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Posts published in “Day: April 20, 2014”

Uncertainty chills our economy

rainey BARRETT
RAINEY

 
Second
Thoughts

The number one thing keeping our national economy - and thus all lesser economies - from growing as quickly as conditions would otherwise dictate - is the monumentally constipated and completely ineffective U.S. Congress. And you can take that to the bank.

Geoff Colvin, Fortune senior editor-at-large, has been talking to CEOs and economists. While hearing the usual bitching about regulations and taxes, the dialogue this time has been far overshadowed by one thing: uncertainty. In terms easily understood by economic dolts like me, the issue could be framed this way: “What the Hell’s going to happen tomorrow?”

Regulations and taxes have always been topics of discussion when people making large business decisions gather over their martinis. It used to be, no matter what changes and challenges there were in those two areas, business adjusted and life went on.

BUT - uncertainty has become the largest impediment to business - large and small. For example, the new healthcare law - regardless of what you think about it - is law. Republicans have vowed to repeal it. They can’t. But, as they keep trying, if you’ve got 50 to 100,000 employees in your business, how do you adjust your future planning? For what? Taken another step, if Republicans ever posed a serious legal challenge to the ACA, how long would Democrats tie the whole thing up in court? And to what outcome?

Then, there’s the “fiscal cliff.” With no congressional action to the contrary, there are those huge mandatory cuts in federal spending. Sequestration. Crippling cuts and possible tax increases to offset some of them. Despite how you feel personally about all that, remember the current crop of ideologues, naysayers and the ignorant will still control what Congress does - or doesn’t do. Wanna bet your farm on the outcome? Neither does General Motors. Or your neighborhood grocer.

Then, there’s the Federal Reserve. Its governing body holds the outlook that things economic are “more uncertain than they has been in the last 20 years” so no major actions have been taken. You get any sense of corporate direction out of that?

Life has always been a crap shoot. That’s just life. So, is all this something new? Yep, it is. Normally, as the government moved, changes it fostered affecting marketplace conditions could be anticipated and planned for. You knew what was coming and could adjust. Not now. Polarization in Congress has badly crippled oversight of federal agencies and their regulation-writing and enforcement. Congressional action that was supposed to happen last week - last month - or next month - has ceased. No new-from-the-ground-up federal budget for several decades is likely to be matched by no new-from-the-ground-up federal budgets for the next several years. Contracts expected by the private sector are still sitting on some bureaucrat’s desk. New programs languish in the congressional swamp because there are still no decisions on old ones.

And on and on and on and on. (more…)

In this week’s Briefings

car dragged
 
Marion County Sheriff's Office last weekend responded to the 2900 block of Wintel Road SE because Kyle Randall, age 24 was knocking on doors and asking residents for a place to sleep. After arriving deputies noticed a plume of smoke in the distance that turned out to be a car fire. When they went to investigate the fire they located the burned out carcass of the vehicle Randall had been driving. So after interviewing Randall and evaluating the scene deputies believe the following occurred. At around 5 a.m. Mr. Randall was driving east on Wintell Road when he drove through a stop sign and ran into a passing train. The train hooked his vehicle and drug him approximately 300 feet. Randall came to a rest, exited his vehicle and then sought out shelter from nearby residents. Randall was not injured in the crash, he was however arrested for DUII and taken to the Marion County Jail. At the jail his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. (Photo/Marion County Sheriff's Office)

 
Political news is ramping up in this week's editions of the Briefings, along with a range of other activities, from recovery at Oso (and plans for President Obama's visit there) to the odd case pictured above of a car crashing into a train in Oregon, dragged 300 feet - after which the driver walked away apparently without a scratch.

On the front pages

news

Here’s what public affairs news made the front page of newspapers in the Northwest today, excluding local crime, features and sports stories. (Newspaper names contracted with location)

Reviewing supt public instruction race (Boise Statesman)
Recovering after the Oso landslide (Boise Statesman)
Major changes possible for Canyon shelter (Nampa Press Tribune)
Looking at criminal case mediation (TF Times News)
Reviewing secretary of state candidates (TF Times News)

Little rule guidance on measuring pot (Eugene Register Guard)
More energy than expected in geothermal field (KF Herald & News)
Reviewing GMOs (Medford Tribune)
Where the Columbian Crossing $ went (Portland Oregonian)
Looking ahead to same-sex marriage ruling (Portland Oregonian)
Taxpayers funding battery recycling (Salem Statesman Journal)

New gun range planned near Sultan (Everett Herald)
Web crowdfunding on Oso mudslide (Seattle Times)
Puget Sound oil traffic on rise (Seattle Times, Yakima Herald Republic)
Spokane neighborhood considers renewal (Spokane Spokesman)
Previewing Obama visit to Oso (Spokane Spokesman)
Jails part of the Medicaid picture (Tacoma News Tribune)
Which parts of Vancouver have higher crime (Vancouver Columbian)
Big pay increase for city attorneys (Vancouver Columbian)