one many states would envy. (California's is 12.5 percent; Michigan's is 14.1 percent.) It entered recession later than the rest of the country—Texas was adding jobs through August 2008—and started slowly adding jobs again last fall, thanks mostly to its great position in the largely recession-proof energy industry....

The Texas housing market also has fared better than many. The mortgage delinquency rate (the portion of borrowers three months behind on payments) is 5.78 percent, compared with 8.78 nationwide, according to First American CoreLogic. That's partly because relaxed zoning codes and abundant land kept both price appreciation and speculation down....

As it has for decades, energy is driving Texas' economy. In recent years,
natural gas has been undergoing a renaissance.....

The state has its own electricity grid, which is not connected to neighboring states. That has allowed it to move swiftly and decisively in deregulating power markets, building new transmission lines, and pursuing alternative sources.

Manufactured goods like electronics, chemicals, and machinery account for a bigger chunk of Texas' exports than petroleum does.