BBC report on stimulus effects in Oklahoma
BBC reporter Matthew Price, who is travelling across the United States to see how Americans are coping with the recession, finds that Oklahoma is weathering the economic storm better than most. Here he talks to Terry Wells of Haskell Lemon Construction Co. about how stimulus funding is helping the firm where he works.
Price notes, as have many, that Oklahoma’s economic strength was built on the hard lessons delivered by the oil and real estate collapse of the early 1980s.
Oklahoma learnt from its own personal credit crisis, and decided that “steady as she goes” might be a better way forward.
The city rebuilt its economy. It diversified. It funded public projects not through debt but through, for example, a one cent increase in sales tax. Its banks lent carefully. It did not get involved in some of the creative lending practices that were seen elsewhere.
Growth in this laid back, down to earth state was not exciting, but it was less susceptible to boom and bust.
He also refers to Oklahoma as a “sleepy” state.
More on the comparatively resilient Oklahoma economy at the BBC’s Web site.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
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Oh, boy…the tired cliche of “sleepy”, often used by out-of-town writers to describe any place which is not overcrowded or with lots of panhandlers. The Oklahoman reporters themselves have used “sleepy” when venturing outside the metro.