Slice of central US safe from recession shrinking

The AP reports:

Carl Rupp and his neighbors follow the old rancher's creed: "Keep your money in your pocket."

Rupp has farmed his whole life. He lives in Goshen County, a rural spot along the Nebraska line where cattle outnumber humans 16 to 1 and you can still see the ruts cut by wagons that hauled pioneers along the Oregon Trail. "We're very conservative," said Rupp, 62. "We don't go out too far on a limb."

That prudent financial bent, matched with the high prices paid for crops and energy in the past few years, has largely protected Goshen County and a core group of several hundred other counties in 10 states from the recession's chokehold. The Associated Press Economic Stress Index shows they make up a "safe zone" that covers a long swath of middle America, from the Great Plains south to Texas.

But the safe zone is shrinking. Energy production and prices are sliding, especially for coal and natural gas. Crop prices are dropping, too, as there's less demand in Asia for American wheat, corn and soybeans. There were 800 counties in the safe zone a year ago, a number that dropped to about 300 counties in May and slid further to 200 counties in June.

A different angle on the recession.