New Mexico an “emerging” economy?

I was not at the recent presentation by University of New Mexico Professor Manuel Montoya, but the article in the Albuquerque Journal makes it sound like Montoya is off his rocker. He compares New Mexico to the “BRICS” group of so-called “emerging” nations. (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.” But Montoya actually thinks New Mexico is MORE similar to an even more nascently emerging group of nations: Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey (he calls them MINT).

In summary, Montoya claims, ““Frankly, (New Mexico) looks, acts and thinks like the emerging economies that by the end of this century are going to become (epicenters) of the world economy.”

Say what? In 75 years (by the end of this century) New Mexico and these other nations are going to be epicenters of the world economy? Based on? Neither the BRICS nor MINT nations (nor New Mexico) are particularly fast-growing based on population numbers. Nor are their economies growing especially quickly (India and China are).

Nor are these countries (or New Mexico) adopting free market policies (like Argentina as an example).

Ultimately, COULD New Mexico “emerge” like some of these countries? Sure, we believe New Mexico has massive potential, but (like Argentina) has been held back for decades by bad public policy. Currently, New Mexico shows no signs of embracing economic policies that will generate that economic growth. In fact, New Mexico is in the process of missing out on a transformative economic boom thanks to politicians’ failure to use massive growth in oil and gas revenues to diversify and grow the State economy.

Could New Mexico still “emerge?” Of course. But, like the BRICS and MINT nations such emergence will have to come from significant economic changes.  As the Rio Grande Foundation found recently neither New Mexico’s population growth or GDP growth are on a particularly positive trajectory. 

PS: we plan to reach out to Professor Montoya to see if he’ll come on Tipping Point NM.