By Oregon Prosperity Project, What Did the 2015 Oregon Legislature Accomplish? After one of the most contentious Legislative Sessions in recent history, the 2015 Oregon Legislative Session adjourned last Monday, July 6. With overwhelming majorities in both the House (35-25) and the Senate (18-12), Democrats planned from the start of […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog This edition of the Graph of the Week highlights the relationship between home prices and new home construction across the 50 largest metros in the country. (Original graph idea from Jed Kolko, formerly of Trulia.) It comes out of some work […]

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden Press Release, A group of eight United States senators sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) requesting information about the agencies’ efforts to facilitate and coordinate […]

Bret Swanson National Chamber Foundation Our 13 year-old daughter just returned home from a two-week exchange program in France. She had the time of her life. But the surprising difficulty we had with money and banks got me thinking, once again, about the huge potential of crypto-currencies. Several months ago, […]

By Oregon Small Business Association Foundation Forbes says Portland is overpriced Portland placed #12 on Forbes’ list of America’s Most Overpriced Cities. Los Angeles was #1, followed by Chicago, Miami, and New York. To come up with the list, Forbes compared the housing prices, living expenses, unemployment rates, and average […]

By Oregon Economist Dr. Eric Fruits Econ-Minute Blog God made economists to make weather forecasters look good. Hear enough economic forecast speeches, and you’re bound to hear this old joke. And, yes, I’m guilty of using the joke more than once. Two recent articles put the joke in to perspective. First […]

Entrepreneurship in Oregon Plummets to Lowest Point in 40 years; Rate of Tech Startups Lags By Oregon Small Business Association Foundation Entrepreneurship in Oregon is currently at historic lows. According to a recent data from state economists, the number of new Oregon businesses entering the marketplace on an annual basis […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog Unlike the nation, unfortunately, Oregon’s Great Recession does have a modern peer: the early 1980s. Our office has documented the similarities numerous times over the years, from the unemployment rate to total jobs and from housing starts to manufacturing jobs and […]

By Thomas Tullis Cascade Policy Institute When Oregon politicians pretend to be experts on venture capital investing, it ends up costing the state millions of dollars in education money. This is exactly what is going on with the Oregon Growth Board, a project of the Oregon Business Development Department. Tasked […]

By National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB urges quick repeal of schizophrenic IRS rule imposing fines on small businesses for helping defray the cost of their workers’ insurance or medical expenses Washington, DC (June 29, 2015) – An obscure IRS rule takes effect under which small businesses that get caught […]