For a quick economic update for members of Bellevue Rotary recently, I updated several slides I usually include as a part of my talks and added a new one or two. You can download all of them as a PDF file here. Among bullet points: We live in a slow-growth world. [continue reading . . . ]
For those of a certain age, the billboard remains etched in memory. It was April 1971. Boeing employment over the course of about three years had collapsed from more than 100,000 to fewer than 40,000 following cancellation of government funding for a supersonic transport and commercial orders for the then-shiny-new [continue reading . . . ]
I wish it were otherwise, but no matter: If Washington State’s economy were a stock, I’d be tempted to go short*. I’m no expert. I know only what I read. My gut tells me that the longer the 787 remains grounded, the more likely Boeing will have to redesign the [continue reading . . . ]
I’ve been working on some new charts that I will present to U.S. Bank customers in Bellingham Tuesday. I’m on a panel for the bank’s 23rd annual economic outlook forum. I plan on saying what I have said in this space and on KUOW’s air: Amazon.com’s hiring and building sprees [continue reading . . . ]
Some things I hope to cover on the business-economy segment on KUOW today: U.S. economy: The Bureau of Economic Analysis announced October 26 that the U.S. economy grew at annual rate of 2.0% in the July-September quarter, much better than the 1.3% rate in the summer quarter. In real terms [continue reading . . . ]
Amazon.com is on a roll. Last Friday, it announced a blockbuster real-estate deal, the purchase of its South Lake Union campus for more than $1 billion. It unveiled late in summer plans for three high-rise office towers on the edge of downtown Seattle — a quick streetcar ride from its [continue reading . . . ]
If you live in the Seattle area, savor this time. It seems to me you and I live in a lush oasis of relative prosperity, surrounded by a grimy desert of gloomy economic news. There are no guarantees. Enjoy it while it lasts. Boeing is booming. Aerospace employment in Washington [continue reading . . . ]
Aerospace-related manufacturing employment in Washington reached 92,300 in February. For two months running, the level has been higher than at any time in more than a decade; the last time we were in this neighborhood was November 1999, at 91,700. It is hard to overstate the importance of Boeing-related employment [continue reading . . . ]
The Tea Party? Not for me, thanks. But I am outraged as the next person by abuse of public trust. How about a $300,000 luxury party boat purchased by the good folks at NOAA. Or a Snohomish County executive who traveled widely with his mistress on the public dime (see [continue reading . . . ]