Business News

Dear Editor,   No matter how strong of a support system someone has, it can’t fix a healthcare structure that seems designed to exhaust people. The biggest frustration I hear, whether it’s from relatives, neighbors, or coworkers, is the constant interference from pharmacy benefit managers.   These middlemen companies don’t treat patients or write prescriptions, yet they have enormous power over what medications people can access. In the end, they profit off everyday families,

Gov. Jeff Landry is turning a moment of political upheaval in America’s largest city into an opportunity for Louisiana. Days after New York City elected democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor, Landry placed a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal urging businesses to rethink their future in the Big Apple — and to consider Louisiana instead. The headline, printed in bold above the fold, delivered the message with unmistakable clarity: “In Louisiana

Louisiana spends heavily on economic incentives — more than $500 million in 2023 alone — in an effort to attract investment, revive communities, and stay competitive with neighboring states. Whether those incentives deliver real value often depends on a simple question: Do they change business decisions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise? To understand which incentives pass that test, we examined perspectives from economic development leaders, business organizations, poli

Jim Bernhard — one of the most consequential business leaders in modern Louisiana history — has died unexpectedly, his family announced. Few executives have shaped the state’s industrial, construction, and energy sectors as profoundly as the founder of The Shaw Group and co-founder of Bernhard Capital Partners. Bernhard’s career reflects a uniquely Louisiana story: a rise from the shop floor to the Fortune 500, built on an instinct for opportunity, a relentless work ethic, an

By Dr. Rajesh Narayanan, Hermann Moyse Jr./Louisiana Bankers Association Professor of Finance Short-term funding markets sent an unmistakable signal at the end of October: liquidity in the U.S. financial system is tightening in ways that extend well beyond routine quarter-end adjustments. Usage of the Federal Reserve’s Standing Repo Facility surged past $50 billion—the highest since the COVID crisis—at the exact moment the Fed’s Overnight Reverse Repo facility fell to just $2

By Jeffrey Gerrish President Trump keeps proving his critics wrong, especially when it comes to his trade policy. When he announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, investors panicked, and the stock market sold off 20 percent in a matter of weeks. Economists predicted soaring inflation and an imminent recession. Foreign policy analysts scoffed at the president’s pledge to negotiate better deals with trading partners. None of that doom and gloom has come to pass. Stocks

Louisiana’s thriving energy economy is a testament to the state and federal regulatory environments that allow it to flourish, because both balance growth with ensuring that the highest safety and environmental standards are followed to the letter of the law. This balance affords us both residential and industrial electricity rates that are significantly lower than national averages. Yet that is not enough for the European Union, which sought to impose statutes, signed an oce

The election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City has already sent shockwaves through the national business community. His platform reads like a checklist of economic red flags for employers: steep tax hikes on the wealthy and on corporations, government-run retail, rent freezes, a mandated minimum-wage spike, and expanded public services funded through aggressive revenue extraction. For investors and CEOs who have watched the slow erosion of New Y

By Dr. Dr. Rajesh P. Narayanan - Dr. Narayanan is the Louisiana Bankers Association Professor of Finance in the Department of Finance at Louisiana State University.  Congress has long recognized that stablecoins should not function as unregulated bank deposits. The intent of the recently enacted GENIUS Act is clear: to prohibit stablecoin issuers from paying interest or yield to holders, maintaining a distinction between payment instruments and bank deposits which are not onl

With the selection of Dr. Wade Rousse as the next President of Louisiana State University, LSU is gaining something rare in higher education: a leader whose career spans blue-collar work, private-sector entrepreneurship, Federal Reserve policy analysis, and successful university turnaround management. For Louisiana’s flagship institution — and for the broader business community — this appointment is more than a personnel move. It’s a strategic inflection point. Rousse’s path

Governor Jeff Landry’s administration is rolling out one of its most ambitious economic-development shifts to date — a broad effort to strengthen homegrown Louisiana businesses, speed up project approvals, and rewire the state’s economic-development system for competitiveness in 2025 and beyond. Unveiled this week, the new approach is built around four pillars: a statewide business-matching platform, a parish-to-parish outreach tour, a fast-track permitting and coordination e

On a farm in Gilliam, Louisiana, the final harvest is in. Corn, soybeans, cotton, and peanuts have all been cut and loaded. Now, farmer Stephen Logan  is spreading cereal rye seed and planning for the next growing season. But this fall, the federal shutdown has left him — and many like him — working without a safety net. For weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s local offices have been closed, cutting off access to conservation payments, short-term crop loans, and criti