Business News

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

Australia’s Woodside Energy has brought U.S. pipeline giant Williams Companies on board as a major investor in its ambitious Louisiana LNG project, marking a major vote of confidence in the Pelican State’s role in the global liquefied natural gas supply chain. Williams will take a 10 percent equity stake in the holding company for the project and assume an 80 percent interest in the associated Driftwood pipeline that will deliver feed gas to the LNG facility. The company is c

When people think of Louisiana’s industrial identity, images of oil refineries, chemical plants, and river-port infrastructure often come to mind. But a quiet transformation is taking place in North Louisiana — rooted not just in legacy industry, but in data centers, microchips, manufacturing, and advanced infrastructure. The region is positioning for a substantial shift in its economic trajectory. A marquee anchor: Remaking rural with big tech In December 2024, Meta Platform

Louisiana economist Dr. Loren Scott says Governor Jeff Landry’s decision to temporarily halt new applications for carbon capture and storage (CCS) wells comes at a pivotal moment for the state’s economy — one where billions of dollars in future industrial investment hang in the balance. “There are a significant number of major projects — we’re talking about tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars — that are very closely tied to the CCS issue,” Scott said in an inter

Foreclosure activity is climbing across south Louisiana, signaling what experts describe as a long-expected correction rather than a looming crisis. According to new data from Attom, a national firm that tracks property and foreclosure trends, 45 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes saw an increase in residential foreclosure filings during the first half of 2025 compared with the same period last year. While the uptick reflects national trends tied to higher interest rates and inflatio