By NFIB, As large cities across the US from Seattle to Los Angeles to New York City implement or consider $15 per hour minimum wages, business owners are sounding alarms about the consequences. In a piece picked up by USA Today, the Lower Hudson Valley (NY) Journal News reported that […]

By Oregon Attorney General, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum today reached a $1.1 million settlement with Insys, the company that manufactures the schedule II opioid drug Subsys, to resolve allegations that the powerful drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat cancer pain was marketed in Oregon […]

By Business News Note, In the last 30 days Subway has suffered the death of their co-founder and CEO (2) endured its worst negative publicity in its 50 year history and (3) saw a decline in revenue for the first time in a decade. At the same time their new […]

By Oregon Small Business Association Foundation, Nationally, car sales have hit 17.8 million which is a 10 year high and rebound from the Great Recession drop.   We asked Jose Mesa, a 25 year veteran of car sales and owner of Jose Mesa Wholesale LLC, to provide his local take on […]

By Oregon Better Business Bureau A sophisticated new scam is targeting business and personal email addresses. Scammers create email accounts nearly identical to an existing account and use that new account to initiate wire transfers. How the Scam Works: You are working for a business that deals with contractors or […]

U.S. Chamber of Commerce U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits Randel K. Johnson issued the following statement regarding the introduction of legislation in Congress to correct the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “joint employer” decision: “The NLRB’s recent decision in Browning-Ferris has broad […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog Traditional analysis and models indicate the economy is essentially at full employment, given the unemployment rate — currently at 5.3% — is in the range of previous estimates of the so-called natural rate, or NAIRU. Historically the Fed, including its models, […]

University of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes By Tim Duy Oregon Economic Forum University of  Oregon   The Oregon Measure of Economic Activity bounced in July, largely on the back of solid employment numbers. Highlights of the report include: – The three-month moving average, which smooths month-to-month volatility in the measure, […]

Many rural Oregon small businesses see cell towers as critical to their business By Taxpayer Foundation of Oregon A lack of cell phone towers and reliable Internet service is hurting business in rural Oregon. “We use our cell phones on the farm because we need them to communicate with each […]

by Ralph Cole, CFA Executive Vice President of Research Ferguson Wellman, Portland Never Can Say Goodbye Market volatility has historically increased before and around Fed tightenings and 2015 is apparently no exception. The Federal Reserve has now held short-term interest rates at essentially 0 percent for nearly 7 years. This […]