Housing Market Splits: Big homes sell, smaller ones lag  By Oregon Tax News About six million homes need to be sold every year in this country to maintain its housing market. But at current sales rates, fewer than 4.75 million will sell this year. But that’s only among normal home […]

The 2011 NFIB/Oregon Small Business Summit concluded its third day with Cheryl Myers, Director of Economic and Business Equity within the office of the Governor and Dwayne Johnson, chair of the Oregon Small Business Advisory Council, participating in a panel discussion on reviving Main Street, mom-and-pop firms by creating access […]

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce The tax debate is heating up—and so is the rhetoric surrounding it. The president recently delivered an impassioned speech calling for tax code “fairness,” arguing “wealthy” Americans aren’t paying their fair share. He also maintained Warren Buffett paid a […]

By David M. Silverman Davis Wright Tremaine Portland law firm Two Congressmen have written a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking the FTC to investigate certain websites’ use of “supercookies” to track the activities of website visitors after they have left the website and without their knowledge. The […]

By Patrick Emerson, Oregon Economics Blog have been underwhelmed by the current crop of candidates for the Mayor of Portland: Hales has come across as a crass opportunist; Smith seems far to eager to be a politician and thus do stuff to make a name for himself regardless of whether […]

Media Plus Northwest’s largest paid media communications firm A recent article in American Journalism Review caught our eye. Titled “A Welcome Change”, the article focuses on the increase in network news ratings following years of audience decline. While nobody is popping champagne corks, Q2 2011 vs. Q2, 2010 showed a […]

University of Oregon Index of Economic Indicators August 2011. Sponsor KeyBank. The University of Oregon Index of Economic Indicators™ fell 1.3 percent to 89.0 (1997=100) in August 2011, a fifth consecutive monthly decline. Compared to six months ago, the UO Index has fallen 4.4 percent (annualized) and less than half […]

Economic Uncertainty Causes Many Wary Consumers to Spend Less By Oregon Tax News, Persistent pessimism over the economy appears to be having a growing negative effect at the cash register as many consumers continue to scale back their spending. Bankrate.com recently reported that 40 percent of consumers spent less over […]

2011 retail sales to increase 3 percent, BDO-USA survey finds — Retail CFOs forecast stagnant economic conditions amid low confidence levels By BDO, Chicago, IL – In the midst of a difficult economic climate, retailers expect solid year-end results. According to a recent survey by BDO USA, LLP, retail CFOs […]

Video: Buffet explains his tax plan, class warfare The nation’s second richest American and financial celebrity Warren Buffet has been in the news constantly since President Obama began calling part of tax plan the Buffet Tax. This CNN video asks Buffet directly about his tax plan, class warfare, Bank of […]