By Patrick Emerson Oregon Economics Blog Yesterday Standard and Poor’s, a credit rating agency, lowered its outlook on the prospect of the US political system making serious progress on dealing with the mounting debt. There was no change in the actual rating they give to US treasuries and bonds which […]

Wells Fargo cuts 1,900 mortgage jobs, Bank of America cuts 1,500 By Oregon Small Business Association West coast bank Wells Fargo cut 1,900 employees from the mortgage unit nationwide last month. The layoffs were announced on March 23 and gave the employees 60 days’ notice. The San Francisco company gave […]

Success of Family-Owned Business: Its Non-Family Employees By Ater Wynne LLP, Oregon law firm The success of Les Schwab Tires is its non-family employees….all 7,000 of them. This is the lesson I took from the discussion with CEO, Dick Borgman on April 14, 2011, at the Power Breakfast sponsored by […]

Manufacturers to be Facing Millions in New Costs By John Ledger Associated Oregon Industries Steep cost increases, curtailments, or new construction requirements loom for manufacturers discharging wastewater into municipal systems or directly into waters of the state. Proposed statewide water quality standards, the result of lawsuits and federal Environmental Protection […]

The Northwest’s other billionaire/entrepreneur celebrity is Paul Allen who is always in the local news for his Seahawks team and Portland Trailblazers. Yet, Paul Allen does few interviews and has been very private about his many business ventures. Now he has a new book called Idea Man where he unravels […]

State-of-the-art Prineville facility illustrates that Oregon is open for business, he says By Oregon State Treasurer Office PRINEVILLE – State Treasurer Ted Wheeler welcomed social media giant Facebook today at the grand opening ceremony at the company’s new, state-of-the-art facility in Central Oregon. The Treasurer, who spoke on behalf of […]

Nearly 40% of tax returns will go into savings Career Builders Survey, CHICAGO,  – Fewer workers plan to use their tax refunds to pay off bills and more plan to put the money into savings, reflecting a more stable economy. According to a new CareerBuilder survey, 46 percent said they […]

Governor Brown Signs Bill Increasing California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 33% by Allison C. Smith Stoel Rives Law Firm Renewable Law Blog A Legal News Alert from Seth Hilton and the Stoel Rives Renewable Energy Law Group: California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill (“SB”) X1-2 on Tuesday requiring California’s […]

Hollywood invades Oregon economist’s house By Patrick Emerson Oregon Economics Blog I was AWOL this week for the Oregon jobs report. The news is unsettling, losing jobs after five months of gains, but I think there is a good chance that this is a blip and not a new trend. […]

Small businesses pay up to 40% higher tax rate than big corporations in Oregon By Senate Republican Office Press Release, Salem, OR – Senate Republicans want to put Oregon small businesses on the same footing as big corporate firms that currently hold up to a 40% tax advantage over Oregon […]