Arun Raha
On Wednesday I saw Arun Raha, Executive Director and chief economist for the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, speak to the University of Washington Economics Department’s Visiting Committee. The slides from the talk available in both color (best for viewing on line) and black and white (best for printing) on the ERFC website. Arun […]
September 13 , 2009 - Kriss Sjoblom
September Economic and Revenue Update
Last Friday (September 11), the Forecast Council issued this month’s Economic and Revenue Update, reporting collection experience for the August 11 to September 10 period. This is the last key piece of information going into the next update to the state’s general fund revenue forecast. State forecasters believe that the national economy has hit bottom, […]
September 02 , 2009 - Kriss Sjoblom
Another Chart on Saving
The previous post discussed the recent upturn in the personal saving rate and the prospects that it will head even higher as the economy emerges from recession. In light of the recent increase in the saving rate, the following chart, which plots personal consumption expenditures as a share of gross domestic product, may seem anomalous. […]
September 01 , 2009 - Kriss Sjoblom
Three Charts on Saving
Consumer spending is unlikely to lead the economy out of the current recession. The first chart in this post shows the personal saving rate—the ratio of personal saving to disposable personal income—from the first quarter of 1952 to the second quarter of this year, as calculated by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis […]
August 20 , 2009 - Kriss Sjoblom
Seattle's Lost Decade
An editorial in the current issue of the Puget Sound Business Journal promotes our recent Policy Brief, “Seattle’s Lost Decade”: A new report by the Washington Research Council should be required reading for policymakers in Seattle’s City Hall. The full editorial is available through this link to the PSBJ (subscription required).The brief itself is available […]
August 16 , 2009 - Richard S. Davis
Econbrowser Not Seeing the Recovery
At the Econbrowser blog, James Hamilton remains unconvinced that the economy is recovering. The economic recovery may well have already begun in Asia and Europe, and certainly the mechanics are in place for significant improvements in U.S. real GDP even without any changes in the underlying fundamentals. However, I remain persuaded that a real U.S. […]