How the drought could affect beer prices
The Puget Sound Business Journal’s current cover story is on how Washington’s drought is affecting craft breweries. (The story is behind the paywall.) The impact is most felt via the hops that are used in production. Demand is high for hops, and “demand plus drought is a costly combination.” Michael Butler, chairman and CEO of […]
June 19 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
NOAA administrator praises Boeing efforts on Duwamish
Will Stelle, who is administrator of the West Coast Region of NOAA Fisheries, has an op-ed in today’s Seattle Times praising The Boeing Company’s contributions to the Duwamish River clean up. The Duwamish River is probably the hardest-working river in Washington. It has long supported industry, with Boeing building thousands of World War II airplanes […]
June 18 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Clashing tax policy models
At our annual dinner this year, economist Rick Evans spoke about open source tax policy models. (We excerpted his talk for an episode of Policy Today.) He noted that there are three groups at the federal level who estimate the effects of tax policy changes: the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Tax Policy Center, and […]
June 18 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Transportation trumps rent control
Josh Feit at PubliCola points out a poll from EMC Research that asked likely Seattle voters about affordable housing policy. Apparently they were asked whether they would support a candidate who supports either (a) “strict rent control, capping costs to protect affordability” or (b) “a variety of policies for affordable housing, including developer fees, increasing […]
June 04 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
Boeing begins assembly of the first 737 MAX
Earlier this week, the Seattle Times had a great story on Boeing’s 737 MAX. Marking a milestone at its Renton factory, Boeing on Friday began assembling the wings of its first 737 MAX. While work progresses on the the first of specimen the new model 737 series, Boeing is accelerating production of the old. The […]
June 01 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Sundry links
The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that Gardner Economics of Seattle was asked by the Coalition for Housing Solutions to study Seattle’s proposed linkage fee (a tax on new development to fund affordable housing). Matthew Gardner said, “I believe as do many (others) that the biggest consequence is going to be that people are going […]
May 28 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
May 28 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
May 20 , 2015 - Emily Makings
May 19 , 2015 - Emily Makings