Flickr user: kevitivity

Your stimulus dollars at work.

​Buying guns and shooting targets in Lake Worth is officially part of the economic recovery effort.

According to data compiled by the nonprofit journalism website ProPublica, the Palm Beach Shooting Center in Lake Worth received a $550,000 loan backed by the Small Business Administration using stimulus funds.

The loan, which was awarded in February 2010, was made possible through a program designed to keep mom-and-pop operations afloat during the recession. Since 2009, federal stimulus funding has helped the government back billions of dollars in loans to small businesses that would not otherwise be able to get credit in the private marketplace.
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The numbers would make more sense if he were wearing his glasses.

​The jobs numbers released yesterday look promising -- the nation's overall unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent in January, and the rate of black unemployment dropped from 15.8 percent to 13.6, the lowest it's been since March 2009.More >>

"Hey, you take your giant casino drawings and you GET OUT OF TOWN, MISTER."

​The Florida House bill that would grant three licenses to developers looking to build South Florida resorts has been killed, at least for the time being. The House Business and Consumer Affairs committee postponed a vote rather than voting it down, which theoretically keeps the bill alive but makes it extremely unlikely it will go anywhere this legislative session.More >>

This is what a think tank is, right?

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Hired to help the unemployed, now keeping them company

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The company founded by J.P. Morgan, the inspiration for the Monopoly man, is sponsoring tonight's hedge fund manager cocktail reception.

​There are two very distinct ways to think of the hedge fund managers meeting right now in Boca Raton for the annual GAIM USA conference. If you side with the Occupy Palm Beach protesters, you believe that they're responsible for the global financial crisis and that they serve as "pawns and agents of the global elite."

If you listen to the hedge fund managers, they too have been victims of a downturn. Consider Ash Williams, who oversees public pension funds with the Florida State Board of Administrators. When the Wall Street Journal asked Williams if hedge fund managers can sleep at night, he responded: "I suspect we sleep like babies. We wake up every hour and we cry ourselves back to sleep."

Still not sure whether they're villains or victims? Here then is a breakdown of the conference's schedule for today, with a bit of unbiased background to help you decide.
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sunshinestatesarah.com

​Luckily for Florida, a new list of the best-run states in the U.S. of A. included all 50 states or it may not have made the cut.

Based on what 24/7 Wall Street calls "the 10 most important measurements of financial and government management," Florida ranked 40th.

In fact, a lot of those financial and governmental measures described by 24/7 sound like some of that Gov. Rick Scott talk:

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Richard $ Rich Jr.

​If you've ever wondered where all the members of that oh-so-loathed "1%" that's not too hot with the Occupy Wall Street movement, look no further than Florida -- mostly South Florida.

Forbes decided to use an interesting method to figure out the rankings for its list of "America's Millionaire Capitals" -- sorting IRS filings by Zip Code, finding the highest average incomes across the country above a $200,000 annual income, and crossing cities off the list whose residents don't bank at least $1 million per year on average. (Plus some other wonky steps detailed here.)

Not surprisingly, seven of the 20 richest "millionaire enclaves" were in Florida, as far north as -- you guessed it -- Palm Beach and as far south as Key Largo.

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yankeesdaily.com

​After a pretty good September for not getting laid off in Florida -- only the fourth-most mass layoffs in the nation for that month -- the state is back to its usual position of second-most for October.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida accounted for 91 of the nation's 1,101 mass layoffs last month, according to the nonseasonally adjusted numbers, second only to perennial leader California, which played home to 322 mass layoffs.

Florida's mass layoffs -- which count as one employer laying off at least 50 workers --  were also second-highest in the country in August, July, and May.

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​Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity announced this morning that the state's unemployment rate is down to 10.3 percent for October -- the lowest in 28 months -- which is still well above the national rate of 9 percent.

The announcement also left out a couple of key facts. First, job creation in October was less than half of what it was in September, with 9,500 net jobs created in October and 23,300 created in September.

Also, hidden in a spreadsheet away from the announcement was that a good portion of those 9,500 were the Gov. Rick Scott-dreaded government jobs.

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