5.10 - The Texas Love Triangle

Southwest Airlines was born of a uniquely Texan model of regulation and a uniquely Texan appreciation for the challenges of distance. More than that, however, it came to represent Texan ascendancy onto the national political and economic scene, in ways that discomforted the old coastal centers of power, and found them agitating against the Texas model in ways that recalled nineteenth century Texans' efforts to rein in coastal economic power. In the end, however, Southwest airlines democratized the skies and paved the way for broader regulatory reforms across other industries...some with more mixed results than aviation.