If you are wondering what is up, the answer is not much. Led by another decline in help-wanted ads, the Puget Sound leading index continues to plunge.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 9 - Number: 3
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: Measurement Error
Authors:
What does it take to knock the Puget Sound economy down? Not an aerospace slump or a troubled high-tech sector. Not escalating energy costs or a national slowdown. Not an earthquake or Boeing's decision to move its headquarters.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 9 - Number: 2
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: The Census
Authors:
Suppose we had a recession and nobody noticed. Something like this may be in the offing. We tend to view recessions with dread, like a serious illness: "recession may kill 19-year expansion." In fact, most recessions are just minor interruptions in the upward march of the economy.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 9 - Number: 1
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: Productivity
Authors:
Like it or not, the Puget Sound region has little control over its economic destiny, at least in the short run. World air travel dictates how many commercial jets Boeing will sell. Volatile housing markets in California and Japan generate production swings at Weyerhaeuser lumber mills. The incomes of many Seattle fishermen are made or lost in Alaskan waters.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 8 - Number: 4
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: Consumer Price Index
Authors:
History is not preordained to repeat itself, except maybe in the case of the Puget Sound economy (King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties). For the fifth straight time, the region is beginning a decade with a slowdown or worse.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 8 - Number: 3
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: Housing Market
Authors:
"The sky is the limit" has been the motto for many software and internet companies. But on or about March 10, the day that the NASDAQ stock index climbed to a record, many of the high-flyers crashed into a ceiling and began falling back to earth.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 8 - Number: 2
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: State and Local Taxes
Authors:
With all the talk of a "new economy," one has to believe that there might be something to it. The argument in logical: deregulation, lower taxes, better monetary policy, free trade, new information-based technologies have transformed the United States into a high-productivity and low-inflation economy.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 8 - Number: 1
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: Economic Report Card
Authors:
Is our highly touted economy, on the eve of hosting 5,000 delegates to the World Trade Organization conference, suddenly falling apart? The answer is no, at least not in the short term
Download the NewsletterVolume: 7 - Number: 4
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: International Trade
Authors:
Despite bumps along the way, the Puget Sound economy has enjoyed a good ride. Since 1970 employment has expanded at an average annual rate of 3.3 percent, faster than the 2.1 percent national rate.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 7 - Number: 3
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: Regional Forecasting
Authors:
While economic analysts trained their eyes on the financial turmoil in Asia, they failed to see an equally significant development at home: the drop in the personal savings rate to zero and the consequent jump in consumption.
Download the NewsletterVolume: 7 - Number: 2
Leading Index Title:
Special Topic Title: Growth Management
Authors:
