Oil is only half the equation. Did you realize that the port of Houston is the second most active in the US and the expansion of the Panama anal is only going to increase Houston’s impact. Combine Houston, New Orleans and Mobile, and you control the flow of energy, food and manufactured goods into the US.
Houston is rapidly becoming the financial capital of the country. New York and California will remain the major players in name only.
Okay, but you don't want to be too dependent on oil. Wasn't there an energy bust in the 80s that hit Texas hard? Also, isn't most of the oil shale people are talking about actually located elsewhere? Texas may have the corporate offices, but that may not count as much as the actual resource.
Did you realize that the port of Houston is the second most active in the US and the expansion of the Panama anal is only going to increase Houston’s impact.
That expansion sounds painful.
Combine Houston, New Orleans and Mobile, and you control the flow of energy, food and manufactured goods into the US.
Okay, but if you change one thing in a system you may alter the whole system drastically. If Houston is the 2nd busiest port in the US, what happens when it's no longer in the US? Will trade reroute to other cities?
Houston is rapidly becoming the financial capital of the country. New York and California will remain the major players in name only.
Banking is becoming decentralized (or recentralized). North Carolina and Georgia may give you a run for your money. Even places like Minneapolis or Washington DC have a shot. And foreign centers may dwarf all of them.
But finance is mobile. What happens if Texas isn't part of the US? And for manufacturing -- Texas can produce more cheaply than other parts of the US, but the situation could be different if Texas is outside the US and competing with cheap (and not cheap) foreign countries.