Commentary

WWU Center for Economic and Business Research️ 8 hours ago

An interesting editorial from WaPo: More American manufacturing won’t mean that many more jobs. Bridgeport, Connecticut, shows how the nature of U.S.-based production is changing. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/25/manufacturing-bridgeport-jobs-future-skills/?utm_campaign=wp_todays_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F463b39b%2F694e6ab752f684690bfb252f%2F5c7318feade4e23849e818a5%2F24%2F58%2F694e6ab752f684690bfb252f

WWU Center for Economic and Business Research️ 21 hours ago

Consumers keep contradicting themselves. What does that mean for 2026? For retail experts and economists, the takeaway on the holiday season varies widely, depending on the product category, brand and who’s buying. https://buff.ly/Msm6YGd

WWU Center for Economic and Business Research️ 23 hours ago

Oil is heading for its biggest weekly gain since late October, as traders tracked a partial US blockade of crude shipments from Venezuela and the military strike in Nigeria. https://buff.ly/pTaDqHk

WWU Center for Economic and Business Research️ 23 hours ago

Gold, silver and platinum jumped to all-time highs to extend a historic end-of-year rally for precious metals, with support from escalating geopolitical tensions and dollar weakness. Other than investment these are all used in manufacturing. https://buff.ly/o99aOAV

WWU Center for Economic and Business Research️ 1 day ago

Interested in knowing more about where state spending occurs? OFM has the receipts (as they say). It is a holiday week, we are hoping for little economic news so we are going to share some cool sites as we go this next week. https://fiscal.wa.gov/Spending/SpendHistFundYearChart

WWU Center for Economic and Business Research️ 1 day ago

Our state's legislative session is shaping up to be interesting. From an Economics perspective we pay attention to the revenue forecasts and the potential impacts to changes in state spending/investment. The governor floated cutting $146.7 million in education spending from the general fund in fiscal 2027. WA schools Superintendent Reykdal criticizes Ferguson’s proposed cuts. https://buff.ly/0xjfwwl