According to JP Morgan Chase chief US economist Michael Feroli, Texas is at risk of slipping into a regional recession and "will, at the least, have a rough 2015 ahead," the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The West Texas Intermediate has plunged to $55.14, nearly half of its June peak. The last time prices dropped that much was 1986, and Houston felt the impact of that oil bust for decades.
Meanwhile, Dallas Fed senior research economist Michael Plante predicts that falling crude prices will cost Texas 125,000 jobs next year, the Austin Business Journal reports. Those losses will spread beyond oil riggers to hotel and restaurant workers and energy services/manufacturing.
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