Politics

The US economy has steadily continued to add jobs for the past 56 months. Employers added 217,000 jobs in May, a substantial gain for a fourth straight month. On June 3, the Labor Department released a report that showed the U.S. economy is steadily strengthening and outpacing struggling countries in Europe and Asia. Overall unemployment for the 18 countries that use the euro was 11.7 percent in April,...

Scott Bailey, Washington  State labor economist had some good news in his most recently monthly employment report. Bailey announced that total employment in Clark County has finally surpassed the peak levels we achieved in 2007. Bailey has maintained in numerous public appearances and articles since 2009 that it would take 5 to 6 years to regain the jobs shed during the "Great Recession " and his...

Interesting news release in the Columbian today.    Headline is that PeaceHealth and Vancouver Clinic are forming a joint practice.   Here is a link to the announcement. The thrust of the article is that PeaceHealth and Vancouver Clinic have formed an organization  called Columbia Integrated Network using a PeaceHealth subsidiary  called HealthVentures.  It is the sixth joint venture, the second...

The inaugural Board Room - Executive Session presented by the Vancouver Business Journal kicked off Thursday October 3.  The topic was the Affordable Care Act.  As usual John Mc Donagh and his staff did an excellent job in selecting both an important topic, and a top quality panel. Being that we've had almost three years of discussion since passage, it feels like this may be the most anticipated,...

Here at the start of 2013, as the U.S. jobs market continues its slow, not-very-impressive-but-nonetheless-forward march, one area of the economy still lags. Banks have only recently begun to lend again. . Both individuals and small businesses have faced tight credit standards enforced by risk-averse banks; mortgages have been hard to obtain, and small business credit has been tighter yet. From 2008 to...

It was a busy week, first with inaugurating a President, which is always a reason to celebrate.    President Obama nominated his new cabinet officers who will be helping pull the levers of power on the economic scene for the next four years.   There was a clear message … we’ll have more of the same. That theme was evident in Thursday morning’s “Building Clark County’s Future” 2013...

Outgoing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had a few final observations for us in an interview he conducted Friday with the associated press. He is in agreement with many private forecasters that growth of the economy will accelerate this year, and that the economy is much stronger than people appreciate. Part of his reason for optimism is because situations that held us back over the past few years, Oil...

As part of a series for 2012 year in review, here are a view insights into how the world percieves the US Commercial Real Estate market. While many of us in the US have experienced equity or cash flow challeneges on either the residential or commercial side because of the "'Financial Tsunami" of 2008 and the subsequent "Great Recession", the past two years have showed slow steady gains in employment and...

The South West Washington Contractors Association held their annual Holiday Banquet  at the Heathman Lodge this past Friday November 30th. Being the first Friday after the Thanksgiving  Holiday, this event certainly  kicked off the Holiday Event Season here in Clark County with great enthusiasm.  In fact now that I think about it, this group displayed a similar enthusiasm at their Association Golf...

The past couple of weeks we’ve had reports  both in  our office here at Coldwell Banker Commercial, and our competitors of  huge increases in telephone inquiries on Commercial Real Estate properties. With  the other outpouring of what seems ominous bad news, layoffs by many companies, and of course the now iconic shut down of the Twinkie factory , we’ve been surprised at this uptick in...