Texas Passes New York to Become Second Largest Economy in the States

Riding the wave of a natural resource boom, and a very tax friendly atmosphere - the state of Texas has passed New York over the past decade to take the second place spot (behind California) as the largest economy in the U.S.  While there are some major issues in Texas such as incredibly poor K-12 scoring (which in theory could be blamed in part on lack of revenue allocating to education), this would really only hurt Texas in the long run if the state were a closed system - i.e. the children of Texas were the only ones available to employers.  Instead, with 49 other states (and immigrants) available to the state, they are running a quite smart strategy.  If Mr. Perry throws his hat into the GOP presidential pool, expect to hear a lot about the dichotomy between economic growth and education/health in his state.

Other than Virginia, which is engulfed by the tsunami of federal spending, Texas was far and away the most impressive grower over the past decade amongst the 10 largest states.  To

, CA's economy would be 8th largest in the world, just after Brazil & Italy, while Texas would be roughly tied with Australia at 12th.

Obviously the 1 state depression continues in Michigan.

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