By Oregon Employment Department, Oregon had the eighth fastest job growth among the states from January 2016 to January 2017. Adding 43,200 jobs for a growth rate of 2.4 percent, Oregon’s solid job growth was much slower than first ranked Idaho (+4.0%) and second ranked Nevada (+3.5%). Oregon’s job growth […]

Education Savings Accounts Can Help Students Without Hurting Public Schools Cascade Policy Institute, By Steve Buckstein  School choice programs allow students to choose schools or other educational resources and pay for them with a portion of the tax funding that otherwise would go to the public school assigned to them […]

by Brad Houle, CFA, Executive Vice President April 14th — For the shortened holiday week, equity markets were down by almost 1 percent as investors followed events in Russia and North Korea. Interest rates were lower with the 10-year Treasury declining in yield from 2.36 to 2.22 percent. Each quarter […]

U.S. Chamber President Congratulates Judge Gorsuch on His Confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court ‘He will undoubtedly use his gifted legal mind to help our country sort through our toughest questions for years to come,’ says Donohue WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue […]

Congressman Kurt Schrader Congressman Kurt Schrader re-introduced his Hold Congress Accountable Act (H.R.1794), which would reduce the salary of Members of Congress in the event of a government shutdown for as long as the shutdown continues. He first introduced a version of this bill in 2013 immediately following the start […]

The Oregon Prosperity Project Call it Newton’s Law of Political Physics: For every action created by a regulation there is an equal and opposite reaction. Few proposed bills illustrate this principle as clearly as SB 828 and HB 2193, which would change the rules for scheduling workers. The bills require […]

Steve Duy Oregon Economics Indicator The February 2017 State of Oregon Economic Indexes was released today.  Full report is available here.  We thank KeyBank for their generous support of this project. Oregon’s economy continues to make gains in 2017. Highlights of this month’s report include:

by Ralph Cole, CFA Executive Vice President of Research Week in Review April 7, 2017 — Equity markets were relatively flat on the week as economic data was weighed against global events. Interest rates continued their slow trend downward with the 10-year U.S. Treasury finishing the week at a 2.32 […]

By Oregon Small Business Association, A typical monthly mortgage payment consists of two parts: a repayment on a part of the principle borrowed, and an additional amount based on the interest rate the mortgager charges for the loan. These two items (“principal and interest” or P&I) are added together into […]

By NFIB, Small business optimism remained at one of its highest readings in 43 years, as small business awaits a new healthcare law, tax reform, and regulatory relief from Washington, according to the February National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index, released today. “It is clear from […]