Possible Clues:

• Having no odour
• By the sound of it, not so much dismissed as having nothing for the nose
• Your nose won't tell you that the South is absolutely broke
• The South has got no money at all - not the smell of it
• Is the South not stinking well bankrupt
• Having no smell
• The South without any money - and without 20 across either
• Seems the South has no smell of money - it's quite broke
• There's not a whiff of the South being absolutely broke
• Without a smell