It’s no secret there’s a big imbalance in political power in Massachusetts.

Boston and more broadly Eastern Massachusetts dominate the legislative agenda on Beacon Hill, leaving Western and Central Massachusetts battling it out as the underdogs.

The Hub has been the launching pad for many a talented politician over the years, but no, there isn’t anything special in the water.

But Greater Boston is where the jobs are, and, of course, where there are jobs, there is also economic power and, by extension, political clout as well.

More than 17 percent of all jobs in Massachusetts are clustered in Boston proper, or more than 600,000, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Add in the suburbs, and we are talking about 62 percent of all the jobs in Massachusetts and a fair number of all the jobs in New England.

Companies are edging back into the hiring market, both here in Massachusetts and across the country.

But the mood of the average consumer, even here in Massachusetts, which is supposedly leading the country out of its economic funk, is surprisingly glum, according to the Massachusetts Consumer Confidence Index, which is put out by Mass Insight.

The index dropped seven points in the second quarter, to 67. While it is still higher than last fall and last July as well, anything under 100 means state residents are more negative about the economy than positive.

In fact, 48 percent of Massachusetts residents polled believe the state is now on the wrong track, up from 39 percent in January. 

I never particularly thought the newsrooms I worked in over the years were particularly cutting edge.

If anything, the open design, with reporters and editors clustered within an elbow jab of each other, seemed retrograde at a time when Corporate America was in love with the big office.

OK, there were a lot of problems with the open office environment as seen in some of our local newspapers, from hopeless soiled carpets to cavernous spaces where natural light was hard to find.

But that open design – which, frankly, did help to get things done in a hurry on deadline – looks more to be the wave of the future for the office market.

The Millennials are poised to transform the design of a workplace that Baby Boomers, despite all the revolutionary changes they brought to society, have pretty much left unchanged from what the basic set up they inherited from the Mad Men generation.

Comfortable working wherever they can sit down with their laptop or mobile device, the Millennials are spurring a shift to an open office environment, one in which even traditional cubicles, with their high walls, are frowned upon.

Top local office architect Marc Margulies, in a recent talk to members of Massachusetts NAIOP, offered some general ground rules for the future of office design.

Among the key characteristics: Few or no high-walled cubicles, lots of amenities, and much higher density as well. In contrast to the traditional office with its 250 square feet per person, we are now talking a much smaller footprint of 165 square feet.

Other than Liberty Mutual’s new Back Bay headquarters, it’s going to be a very long time before we see another new office tower join the Boston skyline.

 Not so, though, down in New York, where developers are gearing up for a decade of skyscraper construction, one that is expected to add another 25 million square feet of office space over the next nine years.

To add insult to injury, hometown real estate giant Boston Properties and Vornado Realty Trust, which is sitting on half demolished Filene’s fiasco in Downtown Crossing, are leading the charge.

Boston Properties is expected to kick of this frenzy of tower construction with a planned, $1 billion tower at the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 55^th Street.

Vornado has an even more ambitious New York building schedule mapped out, with plans for two office towers totaling more than 4.3 million square feet. One would take shape across from Penn Station, while other would be built atop the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42^nd Street and Eight Avenue.

So why are office tower developers tripping over themselves to build in New York while giving the Hub a cold shoulder?

Well, Wall Street is booming again while Boston’s financial services sector is still licking its wounds. We have growth, but right now its centered in the life sciences and tech industries, which, in turn, are headquartered in Cambridge and along Route 128, not downtown Boston.

It looked like like casino legislation had hit yet another dead end on Beacon Hill earlier this spring.

Yet as we head into June, behind-the-scenes talks between Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Robert DeLeo appear to be heating up, according to one Statehouse insider.

Meanwhile, the House appears poised release its long-awaited casino bill in June, insiders say.

All of which sounds promising given the logjam over the issue, with the governor and house speaker sparring over significantly different visions of just what type of gambling Massachusetts should legalize.

But as everything with the Great Bay State Casino Debate, the devil is in the details.

Once the House unveils its gambling bill, we’ll then find out whether the governor and house speaker have been able to work out a deal.

If the two are able to hammer out a compromise – maybe letting racetracks compete for a single slot parlor license – then it’s possible something might just get passed.

But if they can’t DeLeo, the House speaker, pushes ahead with plans to pass legislation that would authorize not just casinos but slots at two racetracks, we are looking at a showdown with the governor and a potential veto.

DeLeo may just have the votes in the House to defy they governor on this, but the Senate is another matter.

Stay tuned.

As we hurtle towards mid-year, the office market across Greater Boston is kicking into recovery mode.

Back Bay vacancy rates are in single digits and Financial District has seen the amount of empty corporate suites level off. Out in the suburbs, boom times appear not far off for the core of the Route 128 market from Burlington down to Waltham, with software giants and fast-expanding life sciences firms expanding alongside the highway.

But less than 20 miles to the west, the office market along 495 West is a much different story.

While office vacancy in other office markets across the Boston area is steadily declining, along 495 West it is heading up towards the 30 percent market.

Fidelity Investment’s decision to shutter its Marlborough campus dumps another 700,000 square feet ont the market, while EMC is moving a 300,000 square foot data center from Westborough to North Carolina.

That’s a million square feet.

But wait, our tally doesn’t end there. Hewlett Packard has put on the sales block its now empty 740,000 square foot Marlborough campus.

Now we are up to 1.7 million square feet of empty office space along 495 West.

Ouch!

Eventually, the Route 128 market will overheat, forcing companies westward in a search for office space at more reasonable rents.

But until that happens, it could be a rocky few years ahead for 495 West.

OK, maybe I’m starting to look a little too much on the bright side of things now that I am out of the daily newspaper grind.

After all, it’s been two years since I left the Herald. Now don’t get me wrong, I love our hometown tab, but it wasn’t exactly a fount of positive thinking about life, reality and the world in general.

Still, after taking a look at a recent survey by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, I was a bit surprised at the gloomy outlook many Massachusetts businesses have about health of the economy.

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index now stands at 56.1, well past the 50 mark that signals “a predominantly optimistic outlook,” according to AIM.

Yet only 10 percent of employers responding to a recent BCI (Business Confidence Index), survey believe the recession is truly over, about the same as last June. Another 30 percent said ‘maybe’ while 48 percent answered ‘not yet.’

Another 12 percent simply answered ‘no’ when asked if the recession is over here in Massachusetts.

I’d beg to differ, though. In my own little world, those who don’t have jobs are finally getting interviews and others, like me, who run their own shops are getting more work, not less.

I can see the change – it’s not dramatic but it’s definitely there. How about you?

Small businesses continue to struggle to nail down loans from lenders to do everything from restock shelves to embark on long-planned expansions.

One idea being mulled to help ease the financing crunch is for Massachusetts – yes the good old commonwealth – to start its own bank.

Before you ask what the folks on Beacon Hill have been drinking, Massachusetts would not be the first state do to this, with North Dakota having opened its own bank.

A state appointed commission, to include the head of the Small Business Association of New England, met earlier this month to begin exploring the idea.