[Excerpt] As part of the nation's sunbelt, the Southwest has sustained significant growth in its economy, its population and its labor force since the end of World War II. The prospects are that the region can expect more of the same in the foreseeable future. The ascendancy of the Southwest has been paralleled by stagnation and even decline in these same indices in much of the northeastern and north central regions of the nation. The 1981 Report of the President's Commission for an Agenda for the 1980's not only noted these regional trends but it also suggested that the causative factors should not be restrained by federal interventions. Instead, it was suggested by a subcommittee to the Commission that a "policy of anticipation, accommodation, and adjustment" made more sense.