  In Texas, 38 percent of the population is Hispanic versus 16.3 percent in the U.S.    “Jose” has been the top male baby name in Texas every year since 1996, when it replaced “Michael” and “Christopher.” We are the only state in the union with a Latino baby name ranked number one. Those are some basic facts. Here are some others for you to consider: For the past 20 years, the Eleventh Federal Reserve District – in which 96 percent of the economic output is generated by Texas – has outgrown the rest of the Federal Reserve districts and the United States by significant margins. We have grown our real – or inflationadjusted output (real state gross domestic product) – by 3.6 percent compounded over 20 years, whereas the rest of the U.S. (real gross domestic product) has grown at 2.5 percent compounded; annual job growth in Texas has outpaced the nation by 1 percentage point a year; population growth within Texas has compounded over the past two decades by 2 percent per annum, versus 1.1 percent for the rest of the nation. We now have the second-largest Congressional delegation in the country behind California. But the growth dynamic here is vibrant, whereas that of California is stagnant. This is why we are picking up population and Congressional seats, while the recent U.S. census apportioned no additional seats to California. In sum, we are a vibrant and strong economy.
The economic tenor in California and the rest of America is weary, if not downright weak: Somos fuerte; los otros son flojos. Since the recent economic recession ended, Texas has been responsible for 48 percent of all the jobs created in America. And yet, the Hispanic population is not participating in our economic prosperity in proportion to its weight in the Texas census. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  The unemployment rate among Latinos here is substantially higher than it is for non-Hispanic Texans. Hispanics earn 36 percent less in hourly wages than non-Hispanic whites; median household income of Latino-headed households in Texas is about 60 percent of median household income of non-Hispanic households. For the U.S. as a whole, Latino-headed households earn about 73 percent of non-Hispanic white household income. Pia Orrenius and our other economists are hard at work in deciphering what accounts for the differences between the economic status of Texas Hispanics and Latinos elsewhere in the U.S. Already, one factor is clear: Hispanic educational achievement in Texas is abysmal. In Texas, as anywhere else in the United States and in all capitalist societies, “you earn what you learn.” Every study known to man, and plain common sense, tell you that income is directly correlated to educational attainment. High school graduates earn significantly more than high school dropouts; a college degree results in greater lifetime earnings than a high school degree; the highest income groups are those with graduate degrees.