Southwest Economy Archive

• May 15, 2025
  Texas’ economic outlook deteriorates as tariff-related uncertainty builds

  Laila Assanie and Ethan Dixon

  While lagging indicators reflect resilient growth for the Texas economy, more recent survey data suggest diminished momentum amid elevated uncertainty about the outlook.
• May 9, 2025
  Waco building on ‘Fixer Upper,’ Baylor notoriety to reinvent itself
  Malcolm Duncan, whose tenure as Waco mayor coincided with the city’s emergence as a destination and area economic hub, discusses how the city has changed and where its future fortunes and challenges lie.
• April 18, 2025
  Water restrictions, conservation a 24/7 routine in Abilene and the Big Country
  Steve Estes, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent for Taylor County, offers his perspective on how ranchers, farmers and city dwellers can collectively work to ensure that the area makes the best decisions regarding precious water resources
• April 16, 2025
  Shoring up water supply, curbing demand key to Texas’ future growth

  Ethan Dixon, Robert Leigh and Pia Orrenius

  Funding for water infrastructure improvements has emerged as a priority for the Legislature during its 2025 legislative session. Absent changes to policy, Texans could face significant water shortages during droughts and constraints on future growth and economic development.
• March 24, 2025
  New Mexico fuels U.S. crude oil output, funding for local programs

  Garrett Golding, Diego Morales-Burnett and Kunal Patel

  New Mexico has become a U.S. leader in energy production over the past five years, drawing on Permian Basin reserves in the southeastern corner of the state. Oil and gas proceeds fund an increasing share of state government, most notably involving education programs.
• March 7, 2025
  Weighing Texas economic resilience amid tariffs, workforce challenges
  Ray Perryman, principal of Waco-based The Perryman Group, has been an observer of the Texas economy for more than four decades. He offers his views of what has propelled Texas since the 1980s oil bust and the state’s future prospects, and he recounts how he grew his economics firm.
• March 3, 2025
  Mexico, U.S. and China offer an evolving ‘triangular’ trade relationship
  Enrique Dussel Peters, a professor at the Graduate School of Economics at the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México and coordinator of the university’s Center for Chinese–Mexican Studies, discusses trade flows between the U.S., Mexico and China and their prospects.
• February 5, 2025
  Industrial building boom is bigger in Texas, signaling growth wave

  Jesse Thompson and Prithvi Kalkunte

  Texas is undergoing a boom in technology and energy-related construction that follows a pandemic-era warehouse and logistics building surge.
• December 27, 2024
  Eleventh District community banks outperform peers despite weaker credit quality

  Seth Dunbar and Kelly Klemme

  Eleventh District community banks will likely continue to outperform their nationwide peers in terms of profitability, given their larger share of noninterest-bearing deposits.
• December 6, 2024
  Electric reliability concerns spur Texas backup generation boom

  Prithvi Kalkunte, Jesse Thompson and Garrett Golding

  Amid growing concerns about reliability of electricity services across power-hungry Texas, deployment of back-up power sources—microgrids and alternative generation—is increasing. These assets, serving customers ranging from college campuses to oilfield operations, help keep the lights on when disaster strikes.