Recession forecasts worsen

With a housing market that is already worse than most of the rest of the country, a higher-than-normal rate of inflation, rising unemployment and pullbacks in consumer spending, Florida is likely to weather the economic downturn worse than other states in the U.S. Attorney and Greenberg Traurig CEO Cesar Alvarez, who has practiced corporate law in Miami through 35 years and five national recessions, says this is the worst local slump he’s ever seen. University of Florida economist David Denslow says that the state recession — in place for a year — will be compounded by a national or even global one as well.