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 […]

By Patrick Emerson, Oregon Economics Blog Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal’s Economics Blog and the Oregonian. The first is some good news in housing: Quote the Journal:

Where the Europe crisis is heading By Albert Gallatin Recent events in Europe have once again highlighted the macro-economic problem of the developed economies: over borrowing at all levels, public and private, led to unrealistic expansion of credit which eventually led to a bust. In each case Western governments dealt […]

AOI Testifies on Oregon’s Family Leave Laws By  J.L. Wilson – Associated Oregon Industries AOI provided testimony this week to the House Business and Labor Committee on the unwieldy nature of Oregon’s family leave laws. The Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) provides the most generous workplace leave provisions of any […]

The typical U.S. middle class household witnessed its income fall by 1.4%. Oregon fell -4.7%, California -3.7% and Washington -.1%