Posted on 03/30/2015 10:10:07 AM PDT by blam
Myles Udland
March 30, 2015
The crash in oil prices is hammering the Texas economy.
The latest manufacturing outlook index from the Dallas Fed plunged again in March, to -17.4 from -11.2 in February, indicating deteriorating business conditions in the state.
Expectations were for the index to show a reading of -9.
But the most important part of this report is the commentary from Texas business leaders, who have given an on-the-ground picture of how the decline in oil prices is affecting one of the country's economies most driven by oil. In March the tune didn't change, as it sounds as if things are still tough in Texas.
One executive in the fabricated metal manufacturing sector said: "Our oil and gas customers have just stopped producing. This is not an unusual event for our oil and gas customers, but what feels different about this time is no one knows when production will restart. Typically, we have to ride out 60-90 days, and this one looks like six months or more."
In the same sector, an executive said, "Much of our business is tied to oil. We are now entering what will probably (hopefully?) be the low point of the market. Our expected improvement for business six months from now reflects not a return to 2014, but a slow recovery from March-May 2015."
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Texas better get their road building boom finished before they run out of taxpayer money. The last few years have been great but now Texas has too many non-taxpaying mouths to feed... bust coming soon.. expect property taxes to explode against people with no jobs to pay them... great plan.
It’s hard to swagger when your economy is in the $4!thouse - unless you’re The Won and can print fiat money as long as the paper supply hold out.
"As the deadline for Iran nuclear talks looms, the possibility of a deal which in some way lifts crude export sanctions is starting to be realized. As we warned 2 weeks ago, despite all the rhetoric, a confluence of political factors makes a deal highly likely at this point; and as The Telegraph reports, Iran is a sleeping oil giant holding 9% of the world’s proven oil reserves and with an estimated 2m barrels per day of excess supply already sloshing around international markets, any significant increase in Iranian output could easily trigger a further rout in prices. While OPEC may well clamp down on this in June, as The Telegraph concludes, by then a barrel of oil may already be selling for $20"
Should of manned those oil rigs and refineries with mexican illegals. That way, when the oil market takes a dive, you can just cut them loose to go farm, or soak up the welfare payments until the market picks up again. That’s how the farmers do it, and it works pretty well for them.
Bookmark
In effect, because of the new oil industry there is price ceiling. They can restart when that ceiling approaches. The natural gas industry has already made the transition.
Even with a worldwide commodity the price will settle to the price where production meets demand.
In 2008 BOR on Foxnews could only jawbone the oil speculators, as if they had the power to drive the price. He should apologize. Now that Texas is hurting, who is looking out for them?
Has anyone studied markets where most of the buying is just betting on price upticks and downticks rather than purchases based on real need for real commodities?
When Texas was booming, Barack laid awake nights trying to figure out how screw Texas. Then he came up with a plan: bring Iran’s oil back on line.
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