NEW ORLEANS is battered and submerged today. But it will rise again because it is — and always has been — the single most important cog in the nation's economy.

I've seen some pretty irrational things said to justify expense reports for seasonal junkets to conferences, but this one really takes the cake.

The last time I checked, choked highways and swamp don't exactly make for a manufacturing or shipping paradise. Mississippi can pick up the slack on this just fine.

RE: George Friedman, on New Orleans' raison d'être