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If Bill Gates walked into a room with two unemployed laborers, the average income level of the room would skyrocket, but the unemployed folks still wouldn’t have any jobs. This paradox resembles my frustration with many economic assessments. If it doesn’t threaten a national recession, it often doesn’t register as a problem. Yet in a big, diverse country, it’s axiomatic that certain regions can thrive while others experience hardship. In fact, that’s happening right now.
According to economic indexes tracked by Moody’s Analytics, four states – Alaska, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming – suffered consecutive quarters of economic contraction at the end of 2015. That means those states met the technical definition of a recession. Another three – Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma – saw economic growth decline in the final quarter of the year, and could be headed toward recession themselves. (emphasis added)
The four states in recession only contain about 3.9 million citizens, about 1.2 percent of the total population. Those on the cusp would add another 10.6 million, […]
