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Southwest Economy Archive

For Southwest Economy issues 1988–2022, see Historical archive

  • This issue looks federal-level assistance programs and their effect on immigrant groups and how the Texas freeze affected the petrochemical industry. Also included are discussions on how the pandemic has changed the dining and banking industries, a spotlight on oil patch productivity, and an infographic on the how working women fared during the pandemic.
  • Wenhua Di and Chloe Smith

    The prevalence of various federal-level assistance programs helped U.S. and Texas residents shore up their household finances during the COVID-19 recession. Among mostly immigrant groups, this tendency was less pronounced, likely due to legal and socioeconomic barriers.
  • Jesse Thompson

    It may take the Texas petrochemical industry until year-end 2021 to fully recover from the record cold that triggered power outages and supply disruptions in mid-February.
  • Amy Chapel, Kory Killgo and Kelly Klemme

    The banking industry faced significant challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with profitability declining to levels not seen since the 2008–09 financial crisis.
  • President Kaplan shares recent thoughts on the outlook for Federal Reserve asset purchases, the labor market and inflation expectations.
  • Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, discusses how the dining industry survived COVID-19 and the changes that have occurred.
  • Garrett Golding and Sean Howard

    After major oil price busts in 2014 and 2020, the same engineering prowess that helped the oil and gas industry thrive has been driven to find efficiencies to lower operating costs.
  • Design: Olu Eseyin; Content: Yichen Su, Camila L. Holm

    Working women fared worse than men in the pandemic—a reversal from the Great Recession.
  • This issue looks at small business hardships with lenders and challenges banks face from the oil price collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also includes a Spotlight on the spike in black unemployment rates, a Q&A with Janie Barrera, president and CEO of LiftFund, and an infographic on how COVID-19 has tanked U.S. fuel consumption and prices.
  • Emily Kerr, Judy Teng and Keith Phillips

    The economic road from the COVID-19 recession in Texas will likely feature a steeper, more rapid climb than the usual gradual rise associated with most recoveries.

Southwest Economy has been published since 1988 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.

Articles may be reprinted on the condition that the source is credited to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.