Two recent articles on my home town caught my attention recently and sent me back to some of my previous thoughts on the sources of success for one of the most unlikely of successful geographic areas. Last week, Rice University President David Leebron wrote a very insightful essay in The Houston Chronicle entitled “Ten Reasons […]
Texas Again Has an Opportunity to Lead
The current budget crisis offers almost unlimited opportunity. I have said repeatedly over the past several months that I seldom agree with Rahm Emanuel, but I do agree with his observation that “we shouldn’t allow a good crisis to go to waste”. The other recent memorable quote was from Speaker John Boehner: “We can’t kick […]
A Hinge Point For The Texas Economy
I was struck recently by a small article in the Wall Street Journal by Russell Gold highlighting a turning point in the underlying structure of the Texas economy. Gold reports that, based on current modeling by the Comptroller of Public Accounts, for the first time since the Spindletop gusher over one hundred years ago, higher […]
Priorities For Houston
It’s election season in Houston and, with apologies to readers who do not have a direct stake in the upcoming city election (although I submit that all Texans and many other Americans have a stake in a prosperous Houston!), here are some thoughts I have suggested to the candidates I am supporting: · The future […]
Texas Budget Crunch
No one envies the job currently facing policy-makers at every level of government and education in the difficult task of solving the current budget imbalances. As in all such crises, the essential trade-of is about whether revenue is too low or expenses too high. Pretty basic stuff with some obvious answers for businesses and families, […]
Lights Out For The Left Coast?
California has written the book on how not to pursue utility deregulation, and now the damage is that their leaders will use the current crisis to demagogue against the concept. As Pete duPont has recently reminded us, the idea of price controls goes back at least 4,000 years and they have always failed, particularly when […]