Archives

April 20, 2009 - Retail Sales: Bouncing Along the Bottom

Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting Today’s headlines sound gloomier than the data–once again.  The Wall Street Journal says, “U.S. Retail Sales Show New Weakness.”  Yahoo Finance says, “Stocks slip as retail sales data disappoint.”  So how bad is the new data?


April 19, 2009 - Review of investment and market news

Mark G. Neil, KBNP Business radio host President Northwest Wealth Advisors Welcome to the middle of April.  March began with stocks heading even further into the doldrums, falling over 9% in the first week of trading. The turnaround in share prices can be pinpointed to a single catalyzing event: On […]



April 17, 2009 - Oregon rules that dictate mass layoffs

By Ken Niezgoda, BIZ Reporter Oregon businesses that may have never considered significant layoffs in the past are facing the prospect of huge staff reductions. Many employers are aware that the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers facing large-scale layoffs to post written notice so that employees can […]


April 16, 2009 - Oregon NFIB discusses three bad business bills

By Alyssa Williams, BIZ Reporter 1. Family Leave Payroll Tax: (SB 966) 2. Employer censorship bill (SB 519) 3. Corporate minimum tax bill With Oregon now having the highest rate of unemployment in the nation, hitting a staggering 12.1 percent in March, the Oregon division of the National Federation of […]


April 15, 2009 - Cost of cap-and-trade: Oregon Senate Testimony

Dr, Eric Fruits, EconInternational, If passed, Oregon SB 80 would establish a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade scheme for the State of Oregon. The Oregon Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources will have a public hearing on SB 80 on Thursday April 9, 2009 at 3:00 P.M. in Hearing Room C.  […]


April 14, 2009 - Oregon Legislature takes up payroll tax

By J.L. Wilson, Associated Oregon Industries, Oregon’s Largest Business Lobby In a packed Senate hearing room, AOI delivered strong opposition this week to a new proposal that would tax Oregon workers to fund a paid family leave benefits program to be implemented by the state.  The new proposal – SB […]


April 13, 2009 - How the Housing Bubble Threatens Depression

By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting, I don’t think we’re headed to depression, but that’s the word used by Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith in a Wall Street Journal article that is well worth reading.  I wrote about how we got into the mortgage mess in a five-part series: Part […]


April 12, 2009 - Five Ways to Leverage the 2009 Recovery-Reinvestment Act

Miller Nash Oregon and Washington Law Firm Miller Nash LLP, one of the Pacific Northwest’s larger multispecialty law firms focusing on business and litigation, has highlighted key opportunities for businesses in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Signed into law on Feb. 17, 2009, the Act includes incentives […]


April 11, 2009 - To Catch an Employee Thief

By Dunn, Carney, Allen, Higgins & Tongue As Mara, an accounting clerk at a dental supply wholesaler, hung up on the phone, she knew that her coworkers heard everything –another creditor demanded money she didn’t have.  Four months earlier, her husband lost his job and bills were piling up.  Mara […]