By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting Oil prices rose as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke offered positive thoughts about the economy.  Does a strengthening world economy mean higher oil prices in 2010?  Not so fast, Bucky.

From Federal Housing Financing Agency,

Oregon’s Workweek Partially Rebounds by David Cooke Oregon Employment Department A closely watched measure of state economic activity is average weekly hours for manufacturing production workers. This monthly indicator has been available for Oregon for many years. The measure was close to 40 hours per week in early 2008 but […]

GOOD NEWS: New jobless shrinks, building permits up,  and Tourism is up (lodging and Air travel) BAD NEWS: Payroll declines, Home sales drop, By Timothy Duy Director, Oregon Economic Forum University of Oregon The LCBI declined 1.7% in the second quarter of 2009, the eighth consecutive quarter of deterioration.  The […]

By Patrick Emerson Oregon Economics Blog I came across an interesting post on the Portland Architecture Blog (where I indulge my fantasy life as an architect) which muses whether Portland has grown beyond the minor leagues. The idea, in essence, is that Portlanders are no longer in minor league sports […]

White House economists see increasing unemployment for the next 12 months By Dr. Eric Fruits, Oregon Economist EconInternational, The White House budget office has released its latest economic and fiscal projections. It predicts the largest deficits since World War II and increasing unemployment. The White House unemployment prediction highlights the […]

New York Times reports, “Eighteen of the 20 cities tracked by Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed improvement in June, up from eight in May, four in April and only one in March…For all the improvement reflected in the new Case-Shiller report, housing prices are still down sharply […]

Oregon Supreme Court Denies Employee’s Wrongful Discharge Claim for Reporting Unlawful Trade Practices by P.K. Runkles-Pearson Stoel Rives LLP, Attorneys at Law The Oregon Supreme Court has denied a car salesman’s wrongful discharge claim. In Lamson v. Crater Lake Motors, Inc., the salesman, Kevin Lamson, claimed he was terminated for […]

According to the Wall Street Journal Market Watch, “The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday announced four more bank failures, including a Texas bank with total assets of about $13 billion, pushing this year’s tally up to 81.  Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas became the 81st bank failure of 2009 […]

Forty-five Percent of Employers Use Social Networking Sites to Research Job Candidates, CareerBuilder Survey Finds Career Expert Provides DOs and DON’Ts for Job Seekers on Social Networking CHICAGO, August 19, 2009 – As social networking grows increasingly pervasive, more employers are utilizing these sites to screen potential employees. Forty-five percent […]