Want a job? Try once down-and-out places like Houston, Salt Lake City and Gary, where newspapers are thick with help-wanted ads. But shun former go-go hot spots such as Boston, Phoenix and Atlanta, where 1980s-style booms in everything from computers to construction have suddenly gone bust.
Welcome to the upside-down '90s. Not since collapsing oil prices sent Texas and the rest of the Southwest into a slump nearly a decade ago has the U.S. witnessed such a stunning reversal of regional fortunes. The new winners include Midwestern farmers and Rustbelt manufacturers whose prosaic products, from corn to machine tools, are in...