We may have topped Michigan for worst unemployment in the nation. Of course, it doesn't help that we have idiots in Salem who seem to favor certain businesses over others. One has to wonder how much all those "green" jobs are helping or hurting the state economy. And I've yet to see head counts of government agencies going down at all.

The jobs shedding has continued, and is continuing after this report period.

This high unemployment rate for Oregon was entirely predicted. But ignored by the Governor. Just as is the prediction that we'll be surpassing 14% soon and swell past 16% unemployment by October with next winter leaving the state in a wake of jobs killing policies crafted by the legislature and advocated by eco loons.

The funny thing is a letter to the editor in yesterday's O praised the governor for job creation.
Kulongoski's outreach efforts to attract businesses to Oregon has been one that is so politically correct, green, that it reduces the pool of potential interests to a fraction of what it may have otherwise been.
Throw in the gang warfare that opposes every resort, every pipeline, every terminal, every M49 application and every non green approved effort and Oregon is, well, screwed.

One would think after Teddy and Sam get on the stump and start preaching about "green" jobs, that maybe they need to re-adjust and look for "any" jobs.

I am not getting this state, I look at BO and Mr OCPP is saying we should get more taxes out of Intel and they forget what happened when Oregon went after Daimler Benz for a lawsuit settlement in Europe (I'll save you the suspense - DB is gone.)

On the radio this morning they said it is the highest unemployment Oregon has seen since record keeping started back in 1947. All Kulungoski can say is he is "shocked", I guess he doesn't listen to the predictions of where this state is going since it did not come as a suprise to most of us.

My father was a packaging engineer for Frito-Lay back in the Eighties, and he spent most of the first half of the decade at the Grandma's Cookies factory in Beaverton. I didn't know why he didn't take several offers to move to Beaverton until I lived there a decade ago, and now I definitely understand why he opted for staying in Texas. Oregon during a boom cycle is a fascinating place, but when it crashes, it crashes hard.

(The real irony is that my parents now live in Northeast Wisconsin, which never really recovered from the first Reagan recession in 1982. My mother tells me about the gigantic houses that I could buy for a pittance, many with a view of Lake Winnebago, which would be great if the place had any jobs other than bartending. If you think Michigan's situation is bad, get ready for Wisconsin to catch up.)

People, people, people. The way I see it we only need a MLS franchise in every town over 500 people and then 20 in Portland and this problem is solved.

If you are shocked at Ted being in over his head, welcome. His new secret plan to fix the state is so secret he doesn't know what it is.

Obvious to many, it's not just the Governor who is oblivious. The Creeps at the CoP, Metro, TriMet the Port and many other municipalities and ALL their little puppets are advancing all of the same approaches they have been touting for decades as a model for the nation.
A model of what?

The forward movement of the Milwaukie Light rail project with it's new anti-car/truck bridge is the ultimate example.
A project that still has $250 million in lottery dollars approved by the legislature. That should be reversed.

The attitude by officials is both irrational, incompetent and dishonest.

As when Randy Leonard characterized the opposition to SoWa & the Tram as the
"Lars Larson types who also want to destroy our public schools."

Yeah Randy, you had that figured out.
What a

Great time to start a biz. I am 2 months from opening and already have clients waiting.

The only way to ever have security is if you create it for yourself. Oregon is a great state for SMALL biz.

What we need to improve this (unemployment benefits etc.) is (a) a state-wide cap & trade law, and (b) a 90% income tax on any of these rich people making over $250,000.

It's too bad that Teddy is on term limits, or he might actually care if his voters are working or not.

He'll be perfectly happy to ride out the next two years in Mahonia Hall, and let the next guy try to extinguish the flames of the twisted wreck the state is about to become.

Ah, yes...The Reagan Depression.

I remember that period of gnawing unemployment all too well. And the stagflation which came with it. I trust there will be a better response this time around.

ha.

as if.

The Dumya Depression....brought to you by the troglodytic 'conservatives' and their fellow fundaments. Ya'll got taken... subjected to a loot and pillage run by the plutocrats of America. As far as I can see, when the financial moguls saw that the construction and oil conglomerates were going to make a killing and get away scot free...well...they wanted theirs. Last minute, Dumya and company tried to accomodate.

Did you enjoy it? It may not be over, quite yet. We've yet to see how deeply they've purchased into the new dingleberry in the cornerless office.

The Reagan depression of 82? He took over the country from Carter while it was in a tailspin and pulled it back out. It comes as no suprise there were bumps along the way.

So, are you telling me that 1.5 yrs from now if there is a small depression it is all Obama's fault and not Bush's?

We are in the Reagan Depression right now. The beginning of it anyway. His chickens have finally come home to the roost.

Tom is right. These things don't happen overnight and Clinton was complicit in the disaster we've experiencing as well via deregulation and globalization. It wasn't as obvious because we were at the crest rather than the nadir of the phony wave, Clinton was a statesman, an accomplished dealer and could speak in complete sentences.

History repeats itself and we've been down this road (or one so similar to it as to be comparable) several times before - at intervals of approximately every 50 years. That's about how long it takes to clean up a mess and become complacent again. The typical lawmaker simply has no sense of history and only the vaguest grasp of economics.

And this time, being at war has not pulled our chestnuts out of the fire.