Economist to Louisiana task force: Downturn to last longer than thought 

In a meeting this morning of the Louisiana Economic Recovery Task Force, Dr. Stephen Barnes, an economist at UL-Lafayette and a member of the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference, said data suggests the economic downturn will last longer and be harder to recover from than originally thought. “While we had initially hoped this would be a much shorter event, as time passes more and more permanent damage is being done,” Barnes said. “That is going to give you a recovery path that might look more and more like the Great Recession did than the recovery after an event like Katrina.”