August is the month we dread in New Orleans. Very few people have forgotten where we were six years ago. I still try to empty the refrigerator and make sure the cars are ready to go at the start of August. It has become a reflex much like remembering to change the batteries in portable smoke detectors when adjusting for daylight savings time. The Eastern seaboard is getting ready for Irene's (a category 1 hurricane) passage.
The drought ended. July and August rainfall was well above average bringing some relief from the heat and keeping the lawns growing fast enough for twice a week mowing.
The Danziger Seven were convicted of civil rights violations. The levee held the river back this Spring. Tropical Storm Cindy dumped rain on Haiti and Florida but curved east into the ocean. The Hash House Harrier's Red Dress run on August 13th...
GAO sustained the protest of unsuccessful bidders for construction of the permanent pumping stations for the three outfall canals (17th Street, London and Orleans) suggesting problems remain with the process. The Corps of Engineers will have to reevaluate the bids. Both technical (inability to sustain lateral loads, London Avenue flow rate) and procedural problems in the process were noted in the
GAO report.
The stock market fluctuated wildly while America's credit rating took a hit from the most influential of the three rating agencies. Standard and Poor's followed up on their warnings with a downgrade after the Congress and the Administration did too little to address deficits and the debt when they debated it in July/August. No longer AAA we are now AA+ because our political leadership is dysfunctional. European banking problems, Japan's tsunami and Chinese inflation also took their toll. Growth has slowed worldwide. In the meantime companies are steadily improving their numbers across all sectors. Even Cisco beat the analysts estimates. Employment lags.
The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center published another
fine statistical piece on jobs in New Orleans. This study focused on "export jobs," the jobs that bring money in from customers outside the city. The data shows the city is losing ground both in total jobs and in the premium "export" jobs. 581,000 jobs in the metro area is a low point only slightly above the lows reached after Katrina in 2006 and after the 1980's oil bust. Of these about 194,000 were of the export variety. Tourism (17%), Oil and gas (9%) and shipping (7.5%) led the way. Pay for export jobs (except tourism) averaged over $60K while local jobs got only $40k. Tourism pay lagged even local jobs at $33k. While Tourism, Oil and gas and shipping generated most of the export jobs a surprising 40,000 export jobs were in other fields including higher education, heavy construction, ship building, legal services, motion pictures, insurance and food manufacturing.
Studying the local trends vs national averages shows that other than the temporary glut of heavy construction jobs in flood protection construction, New Orleans is gaining ground only in legal services, insurance agencies and motion pictures relative to the rest of the US while stagnating or declining in all other areas. The big three tourism, shipping, and oil and gas are slipping. Amidst the usual calls for better government, education and support for entrepreneurs, GNOCDC concludes, "The New Orleans region has formidable assets in energy, shipping, engineering, higher education, and legal and insurance services that can be leveraged to expand into rapidly growing industries such as oil spill remediation, wind energy manufacturing, carbon storage, and water management."
Last month's sale from the SPR is looking like a pretty good move as oil prices have dropped to $80/bbl. The government made $750 million more by selling last month than it will cost to refill at current prices.
The NFL preseason saw Reggie Bush move to Miami. Preseason is only going to be four games with the real season opener at 7:30pm on September 8 at Lambeau Field where the Saints will face the SB XLV Champs.
https://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/GNOCDC_RegionalExportIndustries.pdf