Bad Moody’s report on Nevada

It’s an arresting image—a map that shows most of the nation in orange, a few states in blue, and one state in fire engine red. The one state, Nevada, the nation’s basket case.

The map accompanies a report from Moody’s Analytics. The orange states are those where the recession is slowing. The blue are those recovering. And the one red state is deeply mired in recession. The report described it this way:

“The two dominant metro areas are still deeply entrenched in recession and as gaming and construction—the drivers of the past expansion—perform dismally. Only Carson City and mineral-dependent rural counties are seeing any positive signs.”

Moody’s doesn’t have any states in green—the color for expansion.

Moody’s analytics, incidentally, has been commissioned to handle the Nevada Legislaure’s two-year study of the state tax system.