In an unbylined report in the Providence Business News, University of Rhode Island Economics Professor Leonard Lardaro reminds us that Rhode Island’s continuing fiscal troubles have been occurring while most of the rest of the country has been booming…

“The third quarter was a very difficult one for Rhode Island,” University of Rhode Island Prof. Leonard Lardaro wrote in his monthly report.
“As the national economy’s rate of growth accelerated – real GDP growth was almost 4 percent – the Rhode Island economy slowed noticeably.”
Though his Current Conditions Index rose to 42 points from August’s six-year low of 33, “that still means Rhode Island is in a contracting model,” Lardaro noted. (Fifty points is the neutral level, indicating the state’s economy is neither expanding or contracting.)