WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's massive, $790 billion economic stimulus plan is on track for a Friday vote in the House, Democratic leaders say, after a 24-hour delay caused by late, lingering controversy. ...more

February 13, 2009

The floral industry survived the Great Depression. It did so because people tend to be gushier and more romantic during difficult times, said Trish Bechtelheimer, owner of Westover's Flowers and Gifts. ...more

February 13, 2009

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson ...more

February 13, 2009

Determined to "do something," President Barack Obama barnstormed Fort Myers on Tuesday on behalf of Nancy Pelosi's spendapalooza but found what restless locals have in mind is, um, something else. ...more

February 11, 2009

With an unlikely ally at his side - Republican Gov. Charlie Crist - Barack Obama made his first Florida appearance as president Tuesday to push his economic stimulus plan, the first major legislative test of his administration. ...more

February 11, 2009

Bank of Tampa patriarch Jerry Divers began his career in the early 1960s with bankers who survived the Great Depression, when the city lost 24 of its 28 banks. ...more

February 10, 2009

So when the president of the Tampa Banking Co. adds to the refrain that today's banking conditions are the worst since the Depression, industry colleagues are apt to pay attention, as did competitors and others at a gathering of the Tampa Chapter of the Exchange Club this afternoon. Divers shared his thoughts about the economic plight affecting banks and the nation, including a warning that 2009 looks gloomy for Florida banking. ...more

February 9, 2009

In a measure of how quickly its options are shrinking, the United States is about to embrace an economic theory that widely was thought to have been discredited for most of the last generation: the idea that great bursts of deficit-funded government expenditure can jolt an economy back to growth. ...more

February 9, 2009

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old cliches about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts. ...more

February 7, 2009

Buyers eager to snatch up deals on Florida condos may have to fork over bigger down payments and face more intense reviews of their potential purchases. ...more

February 6, 2009