[vette6387]

So Texas is the “salvation” of the country and California is in the dumper?

Why don’t you take a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP

The fact remains, that California’s economy is far larger than that of Texas still today. I guess it’s still true that “everything is big in Texas,” even when analyzing economic statistics. Oil price declines will hurt Texas.

[justlurking]

Sorry, you will just have to get over it. Without the growth in Texas (and to a lesser extent, North Dakota), the Obama administration's claim of "recovery" is nothing of the sort.

This tells the story of what has happened in the past 7 years. Without the Texas job market, the rest of the US would be just now be back to where we started in 2008:

This one ends at 2013, but compares Texas to California:

The second image has the source of data, so you can go generate comparable graphs with the latest data. I don't know how long these images will remain valid, but you can see for yourself:

Texas: total non-farm employment, seasonally adjusted

California: total non-farm employment, seasonally adjusted

If you prefer to compare GDP growth, you can look at this table:

State GDP Growth, 2008-2012

Texas is #2, at 12.49%.
California is #44, at minus 0.29%.

Oil price declines will hurt Texas.

Yes, that's the point I was trying to make. Oil service companies are already laying off people, and drilling rigs are being idled.

With the rest of the country still trying to recover from the Great Recession, the declines in Texas (and North Dakota) will drag down the national averages.

[X-spurt]

All our U-Haul comers need to hear you well. Its time to hook back onto another lil trailer and Go West, don’t stop til ya see the ocean blue. We’ll be happy for ya to go, but come back someday for a visit and be sure to bring some of that booming Kalifornia gold with ya.