Second, I’m guessing you are looking for some insight into what the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is going to do next, insight Chairman Bernanke, as leader of our pack, wisely avoided imparting in his recent comments. The Texas economy On the Texas front, my colleagues and I at the Dallas Fed have lately been deluged with requests for data on all aspects of the Texas economy – which accounts for 95 percent of the Eleventh District’s output and the economic activity of some 25 million of the 27 million people living in our district. If you are interested, you can go to our website (www.dallasfed.org) to receive a factual, nonpoliticized brief on the Texas economy, including the job creation figures that get bandied about in debates among presidential  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  aspirants. We update these numbers monthly – the data for the August employment figures will be tabulated on our website on Sept. 19 – and we will keep updating them so that analysts can parse the data. At a minimum, I am hopeful our web postings will help you separate spin from reality and fact from fiction, as well as dispel some of the stereotypes of Texas. For example, we are blessed with abundant natural resources here, and we most definitely do benefit on net from high commodity prices; oil and gas extraction contributes about 9.5 percent to state output.
Admittedly, we are seeing a sharp rise in the doubtful assets ratio; however, this is not linked to this type of complex product, rather it is linked to developments in the real economy and therefore what may be called a classic banking cycle problem. Accordingly, on the left-hand side of the balance sheet there is still a lot right in Spain. BIS Review 133/2008  5  Spanish banks’ assets, even taking into account the rise in doubtful assets, are largely of good quality. The fact that Spanish banks’ assets are mostly high-quality and that they have a liabilities structure in line with the activity they finance, in terms of maturities and the degree of permanence, is related to their business model. In contrast to the originate-to-distribute model, the activity of Spanish banks is based mainly on attracting savings to lend to businesses and households and, in the process, maintaining close and lasting links with their customers. This business model has normally been known as "traditional" banking, and many analysts prior to the summer of 2007 equated the concept of traditional with “antiquated”. True, just as the originate-to-distribute model has limitations, which have been laid bare, so too does traditional banking, insofar as it may indeed be antiquated in its management strategies and risk and cost control procedures.