BusinessReport.com

Leave it to south Louisiana and Baton Rouge to turn misery into an economic Mardi Gras.

Most of the country, depending on your economist of choice, is hunkering down for inflation, recession and/or stagflation. Even worse, no one seems to have a prescription for what’s ailing the world’s largest economy. Should the Fed cut lending rates to beat back a recession or jack them up to stave off inflation?

The subprime mortgage fiasco and a love affair with adjustable rate mortgages has left millions of homeowners either bankrupt or upside down on their houses. Faced with soaring mortgage payments, in increasing numbers they are saying, “The hell with it,” and simply walking away from their McMansions.

Banks, mortgage lenders, investors and everyone else involved in the buying and selling of home loans are hemorrhaging cash, prompting credit standards to get tighter than Sharon Osbourne’s face after a trip to the plastic surgeon.

And then there’s the mounting job losses, rising gas and retail prices and a dollar so weak even a 98-pounder could kick sand in its face.

The rest of the nation may be facing one gargantuan economic dilemma, but down here we’re making dilemma-nade.

Our number of subprime mortgages is high, but the delinquency and foreclosure rates are relatively low. There’s been some slowing in the residential market, but we’re still buying up faux French Country houses at the same head-scratching rate that quarterback Ryan Perrilloux racks up “indefinite” team suspensions.

Cranes fill the downtown skyline, area refineries and chemical plants are spending something like a gajillion dollars on upgrade and expansion projects, and state government’s biggest challenge is trying to spend a billion-dollar surplus.

Sagging retail sales? Maybe somewhere, but around here we’re racing from one lifestyle center or retail-enhanced TND to the next.

Heck, the Capital Region’s biggest economic complaint is we have mounting job openings.

So why are we still partying while almost everyone else in America is scrambling for a morning-after Tylenol?

Really it’s quite simple.

First, billions upon billions of federal dollars continue to pour into post-Katrina/Rita South Louisiana. That means lots of construction, which means lots of jobs, lots of materials sold and lots and lots of sales taxes collected.

Second, a weak dollar is actually a good thing for the Baton Rouge port and our petrochemical industry, because the products those plants produce and sell are so cheap against foreign currency that other countries get quite the bang for their ruble, euro, yen and yuan. And those products get to Russia, Europe, Japan and China via our port.

Third, oil prices swelling beyond $100 a barrel is a boon for the oil and gas industry—as well as state government, which budgets related revenues off a per barrel price nearly $40 cheaper, meaning revenue continues to outpace our bloated spending.

Fourth, Baton Rouge is aided by frustrated residents of New Orleans giving up on their beloved—but ineptly slow to recover—hometown and moving to Red Stick, where the traffic is bad but at least life moves forward, even if that life doesn’t come with the same panache.

Finally, state and parish government knows no recession. Not only is Baton Rouge home to our ethics-loving state government, but it also boasts LSU and Southern University. The public sector is our largest employer [no state capital city in America has more per capita government workers than Baton Rouge] and that translates into a huge number of near-guaranteed jobs.

Add it all together and you’ve got an economy that’s growing while most others are wilting.

But lest we get too fat and happy, be warned that we’re not bulletproof—just ask anyone living here in the mid-1980s. We can fall—and fall hard. At least there’s no savings and loan industry to collapse, though mortgage companies are doing a pretty fair impersonation.

Yet for now, relax. And be thankful you live in a state that does everything different than the rest of the country.