Perry spent much of the press conference extolling the virtues of Texas' more anti-tort, business-friendly economy, saying that the state's residential mortgage default levels was the lowest among the top ten populated sates, which he attributed to the fact that Texas did not get "quite as caught up in runaway pricing of real estate," and "stronger guidelines for home equity borrowing and lending." He said that Texas' unemployment rate is nearly 1.1 percent lower than the national average.

"But we're not an island," he said.

He also expressed concern over the state's agriculture industry, especially ethanol's effects on the cost of feed for the beef, cattle, poultry and pork. But he called the agriculture industry "amazingly resilient."

He called mandates from Washington regarding ethanol use "government interfering," saying he did not think anyone saw the long-term impact that it would have on the protein industry in Texas and elsewhere.

Leaders in attendance at Perry's meeting included Amadeo Saenz from the Texas Department of Transportation, Tom Pauken from the Texas Workforce Commission, Ann Fuelberg from the Employee Retirement System of Texas, Bruce Zimmerman from the University of Texas Investment Management Company, and representatives of teacher and employee retirement systems, the water development board, the Permanent School Fund, the comptroller's office and others.