By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog. The following post takes a look at Oregon Lottery sales from both a high level perspective in terms of consumer spending trends and from a somewhat longer perspective over the business cycle. What follows below is the baseline outlook our office […]

Internet tax surfaces again  By Oregon Tax News, A bill proposed by three prominent U.S. senators would give states broad new taxing power over online retailers located outside their boundaries. The Marketplace Fairness Act was proposed in February by Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) […]

The Disability Monster: A More Sober Analysis Patrick Emerson PhD , OSU Economist Oregon Economics Blog I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with “Planet Money,” the This American Life way that NPR has chosen to cover economics issues. Taking the mannered, long-form story-telling approach to economics issues can […]

University of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes By Tim Duy Oregon Economic Forum University of  Oregon Here is the University of Oregon State of Oregon Economic Indicators for February 2013.  The release date is April 4, 2013.  Special thanks to our sponsor, KeyBank. Oregon economic indicators improved further in February 2013. […]

Employers must exercise caution when withdrawing offers of employment Ater Wynne LLP NW Law frim The Oregon Supreme Court in Cocchiara v. Lithia Motors, Inc., (discussed in our earlier blog post here) opened up the possibility of a promissory estoppel or fraud claim against an employer who withdraws an offer […]

Facebook has made a big launch of their new Facebook phone called “Home”. It is software that changes the entire display on your smartphone and makes it interactive to your friends instead of just a list of apps (as most phones are now). See video review below.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce U.S. Chamber Statement Supporting Lesser-Skilled Visa Program U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits Randy Johnson issued the following statement expressing support for the new lesser-skilled visa program that has been negotiated by the Senate Gang of 8 as a […]

Portland Business Alliance Value of Jobs Coalition reveals $2.7 billion earnings gap between Portland-metro college-educated workers, U.S. metro average The Value of Jobs coalition released a groundbreaking study examining Portland-metro’s decline in personal income per capita relative to the U.S. metro average. The findings show that Portland-metro’s college-educated workers earn […]

By Associated Oregon Industries, by John Ledger Two studies focusing on a carbon tax have been released recently.  The studies make different assumptions and have a different focus:  the NAM study on economic stability and the PSU study on GHG reductions and state tax revenue. The PSU study concludes that […]

Two tax practitioners catering to Hispanic community fined, barred from tax business By Oregon Attorney General The Oregon State Board of Tax Practitioners, in cooperation with the Oregon Department of Justice, recently concluded disciplinary action that should put two Oregon tax preparers out of business. In February, the Board of […]