Archive

20 JunLetting Go

The lead should probably read "Not Letting Go," since we seem reluctant to release the brakes on the economy and let it roll. The U.S. economy has made progress since the trough of the Great Recession in 2009, but the recovery has been painfully slow. After a six-year hiatus, employment is just now returning to its pre-recession peak.

Volume: 22 - Number: 2

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: Productivity, Compensation, and Inflation

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen

14 MarIt’s the Politics, Stupid

"It's the economy, stupid" was a campaign slogan used by Bill Clinton to defeat the incumbent president, George Bush, Sr., in the 1992 election. Now it seems that the catch phrase has been turned on its head.

Volume: 21 - Number: 1

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: Regional Forecasting

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen

16 MarThe Promising Recovery

A funny thing happened on the way to this forecast: we tripped over bad data. But no harm was done. In fact, when we picked ourselves off the ground, the world looked better.

Volume: 20 - Number: 1

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: Census Data

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen

16 JunThe Hold-Up

Economists expressed disappointment when the government announced that real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) advanced at a tepid 1.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2011. And business pundits ran on about the U.S. economy adding only 54,000 jobs in May. But we should resist making too much of this.

Volume: 19 - Number: 2

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: Washington Input-Output Table

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen

16 DecThe Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye, a Robert Altman movie starring Elliot Gould as Detective Philip Marlowe, got mixed reviews. The Great Recession's version of The Long Goodbye deserves to be slammed.

Volume: 18 - Number: 4

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: Washington Agriculture

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen

16 JunThree Years Later

The Puget Sound economy, slammed by two Boeing downturns and the dot-com bust, hit bottom in the second quarter of 2003...But what a difference three years make.

Volume: 14 - Number: 2

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: Services

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen

16 DecA Long Recovery

The 4,000 additional layoffs announced by Boeing and Weyerhaeuser will deepen the recession and delay the recovery. Nevertheless, it appears that the worst may be over.

Volume: 10 - Number: 4

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: China

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen

16 NovRecession

It did not exactly sneak up on us. Last quarter, after the fifth straight drop in our index of leading economic indicators and a virtual halt to the growth of taxable retail sales, we put the Puget Sound economy on watch.

Volume: 9 - Number: 4

Leading Index Title:

Special Topic Title: Impact Analysis

Authors:

  • Dick Conway
  • Doug Pedersen