Flutterby™! : Decline of the South

The Decline of the South excerpts Wall Street Journal: The South’s Economy Is Falling Behind: ‘All of a Sudden the Money Stops Flowing’ which you can't read because it's subscriber only.

But is nicely summarized by that first piece:

Basically, it’s like a precursor of the MBA strategy for most businesses- they squeezed as much short term profit as possible by lowering taxes and refusing to invest, and now, after having eaten their seed corn (in this case, the people), there is nothing left.