Much of my time is spent focused on reading and listening to Dr. Mark Dotzour, Chief Economist for the Texas Real Estate Center, the model which all economists on the national and local levels should emulate. Dr. Dotzour has never been overly optimistic nor overly panicked and he has been right on the money for as long as I can recall as he forecasts locally and nationally (many of his speeches are available here as proof). National commercial developers considering projects in Texas often attend Dr. Dotzour’s forecast meetings before making a decision on their billion dollar deals, I kid you not. Even the most pessimistic, the most well educated, and the most experienced still look to Dr. Dotzour who seems to be the only one with a crystal ball.
Take for example what he has to say about Texas right now, “people are still wealthy; this country is still strong; but people are taking a wait-and-see attitude. So far, we’ve been pretty immune [in Texas] to what’s going on at the national level. But we have got to be careful. We’re isolated from the national problems, but we aren’t immune to them.” Dr. Dotzour is famous for being Rusell Shaw- like in his honesty and he never paints a pretty picture if there isn’t one to be had.
Dr. Dotzour even goes out on limbs with suggestions that are not always popular with legislators. From the Temple Daily Telegram,
“We need a Texas corridor desperately,” Dotzour said. With a projected 13 million more people coming to Texas by 2030, he said the state needs more infrastructure to help ensure continued economic growth.
Regarding ethanol subsidies by the federal government, Dotzour said with a food crisis in 33 countries, using corn for ethanol doesn’t make sense ethically. He also said making corn ethanol is “absolutely wrecking our economy.”
“You put a third of our corn crop in the gas tank, and what happens? Corn goes up. Wheat goes up. Rice goes up. Oil goes up. The value of the dollar goes to nothing, and gasoline’s $3.50,” he said.
It’s Dr. Dotzour’s raw nature that makes him the perfect model for economic leadership and I see a big future coming his way, don’t you? Take time to go through his speeches and read about his forecasts, he really is candid and amazingly accurate.
