Florida’s looming budget shortfall has been shrunk in half by state analysts who credit federal stimulus dollars, years of spending cuts, and Indian gambling money as helping forge a brighter picture – but one that could still leave the state in a $2.5 billion hole.

When people learn that you are an economist, they often want you to predict which way the economy is going. There seem to be more than the usual number of calls for such predictions lately. But an economist should be more aware than others are of how hazardous such predictions can be.

Visit Florida and the state Chamber of Commerce have more to worry about than oil.

Members of Congress and their staffs will slowly be making their way back to D.C. this coming week, in an effort to get prepared for a quick, short, fall session of the 111th Congress before the November elections.

Because one of them will be the 18th lieutenant governor of the great state of Florida, we offer our sincerest condolences to Rod Smith and Jennifer Carroll.

Surrounded by family and loved ones, Mario Rubio, father of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Marco Rubio, died Saturday night at Baptist Hospital in Miami after a long battle with emphysema and lung cancer. He was 83.