Tidbits Overheard At A Business Breakfast

As you may note below, Glenn and I had breakfast this morning with Ross Perot Jr. Well, Glenn, me, and about 300 other people. Don’t have time for a full recap of the Cushman & Wakefield market forecast, but after the jump I’ll pass along some interesting sound bites.

From Michael Cox of the Dallas Fed, who co-spoke — co-spoke? is that a word? — with Ross:

• Dallas has had 45 percent employment growth since 1990.
• Texas is the biggest exporter. The Lesser 49 don’t come close.
• The leading U.S. export in terms of export to import ratio? Industrial engineering services. By 34:1
• Texas is pretty well insulated and positioned for what’s happening in the national marketplace.
• A recession wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing — it weeds the garden, helps get rid of the bad players, and reallocates resources more efficiently.

From Ross:

• He’s in Dubai or Abu Dhabi every 60 days.
• For all the talk of how China and India are America’s biggest economic rivals — China’s economy is about the size of California’s; India’s is about the size of Texas’.
• 1,200 companies a month are moving to Abu Dhabi. The waiting list for office space and housing is measured in years despite the fact the pace of construction there dwarfs even the busiest booms in Dallas history.
• Ross hopes if a Democrat wins the White House that their reality won’t match their rhetoric.
• Raising taxes, especially capital gains taxes, would worsen any economic slowdown we experience this year. A lot of the money developers might invest in new projects would be locked up in refinancings.
• Anyone who backs enforcement-only immigration reform doesn’t understand the first thing about economics or business. (I’m paraphrasing here.)
• Homebuilders are past “recession” and well into “depression.”