Southwest Economy Archive

• October 18, 2023
  Hotter summer days heat up Texans but chill the state economy

  Aparna Jayashankar, Prithvi Kalkunte, Anil Kumar and Pia Orrenius

  As climate change intensifies over the next decade, summer heat waves will likely become more common and severe. The effect on Texas GDP growth is likely to be twice as pronounced as in the rest of the U.S. Meanwhile, the effect on job growth will likely be relatively subdued but vary widely across sectors.
• September 29, 2023
  Bankers, regulators absorb lessons of Silicon Valley Bank failure as new tests emerge
  Ben Munyan, director of supervisory policy in the Banking Supervision Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, discusses the challenges the banking industry faces in an era of rapidly rising interest rates and how Texas institutions have fared.
• July 7, 2023
  Mexican IT services firm pitches ‘nearshoring’ as alternative to overseas ties
  Softek chief executive Beni Lopez discusses the competitive challenges the firm faces in the North American market, where many of the world’s leading tech services firms are based, and the genesis of the company’s nearshoring strategy.
• June 1, 2023
  District banks meet challenging times from position of strength

  Ben Munyan

  Texas banks confront an increasingly challenging operating environment, as the state’s usually strong economic growth is predicted to slow later this year and the Federal Reserve’s rapidly rising interest rate environment pressures some institutions’ profitability.
• May 5, 2023
  Energy transition means more than just additional electric vehicles
  Dallas Fed economist David Rapson discusses the challenges of moving away from a fossil-fuel-dependent economy.
• April 21, 2023
  Texas’ cheap housing edge slipping away as resilient demand outpaces supply

  Wenhua Di and Aparna Jayashankar

  Housing affordability has declined in Texas, a top destination for domestic and international migrants drawn by its historically low cost of living.
• April 14, 2023
  Mexico awaits ‘nearshoring’ shift as China boosts its direct investment

  Luis Torres and Aparna Jayashankar

  When it comes to trading goods with the United States, Mexico would appear a logical sourcing alternative to China. Before the pandemic, increasing friction between the U.S. and China—the top supplier of goods imports to the U.S. in 2019—contributed to an anticipated “nearshoring” shift among companies dependent on Asia.
• March 10, 2023
  Texas to get new type of refinery: a lithium refinery

  Michael D. Plante and Jessica Rindels

  Tesla is developing the facility near Corpus Christi to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide, a lithium chemical used in the high-performance lithium-ion batteries that companies such as Tesla prefer.
• March 10, 2023
  Mexico recovering from pandemic slowdown; structural issues persist
  Daniel Chiquiar, professor of economics at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico) and former chief economist of Mexico’s central bank, Banco de México, discusses the country’s recent economic performance and the challenges it faces in 2023.
• December 22, 2022
  Less-tight labor market helps Texas grow faster than U.S. during pandemic

  Anil Kumar

  Amid widespread reports of worker shortages, Texas' not-so-constricted labor markets have helped the state outpace the nation in job growth.