On the run: Gov. Bobby Jindal joined Florida Gov. Rick Scott in campaigning across central Florida Monday, and the Tampa Bay Times reports Jindal started the day with an amusing story about the first time he met former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now running as a Democrat for his old job. It was early in 2007, soon after both Crist and Jindal had been elected governor. Jindal recalled busily dealing with transition work, when an aide said Florida’s newly elected governor wanted to come for a visit. It struck him as a little curious, but Jindal said he welcomed Crist at his makeshift transition office at LSU. The first thing that seemed odd, Jindal said, was that Crist had a New York Times reporter in tow. Read the full story.
By the numbers: Private payroll processor Intuit’s October Small Business Indexes, a monthly report providing insight into employment and revenue trends of the nation’s small businesses with fewer than 20 employees, shows that small business employment in Louisiana increased 0.06% in October. The data is based on approximately 247,000 small business customers of Intuit Online Payroll and QuickBooks Online Payroll, covering the period from Sept. 24 through Oct. 23. Nationally, small business employment growth expanded 0.07% during the span, while revenue growth was 0.03%.
The tide is turning: Robust economic growth has helped push the U.S. budget deficit down to the lowest level since 2008, marking the sharpest turnaround in the government’s fiscal position in at least 46 years. The shortfall of $483.4 billion in the 12 months ended Sept. 30 was 2.8% of the nation’s gross domestic product of $17.2 trillion over the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg using Commerce Department figures. The figure peaked at 10.1% of GDP in December 2009. Read the full story.
