The New York Times reports that “as oil prices drop, the squeeze has begun in south Louisiana. It starts with ugly state budget projections, layoff announcements and freezes on new construction projects. Cutbacks at the drilling companies lead to cutbacks at the service companies, and before long the grocery stores and car dealerships start feeling it.”  

“’The price of oil,’ Mr. Lafont said over biscuits and coffee in a back room of his office just off the bayou, ‘controls everything in south Louisiana.’”  

“But every downturn is a little bit different, and every downturn falls unevenly — even within the oil industry, as Louisiana’s complicated place in the current price collapse shows.”